On Wednesday February 27, I launched a monthly radio show, Tony Fletcher’s All Hopped Up (and Ready To Go) on WGXC, “hands-on radio” for NY’s Columbia and Greene Counties at 90.7FM, and available to listen online at wgxc.org.

The idea for my show is relatively loose: to play whatever music turns me on, from all across the ages. And to talk about it in the process. Hey, I’ve been writing about music all my life; I enjoy discussing where and how a particular song, sound or scene emerged or was created. I’m also hoping to read excerpts from my books and play relevant cuts, and do likewise with other books, not necessarily restricted to music.

The show runs for two-and-a-half hours from 7-9:30pm EST on the last Wednesday of each month. Unlike many modern podcasts and internet radio shows, I’m driving an hour each way so as to broadcast from the station’s studio (in Hudson) in real time, warts, warped records, dead air and all. WGXC is an utterly fantastic station with DJs dedicating shows to jazz, surf, lounge, hip-hop, vinyl resissues, transmission arts and more, along with children’s shows, theatre, an enormous amount of local news, the famed Democracy Now! program and world news from Al Jazeera. The web site is not bad either, a repository for local events and international music. Most of the shows are archived, including the first episode of All Hopped Up (and Ready To Go). Looks like I played songs from every decade since the 1930s, with the exception of the Oughts. Press the play button below to listen, and do what you know to do if you want to download the (350MB) file to your hard drive. Oh yeah, and enjoy!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.