Every show starts with the ’70s! We’ll rediscover forgotten rockers, revisit unfairly maligned disco beats and replay power-pop favorites. Next: plenty of new releases, occasional live bands and more. Don’t let the nickname confuse you.

September 13, 2023: Annual tribute to my high school friend Jim McIntyre, aka Jimmy Mack. PLUS, Lyle and Jim from DAS DAMEN drop by for a chat!

Listen to this show:  Pop-up player!

[photo: Jim McIntyre with his Mom at WBCN]

Today's show is my first of the new WFMU schedule period, and as I've done since my very first show on the weekly schedule back in 2006 I'm dedicating this show to my high school friend Jim McIntyre, also known as Jimmy Mack. I'm also marking the passing of Jim's Mom late last year at the age of 88; the photo shows them together at WBCN Jim's passion for music — and radio, for that matter — was overpowering and irresistible. In the late '70s, while we were still in high school, he began working at Boston's WBCN, one of the top rock stations in the country. He started out as a volunteer on the station's legendary Listener Line, then transitioned to the Music Department and ultimately became WBCN's Music Director by the time he was 20. Jimmy was as generous with his opinions on new bands he loved (Cheap Trick! The Dictators! The Motors! Ultravox! The Stranglers!) as he was with extra promo records that WBCN received, and I was a grateful and fortunate recipient of both during my last couple of years of high school. Jimmy and I stayed in touch through college -- in fact, he hired me as his assistant at Stiff Records' US office in 1982 when he was doing radio promotion there. But we drifted apart in those pre-social media days after he moved out West, and to my great regret we were no longer in touch when he passed away in 1986 due to AIDS-related complications. He was only 25. His influence during those formative high school years has stayed with me to this day: so many of the bands he introduced me to are still among my favorites, and I'd like to think that my own passion for seeking out new music and sharing it with you on the radio is at least partly due to being friends with Jim back then. As I've written here before, there have been countless times that I've wished Jim was still here so I could tell him about a great new record I'd heard, or he could tell me about his new favorites. I'm grateful that I can go on the radio every week and share my favorites with you. If you like what you hear, take a moment to say "thanks" to Jimmy Mack for shaping my musical taste for a lifetime.