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 16, 2020: live from Studio E(FD): The annual Jimmy Mack tribute show

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Click for a larger image. (WBCN staff photo from the David Bieber Archives, as seen here)

Back in October 2006 I dedicated my first show on the regular WFMU weekly schedule to Jim McIntyre, a/k/a Jimmy Mack, who was one of my best friends in high school. That's him kneeling just to the right of center in the photo above, wearing the AC/DC Powerage t-shirt, along with the rest of the staff of WBCN/Boston back in 1978 or so. Jimmy started working there while we were in high school, and before long his passion, dedication and enthusiasm earned him the position of Music Director at the station. Jimmy was the person who turned me on to a TON of new music that was coming out at the time -- Cheap Trick, The Dictators, The Ramones, The Stranglers, Ultravox, and Television are just a few of the bands that I first heard of because of my friendship with Jimmy. Imagine being in your teens and having a friend turn you on to just ONE of those bands. Now increase that impact tenfold, or more, and you start to get an idea of the importance of Jimmy's friendship. OK, not every band he turned me on to was super-cool -- he gave me the first couple of Foreigner albums, for instance -- but still, Jimmy had a great ear for cool music that wasn't yet -- or, sometimes, ever -- part of the mainstream. Fortunately for me -- and for you -- that excitement and passion for discovering and sharing new music was matched by his generosity. Nearly every time I saw him he'd present me with a bag of extra (or rejected) promo records from his WBCN job. Many of those records remain favorites of mine to this day. In the summer of 1985, Jimmy learned he had AIDS. A year later he passed away, at the age of 25. As you can see from the obituary that ran in the Boston Globe he was as generous with his time as he was with records. Regrettably I had lost contact with Jimmy by this time, and didn't hear of his passing until a few years later. I dedicated that first weekly show on the regular WFMU schedule to Jimmy to acknowledge his impact on my life, and especially on my own musical tastes. Since then I've dedicated one of the first shows of the WFMU fall schedule to him, since his influence is never too far from what you hear me play on my show. Thanks for taking a moment to read about him, and thanks for listening to WFMU.

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