The Splendid Turntable

09/20/2026

Tomorrow morning on The Splendid Turntable:

The Americana Honors & Awards just handed out some pretty interesting hardware — and we'll hear music from some of this year's winners.

Plus vintage music from The Beatles, Delaney Bramlett, Joe Walsh, Bob Dylan and more.

New music from Ruthie Foster, Violet Grohl, Ratboys and more.

And I'll give away a pair of tickets to the 2026 Fall Shakori Hills Festival of Music & Dance.

Monday, 8–10 AM EDT
90.9 WQFS

09/19/2026

If you caught the radio show this past Monday you heard a tune by Illiterate Light. They sound pretty dang good on stage at the North Carolina Folk Festival too!

09/19/2026

September 1976 was getting weird.

Wild Cherry was sitting at #1 with “Play That Funky Music.”

ABBA had “Dancing Queen” on top in the UK.

And somewhere between all of that, album-rock radio was serving up Stills-Young, AC/DC, Ry Cooder, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan and a whole lot of records that didn't sound like what was happening on the Top 40 station down the dial.

That's one of the things I love about vintage FM.

Same month. Same radio. Completely different worlds.

What record takes you straight back to 1976?

09/18/2026

September 18, 1976.

The Band played the Palladium in New York.

And somebody at an FM station had the good sense to put microphones in the room and broadcast the whole thing.

This was just two months before The Last Waltz, so you're hearing a band very near the end of its original run—but still playing with plenty of fire.

That's one of the things I miss about old FM radio.

Sometimes you didn't need a greatest-hits package.

You just needed somebody to say, “They're playing tonight. Let's put it on the air.”

And then let the band take it from there.

09/17/2026

Here's one for the “wait... really?” file.

In September 1976, Ringo Starr released Ringo's Rotogravure.

And although The Beatles weren't getting back together, all four of them managed to have a hand in the record.

Ringo, of course, was there.

John Lennon wrote and played piano on one track.

Paul McCartney supplied a song and backing vocals.

George Harrison contributed a song.

So, for a brief moment in 1976, you could put on a brand-new Ringo album and hear contributions from all four Beatles.

No reunion tour. No press conference. No matching suits.

Just Ringo's record.

That's the kind of thing you could discover by accident on an FM station if the DJ happened to know where to look.

09/17/2026

Congratulations to North Carolina Folk Festival 2026 headliner Molly Tuttle on last night's Artist of the Year award at the 25th Annual Americana Music Awards and Honor Show! Can't wait to see her onstage in downtown Greensboro this Sunday!
https://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=16316

09/16/2026

B.B. King was born 101 years ago today.

But here's the part I like:

Before he became B.B. King, he was a young guitarist in Memphis trying to get his music heard.

Radio helped.

King eventually landed a regular spot on WDIA, where his on-air nickname was “Beale Street Blues Boy.” That got shortened to “Blues Boy.”

Then eventually... B.B.

Not a bad example of what radio used to do: introduce you to somebody you didn't know, give them a little time, and let the music do the rest.

Happy birthday to the King of the Blues.

09/15/2026

Fifty-one years ago this week, Pink Floyd released an album that begins with nearly five minutes of instrumental music before anybody actually sings.

That was one way to follow up Dark Side of the Moon.

Wish You Were Here arrived in September 1975 with five tracks, a lot of atmosphere, a rather strange handshake, and some pretty pointed things to say about the music business.

And somewhere along the way, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” became an FM-radio destination all by itself.

Some records were made for the singles chart.

Some were made for the headphones.

This was one of the latter.

51 years later, I still think the best way to hear Wish You Were Here is the old way: start at the beginning and let the record take its time.

09/14/2026

I was given two hours this morning to make sense of the North Carolina Folk Festival lineup.

This is what happened.

North Carolina artists, Greensboro connections, new discoveries, familiar names, deep cuts, and a few musical left turns.

Here's the complete playlist from The Road to the Folk Fest:
https://spinitron.com/WQFS/pl/22992135/The-Splendid-Turntable

If you weren't listening this morning, here's one way to find out what you missed.

And if you were listening... well, here's the evidence.

The Splendid Turntable transports you back to the sound and spirit of album rock radio that disrupted the airwaves in the 60s and 70s when turntables were king. In that spirit, you'll also hear some of the best alternative/indie music being made today, including a lot of NC artists. You know…hippi...