Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio

When I started this website back at the end of last December, I thought I would post station updates and not a whole lot more. I should have known better. I quickly became addicted to the task of populating these pages. All of a sudden, this site became a living, breathing thing that not only kept track of new song and artist adds to the Pure Pop Radio playlist but also featured in-depth reviews of albums and concerts, contests, looks back at my radio and music history, and several continuing series, including the popular I Love that Song.

The happy news to report is that this website has now logged almost 14,500 views, which is very gratifying, especially when you consider we’ve only been an ongoing concern for about six months. Pretty sweet.

Every once in a while, I write something purely for myself and hope against hope that other people will respond positively to it. When I wrote a review of the outstanding version of Jimmy Webb’s classic song, “MacArthur Park,” performed on David Letterman’s late night show at the end of July of this year, I was moved to communicate the excitement of the performance. Live string and horn sections complemented Paul Schaffer and the CBS Orchestra’s great rendition of the song, bolstered by the presence of Webb the composer, who played organ and piano. I thought maybe a few people would read the review, but reaction was so strong, I was frankly blown away.

And then came my review of Jeff Lynne’s ELO concert at Radio 2’s Festival in a Day in Hyde Park, London, this past Sunday night. Again, I was so moved by the performance that I wrote about it in great detail. The words just flowed out of me and, with very little editorial tidying up, I published the review. The response to it, from all over the world, has been unbelievably enthusiastic. It has been read many hundreds of times and shared on Facebook more times than I can count. I’ve received many wonderful comments from people who share my enthusiasm for the music of Jeff Lynne. I followed this piece up with an enthusiastic review of Dave Caruso’s new album, Cardboard Vegas Roundabout, and it has been received with more warmth than I could have expected. Great for Dave, who deserves broad exposure for his wonderful music.

Which is the reason I’ve been writing about and playing melodic pop music on the radio for the past 20 years. I love spreading the word on great pop music. I feel as strongly about doing that today as I did when I started. My health hasn’t been the best of late, so my output has slowed down, but I look forward to ramping up again soon and doing much more in the service of the pop community.

Anyway, I’m feeling myself starting to blather on, so I’ll close by saying thank you so much to all of you who have been supporting my efforts over the years. I want to welcome my new friends, too. I’ve got lots of reviews in the pipeline, interviews to let out into the world, new music to play on the radio. I’d better get busy!

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