By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio 
We’ve checked all the boxes with this week’s Pure Pop Radio specialty shows, and we begin tonight with a spooky treat!
Tonight at 8 pm ET, we take over the airwaves over at Pop that Goes Crunch Radio with an hour-long salute to Halloween on Alan Haber’s Pop Tunes Deejay Show. Trick or treat–your choice!–with me as I spin scary-good numbers from Dwight Twilley, Harpers Bizarre, Donovan, the Fifth Estate, Paul Starling, John Hunter Phillips, Hidden Pictures and many more of your favorites. And, of course, my snappy deejay patter. Boo!
Tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 9 pm ET, the Red Button’s Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg star on an all-new hour-long episode of Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation. Seth and Mike talk about their new retrospective-meets-new-six-song-EP-and-unplugged-rarities release, Now It’s All This! Go inside the writing and production of some truly fabulous songs, and hear three tunes you’re going to love.
We wind up the week with another brand-new Pop Tunes Deejay Show on Thursday night at 8 pm ET with a mix of new and new-to-you tunes, including a pair of jangly tracks from Twelve String High Vol. 2, the latest from the Nines, the Stanleys, Orbis Max, Dave Caruso, Cotton Mather, the Del Zorros, Kenny Herbert and more. Plus my snappy deejay patter!
Join me for a week’s worth of catchy melodic pop tunes on two new Pop Tunes Deejay Shows and an in-depth hour of talk and tunes with the Red Button’s Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg on Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation. Don’t miss a minute of our shows airing, as always, on Pop that Goes Crunch Radio!
Pure Pop Radio’s signature shows, Alan Haber’s Pop Tunes Deejay Show, playing the latest and greatest melodic pop songs from today and across the decades, and Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation, the premiere Internet melodic pop talk show, air weekly on Pop that Goes Crunch Radio.
Listen to the Pop Tunes Deejay Show on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 pm ET (two different shows every week); In Conversation airs every Wednesday night at 9 pm ET. Don’t miss a minute!
Tune in to Pop that Goes Crunch Radio by clicking on the following snazzy-looking button:
Welcome to the very first episode of our new, exclusive show, Two Als Talking Tunes. Once a month, give or take, Beatlefan Executive Editor Al Sussman (pictured at far right) and I will get together to talk in-depth about three songs apiece. We’ll wax poetic about each song’s significance, relate pertinent chart information and anecdotes, and just generally rap about what makes our song choices oh so very special.
Two copies of Dana Countryman’s new CD, The Joy of Pop, are up for grabs in our latest exclusive Pure Pop Radio contest.
Building on previous duo shows broadcast under the Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation banner, Beatlefan Magazine Executive Editor Al Sussman (pictured at left) and yours truly have joined forces for a brand-new series of programs to be broadcast exclusively here on purepopradio.com, the first of which premieres this Thursday, October 26.
On the docket are six songs; Al and I have each chosen three. We talk about them and you listen to them by clicking on the supplied links in the official Two Als Talking Tunes playlist. You’ll thrill to tunes from Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, Dickey Lee, Tiny Tim, and O.C. Smith, who essays the sad story of “The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp.”
New and new-to-you tracks currently top of mind for melodic pop fans team up with favorite songs from across the decades on two all-new editions of Alan Haber’s Pop Tunes Deejay Show, airing tomorrow and Thursday night at 8 pm ET. And that’s not all: A classic 1996 interview with Wondermints’ Darian Sahanaja and Nick Walusko on Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation rolls this Wednesday night at 9 pm ET. It’s a broadcast week to remember. All shows air, as always, on Pop that Goes Crunch Radio.
Tomorrow night’s Pop Tunes Deejay Show (8 pm ET) features an extended set of much-loved songs from pop icon Emitt Rhodes, and new spins from the Seven and Six, featuring Lisa Mychols, the Tomboys, Dave Caruso, and Dana Countryman. Add in top-flight tracks from Richard X. Heyman, Chris Von Sneidern, Klaatu and more and you’ve got an hour-long show you won’t want to miss.
Wednesday night’s Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation (9 pm ET) takes you back to December 12, 1996, when Wondermints’ Darian Sahanaja and Nick Walusko guested on the weekly Pure Pop Radio Show on WEBR. Wondermints’ current album was Wonderful World of Wondermints, a sparkling collection of covers that still delights today. The band had just played a gig with none other than Brian Wilson, which led to the guys joining Wilson’s touring band. It was a fortuitous time to be speaking to Darian and Nick; the interview was lively and informative, and lots of fun.
Capping off a week of melodic pop joy, a second, all-new Pop Tunes Deejay Show (Thursday, 8 pm ET) features a great track from Tommy Lorente from the new Twelve String High, Vol. 2; a new single from Richard Snow; a terrific spin from Ed Ryan’s Furious Mind album, and some tracks not heard on Pure Pop shows for quite awhile. A real crowd pleaser, I must say.
Show number 20’s playlist is chock full of new and new-to-you melodic pop songs, including the world premiere of Dave Caruso’s Eric Carmen-ish “Boomer, Jenna and Lennie,” from his just-about-to-be-released new album, Buddha Pesto Manifesto. Also heard during this show: tunes from Scott Gagner, Seth Timbs, Cotton Mather, Ed Ryan, Anton Barbeau, and a double-play from Dana Countryman’s new release, The Joy of Pop. Plus lots more.
This week’s Pure Pop Radio: In Conversation (Wednesday, 9 pm ET) rolls back 21 years to March 26, 1996–just one year after the weekly Pure Pop Radio show began–for a classic interview on the run with the great Ben Folds. I caught up with Ben after his high-energy Ben Folds Five show at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club. The self-titled, first Five album had been released only seven months prior, but you would never have known it by the roaring reaction from the packed crowd.
This week’s Alan Haber’s Pop Tunes Deejay Shows are all-new and popping with the best melodic pop from across the decades. Tonight’s show, airing at 8 pm ET on Pop that Goes Crunch Radio, tells the story of music radio through songs about our favorite medium from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Merrymakers, Joe Sullivan, Hilly Michaels, Harry Nilsson and lots more, along with a smattering of classic radio station jingles. So as not to disturb the flow of this hour-long entertainment, I have kept mum, so no snappy deejay patter from me. Just lots of radio, and lots of fun!
On Thursday night at 8 pm ET, you’ll hear an hour’s worth of new and new-to-you melodic pop songs, including a world premiere tune from Dave Caruso’s about-to-be-released (on October 30) album, the cleverly-titled Buddha Pesto Manifesto, the hotly anticipated followup to Dave’s 2014 release, Cardboard Vegas Roundabout. “Boomer, Jenna and Lennie” is a classic, ever-so-catchy Eric Carmen-styled number about negotiating life’s path and the ups and downs that are presented along the way. Light, percussive piano, electric guitar stabs and a sumptuous melody propel this song to the top of the pops, and I’m thrilled to be able to present it to you as a world premiere spin.
Singer-songwriter Scott Gagner, whose 2014 album Rise and Shine was a big Pure Pop Radio favorite, has made a welcome return to the melodic pop landscape with Pins and Needles, another top-flight collection of songs peering into the effects of the human condition, always with a melody in its heart.
On Wednesday, October 11 at 9 pm ET we turn the broadcast dial back to November 28, 1998, when The Knack’s Doug Fieger joined me on my weekly Pure Pop Radio show on WEBR. This was a big interview for me; I was a big fan of The Knack and always longed to find out more about their records and how they were made. I found out about that and a whole lot more, as Doug took me on a pop and roll journey, the effects of which have stayed with me to this very day.
Next Tuesday and Thursday nights at 8 pm ET, I’m running the very first Pop Tunes Deejay Shows, originally broadcast in August and November of 2015. The Pop Tunes Deejay Show was a bit different during this first run of episodes, but basically the same show you’ve come to know and love.