Episode Twelve of RFC

This was a most unusual and some might say rather pointless early episode of Radio Free Charleston. "Radio Free Charleston Shirt" is a "best of" RFC from the year 2006.  Its eighteen minutes bring you highlights from every musical act and most of the animated shorts from our first year.

This was pretty easy because we had only produced eleven episodes up to this point. The original production notes from December 29, 2006 (seen below) explain that this was "Plan B," and that the original idea for the show was for it to be a jam session held at LiveMix Studio, pulled together into a coherent show overnight and posted quick.

It's the kind of thing Rudy does in his sleep now, but at the time it was extremely ambitious since he barely knew how to edit video on the PC.  Rudy was spared the effort when hardly anyone showed up to play music, and the one person who did asked that we not use his song because it wasn't finished yet. You will see some footage Rudy shot wandering aimlessly around LiveMix during what turned out to be a very nice music-free gathering.

This episode is historically important because it marks the first time we immortalized the RFC Big Shots in the credits. We also have a lovely accapella rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" by our resident diva and Big Shot, Melanie Larch. That's followed by two goofy MIDI versions by me.

It's amusing now to see how far we've come since our first dozen shows seven years ago. It's also bittersweet to remember how cool LiveMix Studio was and how the people who took it away from us are destined to burn in hellfire for all eternity. Remember, most links below are deader than heck.

Radio Free Charleston: A Look Back At 2006

December 29, 2006 by rudy panucci

The special year-end edition of Radio Free Charleston is online now.  This is your chance to sample the meaty pleasures of our humble little internet show in one 18-minute chunk.  The highlight is a 9-minute megamix featuring every musical artist that has appeared on the show!  We also present some of the memorable bits of mind-hurting weirdness that makes RFC the best thing since sliced steam-powered birth control pills.  Once we hook you with this taste of the best music and film that Charleston has to offer, bop on over to our archives so you can check out full episodes from the past six months. 

Episode Eleven of RFC

Episode Eleven of Radio Free Charleston is our first Christmas Show and it features music from CLOWNHOLE and MELANIE LARCH, plus Pentagram Flowerbox and animation from Rudy Panucci and Brian Young. Host segments were shot at the original location of The Purple Moon and this is the first episode where our host, Rudy Panucci, had facial hair.

In this show,  RFC Big Shot and Resident Diva, Melanie Larch  helped us end our first year on a soaring high note with her now-legendary performance of "Ave Maria," sung accapella, live on the fifth-floor fire escape outside the late, lamnted Livemix Studio.  

The rest of the show is pretty impressive as well, with Pentagram Flowerbox, holiday cartoons by Rudy Panucci and Brian Young and a punk rendition of "Deck The Halls" by Clownhole. We also have an onscreen appearance by The Charleston Playhouse Quartet, performing the RFC theme song, buried in the end credits. Host segments were shot at the old location of The Purple Moon. The Moon is now thriving at its new location on Quarrier Street.

The original production notes follow the video, and as usual, are probably riddled with dead links.

RADIO FREE CHARLESTON: Christmas Production Notes

December 20, 2006 by rudy panucci

The Holiday Edition of Radio Free Charleston is online for your viewing pleasure now! This episode features Christmas music from Clownhole and Melanie Larch, a cartoon holiday extravaganza, lots of animation, and me, looking like a demented elf, hosting from The Purple Moon, on Lee Street.

Episode Ten of RFC

"Captain Action Shirt" marks the first time that host segments were shot on the West Virginia State Capitol grounds. This show features the first onscreen appearance of Douglas Imbrogno, one of the folks who made RFC possible, along with the first appearances of Paul Calicoat and Danny Boyd. As always, ignore the dead links and topical references and please don't smoke around the squirrels. A trailer for this show can be found at the end of this post.

Production Notes: RFC Number Ten

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Wow, it’s already time for another set of production notes for Radio Free Charleston already!  Our latest show features new music from The Sleeping Dons and The Heydays, as well as a short film by Danny Boyd and our usual animation and mind-hurting weirdness.

Episode Nine of RFC

Episode Nine of Radio Free Charleston, “Duh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh BATMAN Shirt.” It holds the record for the longest title in our run, and is unlikely to be challenged any time soon. This was our first show after The Gazette switched software for the PopCult blog. That switch wiped out most of the graphics from before, but with this episode we can bring you images from the show that you can alread watch below. Links are still probably screwed, though. A trailer for this show can be seen at the end of this post.

Radio Free Charleston Production Notes

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Episode Nine of Radio Free Charleston, “Duh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh Nuh BATMAN Shirt,” henceforth known simply as “Batman Shirt” is in the books.  You can see it here, and check out our impressive RFC Archive here.  Plus, go check out the other fine offerings from Gazz TV here.

Episodes Seven and Eight of RFC

When we remastered these episodes of the show, we combined the two separate episodes into one big video. Originally we limited the length of the show due to technical restrictions. Those are no longer a concern and this lets you see our first two Halloween episodes together. Episode Seven, "DEVO Shirt," was posted October 19, 2006, while Episode Eight, "Bob Dobbs Shirt," was posted on October 30. Links in the production notes are probably dead and all offers for a free decoder ring are null and void.

It’s Halloween! Production notes for the first of our two-part Radio Free Charleston Halloween Special!

We’ve got quite the Halloween treat for you, as we present the first half of our Halloween special. I’m not going to go into great detail about the host segments this time, except to say that I start out evil, and end up dead. We’re still working out how to shoot around that “dead” part for the second half of the RFC Halloween special. Suffice to say, fans of the ghoulish will not want to miss this stranger-than-usual episode of Radio Free Charleston.

Episode Six of RFC

Originally posted on September 28, 2006 (with production notes hitting PopCult a day earlier) was "Chris Hero Shirt," named after the wrestler, Chris Hero who is now with WWE as Kassius Ohno. This show includes music from Professor Mike and Two Watts of Power, and a comedy short by The No Pants Players.

For some reason this episode had a trailer, which can be seen at the bottom of this post. Production notes, complete with bad links and missing graphics, follow the show...

Radio Free Charleston Production Notes: Episode Six

The new RFC should be online tomorrow. We wrapped it on Tuesday and I delivered it yesterday between changing flat tires on my car. You can see a snippet of Professor Mike’s performance in the new GazzTV show, “What’s Going On.” Show number six cranks up the hyperactivitization level a bit as we bring you our loudest band yet, the aforementioned Professor Mike, and the mysterious  musical cabal known as Two Watts Of Power, who also give us our song of the week in the post below this one.

Episode Six is titled “Chris Hero Shirt,” named after the shirt I’m wearing in the show (The shows are named after my shirts, you may have caught on to that by now). Chris Hero is the reigning Heavyweight Champion of IWA East Coast, and it’s a really cool shirt.

Episode Five of RFC

From September 8, 2006, it's "The Beatles Shirt," featuring tons of cool stuff that you can read about in the production notes below. This was the first show to bring you footage shot at The Empty Glas, and we made a big deal about it then, but now we seem to shoot most of our guests there or at The Blue Parrot.  Remember, most links are dead, the show is embedded here and is not at GazzTV, and keep your arms inside the ride at all times.

Radio Free Charleston Production Notes: Episode Five

Episode Five of Radio Free Charleston, featuring Kevin Duffer, The Appalachian Celtic Consort, Pentagram Flowerbox, and cut-ins by IWA East Coast, is online now. We had lots of adventures producing this show, which is a departure in many ways from our normal format. It’s our longest show so far, by five minutes, and we’re trying several new things. Without any further ado, let’s go behind the scenes.

The host segments were shot by Melanie Larch on Labor Day in South Charleston. Mel was just hired to sing the role ofMercedes in the upcoming production of the opera “Carmen” by the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Yes, it’s Bizet in the hizz-ouse. What other internet video shows can say they have famous opera singers running camera? I don’t know if it shows, but I was not quite at 100% during production of the new RFC. I’ve been fighting a food-allergy problem for a couple of weeks, and I think it’s a bit obvious.

Episode Four of RFC

Originally posted August 24, 2006, this episode of the show stars Raymond Wallace and Under The Radar. It marks the debut of RFC Big Shot as a camera operator and she is also credited as director. As always, remember that most links in the production notes posted below will be dead and the show is right here, so you don't need to go to Gazz TV, which doesn't exist any longer anyway.

Radio Free Charleston Production Notes: Episode Four

Episode Four of Radio Free Charleston, featuring Raymond Wallace and Under The Radar, is now online. It’s another 12-minute dip into the local music scene with great music, cool animation, and weird little bits of ephemera.  

Raymond Wallace is the first musical guest, and you can read more about him and check out his Songs Of The Weekhere. We brought him into the studio and put a guitar in his hands and let the cameras roll. He’d barely touched a guitar for two years, and it’s a kick seeing him playing again after all he’s been through.


Our animated short this week is “Zachery Bop,” an experimental CGI piece that my brother Frank made on primitive coal-fueled computers over ten years ago. Frank also composed the music on an electric abacus.

Under The Radar gave us our SOTW just yesterday, and they tear up the LiveMix studio with “Me, The Boys And Jack,” a rock ‘n’ roll song about the exploits of the crew of the PT 109 during World War Two. Be sure to give a listen to their take on Gershwin’s “Summertime,” while you’re digging their music.


The shirt I’m wearing in this show features The Blue Guy, AKA The Blue Meanie of WWE/ECW fame. Meanie performed at the IWA East Coast show in June, and I snapped up one of his shirts to wear on the show. That’s me and Meanie at the IWA EC after show party, in a photo by Daniel Boyd. If you want one of these shirts for yourself, you can check out Meanie’s post here, for details on how to order one.

Episode Three of RFC

Originally posted on August 7, 2006, this episode of the show saw the debut of "Pentagram Flowerbox," which has a long and weird history with the show, and was the first episode to feature a musican that I had not yet met (Eduardo, who is now a friend) and the first to feature archival footage that dates back to the days when RFC was a radio program. As always, ignore the links and references to GazzTV. They probably don't work no more.




Radio Free Charleston Production Diary: Episode Three

The third episode of Radio Free Charleston is finished, and may be posted later this afternoon. This is a bit of a departure show for us. First of all, my host segments were shot against a green screen. I’ll tell you more about that later. We also feature our first music video by a local band, and the first chapter of “Pentagram Flowerbox,” a recurring cartoon by Third Mind Incarnation about Satan living in a trailer park.

We have a wonderful musical guest, Eduardo Canelon, who ran off to host a music camp before we had a chance to find out what the piece of music he performed was called. Evidently, this music camp is being held somewhere with no cell phone coverage. I’ll update you on Eduardo’s music as soon as he gets back. He’s the mastermind behind Latin Music WV and we’ll be telling you more about that in PopCult in the coming weeks. Eduardo is also the leader of Comparsa, an eight-piece Latin band that will appear on a future episode of RFC. He treats us to a very cool, laid-back Spanish number, performed on the Radio Free Charleston studio fire escape.

Episode Two of RFC

The first episode to be titled after the T Shirt I was wearing was "RVD Shirt," named after the freshly-busted-for-weed-while-the-Champion-of-both-WWE-and-ECW, Rob Van Dam. The orignal headline for this notes, which accompanied the show when it went live on July 25, 2006, was "Behind The Scenes At Radio Free Charleston." Following the video are the original production notes from PopCult. Remember, most links in the production notes are dead, This episode of RFC is not allowed to be posted on YouTube due to complaints about the Batman trailer near the end. Watch to try and figure out why.



RFC 002 "RVD Shirt" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

The second episode of Radio Free Charleston is now online, over at the GAZZ TV page. Check it out and enjoy! Here are some behind the scenes tidbits about the show to enhance your viewing pleasure: 

The shirt I’m wearing is an ECW shirt, featuring Rob Van Dam. I got this at the ECW show in Huntington on July 2. Later that night after leaving the show, Van Dam, at the time both the WWE and ECW Heavyweight champion, was pulled over at a speed trap in Hanging Rock, Ohio and was busted for possession of a certain illicit smokable herb popular with jazz musicians, or so I’ve heard. Wearing the shirt wasn’t necessarily a show of support. I just liked the way it looked.

Episode One of RFC

This was originally posted in PopCult under the headline, "RADIO FREE CHARLESTON IS BACK!"

More than sixteen years after office politics killed Radio Free Charleston, my greatest creation has returned! You can go to this page, click on the little TV, and see the new video webcast of RFC. (A Note: in the pre-YouTube days, RFC was hosted on the Gazette servers. Those links are now dead and the show will be embedded in this post. Don't be shocked if many of the other links in this post are dead. It's been quite some time since the original publication)

Yes, it’s a video show, but we’re calling it “Radio Free Charleston.” I wanted to keep the name, even though technology has caught up to my original vision. RFC will bring you the best music, experimental film and video, and comedy from the Charleston area’s most daring performers and artists. It’ll all be wrapped up in a tight little ten-or-fifteen minute package. I’ll be hosting RFC from various locations around town.

The pilot episode features the alterna-bombastic rock of Whistlepunk and the comedy stylings of the No Pants Players. Coincidentally, I got to enjoy live performances by both last weekend. You can read up on Whistlepunk here, here, and here. I’ve written about the No Pants Players here and here. It was a kick having these two groups of talented folks on the first webcast of RFC. The No Pants Players will be bringing their improv comedy to future episodes on a regular basis, and Whistlepunk will return on future shows as well.

We’re already hard at work on more episodes of RFC, and have an exciting slate of musicians, comedy bits and short filmic fits of weirdness lined up. We’re also working on an amazing scoop for our second episode, which will be ready by the end of the month. So go check out the show, and let us know what you think. And check back here in PopCult for more tales and music from the archives of the original Radio Free Charleston. Later this week, we’ll bring you some vintage Go Van Gogh from 1989.

So go check it out, and feel free to use the comments to let me know what you think.

The Beginning...

Radio Free Charleston was, of course, originally a radio show, broadcast on WVNS in Charleston, West Virginia in 1989 and 1990. After being kllled by incompetent station management, it lay dormant for sixteen years as the show's host, Rudy Panucci, tried to find a way to revive his creation.

The opportunity finally arose when Panucci's editor at the Charleston Gazette, Douglas Imbrogno, hatched the idea for a multi-media version of the paper's entertainment section, The Gazz.  He needed video content to make this work.

Brian Young, a longtime friend of Panucci's got back in touch with him after a few years of life going on, and brought up the idea of doing something with LiveMix Studio, a rehearsal space/recording studio that Young wanted to wire for video.

A Video revival of Radio Free Charleston (henceforth known as "RFC") became possible, and then, with the help of Young, Melanie Larch and Frank Panucci, RFC became a reality. Production began in May, 2006.

Rudy Panucci had been writing the PopCult blog as part of The Gazz since August, 2005. In June, 2006, he started dropping hints about the coming revival.

On June 23, the following item was posted at the end of a long post about the second-ever FestivAll in PopCult...

At the Gazz preview party last night, something else happened. Our esteemed Gazz editor, Doug Imbrogno, who co-hosted the evening with Mountain Stage’s Larry Groce, made an official announcement: Under the auspices of The Gazz.com, I will be reviving Radio Free Charleston as an internet video show! You may have noticed some of the “subtle as a cinderblock to the face” hints that I’ve been dropping lately. “Hmmm….”

I delivered the pilot yesterday, and hope to take RFC weekly by the end of July. We’re going to feature local music, weird short films, comedy from The No Pants Players, and more, all in a tight little ten-or-fifteen minute package. As an added deterrent…er…bonus, you get to see my ugly mug hosting the show. I’ll have more info on Monday, including details on how you can watch Radio Free Charleston, and maybe even a production diary with behind the scenes poop on how we filmed the pilot.
“Uh, we went over there and filmed some, and then they made us leave, so we had to go over there.” You know, real meaty insider stuff. Check back here at PopCult Monday, but first go enjoy FestivALL.

It turned out that technical bugs kept the show from being posted until July 4, but this was the first official acknowledgement of the return of RFC in PopCult.