Episode 72 of RFC

Radio Free Charleston’s seventy-second episode, “Sulu Nation Shirt,” was posted in June, 2009, and it contains a lot of "firsts." This episode featured music from The Scrap Iron Pickers and Whitechapel District. We also had a guest appearance by The Chemical Valley Rollergirls, who were just beginning back then. Host segments were recorded at a CVRG practice at Skateland in Campbell’s Creek. We also have Frank Panucci's "Porklips" in this edition of RFC and a 90 Second Art Show.

This was a fun show to produce, with a cool host location and lots of action. It was really cool bring Scrap Iron Pickers on. This instrumental progressive metal powerhouse was real bright spot on the local scene, and it'd be really cool to see some kind of reunion soon.

Whitechapel District is still performing, with a somewhat different line-up. Stay tuned to PopCult for details of their upcoming shows. Of course, the Chemical Valley Rollergirls are also still going strong and winning bouts all over the region.

The original production notes follow the video, but don't expect the links to work. 

Radio Free Charleston 72: Rollergirls, Pickers and The District

June 10, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston’s seventy-second episode, “Sulu Nation Shirt,” is online now! Watch it quick, they don’t seem to have much of a shelf life these days. This episode features music from The Scrap Iron Pickers and Whitechapel District. We also have a guest appearance by The Chemical Valley Rollergirls, who coincidentally enough are holding tryouts June 30 at Skateland in Campbell’s Creek, where we shot our host segments this time.

Episode 71 of RFC

Radio Free Charleston number 71, “Golden age Batman Shirt” was originally posted in May, 2009.  This episode of Charleston's local music, film, animation and weirdness program included new music from WATT4, vintage music from Hitchock Circus, a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and a special appearance from IWA East Coast‘s Mad Man Pondo and a friend.

We concluded “Mark Beckner Month" with two songs from his Nashville band, Hitchcock Circus. This was a homecoming for Mark, who was a regular on the old RFC radio show as a member of Go Van Gogh and The Tunesmiths. Mark has since rejoined with his brother, Stephen, to form The Nanker Phelge, who have a new CD coming out in a few weeks.

WATT4 was recorded at The Blue Parrot. This line-up of the band is back together and is currently rehearsing for future shows.

Mad Man Pondo’s “friend” was Oderus Urungus, the lead singer and mastermind behind GWAR. These clips were originally created to promote Oderus' wrestling debut, which happened in the summer of 2009. RFC was greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Dave Brockie, the human vehicle for Oderus.

The original production notes are below the video, complete with questionable links.

Hitchcock Circus, WATT4 And Oderus Urungus: RFC 71 Is Live!

May 26, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston number 71, “Golden age Batman Shirt” is online now! This episode of your local music, film, animation and weirdness program includes new music from WATT4, vintage music from Hitchock Circus, a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and a special appearance from IWA East Coast‘s Mad Man Pondo and a friend.

Episode 70 of RFC

This edition of your local music, film, animation and art webcast was jam-packed with music and other short bits of coolness. The music is from Barebones, the accapella group who debuted on RFC just a few weeks before this episode, plus we continued “Mark Beckner Month” with a couple of performances that feature Mark: one solo, and one supporting his brother Stephen while jamming on an old Go Van Gogh tune.

As if the music weren’t enough, we also had a 100-second art show, this time showcasing the work of Leia Bell, a promo clip for “Viva le Vaudeville,” and the debut of “A Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie.”

RFC 70: Barebones, Beckner And “Burn The Hairy Man”

May 20, 2009 by rudy panucci

The seventieth episode of Radio Free Charleston,”Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch Shirt” is online now!

Episode 69 of RFC

May 2009 was "Mark Beckner Month" on Radio Free Charleston. Mark is a long-time friend and was a fixture on the radio incarnation of RFC as a member of both Go Van Gogh and The Tunesmiths. To this day he still shows up as a member of The Nanker Phelge.

However, in May 2009, he was preparing to play his first real show in Charleston in years, since he'd relocated to Nashville back in the 1990s. It turned out to be quite the homecoming, since unbeknowest to me, he was returning to town for good.

I had a wealth of archival material and new video featuring Mark, so I decided that, as a way to plug his "return" show with his band, Hitchcock Circus, I would devote an entire month of shows to Mister Mark Beckner.

We kicked it off by digging deep into the vaults to present "Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth," a mockumentary starring the band, which I had totally forgotten about, directed by Timothy Rock, the bassist for GVG. Stephen Beckner showed it during a movie night at his house, and I started wondering why it seemed familiar. Then it got to the scene where I'm crouched over a toilet blaming the band for the RFC radio show getting cancelled, and it all came back.

It turns out I was the cameraman and was the offscreen interviewer in addition to my cameo as myself. I have this bad habit of forgetting really cool things that I've done.

I was able to get a copy of the film from Stephen, and trimmed it a bit for time so I could present it as an episode of RFC. This is one of the few RFCs that doesn't have the opening theme, and with this 2014 remastering, I have correcting one shocking omission--after the end credits and remastering card, I put the "Ya-Hooo" guy back in.

The original production notes are below. Don't mind the links, they're probably a mess.

Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth…RFC 69 Notes

May 13, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston’s very special sixty-ninth episode is online now! This is a departure episode for us, as we present an edited version of Timothy Rock’s 1992 documentary, “Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth.” This film depicts the aura, the bubble of success that surrounded this almost-mythic band. It stars Go Van Gogh, themselves, Johnny Rock, Tim Rock, Stephen Becknerand Mark Beckner. 

It’s the kick-off of “Mark Beckner Month” here on Radio Free Charleston, as we celebrate the pending return to the Charleston area of Mark’s Nashville-based band, Hitchcock Circus. Hitchcock Circus will be playing at LiveMix Studio on May 30–their first gig in town since 1995. Every episode of RFC in May will feature Mark in some manner or another.

Episode 68 of RFC

RFC Flashback: Episode 68

May 17, 2014 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston 68, “Axiom Starliner Shirt,” is back online.  This episode of your favorite local music, animation and film show featured music from Jeff Ellis and Marcie Bullock. We also had the first edition of The Radio Free Charleston Financial Report, as well as the debut of the cutest li’l cute cartoon show in the history of cuteness, “Cuticles.” neither of those segments ever appeared in the show again!

Host segments for this show were shot late one Sunday evening in the parking lot at the Nitro Marketplace shopping center. “Why there?” You ask? I honestly have no idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The green ball cap seemed like a good idea, too, but it sure looks stupid on screen. The shirt was from the movie, “Wall-E.” This episode also includes the ultimate onscreen URL joke, in case you were wondering which show that one was in. You can find the original production notes below the video, but keep in mind that they're old and the links probably don't work.

Jeff Ellis, Marcie Bullock, RFC 68 Is CUTE!

April 29, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston 68, “Axiom Starliner Shirt,” is online now! This episode of your favorite local music, animation and film show features music from Jeff Ellis and Marcie Bullock. We also have the first edition of The Radio Free Charleston Financial Report, as well as the debut of the cutest li’l cute cartoon show in the history of cuteness, “Cuticles.”

Episode 67 of RFC

From April, 2009, comes "Earth To Eros Shirt," a show named after John Lancaster's old band. We never managed to get E2E on the show, but we have had John on a few times. Our host segments were shot at The Convenience Store on Summer's Street, which is still going strong, almost five years later.  This show contains our comedy interview with the store's owner, Scott Shapiro, which illustrates why I hardly ever do interviews on Radio Free Charleston.

Music from Go Van Gogh and A Place Of Solace highlight this episode. We also featured a trailer for the movie "The Bride and Grooms" and the phenomenal young Bradley Wilkerson Sings! Actually, a deal to record The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra fell through at the last minute, so I did the first-ever "rerun" of a segment and reused the animated video "Requiem For Pepperland" that I created--in just a couple of days--for a then-twenty-year-old demo by Go Van Gogh.

Our other musical guest, A Place of Solace, finally appeared fifty episodes after I wore one of their shirts on the show. It all comes around.  It is great to see Bradley Wilkerson at his peak and in his prime. This is how he should be remembered, not his eventual decline and sad end.

Production notes, complete with dead links and such, follow the embedded show.

RFC 67: The Convenience Of Solace

April 22, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston Episode 67, “Earth To Eros Shirt,” isonline now! This edition of our show features our first “rerun” musical segment, plus new music from A Place Of Solace, A new trailer for Butch Maier’s film, “The Bride And The Grooms,” and the phenomenal young Bradley Wilkerson Sings! The afore-mentioned rerun segment is the animated music video for “Requiem For Pepperland” by Go Van Gogh, brought back by popular demand. This is our special “deadline crunch” show, as I try to maintain a weekly schedule through April in the face of major-league scheduling adversity.

Episode 66 of RFC

RFC 66 "Yankees Jersey" from RFC Archives on Myspace.

RFC 66 Notes: Biscuits In Paradise

April 16, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston’s sixty-sixth episode, “Yankees Jersey,” is online now.  This installment of the longest-running local music and animation show at TheGazz.com features a song from the CYAC musical “Norman Rockwell’s American Paradise,” written by Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli, plus a tune from Electro Biscuit, a band consisting of Kai Haynes, Greg Wegmann and RFC Big Shot Brian Young, who coincidentally happen to be the owners of LiveMix Studio, Charleston’s coolest intimate venue and the home base of Radio Free Charleston.

We’ll also see the exciting debut of Charleston’s newest teen sensation, Young Bradley Wilkerson! That’s him to the left of this text.

Our animation features a glimpse into the evil mirror universe, as we see how the Anti-Rudy would introduce a song on the evil version of Radio Free Charleston.

Episode 65 of RFC

Radio Free Charleston 65, “Give Peace A Chance Shirt,” was first posted April 8, 2009. This episode showcased two songs performed by Bare Bones, an acapella group consisting of Bill Kimmons, Becky Kimmons, and Mark Davis. 


We also present the short film “FOOTLUCY”, starring the late Joe McComas. Plus, there’s animation by Wallace Padillo.   If it seems odd that I keep saying "Bare Bones Acapella," rest assured that it's all in your perception and is not a sign that I thought the word "acapella" was part of their name.  The original production notes, dead links and all, appear below the video. 


In the meantime, please visit the PopCult blog and our Facebook page for information on our current episodes while this site is still under construction. Radio Free Charleston is still going strong, with both the full-length program and our new RFC MINI SHOWs, and we expect to hit episode 200 head-on in the Spring of 2014.
You may notice that this introduction appears in many of the posts that you see in this blog. The reason is simple. We have embedded the shows at a fairly hefty size, and they sort of run outside the template. This is not a huge problem if our posts have a lengthy preamble before we plop in the video, but in some cases we need some extra padding so that the listing of the blog archives over on the right side of the screen doesn't overlap the video, thus impeding your enjoyment of our nifty video product. So we stick this opening in here, along with an ad, to take up space.

RFC 65: Bare Bones and Joe McComas, Behind The Scenes

April 8, 2009 by rudy panucci

Radio Free Charleston 65, “Give Peace A Chance Shirt,” isonline now! This episode showcases two songs performed byBare Bones, an acapella group consisting of Bill Kimmons, Becky Kimmons, and Mark Davis. We also present the short film “FOOTLUCY”, starring the late Joe McComas. Plus, there’s animation by Wallace Padillo.

Episode 64 of RFC

For April Fool's Day 2009 I decided that I wanted to pull a fairly elaborate, yet profoundly stupid prank. The plan was to run production notes promising a very special episode with new music from Paul McCartney and Peter Buck, of REM, plus an exclusive new animated short film by Pixar and then pull a biat-and-switch and instead supply a third part to our 2008 Halloween Special, "RFC Horror Theater."

And so we did. Music is by Whistlepunk and Mark and Steve Beckner with Alan Young. Mark, Steve and Alan were recorded live at LiveMix Studio at the same time that we shot the host segments, and this may be the only time in the history of RFC that the show's host introduced a band "live" with them in the room.

For the host segments, a last-minute schedule SNAFU meant that Kitty Killton could not reprise her role as "Celeste the Zombie Supermodel," so we had to have a vocal stand-in to explain her absence. Liz McCormick, Brian Young and Mel Larch return as studio zombies and Rudy reverted to his "Count Rudolph" identity.

The episode truly captured the Halloween spirit...in April.

Animation is vintage Amiga work by Frank Panucci, and this is also the only episode where a musical guest had to be pressed into running camera because we had too many people on screen at the same time.

 From April, 2009 comes episode 64 of RFC "Radio Free Charleston Horror Theater Part Three." You can find parts one and two HERE. After the video you will find the original, fake production notes from April Fool's Day, and after that, the real production notes. As always, the links may stink.

When RFC Is 64: Sir Paul McCartney, Peter Buck and Pixar Come To Radio Free Charleston!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Who would’ve thought that Radio Free Charleston would ever land a Beatle? Well, in the latest episode of RFC, we not only managed to lure Sir Paul McCartney to LiveMix Studio, but we also snared R.E.M’s axeman, Peter Buck, and animation fromPixar Studios, plugging their upcoming summer blockbuster, “Up.”

Radio Free Charleston 64 is ONLINE NOW!  Follow the jump for all the dirt on what has to be our biggest show ever!

Episode 63 of RFC

From March, 2009, Radio Free Charleston 63 is “Bauhaus Shirt.” This was yet another music-packed episode, featuring new tunes from Stephen Beckner, The Buttonflies, and returning for a second week in a row Tofujitsu. We also have a five-second appearance from WVU Mountaineer Football’s all-time leading scorer, Pat McAfee (before he played in the Super Bowl for the Indianapolis Colts) and by popular demand, the return of vintage beer commercial animation.

Host segments were shot in an undisclosed location in the hills surrounding Charleston. There are reports that this undisclosed location bears an uncanny resemblance to the deck behind Sean Richardson and Karen Allen’s house, but we are sworn to secrecy. Also, it was raining that day.

This episode picks up my major SNAFU from last week, where I ran the wrong song by Tofujitsu.  This episode really does have "Clap On, Clap Off" in it, and we milked the situation for some humor.Original production notes follow the video, but the links are questionable.

Pat McAfee kicks off RFC 63, with Stephen Beckner, The ButtonFlies and Tofujitsu!

March 25, 2009 by rudy panucci

The latest edition of Radio Free Charleston, “Bauhaus Shirt”, isonline now! This is yet another music-packed episode, featuring new tunes from Stephen Beckner, The Buttonflies, and returning for a second week in a row Tofujitsu. We also have a five-second appearance from WVU Mountaineer Football’s all-time leading scorer, Pat McAfee and by popular demand, the return of vintage beer commercial animation.