Welcome to Radio Free Charleston

This is the Archival blog of Radio Free Charleston, the webshow hosted and instigated by Rudy Panucci that launched in 2006 as part of "GazzTV" and has survived to this day as a YouTube-based variety show bringing local music, filmmakers and animators from West Virginia to the world.

Radio Free Charleston is part of the PopCult blog at The Charleston Gazette, and this website is an attempt to organize all the episodes and various spin-off videos in one chronologically-aligned place.

Much of our video archive was wiped out when MySpace committed suicide in the summer of 2013, taking almost one hundred episodes of the show with it. We are remastering, re-uploading and in some cases, restoring those shows and will present them here, if possible, with the original production notes post-dated to their original dates, so that you can trace the show in its original running order. There are some issues with dead links and missing graphics, but we hope that doesn't interfere with your enjoyment of our inane blather.

In May, 2014, MySpace made our old video archives available again, so we will be using those to fill in the missing spaces here while we are still in the remastering phase. We expect this to take some time, and hope you'll bear with us as we build a site where soon we hope many people will waste precious hours at work.

In addition to our full-length episodes, this blog will collect our two "half episodes" from late 2008, and also all of the episodes of The RFC MINI SHOW, which began in 2013 to fill in the space between full-length editions of the show. This blog will also include other videos created by the RFC crew for the PopCult blog.

To keep up with the lastest developments with the show, please visit the PopCult blog and our Facebook page for information on our current episodes.  Radio Free Charleston is still going strong, with both the full-length program and our new RFC MINI SHOWs, and we recently posted episode 200 and have started on our next two-hundred shows.

Thanks for checking us out.

Rudy Panucci

The RFC MINI SHOW # 40

The RFC MINI SHOW with The Jasons

Monday, October 20, 2014

This week The RFC MINI SHOW brings you The Jasons, recorded live at ShockaCon, just last month. The Jasons just marked their first year of performing and this horror-punk outfit from Crystal Lake, New Jersey (by way of the Mountain State) are hotter than ever. With a sound not unlike their fierce rivals, The Renfields, The Jasons slash their way through three chords and a quick beat, leaving few survivors.

The rivalry with The Renfields is so intense that The Jasons’ frontman, Jason V refuses to be seen in the same room as Vincent Renfield.

The RFC MINI SHOW captures The Jasons performing one original tune and one cover of song by a legendary punk band. We also get to witness some of the witty stage banter between the members of the band. You never really get to see the humorous side of Jason Vorhees in the Friday the 13th movies, but on stage, his comedy just kills.

This episode of The RFC MINI SHOW is a preview of sorts for this year’s epic Radio Free Charleston Halloween Special, featuring more music by The Jasons as well as songs from HarraH, Radio Cult and The Possum Kingdom Ramblers. You can see the Radio Free Charleston Halloween Special next week.

Episode 201 of RFC

RFC 201 with WATT4, Super Heavy Duty and more!

October 13, 2014 by rudy panucci

Our first post-milestone show features music from WATT4 and Super Heavy Duty, plus animation from Third Mind Incarnation and a short film by Frank Panucci. With this episode, Radio Free Charleston reverts back to its original format, with a shorter running time and more frequent shows. 

The plan is to alternate weeks between full episodes of Radio Free Charleston, and episodes of The RFC MINI SHOW.

We shot our host segments at Riverside High School, after driving around looking for some nice fall foliage, and not finding that enough had turned yet, so we called an audible and shot in Quincy.

The RFC MINI SHOW #39

The RFC MINI SHOW starring The Velvet Brothers

Monday, October 6, 2014

Some of the Velvet Brothers (it’s so hard to get them all in one shot)

The legendary Velvet Brothers, reunited in September, 2014 at Bruno’s on Leon Sullivan Way in Charleston. In this edition of The RFC MINI SHOW you can hear them perform “Savannah Rose” and “De Do Do Do, De Dah Dah Dah.”Yes, that latter song is a cover of the old Police tune, rendered in a velvety-smooth lounge version.

The full Velvet

The Velvet Brothers were the first full band that I featured performing live on the Radio Free Charleston radio show way back in 1989. We’d had some acoustic performances on the show, but never a full band. The studio wasn’t big enough to hold the entire band, so we ran cables all over the building with the drummer in the hallway, the bass player in the production studio, and the keyboard player in the newsroom. With the guitarist and vocalist in the FM studio with me, the band managed to create a magic moment, even though it was three in the morning and they’d just played a full set at The Charleston Playhouse earlier in the evening.

This shoot, about a month ago, was a blast. Bruno’s was packed. I was straddling a potted palm tree in what turned out to be a lounge/mosh pit. At one point I think I rode the tree into the keyboard player, “C.R. Smoothee.” We got some great music and now you can enjoy a little more of The Velvet Brothers.

PopCult 2014 Rod Run Doo Wop Video

Video Overload, Cool Cars,

Friday, October 3, 2014

 
After a week where your PopCulteer posted a record amount of video, we slide into the weekend with a variety of topics, plus just one more video (or five).
This week we will address the Suddenlink stink, toss plugs your way for a night of animation, a local filmmaker’s bid to work for Motorhead, plus a rundown of local shows, and we’ll also bring you a mini photo essay from the subject of this freshly-made video of the 2014 Charleston Rod Run Doo Wop Car Show…


At the end of this week’s PopCulteer we’ll show you some bonus car show photos.