Monthly Archives: April 2013

Saturday & Sunday (4-20 & 21st)  RFP Presents, “Ya Know”  a new one-hour special celebrates the life and music of Joey Ramone (leader of the Ramones), and how his friends and family finished his unreleased songs to create the new album, Ya Know. Joey passed away in 2001. Tracks finished by producers Ed Stasium and Joey’s brother, Mickey Leigh, backed by a cast of usual suspects – Little Steven, Richie Ramone, Joan Jett, members of the Dictators, Plasmatics, Smithereens, Cheap Trick and more. The show will air a at 5pm, Saturday and Sunday at 3pm Arizona time.

This Saturday & Sunday (4-20 & 21st) on RFP presents, It’s Angela Allen, Liz Boyle & Gary Laatsch in a special Radio Freedom at 5pm and Sunday at 3pm AZ/Pacific time. Join Andy Olson for this great show with three of RFP’s finest DJ’s playing their favorite selections!

From left to right – Gary Laatsch, Angela Allen, Joe Hilarious, Andy Olson, Liz Boyle & Chris Herrick (from Deep Oldies)

The Win Your Benefits! Book Tour continues as RFP’s Angela Allen visits Changing Hands book store in Tempe this Monday, April 15 to sign books, answer questions and apologize for not playing those requests you made back when she worked at KOOL FM.

The book is “Win Your Benefits: How to Win and Hang ON to your SSI and Social Security Disability Payments”- the book is $17.99, and $5 of each book sold goes to Radio Free Phoenix!

You can visit winyourbenefits.com to know more or listen to Angela weekday mornings from 6 to 8 on RFP because it’s all she talks about. We can’t shut her up.

Angela Allen’s – Win Your Benefits RFP Autographed Copy

Get an copy today autographed by Angela Allen. Andy Olson, Liz Boyle, Gary Laatsch & Chris Herrick of RFP. Just 6 copies available.. Just $20.00 + $2.50 postage . Buy now!

This Saturday & Sunday, April 14t & 15th, on RFP Presents we will be featuring a rebroadcast of a Johnny D’s 3 hour Mostly Vinyl show — This will be a special tribute show to Jim Musil. Jim was the Phil Specter of Phoenix music in the 60’s and he also was responsible for bringing many bands that became legendary to JD’s in Tempe. Like the Doors, Van Morrison & Waylon Jennings The show kicks off at  5pm AZ/Pacific time Saturday and Sundat at 3pm

Here is the back story on Jim as written by Dan Nowicki:

Jim Musil Jr., one of the most important figures — and unforgettable characters — in Arizona music history, apparently died about a month ago in California under circumstances that are still unclear.

Musil (1939-2013) ran the legendary 1960s music venues JD’s (“on the Scottsdale Strip”) and the Fifth Estate in Tempe. As a producer, he cut Waylon Jennings’ first album “Waylon at JD’s,” and great ’60s R&B and rock sides by the likes of The Versatiles (“Just Pretending”), Brother Zee and The Decades (“Sha-Boom Bang”), Phil and The Frantics (“I Must Run”), The Mile Ends (“Bottle Up and Go”) and The Superfine Dandelion (“Ferris Wheel”). The Musil-produced track “What’s Happening” by Phil and The Frantics has been licensed by the AMC TV show “Mad Men” and will be heard on an episode in the new season that starts Sunday.

Musil and his father, James D. Musil Sr., opened the double-decker JD’s nightclub on July 21, 1964, opened with Waylon Jennings and the Waylors upstairs and The Mike Metko Combo downstairs. Musil replaced Metko’s group with Phil and The Frantics in spring 1965; Jennings was the regular act upstairs for more than 20 months.

“Both floors were just packed,” Musil told me several years ago in an interview. “Every night was like a Saturday night when it first opened. As far as I know, it was the first double-decker club anywhere.”

The idea of mixing country music on one floor and long-haired rock and roll on another (plus alcohol) meant there were plenty of fistfights in the parking lot. Mr. Lucky’s in west Phoenix would pinch the double-decker concept from JD’s.

There was some drama at JD’s on Christmas Night, 1968, when a gunman took hostages after closing time in an apparent plot to assassinate Waylon Jennings, who was playing there at the time. Police wound up shooting and wounding the gunman outside the club. Musil testified in the subsequent trial.

At the Fifth Estate at Scottsdale and Curry roads in Tempe, Musil brought the elite of the Los Angeles Sunset Strip scene to Arizona. He’s probably most celebrated in retrospect for booking The Doors in 1966 for what was their first gig outside California. But he opened the club in Memorial Day weekend 1966 with Them (see photo with Musil posing with Van Morrison and the late Steve Dodge of Phil and The Frantics) and in the 14 months of its existence hosted groups such as Love, The Association, The Music Machine, The Leaves, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Mindbenders, The Merry-Go-Round and others.

Musil had a great memory for details, recalling that he paid The Doors $750, plus round-trip tickets for four, and put them up at the old Royal Inn near Scottsdale and Thomas roads. Their Fifth Estate engagement was three-shows-a-night for three nights. After hearing The Doors’ live set, which already included “Light My Fire,” Musil suggested that they go into the studio to cut a record. The group informed them they had recently signed with Elektra.

“I really thought I could get a hit out of The Doors with no problem,” Musil told me.

The Fifth Estate closed in July 1967 primarily due to what Musil characterized as “constant harassment” from Tempe city fathers.

Should be a great show!

This Saturday, April 6th on RFP Presents we will be featuring a new one hour special called Rodriguez – Searching For Sugarman, this Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 3pm Arizona time.

We are playing many of his songs,  it is an amazing story and more info here:

RODRIGUEZ: SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

When Sixto Rodriguez emerged from Detroit in the early 70’s, he made two albums that didn’t catch the ears of the public in the United States. But in South Africa, Rodriguez became a household name – up there with Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley. South Africans didn’t know much about his life, but it was an accepted rumor that he had committed suicide. 25 years later, a couple of fans decided to search for information, and they discovered their hero alive and well – doing manual labor and completely unaware of his impact and success half a world away.

In this one-hour radio special, you’ll hear from the producers of his records, the people who found him and the director of a documentary about how it all happened, and from Rodriguez himself. This is an amazing story and well worth the listen!