Theme Time Radio Hour
Encyclopedia
Theme Time Radio Hour was a weekly, one-hour satellite radio
show hosted by Bob Dylan
originally airing from May 2006 to April 2009. Each episode was an eclectic, freeform
mix of blues
, folk
, rockabilly
, R&B
, soul
, bebop
, rock-and-roll, country
and pop
music, centered around a theme such as "Weather," "Money," and "Flowers" with songs from artists as diverse as Patti Page
and LL Cool J
. Much of the material for the show's 100 episodes was culled from producer Eddie Gorodetsky
's music collection, which reportedly includes more than 10,000 records and more than 140,000 digital files.
Interspersed between the music segments were email readings, listener phone calls, vintage radio air checks, old radio promos and jingles, even older jokes from Dylan ("My grandmother is so tidy she puts newspaper under the cuckoo clock"), poetry recitations; taped messages from a variety of celebrities, musicians and comedians; and commentary from Dylan on the music and musicians as well as miscellanea related to the themes. The show was not live (Dylan taped his portions at various locations and while touring), and the studio location at the so-called "Abernathy Building" was fictitious. Most of the "listener phone calls" and emails were also fictitious, although at least one email read on the show came from an actual listener.
channel of XM Satellite Radio
, a subscription-based satellite radio service, now called Sirius XM Radio (appearing in their marketing collateral as one word, "SiriusXM") after its purchase and merger with competitor Sirius Satellite Radio
. TTRH was originally broadcast every Wednesday at 10:00 am ET on Deep Tracks, with several "encore" repeats throughout the week on various channels, including an all-day airing on what was XMX
Channel 2.
On November 12, 2008, Sirius XM revised its channel lineup, providing Sirius and XM listeners with access to programming on both networks. As of that date, TTRH began airing every Wednesday at 11 am ET on Deep Tracks - Channel 40 on XM and Channel 16 on Sirius. Several channels on both stations were discontinued in November of 2008, including XMX Channel 2, which had aired TTRH all day on Wednesdays.
The show was simulcast on DirecTV
until February 9, 2010.
From 2006 through 2008 AOL Radio
offered the show on "AOL Radio featuring XM," a selection of 200 XM radio stations that was available to those with an AOL login and a broadband internet connection. In March 2008, XM Radio and America Online announced that they were ending that relationship "by mutual agreement" and at the end of April, 2008 the XM Radio channels were no longer available on AOL Radio.
From 2007-9 the program aired in the United Kingdom
on BBC Radio 2
and BBC 6 Music
, and in Ireland
on Dublin-based alternative rock station Phantom FM
.
Season 3 of TTRH concluded with the show's 100th original episode on April 15, 2009. The theme of that show was "Goodbye." During an April 2009 interview with Rolling Stone magazine
, Dylan implied that his contract with Sirius XM had ended, and that he had no plans to do additional episodes of TTRH.
On July 25, 2011, Sirius XM issued a press release announcing the launch of a 24/7 "Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour" internet-only channel. The press release noted that channel would launch on Monday, August 15 on channel 801 on Sirius XM Internet Radio and would feature "every one of Dylan's classic 'Theme Time Radio Hour' shows." The release also noted "Sirius XM listeners will hear a show from the Theme Time Radio Hour vault on Deep Tracks, channel 27, on Mondays at 8:00 pm; Wednesdays at 11:00 am; Thursdays at 12:00 am and Sundays at 8:00 am (all times Eastern)," marking the show's return to satellite radio, if only in rebroadcasts
weekend, 2007.
Season 2 of TTRH ran from September 19, 2007 to April 2, 2008 for a total 25 new shows. Three Season 2 shows, "Halloween," "Leftovers" (Thanksgiving) and the "Christmas/New Year's Special" were repeats from Season 1.
Season 3 of TTRH ran from Wednesday, October 8, 2008, to Wednesday, April 15, 2009 for a total 25 new shows. Three Season 3 episodes, "President's Day," "Christmas/New Year's Special," and "Number One" were repeats from earlier seasons.
read the opening "Night/Night time in the Big City" introduction for each episode during the first two seasons of the show, with the exception of the Season 1 Halloween episode (read by comedian Steven Wright). Barkin read the "Big City" intro intermittently during Season 3.
The production credits were usually read at the close of each show. The usual theme music played under the closing credits was "Top Cat (Underscore)" which can be found on the CD compilation Tunes from the Toons: The Best of Hanna-Barbera, issued in 1996 and reissued in 2002. The music is an acoustic version of the theme song from the 1960s cartoon Top Cat
. The show's usual credits were as follows:
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
show hosted by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
originally airing from May 2006 to April 2009. Each episode was an eclectic, freeform
Freeform (radio format)
Freeform, or freeform radio, is a radio station programming format in which the disc jockey is given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or commercial interests. Freeform radio stands in contrast to most commercial radio stations, in which DJs have little or no...
mix of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
, R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, rock-and-roll, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
music, centered around a theme such as "Weather," "Money," and "Flowers" with songs from artists as diverse as Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
and LL Cool J
LL Cool J
James Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...
. Much of the material for the show's 100 episodes was culled from producer Eddie Gorodetsky
Eddie Gorodetsky
Eddie Gorodetsky is a television writer and producer. His credits include Desert Bus, Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Mike & Molly, Saturday Night Live, SCTV Network 90, and Late Night with David Letterman...
's music collection, which reportedly includes more than 10,000 records and more than 140,000 digital files.
Interspersed between the music segments were email readings, listener phone calls, vintage radio air checks, old radio promos and jingles, even older jokes from Dylan ("My grandmother is so tidy she puts newspaper under the cuckoo clock"), poetry recitations; taped messages from a variety of celebrities, musicians and comedians; and commentary from Dylan on the music and musicians as well as miscellanea related to the themes. The show was not live (Dylan taped his portions at various locations and while touring), and the studio location at the so-called "Abernathy Building" was fictitious. Most of the "listener phone calls" and emails were also fictitious, although at least one email read on the show came from an actual listener.
Original broadcast history
The first episode of TTRH was broadcast on May 3, 2006 on the Deep TracksDeep Tracks
Deep Tracks is a Sirius XM Radio channel featuring deep cuts of classic rock music, which encompasses lesser known album tracks, one-hit wonders, concert recordings, "forgotten 45s" and "B-side" tracks. The channel's format resembles progressive rock radio of the early 1970s.Earle Bailey is Deep...
channel of XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
, a subscription-based satellite radio service, now called Sirius XM Radio (appearing in their marketing collateral as one word, "SiriusXM") after its purchase and merger with competitor Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
. TTRH was originally broadcast every Wednesday at 10:00 am ET on Deep Tracks, with several "encore" repeats throughout the week on various channels, including an all-day airing on what was XMX
XMX (XM)
XMX Channel 2 was a commercial-free, satellite radio station on Sirius XM Radio, formerly XM Satellite Radio. Originally used to remind subscribers of overdue payments, the channel changed to a music format on August 1, 2007 and featured popular exclusive XM music programming played all day, every...
Channel 2.
On November 12, 2008, Sirius XM revised its channel lineup, providing Sirius and XM listeners with access to programming on both networks. As of that date, TTRH began airing every Wednesday at 11 am ET on Deep Tracks - Channel 40 on XM and Channel 16 on Sirius. Several channels on both stations were discontinued in November of 2008, including XMX Channel 2, which had aired TTRH all day on Wednesdays.
The show was simulcast on DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
until February 9, 2010.
From 2006 through 2008 AOL Radio
AOL Radio
AOL Radio powered by Slacker, , is an online radio service available only in the United States.- Roots :...
offered the show on "AOL Radio featuring XM," a selection of 200 XM radio stations that was available to those with an AOL login and a broadband internet connection. In March 2008, XM Radio and America Online announced that they were ending that relationship "by mutual agreement" and at the end of April, 2008 the XM Radio channels were no longer available on AOL Radio.
From 2007-9 the program aired in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
and BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
, and in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
on Dublin-based alternative rock station Phantom FM
Phantom FM
Phantom 105.2 is a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1996 as a pirate radio station. Phantom broadcasts under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland ....
.
Season 3 of TTRH concluded with the show's 100th original episode on April 15, 2009. The theme of that show was "Goodbye." During an April 2009 interview with Rolling Stone magazine
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Dylan implied that his contract with Sirius XM had ended, and that he had no plans to do additional episodes of TTRH.
Reruns
Sirius XM continued to air rebroadcasts of Theme Time Radio Hour on the "Deep Tracks" channel to the end of April 2011. At the beginning of May 2011, TTRH was replaced with the "Earle Bailey" show, ending the show's run almost five years to the day the first episode was broadcast.On July 25, 2011, Sirius XM issued a press release announcing the launch of a 24/7 "Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour" internet-only channel. The press release noted that channel would launch on Monday, August 15 on channel 801 on Sirius XM Internet Radio and would feature "every one of Dylan's classic 'Theme Time Radio Hour' shows." The release also noted "Sirius XM listeners will hear a show from the Theme Time Radio Hour vault on Deep Tracks, channel 27, on Mondays at 8:00 pm; Wednesdays at 11:00 am; Thursdays at 12:00 am and Sundays at 8:00 am (all times Eastern)," marking the show's return to satellite radio, if only in rebroadcasts
Seasons and episode lists
Season 1 of TTRH consisted of fifty episodes, airing from May 3, 2006 to April 18, 2007. For the show's first anniversary, XM aired every episode back-to-back on Memorial DayMemorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
weekend, 2007.
Season 2 of TTRH ran from September 19, 2007 to April 2, 2008 for a total 25 new shows. Three Season 2 shows, "Halloween," "Leftovers" (Thanksgiving) and the "Christmas/New Year's Special" were repeats from Season 1.
Season 3 of TTRH ran from Wednesday, October 8, 2008, to Wednesday, April 15, 2009 for a total 25 new shows. Three Season 3 episodes, "President's Day," "Christmas/New Year's Special," and "Number One" were repeats from earlier seasons.
Intro and closing credits
Although uncredited in the closing credits, actress Ellen BarkinEllen Barkin
Ellen Barkin is an American film, television and theatre actress.-Early life:She was born Ellen Rona Barkin in Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York, the daughter of Evelyn , a hospital administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman...
read the opening "Night/Night time in the Big City" introduction for each episode during the first two seasons of the show, with the exception of the Season 1 Halloween episode (read by comedian Steven Wright). Barkin read the "Big City" intro intermittently during Season 3.
The production credits were usually read at the close of each show. The usual theme music played under the closing credits was "Top Cat (Underscore)" which can be found on the CD compilation Tunes from the Toons: The Best of Hanna-Barbera, issued in 1996 and reissued in 2002. The music is an acoustic version of the theme song from the 1960s cartoon Top Cat
Top Cat
Top Cat is a Hanna-Barbera prime time animated television series which ran from September 27, 1961 to April 18, 1962 for a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network. Reruns are played on Cartoon Network's classic animation network Boomerang.-History:...
. The show's usual credits were as follows:
- Host: Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Producer: Eddie GorodetskyEddie GorodetskyEddie Gorodetsky is a television writer and producer. His credits include Desert Bus, Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Mike & Molly, Saturday Night Live, SCTV Network 90, and Late Night with David Letterman...
- Associate Producer: Season 1 - Sonny Webster. Season 2 - Ben Rollins. Season 3 - Nina Fitzgerald-Washington
- Continuity: "Eats" (spelling unknown) Martin
- Editor: Damian Rodriguez
- Supervising Editor: Rob Macomber
- Research Team: Diane Lapson, Bernie Bernstein
- Additional Research: Season 1 - Lynne Sheridan, Kimberly Williams, Robert Bower. Seasons 2 and 3 - April Hayes, Callie Gladman, Terrence Michaels, Sean Patrick, and Lynne Sheridan
- Librarian: Seasons 2 and 3 - Robert Bower
- Production Coordinator: Seasons 2 and 3 - Debbie Sweeney
- Production Assistance: Jim McBean
- Special Thanks to: Randy Ezratty, Coco Shinomiya, Samson's Diner and Lee Abrams (Season 3)
- Studio Engineer: Tex Carbone (changed to Director of Studio Operations midway through Season 2 and continuing through Season 3)
- For XM Radio: Lee Abrams (Seasons 1 and 2)
- Location: Announced as "Recorded in Studio B, the Abernathy Building" — a fictitious location. (Season 2 modified this to "Recorded in Studio B, in the historic Abernathy Building." Season 3 had several variations on the line including "take the tour," "crown jewel of the city skyline," and "on the 8th floor")
- A Greywater Park Production in Association with Big Red Tree
- Announcer: "Pierre Mancini" (suspected to be the voice of Producer Eddie Gorodetsky)
Reception and reviews
External links
- Deep Tracks Sirius XM site featuring Theme Time Radio Hour
- History of Theme Time Radio Hour Blog by Lee Abrams (XM Radio VP) who had the original idea for a Bob Dylan radio show.
- BBC6 Music: Theme Time site
- The Dreamtime Podcast Commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour
- * T H E M E * T I M E * The playlists (including release dates) of the tracks Bob Dylan chose to present, as well as the lyrics to some of the songs
- Annotated Theme Time Radio Hour Annotated Theme Time Radio Hour page from the Bob Dylan Fan Club website
- DylanRadio.com Internet webcast that airs episodes of Theme Time Radio Hour twice daily among other content related to Bob Dylan.