Some of you will know that I've had a 30-minute theatre organ program 'Pipes and Paella' airing on our local station, Valle Radio, for about a year. The program has always been available on streaming at www.valleradio.net but only in real-time. Since December the shows have also been available for listening and/or download at my www.musicnostalgia.com site. This show is now finished: the last broadcast was on Wednesday 21 May 2008.

In it's place, I have started a one hour theatre organ show at the same time on Wednesday 28 May. This will be international rather than local in character, with new CD reviews (not critical, just factual, along with purchasing info), a section of older recordings from the LP era and before, and any news of importance that reaches me here in Spain. There'll also be an occasional concert or electronic organ track. I'll also include some concert dates if the various chapters and organisers inform me in time, and I'll be monitoring the theatre organ chat forums, of course. Please send any news-worthy info to this e-mail address: steve@musicnostalgia.com

This one hour show will be renamed 'Hot Pipes' (original title, eh?!!) and these will be archived as usual on www.musicnostalgia.com as soon as possible after broadcast. Anyone with any speed of broadband internet connection should not have problems listening: you may, however, have to download the entire show first if your connection is slow or intermittent (as here in Spain!). I am going to investigate the possibility of making the downloads in podcast format to make it possible to subscribe to the series.

While my wife and I were in Joliet for the recent excellent Extravaganza Weekend, I spoke with Ken Double about this expanded program: he has very kindly offered to make available to me for broadcast the ATOS sound archive material as it is processed into usable format. I am particularly excited about this prospect as there must be some wonderful recordings which have not been heard for decades. In the meantime, I have a considerable number of LPs of British and American artists that I will be gradually converting into the mp3 format required by Valle Radio. 

Anyone who would like to submit material for broadcast would be greatly appreciated. This can include individual tracks and/or CDs by artists who want to be aired to mp3 rips of old LPs... anyone who has material to submit, please contact me and I will detail the format requirements and how to get the tracks to me, either by snail mail, ftp upload, or e-mail. (I must obviously retain the right to determine what is or is not suitable for broadcasting.) 

I will be doing as much as possible to publicise this show, through the various society publications, websites and forums. Any website administrators who would like a reciprocal link should contact me as soon as possible.

One of the problems facing a small 'community' such as Theatre Organ has always been communications, and especially as radio and TV have tended to shun minority interests. Now, with the help of Valle, the Internet and your support, here is another means of broadcasting the glorious sounds of these instruments that is not dependent on commercial interests. I am very thankful and grateful to Valle Radio's station owner, Mike Hall, for initially agreeing to a short organ program and then enthusiastically embracing my request for the hour slot. All of the presenters on the station work voluntarily and we all gladly donate our time.

My other program, Those Dancing Years, will continue at the existing time on Wednesday evenings.

I do hope that you will enjoy my programs: any comments will be welcomed. 

Steve Ashley
May 2008

Update 1 Aug 2008
The show continues to gain listeners with a very consistent rise in downloads from this site. I aim to keep this momentum going by advertsing the shows with as many website reciprocal links and press releases with the organ societies as time will allow.