The warmth of vinyl will be heard in crystal clear digital stereo on digital radio next weekend when ABC Radio goes Back 2 Vinyl. The whole weekend will be turned over to ABC Radio presenters who will dust off their collections, give them a spin and share their adventures with those shiny pieces of black plastic.
Vinyl was a first love that led many ABC presenters into their radio careers, including Russell Stendell, who recently passed away. The weekend is also a tribute to Stendell.
Whether it was discovering their parent’s collections or haunting import record stores picking up obscure discs, their stories and the music will be shared on ABC Digital Radio over 3 days, between noon Friday 27 April and Midnight Sunday 29 April 2012.
Presenters include: Red Symons (774 ABC Melbourne), Robbie Buck (RN, The Inside Sleeve), Mal Stanley (ABC Classic FM, Jazztrack), Lucky Oceans (RN, Daily Planet), Lindsay McDougall (aka The Doctor, triple j), Tim Ritchie (RN, Sound Quality), Richard Margetson (105.7 ABC Darwin), Tracee Hutchison (Radio Australia, Evenings), Doug Spencer (RN, Weekly Planet), Francis Leach (ABC Grandstand Digital Radio) and Trevor Jackson (ABC Gold Coast).
They will be joined by some behind-the-scenes staff who have been coaxed back on air for the weekend, including ABC music programmmers Arnold Frolows and Stuart Matchett, plus Holger Brockman and THE man in the ABC Music library, Peter Timmerman.
For a complete list of presenters and their program times, go to abc.net.au/digitalradio. Vinyl fans can also share their fondest memories through Twitter #abcback2vinyl.
A significant part of the inspiration for Back 2 Vinyl came from the recent death from cancer of Russell Stendell, the Head of ABC Radio Technology and Digital Planning, who started his ABC career in 1976 at Radio Two Double-J as a music programmer.
Stendell left a great collection of vinyl records and as a tribute to his contribution to ABC Radio, two friends and colleagues from Double-J days, Stuart Matchett and Arnold Frolows – now both programming ABC Digital Radio music services Dig Music and ABC Jazz – will present an extended Back 2 Vinyl program featuring music from the collection.
Manager of ABC Digital Radio, Tony Walker, said Stendell had a great love of music. “Not only did he know the music, he also knew about it. And not just rock and pop, but also classical, jazz, soul, reggae and film music. He thought deeply about its qualities and loved to develop and expound theories about particular eras, genres and artists.”
ABC special event digital radio continues to highlight unique content and specialised programming. Figures recently released by Commercial Radio Australia indicate there are over 1.2 million people listening to digital radio in an average week and close to 800,000 digital radios in the market.