Audio Clips
About the segments:
The show is structured in six segments with each hour totaling 58 minutes and a break roughly every half hour.
The first segment is what would most nearly resemble a regular country music show. The music can feature birthdays and recent deaths, but mostly it is a free form exploration of vintage country music.
The second segment presents rebroadcasts of iconic radio shows: Grand Ole Opry segments, Louisiana Hayride segments, Hank Williams radio shows, (such as Health and Happiness Shows, Mother’s Best Flour shows, Garden Spot shows) or 15-minute recruitment shows for the US Army, Navy and Air Force.
The third and fourth segments combine to form Theme Time. During this hour Tom selects a theme and everyone journeys to wherever the music takes us. Some themes explored so far this year include Togetherness, June Brides and Weddings, Fire, Sleep, Pain and Divorce. Of course major holidays become themes as well as some lesser ones, like April Fool’s Day, Mardi Gras and Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. Tom masters this form of thematic radio programming due to his 19 years of work at KUT in Austin, TX where that was the norm at the time.
The fifth segment- some may say the unique- is the most ambitious of all. It is Billboard’s Top 10 C&W Hits for the show date on one of the years during the 50s and 60s with commentary on the songs. (The actual date is not announced in case the show is delayed or rebroadcast.) Few have the resources to even try such a segment. Tom is well equipped with the entire top 100 chart hits for all of the years between 1945 and 1975 as well as over 120 Bear Family box sets in addition to dozens of box sets from other companies.
The sixth and final segment is devoted to contemporary artists who perform in a classic country style.
Some stations opt for two hours while others opt for the full three hours. The two-hour version includes the following segments in the following order: 1, 5, 3, 4. Some stations don’t have 3-hour slots to fill, while others do. Some, like WNCW, will start with two and then increase to three due to popular demand.