My show is called Seanatonin, a nod to serotonin, and it is a weekly show on Rossland Radio on Saturdays from 8-10 p.m. E
Each week is a show that is two hours long with a new theme. Each theme combines 1980s music and classic rock with obscure music, Japanese music and Nintendo-core music, or heavy metal covers of video game music.
For example, I’ll play all covers for two hours and some of the covers or bands you’ll never hear on mainstream stations, like a Japanese punk version of I Can See Clearly Now or a cover done by a polka version of Bohemian Rhapsody done by Weird Al.
One theme I did a few times was “Around the World” and the songs had a place in the world in the song name, like Viva Las Vegas or Montego Bay.
This August will mark my seventh year with Rossland Radio Co-operative and I was a member of this group when it was just starting and was only Internet radio. Since then, I have garnered listeners from across Canada, the U.S. and England. In this time many shows have come and gone at Rossland Radio and some have stayed.
Twice on my show I hosted Radio Bingo on-air. The concept was playing bingo on-air and with a call-in to claim your prize. It made radio more fun. During one Radio Bingo event, I played Pac-Man Fever by Buckner and Garcia and a few days later, my co-host for the event heard it on the CBC. It has been about two years since Rossland Radio did that event and I thought it was creative, yet fun at the same time.
Like I said in the beginning, on my show I cover from classic rock to 1980s music, from Japanese music to Nintendo-core music. Heck, I’ll play other songs by one-hit wonders to the very obscure.
On my show, I won’t play music by people like Justin Beiber or One Direction because they are knock offs of Paul McCartney and the Backstreet Boys, respectively. I grew up when music was awesome, the 1980s, and when Michael Jackson was skyrocketing to superstardom.
Sometimes I play some indie bands on my show, such as Eyeshine, a band from the United States. They have an “Edge Rock” sound and their lead singer was at one time a Power Ranger back in the mid 1990s.
Eyeshine’s name is taken in honour of the Crocodile Hunter. Another non-mainstream band I play is called Northern Kings and they are a Finnish heavy metal band whose first two albums were all covers (one of their covers was Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing).
For the people who don’t know about Japanese music, it is almost like what you hear on mainstream stations, but it is heard only in Japan and on community radio. Some of music is played on anime and live action Sentai (superhero) TV shows/movies.
Some of the Japanese singers also work as voice actors or stage actors. One singer also is a radio personality and a registered nurse named Megumi Hayashibara. Some of her songs were theme songs for anime series that she was a voice actor in.
If you are getting tired of hearing the same singles by your favourite classic rock and 1980s bands or want to hear some obscure songs, give yourselves a shot of Seanatonin, the current longest running show on 101.1 FM, every Saturday night from 8-10 p.m.