March 30th, 2024Jeff still Down Under
When I left the USA, in 1983, the only Australian music to be heard on mainstream radio was Men At Work, songs from that amazing album Business As Usual, which was released in 1981 in Australia, 1982 in the USA.
Coming back to the USA in 2018, imagine my surprise to discover that – nothing much had changed!
Radio stations were still playing Down Under and Who Can It Be Now, and occasionally they’d add some INXS, but that’s pretty much all there was.
So when a cool little community radio station broadcasting out to my part of northern California ran an on-air promotion telling listeners that they too could be on the radio, I thought, why not, and pitched the idea of a show playing nothing but music made by Australians.
And, given Americans’ familiarity with Men At Work, I called my show The Down Under Hour.
The music I play runs from the 1960s right up to 2024 and includes rock, country, a taste of hip-hop, some mainstream pop, a tiny bit of jazz, and even some classical. You will also hear music by Central Victorian artists such as Adrian Kosky and The Cartwheels.
The show has been running for more than a year now, once a week, and I have stayed with the format, with a few exceptions: we love New Zealand people and music; and we don’t mind if Aussie musicians go overseas to make records, as long as they come home afterwards.
We have a bit of fun with expat musos like Nick Cave and Acca Dacca in an occasional segment I’ve named “Still Call Australia By Phone”.
As one of my good mates says, “It’s songs I don’t know by bands I’ve never heard of ”. It’s all just a bit of fun, and maybe, just maybe, some poor Yanks out there will be enthused enough to go looking for more Australian music.
The Down Under Hour is broadcast every Wednesday at 1pm, here in California, on radio KKRN 88.5FM.
The show can be live-streamed at KKRN.org. In Victoria that’s 7am Thursday – sorry about that. Several programs have been archived on the website, so check that out too.
Jeff Glorfeld moved from Wheatsheaf to California a few years back. He loves great music and a decent red. Oh, and Carol, his wife.
