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The first voice you will hear on this episode belongs to the late Pete Fornatale, who passed away in 2012 at the tender age of 66 the date was April 26. That would have been my 32nd Wedding Anniversary. I know that because it was my Mother’s Birthday, a date I would never forget, marking the perfect date to get married. Insurance against becoming “that guy” a popular sitcom storyline back in the day. The dufus husband that never remembers. I guess music isn’t the only way I’ve tried to plant seeds during my lifetime. I was glad to get to know Pete, who was truly a lovely man, his voice very much a part of my formative years as the long time (mostly) Mid-Day Host at WNEW-FM in New York. I was proud to pick up his long-running syndicated program “Mixed Bag” (named after a Richie Havens album) and a very early zealot of this new channel, along with his manager Chris Hall. I suspected that Pete and I had a similar philosophy regarding music presentation, and was able to confirm it after our first few conversations and visits. The commercial radio era Pete spent the bulk of his career was really the golden period in my opinion. Due to the new rule disallowing the simulcast of an AM and FM signal… see here There were openings popping up for musically astute listeners, especially obsessed musicologists (cough)with a desire to attempt communicating their vision. I was hooked on that approach from the first 15 minutes of listening to NY’s WOR-FM from my Central Jersey location. It made perfect sense since I loved a variety of music since childhood. I was becoming annoyed at hearing the same song, like it or not, upwards of a dozen times a day on 77 WABC, WMCA or when further South WFIL and WIBG out of Philadelphia. A good history lesson can be found Here
There you have the spark that ignited a tuned-in generation to communicate on a grand scale about culture… art, film, justice, politics and especially music. Minus the agenda. Without “Freeform Radio” it’s possible in my mind that proof provided by festivals like Woodstock, the touring and music industry appearing to be printing money, the enormous profit potential of the economic might of Baby Boomers coming of age was staggering. If you sold anything at all, this is where the target lived. I believe the same target is still out there and has been every generation since. The problem, as usual, is money and greed. Freeform Radio will never, and has never been a ratings magnet. It was never designed to be. When presented with this opportunity by Dave Logan and Lee Abrams at my interview I even asked Lee how I could trust the guy cited as largely responsible for the demise of my beloved Freeform, namely him! Dave I kind of knew, this was my first meeting with Lee. His response after a good laugh was, “Hey, it’s not my fault they are still doing the same shit I came up with in the 70’s? We are blowing it up, and re-invent. This will be a boutique station, 2 to 3% will find it and never leave. But many will pre-set it.” No dumbing it down, no censorship, no commercials and no sales manager with offers of appearance fees or quid pro quo? Really? Where do I sign? I am about to enter a zone where I have to see a lot of medical people, so that is the impetus for posting a batch of things in a relatively short period. I loved looking back at the stuff in this episode but it really is just the start of the story. There were two distinct periods of the channel and the next one would find me actually working with some people that directly inspired me. I’ll log that for Summer listening. I have a few things almost ready to tide you over that I will post before treatment begins and make sure to stay until the absolute end, as I tacked on a recording made by an audio animator we’ll call “Ben.” This is how you get through the unending stress and workload when trying to launch something brand new. One of the most talented I have ever seen at that job, but like 97% of the initial crew, he came with special extra features. When nerves are frayed and little things (like burning popcorn in the microwave) can be just about to go nuclear., he had the superpower and mad skills to slip into a studio and emerge with a piece like the one you will hear at the end, piped through the entire programing department’s desk phones.He saved lives that man. I thank every one of you for the support, encouragement and love over the past 7 years! With Zukerfuck and Captain Chainsaw no longer worthy of my time and attention, I will do the best I can to keep you updated. You are always welcome to reach out directly, I’m easy to find. It’s been seven friggin’ years, people. I love every one of you.
Playlist can be found if you click here and scroll down.
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From November 2022. https://www.mixcloud.com/marrone/from-the-basement-195-positive-vibes-for-roberta-flack/  Found It..... Clickety Clack
A fair question to ask would certainly be, “I thought he was sick, what’s with all this activity?” Two words… necessity and preparation. While I have been down this road before the process is just as different as the types of cancer. Lymphoma is treated with chemotherapy, simply meaning “drug therapy.” The level of intensity directly responds to the patient’s current medical condition. Of course I had absolutely no knowledge of anything at this point. Thankfully, I was also no deer in the headlights and neither was my family.
For the initial meeting with a highly regarded Oncologist, Dr. Edward Lee in Columbia, Maryland, Cathy and I were expecting to meet a distinguished professional of Asian descent. Imagine our surprise when a tall, kind of familiar looking guy bounds toward me with a big smile and hand outstretched shaking mine. “Mike, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I know this certainly isn’t the best of circumstances but my associate is kind of freaking out. He is a diehard Lofter and thinks it's the best radio he’s ever heard in his life. I’m a listener and love it too but he is next level. He’s been listening to you since XM started and you are suddenly gone, they have really messed up the programming and now he finds out you’re our new patient. Would it be okay if he comes in to meet you?” I turned to Cathy and asked, “Where’s Alan Funt?” Then it hit me! He looks like Will Ferrell. Everything is connected, It gets clearer with each passing year. Since entering the office I couldn’t help but notice the huge monitor on his desk containing a full screen outline of a body with numerous sized black marks distributed throughout ranging from neck to feet. As soon as we all became acquainted and seated I pointed to the monitor and asked, “Is that me?” He instantly shut it off while answering, “Yep, that’s you.” I countered with, “Well shit Doc, I guess smoking cigarettes since age 13 was a mistake, huh?” He laughed and said “Nothing to do with it, your lungs are fine.” Cathy is still pissed at that. I laughed and told him he reminded me of Will Ferrell and he laughed. Cathy agreed and he turned the monitor back on. Pointing to the screen, Dr. Will, as he became from this point forward, leaned in. All the marks you see are Large B Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since it is located in both hemispheres of your body in terms of stages… this is a 4. Just to make sure I understood the scale I asked if that was 4 out of 4 and he quickly said that definitely it was. But he either still had a grin on his face or he really was Will Ferrell. He shut off the monitor again, leaned closer in looking right in my eyes and said “You know what, Mike. I’m going to be totally honest with you. If I had to have cancer, this is exactly what I would want.” I looked at Cathy and could tell she was still pissed about the smoking comment and most likely didn’t clearly hear my new buddy Dr. Will’s diagnosis. She’s has genetic hearing loss primarily in the range of the human voice since her teens. I was getting confused. I shook my head and all I could come up with was “Really?” He stood up, walked around the desk and said, “Oh yeah! We can cure this, not remission… CURE.” I stayed with, Really? He laughed and with pretty much the same zeal I would display having uncovered previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix recordings and continued, “Absolutely! In your situation, although the cancer is scattered from neck to ankle (instant stage 4) and there is a lot of activity it has yet to penetrate any organs. Oh, it’s going to suck BUT we can cure it.” He was 100% correct on both predictions. The R-EPOCH Chemotherapy regimen is brutal. I’ll leave that for another day. On the way home I explained in detail to Cathy and she asked how I remained so calm and was laughing and stuff. I had been really sick for a while and for the previous two years had a 40 foot flame up my ass from the suits at Sirius who had been trying to get me to quit once I made the mistake of turning sixty. I got tired of arguing with them because I knew this was now a corporate entity and the soul and mission was over. I still didn’t own a suit, abhorred corporate politics and policies and was not going to dumb the programming down. I turned to Cathy and smiled and said something like if anyone could understand why I was chipper it could only be you. It’s me, not our 18 month old daughter, our only child after 14 years of marriage that was the subject. I was relieved, not afraid in the least. When it’s your child in the ER (ironically the same one that they modeled the famous TV show of the same name on) and you have rushed to Boston from The North Shore in a snowstorm and they are waiting outside for your arrival because this is serious. When you find out it’s not Leukemia but something that could be worse called Evan’s Syndrome that you have never heard of. She had to have Chemo before her second birthday and they installed a Broviac Tube (that will still be there when she turns 4) since she was too small for a shunt. She is purple from head to toe when I pick her up after the tube installation because her platelets are crashing along with her red and white cells. What are platelets anyway? That’s why I was joking and laughing when we were hanging out with Dr. Will Ferrell because it wasn’t about my daughter, it was about me and I’ve lived my life. And that’s what got me through it because all I had to do was remember bringing her home from yet another week in the hospital when she was about 4 years old, Mom with her every second. We were both exhausted. But this kid wanted to play. “Dad, let’s play wiffle ball!” I couldn’t believe it, so out we went and I taught her how to pull the inside pitch over the neighbor’s fence. I did have to back her off the plate a few times but soon enough she was doing just what I told her she would. She then came in and danced in my studio to “Lust For Life” by Iggy, her favorite song and pulled out the first Cars album from the wall, “Play this one, Daddy! ”We lived another day. Anastasia is 30 now and still has a monthly infusion which she administers herself, here at home with us. She's my hero. What I worry about is what happens when we are gone? The other stuff… fuck it. Enjoy the show and thank you for listening. DL
PLAYLIST? HERE
Please join me in sending love and light to the remarkable Sri Rama Lama Ding-Dong, David Johansen. Details are HERE.  Thank You and I love each and every one of you… Once again this ragamuffin gaggle of the musically obsessed, drawn together by their shared delight in discovering a radio station actually existed with a human speaking to them, not at them. In fact, there were a few and all were different but somehow the same. Celebrating the joy and wonder of music… together. Communicating. fostering a community as if their life depended upon it like oxygen and water. Simple, right? When done correctly it sure does sound that way, but in truth it is anything but. Music is a powerful force, a mysterious trigger that can flip a switch in your very being that makes everything better. It’s a scientific fact that listening to music is the only process that utilizes every area of the human brain. Prior to Friday I had spent about six weeks, hate-binging True Crime TV and lowest common denominator video programming to numb my brain and psyche. My studio was quiet and precious little time was burned in my eternal grail, the search for the perfect segue. An old friend and workmate called to check in on me, which is where the line “Yo, Mike… what the what?” came from. “You okay?” We met at Jem Records and he was the first person I came in contact with that actually had more records than me. More than a decade later we were both working at Rykodisc, me in charge of Radio Promotion and he ran the Distribution side of the business. Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. After confessing what was going on it happened. You happened. The switch flipped and the very same people that have been there since my life exploded in 2017 proved they were once again up to the task of reaching out. Offering concern and encouragement and most of all… love. It’s all we need, you know. I feel like a very lucky human and I have the collective “You” to thank for that. And my old pal, Jim Cuomo. Former leader of Fireballet, of course he was the drummer. And lead vocalist. DL Cranking up the way back machine. Jim Cuomo and his band Fireballet. The second LP.  Can't leave my old pal out there alone. Here's me in rehearsal for the play "Little Me" I played Patrick Dennis.  Here's a one minute video preview This is the player from hearhis.at Mixcloud Player Need a PLAYLIST? click
 You people are really something special. I tried to answer everyone personally but the lift to my spirits demanded something special back. I am only posting this here, it will get a regular release in a few days, but I just finished and made this for you, all of you that listen hard. 24Bit .flac audio and .txt playlist await HERE. I love you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Some answers, insight and tentative plans.
Let’s start with the biggest news. Yes, I am sick again and it appears to be Cancer. Not a reboot of Stage 4 Lymphoma. Lung Cancer. This one is all on me as a lifelong smoker. I seek nor deserve any sympathy as I’ve known for at least the last 40 years that this would be the likely outcome. Although I have tried to quit countless times, it is the one vice I have never been able to shake. I bought my first pack of Newports for the modest sum of 35 cents, which was about a nickel more than a gallon of gas when I started driving 4 years later. I am once again prepared to do what I can to survive, but learned a long time ago that one never “battles” cancer, you attempt to hang on and survive the treatment and try to keep a smile on your face. Doctors say it was detected early which is always good. Needless to say, this is the reason there have been no new shows and I never shared the debut of the new series, “Planting Seeds.” The news came two days before I was going to post it. I am posting it here but it’s not quite finished and there are a few other things that I’ve been working on that will also be posted shortly. Which brings us to the next biggest point. I have pulled all my stuff off Facebook and will not be going back. I left Twitter when it became X and at this point have little interest investigating Blue Sky or whatever it’s called. I still have my own website (https://mikemarrone.com) and have remained on Linked-In (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemarrone/) as that has always been work focused. Whatever I have posted already and in the future will always be available free. It will continue to be available through my site and streaming on Mixcloud (https://www.mixcloud.com/marrone/) and Hear This At (https://hearthis.at). I ask that you spread the word to anyone that may be interested and please post links to my personal site if you are still using FB, X or whatever. I will miss keeping up with old friends and family on FB, but the bullshit and torrent of outright lies, hate and tribalism is something I simply cannot tolerate any longer. I still have the same beliefs and views and am neither Democrat or Republican, but will mostly keep them to myself going forward. I don’t have the extra bandwidth to argue with anyone who still holds fast to racial or gender superiority, when we all have the same blood. I promise to get back to posting about MUSIC regularly on my site as it can only help. As Bob Marley said, “One good thing about music is when it hits you feel no pain.” One love to all. 
"Planting Seeds" Debut February 14, 2025 Early reaction from our Test Audience Me - "I've always believed that music transcends artificial genres. It's about what resonates with you, what moves you, what makes you feel. In a world saturated with choices, 'Planting Seeds' will be a sanctuary for those who appreciate music on its own terms, free from the constraints of marketing and the pursuit of the lowest common denominator."  Above sits a 22 minute and 45 second collage sample demo. Intended to display the range and vibe of what the intention of this series is about. Using audio to tell a story. It's vital to understand that although snippets of the pieces are used, regular episodes will employ the full selection 99.6 % of the time. A trick I have used throughout the years when a reboot is needed works more than it doesn't and is a perfect way to explain what I mean. Select a movie that you love and a decent audio system, cue it up and turn off the screen. Use only your ears to experience it. You will "see" it in an entirely new way and most likely will discover plot and story of the art previously hidden to you. The file above is a 16 Bit mp3 making it completely portable. Click the link for free download and a 24Bit file of the same, still portable these days.
Makes me laugh to think back to 1998 when Lars Murray and I at Rykodisc were convinced that in the not too distant future, the computer would be the primary delivery mechanism for music. Lars was far more technically agile at time. I handled the music end, but was far from a luddite with a PC. Conversely, Lars plays guitar, writes songs and his band was gigging around the clubs of Boston, so his musical acumen was way above the norm, and I started drumming at 12 and played my first bar gig at 14. At a decade younger, his Ivy League education was a perfect off-set to my 12 years at Catholic School under the gentle hand (and ruler) of The Sisters of Mercy. Between these two Ferns we already possessed the necessary skillset. At any other place of employment we would have been laughed out of the building and never had the opportunity to give it a shot, But our boss was a man by the name of Don Rose. As the license plates on his VW Bug proclaimed --"007" Don Rose. He felt in his bones we were on to something and agreed with our hypothesis. A company called MP3.com had just opened for business, and these tiny devices called Rio player started sprouting up, light as a feather, containing 100+ songs that you could hold in your palm or clip to your clothes and go with you anywhere. Even though most of us were more than a bit snobby regarding sound quality once we gamed it out, especially when we learned that you could rip any CD into a 128k mp3 file and have a playlist of hundreds of tunes literally in your pocket. Change them as many times as you like, trade with other CD/Rio owners and put together an extensive library with very little or no money. Computer memory at the time was very bulky, needed an arsenals' worth of controllers, connectors and cable, and very costly. 100 MB went for about $500 (I remember celebrating when picking up a 350MB hard drive for only $300!). Wow, I'll never fill that. It was unfathomable that it was less than a dollar a megabyte. But what the general public didn't realize was that every 6 months or less, the size, weight and capacity of storage and processing power were multiplying at astonishing rate. We were all pretty picky in regard to sound quality, but most of the public were not. To be fair, the soundstage of a car is no place for critical listening with the level of ambient noise inherent to the environment. Engineers had been using "math" trickery like Compression and EQ in combination with carpentry, physics and even architecture to literally fool your brain. Bose was a master at it. No disrespect intended as I still have a pair of real wood Series IV with the tiny Bose EQ box that were workhorses and virtually indestructible. I did hundreds of gigs with them feeding upwards of 500 watts of analog power into their very hungry input chain. Even now as I sell off a lifetime of equipment and media that I'll likely never again use, I'm reluctant to part with them. It's as if I owe them for years of reliable service. And I bought them used in 1982! I'll wager a rare Zappa pressing that after reading this more than a few will get in touch trying to pry them from my clutch. At the time of this experiment the best audio quality for digital regarding delivery scale was 128kb VBR but we would have to settle for 64kb, although it was stereo-ish. We gave birth to Radio Ryko, the first streaming record company radio station. Again, it was the complementary skill set we had, and just as essential, we were true believers when it came to taste. Having outgrown the notion that what you like is good, but everything else sucks. Music is subjective (all art is) and just because one person likes something and the other doesn't shouldn't cause friction or turmoil. There are only two kinds of music, stuff you like and stuff you don't. Nothing is right or wrong. Music is all good and listening to music I believe, is still the only activity that utilizes every area of the brain. Having different taste is good... very good. It wasn't correct or incorrect, simply the way it should be. We would laugh if one of us quipped something like, "Dude, how can you listen to that record from The Al Dente Ginger Patrol, what the fuck am I missing?" FYI - There is and has never been a band called The Al Dente Ginger Patrol to the best of my knowledge, it's a place holder used for description purposes, and the first fictional band name that popped into my head. There is much more to the story of the project and serendipitous occurrences such as Lars having a great contact at Microsoft. They were actively testing streaming audio delivery and how to do effectively. They offered to do all our transcoding and hosting gratis if we were game for the experiment. We never could have got the budget if it wasn't for their involvement. In the end we did it, and rather quickly. I'll give you more detail when this first episode of "Planting Seeds" arrives on January 20. And I'll reach out to Lars and see if he would like to jump in. I feel the December Doldrums finally abating and am ready to return to the living. My plan is wrapping this up at 70 years old. Then... who knows. Much love to all. 
It’s as if December, a personal lowlight of the calendar, creeps up quicker with each passing year. Isolation time. Reflection, introspection, evaluation and hibernation is the norm, trying to make sense of what the past year has wrought and wondering what lies ahead. “At least I accept the changes better than I used to do.” Joni Mitchell wrote that. It’s been proven accurate as the years pile up, but is that the experience time brings or resignation to the inevitable? I can’t call it. But I am working on it, best I can. This episode is a reflection of the thoughts, hopes and dreams of where we seem to be as a culture, as well as what lies ahead, through my observations. But as I’m fond of saying, “What the fuck do I know?”
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington is a towering figure in the music world, every bit as important as Mozart and Louis Armstrong. He begins the proceedings with “Misfit Blues” and by the time we get to the end, Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, David’s Crosby and Bowie, A Tribe Called Quest, Talking Heads, The Tubes and many more have made contributions, but the one that hits the hardest is David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s devastating “World Citizen.” Look for Set 2 within a few days and thanks to everyone taking the time to support the program through donations (here) and listening with an open mind… and ears. Love to all.
The Playlist is Here
Hope that everyone made it back to home in one piece and that drama was kept to a minimum if you gathered with extended family. Those days are kind of over for us and I suspect many of my demographic also experience a twinge of regret around this Season. I belonged to a fairly large family, one side 100% off the boat Italian, the other mostly Swedish, with a dollop of German mixed in. The Italian side eventually fessed up that my Grandmother Vinjencina (isn’t that a beautiful name?) had a bit of Albanian in her mixture. That tidbit was helpful in understanding perhaps why the only two times I was at an event also attended by John Belushi, he headed straight for me. Offering a joint at an early Bottom Line performance of Warren Zevon, and breaking up our circle of vipers at The Animal House Village Gate party to partake after the New York premiere. Too bad he couldn’t have stayed with weed. As real as it gets and not even a whiff of star entitlement. He was generally interested in our opinion of the film, knowing we were a bunch of music nerds from the retail record business that lucked into an invite.
This opening set of FTB #263 begins with brand new stuff from the lovely Isobel Campbell and interesting new to my ears artist, Cincinnati's Jack Kays. Also pop rockin Joy Buzzer return with their tender love ballad, “Try Not To Be An Asshole (For A Little While)”... anyone have a tissue, I’m getting a bit misty! There is also a batch of newly digitized 12 inch vinyl singles that I discovered in a long sealed box which contained my old DJ gig bag, chock full of classic Alt Dance mixes. Thanks for checking the show out and I’ll never be able to properly thank those of you that actually dig in your pocket with financial support for this true labor of love. Loose change? Deposit right HERE.
The Playlist is HERE
From The Basement episode #263 Set TWO 12/4/24
Billy Conway gets the honors batting lead-off to what starts off as the second set, runs through a few stop signs and yellow lights, winding up as the third set too. I learned long ago that these things happen, and it’s best to go with the flow. I urge you to check out the Billy Conway Artist Fund (click), one of the finest humans I have encountered in this business, and a hell of a musician. This is a Billy demo version of one of his songs, never released. Speaking of, the new release bin is responsible for live My Morning Jacket, new albums from Joan Armatrading, Jazz Sabbath, Andrew Weiss and Friends and the decades in the making collaboration of The Last Poets and Tony Allen. In addition a wonderful 50th Anniversary Edition of Al Stewart’s seminal “Past, Present and Future” album, live Father John Misty and a jam-packed recording of last year’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.
The twists, turns and tales are plentiful before wrapping with a send off to King Crimson lyricist and co-founder Peter Sinfield, and in their announcement of his passing they tagged on “original roadie, lights operator and live sound engineer.” He wrote the lyrics for their first four albums. Also “I Believe In Father Christmas” with Greg Lake and in later years everyone from Bucks Fizz to Celine Dion. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generous contributions to keeping this project alive, our tip jar will be visible through the end of the year. DL24Bit
The Playlist is HERE
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Mike MarroneDad, Husband, DJ 
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