Coming This Sunday: THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO # 900

This Sunday, December 3rd, will mark the 900th edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. It takes an unusual level of stubborn for an independent weekly radio show to survive that long, and we like to mark each milestone with something cool. For past milestones, we've done some countdowns of all-time most-played tracks or artists, and we've also done sort of Greatest Hits shows, reprising a few consistent Fave Raves and deep tracks from TIRnRR's long and storied history.

The goal, as always, is to slap together a gala shindig that stands out, even from the weekly extravaganzas that we routinely (but accurately) bill as The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. For TIRnRR # 900, our intrepid pal Fritz Van Leaven came up with a new idea to celebrate the legacy of our first 899 shows. Fritz's idea will take up about half of the show; yesterday, Dana and I agreed on a format for the rest of # 900.

TIRnRR # 900 will begin with a recognition of the four This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs. We remain quite proud of each of these collections, and I honestly think this year's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 should be near the top of every pop fan's list of the best compilation albums of 2017. We'll hear two tracks from each of these four volumes to start off the # 900 party.

For the heart of TIRnRR # 900, we'll follow with Fritz's concept: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio A To Z, a 26-track playlist of songs by our single most-played act for each letter of the alphabet. Actually, it'll be a 27-song playlist; there's a tie at one of the letters, because let's face it: we're fickle. This is a unique way to honor some of the acts we've played a lot over the last 19 years, and we thank Fritz again 'n' again for pitching the idea. And for doing all the work!

That should leave a little less than an hour for whatever else we feel like playing. I can tell you that both Dana and I will probably have about three hours of essential, gotta-play-this! tracks in mind to complete a 900th show snapshot of The Best Of TIRnRR, and I can tell you we'll be kicking ourselves about all the tracks we won't get around to playing before the witching hour tolls.

But that's part of the fun. There are always more records we want to play. So we keep coming back, week after week, to play more records. We're unusually stubborn. And that's why we're still here, 899 shows later. We hope you'll join us for a taste of what rock 'n' roll radio sounds like on Sunday nights in Syracuse each week.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl happens Sunday night, December 3rd, from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at Spark WSPJ-LP 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at sparksyracuse.org For nearly 19 years now: The weekend stops HERE!