I've written about WREK here several times before. These days, my time of running WREK is well behind me and I'm pretty much just a loyal listener. Here I will describe a few evening specialty shows that I listen to religiously and which I encourage you to check out too.
However I haven't listened to WREK live for years -- I use their mp3 archive and listen to radio shows timeshifted via my mp3 player, the same way you might watch TV with a Tivo / DVR device.
The trick is knowing how to download the shows. WREK doesn't make it easy, because the RIAA / copyright holders don't like you to have the ability to download music, so WREK only offers archived shows via streaming, which typically you can only do sitting in front of a computer. Well, the only time I really get a chance to listen to music is in the car, so I really need the mp3 downloads. Fortunately, since day one (when I was running the WREK streaming system) there has been a secret backdoor to download archived shows. Unfortunately, a couple months ago the current WREK guys sealed that up behind a staff login wall, due to some problems, so you can't just go to that list of files any more.
Fortunately, if you know the files you want, you can still download them, without a login. So this post is here to give you the direct links, so you can download and listen! I usually do this every Friday afternoon, loading up my mp3 player with shows for the next week.
Note, for all of the show downlinks below I've included the half-hour segment the follows the regular show time, because the shows usually run a minute or two or five into the next hour and you'll want to hear the DJ come on at the end to tell you what you heard.
Note also that occasionally these shows will be preempted by sports -- in particular the Underground Recordings gets pre-empted a lot by baseball in the spring.
Personality Crisis -- Jon Kincaid has been doing this show on Sunday nights for nearly 30 years now, and it is still the best show on radio. He does babble on at times, and has a penchant for playing everything that Kevn Kinney has crapped out, but that's balanced by an incredible knowledge of rock music, from the Stones to No Wave to Brit Pop to Shoegazer. Happily he's got soft spots for Thin Lizzy, Sweet, Cheap Trick, and a gazillion other great bands, so it's always a good show. WREK staffer Curtis is his foil in the studio, and also host for another great WREK show (more on that below). Note: the show usually starts about 10 minutes late.
Show blog: http://www.personalitycrisis.org (defunct)
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the most recent show
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the previous week's show
Download links (right click and save): part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5
The Underground Recordings -- Thomas Hildebrandt started this show during his stint as WREK's Chief Engineer. Finding the basement storage room with all the old tapes of live performances in WREK's studios, he cleaned them up, digitized them, and started playing them on this show. And this is a great document of the Atlanta music screeen, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. A couple years ago Thomas bowed out and now alumnus Alex Macintosh does the duties. Lately they've been running reruns because the digitizing system is broke, but even in reruns it's great stuff. There's also plenty of stinkers though. You just have to listen and find out, because you'll get gems like Follow For Now, Mary My Hope, Jody Grind, Ellen James Society, Hal Al Shedad, and I've already written here about the Clobber, Smoke and Buzz Hungry performances.
Upcoming and past schedule: http://www.wrek.org/underground
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the most recent show
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the previous week's show
Download links (right click and save): part 1 / part 2 / part 3
Live at WREK -- As the name says, bands playing live on WREK. They used to play literally in WREK's studio, when they were in the old coliseum location that had a bigger studio room, but with the 2004 move to the student center, the bands now set up in a more public performance space, with a proper stage even, and the sound is wired up to the studio and sent out on the airwaves. You are really rolling the dice on this show, because frankly for the last decade or so the bands have been pretty awful by the standards of anyone who has any decent taste in music. There was a window of a year or so back around 2005 when it got really good, when Richard Cross was booking it, but that turned out to be just a passing phase and now it's mostly back to touring cock rock bands and bleating frat boy DMB knockoffs. Still, I check in every week in hope of hearing something new and good.
Schedule of past and upcoming bands: sadly neglected
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the most recent show
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the previous week's show
Download links (right click and save): part 1 / part 2 / part 3
Friction -- The first of two back-to-back Wednesday night shows that I listen to, Stephen Fenton has been hosting Friction for over a decade now. Like Destroy All Music earlier in the evening, this is a show that specializes in a form of music that most people wouldn't consider music at all. Noise, found sounds, ambient, mysterious radio transmissions. It can be utterly fascinating one week, and mindnumbing the next. Frequently you will hear long expanses of what is essentially silence. Nonetheless, it's a very interesting show.
Blog with playlists: http://www.wrek.org/friction
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the most recent show
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the previous week's show
Download links (right click and save): part 1 / part 2
Psychout -- Ah, Psychout. I have been listening to this show since Scott Watkins christened it, let's see, 9 years ago. It's been through a few show hosts since Scott, each who has taken it in a slightly different direction (including one foray into the freak folk scene) but generally it's stayed in the neighborhood of guitar-based freakouts, usually with heavy amplification. Acid Mothers Temple, Sleep, Godz, Neu, even the occasional Stereolab or Pink Floyd that people get a reference point on. This is the stuff that really kicks in my veins, and current host Curtis has been doing a great job for a couple years now. I dread what will happen when he graduates from Georgia Tech ...
Blog with playlists: http://www.wrek.org/psychout
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the most recent show
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the previous week's show
Download links (right click and save): part 1 / part 2 / part 3
Finally, an honorable mention for the New Forces Radio Hour. This is a show that airs on Tuesday nights at 11pm, and one that I've also been listening to religiously since it started about a decade ago. The guys from The Black Lips / Die Slaughterhaus got entrance into the studio via a WREK staffer (Paul) and launched an incredibly fun and well-informed show steeped in garage rock and seasoned with early soul. Over the years it's rotated a couple hosts -- after the Black Lips guys it was Ben, who turned over to Brian, who ran it well for a few years and pushed it a little more in the direction of soul, 60's girl groups, and other flavors of early rock and roll. Sadly, Brian moved on a few months ago and now it's hosted by Wayne. Wayne is a nice guy, but the show is essentially destroyed under him. All of the worst aspects of college radio are now represented in the show, from failing to actually announce what's been played, to freshman stunts like playing songs on top of each other, to inexplicably playing U2 for an hour (really?), to playing the same tired Roky Erikson song every god. damn. week. After so long, I'm sad to see it go, but all good things must come to an end. I do hold out hope though and occasionally check in.
UPDATE Jan 2011: it's back! Curtis, the guy who does such a great job with Psychout (mentioned above), has resurrected this show and so far is doing a fine job. No online playlists, but still a great show!
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the most recent show
Streaming: 128 kbps stream of the previous week's show
Download links (right click and save): part 1 / part 2 / part 3
For all of the shows above, I've been linking to the archive streams and file downloads for the most recent show. Sometimes though you want the show before that, aand in fact WREK's archive actually goes back two weeks. To download an old show segment, just add "_old" to the filename, before the ".mp3". So, for example, to get the first segment of Live @ WREK from two weeks ago, instead of downloading Tue2200.mp3, you'll download Tue2200_old.mp3 . Works great!
And there you have it, my weekly diet of new and old music, courtesy of WREK's archive and a few excellent shows. And to be honest, the main point of this post is to be a reference for me so I can come here to quickly download the shows every week. But it'll also serve as a signpost for those times that someone asks me "what do you listen to?" or "how do you know so much about music?". Right here, my friend, right here.
Look out honey cause I'm using technology ...
UPDATE 10-March-2010: By way of example, the Live At WREK show from March 2nd replayed a 2005 performance by Luigi, and was a great example of really good Atlanta bands getting exposure on the show (unfortunately the host at the time was a blowhard and unavoidable during the whole show). Midtempo Figgs meet the poppier side of Dinosaur Jr and hang out with Liz Phair. You can get that show via streaming here or download via these two links, until 10pm 16-Mar when they will get overwritten. Another example is this past week's Underground Recordings, which had a 1986 set by The Pigs, a local punky outfit I wasn't aware of, but which tore through a great little set (including having the bassist and drummer race through a medley of covers -- think Minutemen and Mats -- while the guitarist was tuning up). You can get that show via the links in the UR section below, until 7pm 16-Mar when you'll need to go to the older archive per the instructions at the bottom of this post.
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