Monday, February 7, 2011

The last Beaker Street, KKPT, February 6, 2011

Beaker Street is perhaps the last existing artifact of the "classic KAAY", and last night, another milestone was reached.

Clyde Clifford's final Beaker Street on KKPT was yesterday evening, February 6. Despite the conflict with Super Bowl Sunday, the show's audience were out in force, and a good evening was had by all, certainly more of a party than a wake.

One high point was the 9pm segment, when all three hosts of Clyde's FM era, Mark Arouh, Wil Warren, and Scott Reed, gathered in the studio and related how they became involved with the show.

A true professional, Clyde presented an evening of Beaker-Street classics and cuts that should have been classics "back then," if only they had been recorded "back then". You can read his playlist at the show web site:

http://beakerstreet.com/feb0611.htm

Here's a photo, courtesy of Matthew Travis from his Facebook posting, of Clyde in the studio on his last KKPT night.


What happens next ? It seems that Clyde has next Sunday off --- when I spoke with him on the phone last week, he said he's had only 3 Sunday evenings away from the radio studio in the last ten years, and he thought it might be nice to spend a Sunday evening with his wife !  Clyde is venturing carefully into the "third age" of Beaker Street, deciding upon the format, venue, and location.

The Blog has recordings of Clyde's last KKPT show, and these will appear in the not-too-distant future, for those folks who weren't able to listen last night....

Dave S.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the article and the nice comments about the show.

    You could almost hear all of the tape decks and CD burners running during the show. I'm sure a lot of people recorded this final show.

    The night was bittersweet - a great show, but still sad knowing it was the final show - at least on The Point.

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  2. It was indeed a bittersweet, but still sad show. It reminded me a lot of the final night of Beaker Street on KAAY, when Clyde Clifford returned to host that final hour in March 1985 when (in the words of Clyde) "...KAAY went to be with God...."

    The final song on Sunday night's show, The Circle Game, by Joni Mitchell, had also closed out the old KAAY, and had been the first song played when Beaker Street opened at the Point. Its a wonderful song, but has a lot of melancholy baggage -- I hope we get to hear it again at the start of the next reincarnation of Beaker Street.

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  3. The Arkansas Times had an article after the 6th:

    http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/the-observer-feb-9/Content?oid=1542554

    Bud S.

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  4. Would LOVE to hear the recording of the last show. I missed it. :(

    Maybe Clyde could get more of the recorded shows up on the web site now that he has Sunday nights free...

    Long live Beaker Street

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