Radio Live’s long journey began in the fall of ’88 to mark new leadership at the University of West Florida.
"When Dr. Morris Marx was hired as university president and was due to be inaugurated in 1988, the folks over there said, is there anything that the radio station could come up with, just kind of something fun to do to sort of kick off the celebration?" recalled WUWF Executive Director Pat Crawford.
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Pat pulled together talented staffers and local musicians and decided on a show patterned after the popular public radio program, "A Prairie Home Companion," which the station was carrying at the time.
That meant some music and some satire, too.
"It's kind of a risky thing," Pat recalled. "You got a new president coming in and you're going to satirize him and you don't really know him at all. Haven't even met him. He was a great sport and then became a great supporter of the program as well. And so that was a great evening. So that's how it all started.”
In the early years, Pat continued to have fun with the skits, admitting that he shared the scripts with his performers only about an hour before show time.
“And we would not rehearse because we wanted it to be fresh," said Pat "Basically, the skit would be a story, and within it there would be one or more songs, and it would be sort of like the Capital Steps do, where you basically just change the lyrics.”
Celebrate 35 years of RadioLive: Click here for see more photos
Long-time listeners might recall the skit Pat wrote after a barge crippled the Three Mile Bridge/Pensacola Bay Bridge for several months back in 1989. He called it "Ode to Gulf Breeze: City in Exile."
"And so, sure enough, the first song that came to mind, of course, was Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water," Pat said.
Other skits of note, “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue,” and “Elvis Mozart.” Also, based on the classical music show featuring Karl Haas, there were episodes featuring the character Dr. Carl Hoskowitz, with his “Adventures in Good Polkas.”
Although having fun, Pat eventually decided to leave the skits behind and just focus on the music. And, as the show evolved, it had a number of different venues from the Pensacola Cultural Center to the Museum of Naval Aviation, WSRE, and on the road in Seaside.
And, over the decades, there have been several versions of the show open.
"White Sands was the original band that played the music for Becky to sing — 'Turn your Radio On,'" said Pat. "We would open the show with a different musical group and they would put their different spin on it."
“Then, I was introduced to the Primetime Trio. Bobby Van Dusen was a part of that. And the primetime front person for the Primetime trio was Holly Shelton. And it was a great group and they became the house band. So we had a house band and so basically they took the 'Turn Your Radio On' song and jazzed it up.”
In 2000, the opening changed featuring a recording by the Allison Brown Quartet.
The show opens with the music playing over the speakers. Pat says "From the heart of Florida's Great Northwest, it's Radio..."
Without missing a beat, the audience finishes the word yelling "Live!"
Pat says it was the intimate setting at the Commerce Museum that led to the tradition of audience participation in the open.
"And the artists love it," he said. "I love when we have an artist we've never had on before because they're not expecting that. And they say all of a sudden this wave of enthusiasm just completely engulfs us from the audience. And we know from that point on that it's going to be a good night and we just feel the love.”
The Museum of Commerce was established as the permanent home of RadioLive in January of 2000. The show featured fan favorites Beth Wood, Mike West & Mishkin, and Bill Miller, whose flute playing was featured — just a few years before — on the Oscar-winning theme song on the soundtrack of Disney’s "Pocahontas."
"Bill Miller, Native American artist, very well, has a large following nationally," recalled Pat. "(A) great, great artist. I felt very lucky to be able to lure him down because that was just when we were making the transition and a lot of artists in Nashville and beyond were looking at us and saying, 'Now what is this?' And so we did get him on the show, and he was fantastic.”
Other featured artists with a level commercial success included Livingston Taylor, Marcus Hummon, whose song "God Bless the Broken Road" became a hit for Rascal Flats, and Sean Mullins appeared on Radio Live as his song "Lullaby" was taking off.
Then there are those getting an honorable mention from Pat.
"When I think about longevity on the show, people who’ve been on there more than anyone else, Ed Gerhard and Pierce Pettis immediately come to mind (to start with)," said Pat.
"Ed came the first year of the show. He’s probably been on the show more than anyone else, actually," said Pat. "And, he’s even had a spinoff from that, because he’s come back and done extra concerts; a Christmas series he did for many years, a holiday concert. And, really, the people of Pensacola and the RadioLive crowd has always embraced him. So, Ed has a special place in our heart for that."
Pat recalls that Pierce Pettis was also featured on the show during the first year.
"I actually discovered Pierce through Velma Frye," recalled Pat. "She did a song called 'Grandmother’s Song' that I really loved on one of her albums and she said Piece Pettis wrote that. And, I said, ‘Who’s Pierce Pettis.’ And I’ve had him on ever since and he has been a regular many, many years. He’s a fantastic songwriter, not a household name in Nashville, himself, but virtually every national artist that you’ve ever heard of has recorded one of his songs and many of them have gone to number one.
Throughout the years, RadioLive has been performed once a month on Thursday nights — a chance for artists to get exposure to Pensacola audiences before heading on to more lucrative weekend engagements, with complimentary overnight accommodations on the beach thanks to Innisfree.
"Those folks are so community-oriented, and they're so generous," said Pat of the hospitality company. "And they have provided the rooms all these years for our artists. And so for an artist to come and make some money, but also to spend the night in the Hilton on Pensacola Beach, many of them said to us, 'Man, I'd come just for that.'"
To date, hundreds of musical artists have appeared on RadioLive, which also has evolved with advances in technology over the past 35 years. It now has a dedicated webpage, social media exposure, and a YouTube playlist of video-taped archives of the show.
Also, past performances live on thanks to the Thursday evening show RadioLive Encores produced by WUWF’s Dale Riegle, who’s been the technical director for the show since its beginning in 1988.
Looking back on 35 years, Pat said he's proud of RadioLive's legacy.
“Well, I think it's served many purposes," he said. "I mean, I think it has turned into a fantastic forum for these artists to reach an audience that they may not have been able to reach before. It's been great for Pensacola. I think it has become an attraction for Pensacola.”
Now for 35 years and counting.
