Hey kids! Here's a bunch of links to some favourite episodes of my late night pirate radio show, variously called Ghostlight Radio or Soul Food: The Ghost Light Season (or even Soul Food Ghost Light: Summer Edition). See, the essence of effective marketing is to have a memorably product name and stick to it. Uh huh.
It started in 2020 as a way to keep in touch with Pacific Theatre folks when the pandemic set in, but the next summer I rebooted as one of those middle-of-the-night FM radio shows from back in the seventies and eighties. Pirate radio. Music and stories, poetry, random bits of audio. One misguided listener calls it "the Platonic ideal of late night radio." But he's a poet, so they're often out of touch with reality.
Click on any of the titles below to listen to specific episodes. You can also subscribe through most podcast apps, EXCEPT Spotify - in a very pointed irony, they dropped the show because it features recorded music. Which they play on their service and pay the artists pennies. At least I admit to being a pirate.
There are 43 episodes so far. Here are some of my favourites, just click on the titles. You can find descriptions and links to all the others through
this link.
Jul 12, 2021
We're back! Mostly music this summer, with odd bits of other stuff. Ibrahim Ferrer, Percy Faith, The Flamingos, The Ink Spots, Rita Payés, Vic Damone, The Temptations, The Miracles, Bob Dylan, Toots & The Maytals, Etta James, Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Also the Top Ten Thousand anniversary, Danny Finkleman, Ross Porter, road trips, Dad and daughters and granddaughters and music, summer weddings, Barcelona jazz, Joe Versus the Volcano, Omega Man, The Princess and the Warrior.
Aug 7, 2021
Tonight we take our show on the road, with traveling companions Ira Glass, Carolyn Arends, Zaac Pick, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, Charlie Peacock, Bobbies Dylan and Troup, Spencer Capier, Michael Hart, the Nordic Chamber Choir, and the Road Scholars. Buckle up, Radioland.
Aug 21, 2021
Summer jobs in the Okanagan and fated encounters on "the ragged green edge of the world" - Susan Alexander thinks back to Osoyoos and I return to Tofino. We also remember summer music festivals with Sweet Honey In The Rock and The Original Sloth band, explore Nelson Boschman's Top Tunes 'o Summer, and soak in the sounds of Corinne Bailey Rae, Kacey Musgraves, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Boz Scaggs, The Langley Schools Music Project, a Daniel Amos side project, and a couple George Harrison tunes, one from his solo years, the other with his first band, the quaintly named "Beatles." Summer ain't over yet!
Oct 8, 2021
Thanksgiving weekend! At least here in Canada. So of course we'll visit an elevator in Utah, a place that sells used office furniture in Los Angeles, out on San Fernando Road, an unemployment office in France, the Hitsville recording studio in Detroit, a sheep farm in Kentucky, even (if only for a moment) a children's home in Liverpool... Folks are thankful all over the place! Pull up a chair and join us for a fine turkey dinner, with all the trimmings. Updated October 20, to make room at the table for the Mad Farmer himself, Mr. Loren Wilkinson.
Oct 20, 2021
A tribute to radio DJs everywhere, from the Good Ship Ghost Light - Lester the Nightfly, The Count, Deke Duncan, Gary Keillor, Symphony Sid, and that Top Ten Thousand guy, whatever his name was.
Jan 28, 2022
January 27, 2021 was host Ron Reed's last day on the job as Head Chef at the Pacific Theatre Diner, and tonight he and Jack Nicholson mark the one year anniversary of that occasion by looking back at some of Ron's favourite PT shows, and the music that enhanced their distinctive Soul Food flavour. The Casino, The Foreigner, Tent Meeting, A Bright Particular Star, and more - tasty tunes from skits that schmeck.
Feb 26, 2022
Just before disappearing into the rehearsal hall to work on Pacific Theatre's "How The World Began," Ron looks back on some more of his favourite shows, and their music: Mercy Wild, Jesus My Boy, You Still Can't, Godspell, The Disappearing, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Doubt, The Rainmaker. Just keeping that Ghost Light burning...
Nov 8, 2024
We're back! Had ourselves some shore leave - almost three years worth, that oughta do - and it seems like high time to unfurl the sails, unpack the microphone, and start spinning some tunes once again. New releases and really old favourites, requests and discoveries, flotsam and jetsam, just right for this present moment. Or any moment, come to think of it...
Nov 22, 2024
We're playing exactly what we feel tonight on Ghost Light pirate radio, from Robert Zimmerman to Doris Mary Anne Keppelhoff, Domenico Modugno to Gary Keillor. The mailbag is full to bursting - Iwan from Cardiff, Tim from Saskatoon, Jack from Des Moines and Norm from Etobicoke - as we ruminate on happenings great and terrible, from Bakersfield to the moon.
Dec 6, 2024
Sixty years of Canadian music - and radio! - in an hour and a quarter. We'll take a road trip with the son of a Saskatchewan premier, travel from the Cowichan Valley to Vancouver to Winnipeg to Toronto in search of CanCon, check up on some illustrious expats, and tune in the voices and sounds of a couple generations of north-of-the-49th radio. And you out east, don't worry, we'll pick up the cross-country journey after Christmas. Maybe call it "Strong and Free."
Jan 1, 2025
We're clearing out the Soul Food closet, hauling out all the neglected-but-not-forgotten treasures that didn't quite fit in episodes past. Discoveries old and new: music very old and brand spankin' new, poems about love from many sides - up and down, win and lose, break-ups past and pending - and stories about songs I've been waiting too long to tell. There might even be stuff I found in a book or two that I need to get back to the library...
Jan 1, 2026
Happy New Year! The good ship Ghostlight is back, freeform radio that bids goodbye to the first quarter of the twenty-first century. A few farewells, a bit of poetry and a load of tunes to welcome a new year and launch a new season of soul-feedin' sounds.
Feb 25, 2026
Kicking back on the porch tonight with musical guests Taj Mahal and Keb Mo, Daniel Amos and Paul Desmond and plenty more, and even a poet or two. Ghost Light Radio: it's pirate radio, it's a letter to a friend, and it's about time.
