SEPTEMBER 18, 2006
Radio Free Dylan
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 RADIO: Dylan's satellite show on (free) AOL |
We’re as shocked as you are that today’s Very Short List pick includes the following two words: America Online. And yet the online service has started giving away Bob Dylan for free. And that’s a fine thing.
AOL has figured out the obvious: that certain precincts of radio are cool, and Dylan hasn’t been hotter in 30 years. So it recently signed a deal to air some exclusive programming from ordinarily-$12.95-a-month XM satellite on its free streaming AOL Radio service — including Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, during which ol’ Bob spins selections, loosely arranged around a theme, from his vast personal record collection.
His goofball banter between tracks — last week he lurched from Percy Mayfield to Tin Ear Tanner to Tom Waits to Hank Snow — tends toward deadpan asides like, “Colonel Tom Parker, a man as hard as his arteries.” (The country singer-songwriter Snow, Dylan noted, introduced young Elvis to his future manager.) On first listen the show sounds like a parody — Dylan as public radio DJ? — which makes the fact that it really is him all the more entertaining.
LISTEN to Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan every Wednesday at 10 AM ET, with encores on Wednesdays at 12 AM, Fridays at 6 PM, and Sundays at 8 AM and 8 PM.
THE FINE PRINT: If you have already have have an AOL or AIM screen name, you can use it to download and install (in a minute or less) the AOL Radio application on your PC or Mac using the link above; you’ll have free access not only to Dylan’s show, but to dozens of AOL and XM streaming radio stations 24 hours a day.
If you don’t already an AOL or AIM screen name, you can get one here for free in about a minute.
AOL being AOL, it doesn’t make it obvious how to tune into Dylan’s show. At airtime, you can find it under the “XM Satellite Radio” menu on your AOL Radio menu; click on “XM Deep Tracks” and it’ll start streaming automatically.
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