While TV was once famously singled out as a “vast wasteland,” we here at Record Bin Roulette believe it’s time that radio and the larger medium of audio entertainment made a run at a similarly memorable accolade.
Every week, Record Bin Roulette’s producer/hosts John Kessler and John Maynard put a unique “spin” on a century’s worth of discarded vinyl. Kessler and Maynard are heroes of cultural preservation, having devoted their young lives to exploring and honoring the creative output of the once proud megabillion-dollar recording industry, and then sharing what they find.
How do they do it? Kessler and Maynard comb the flea markets, troll the thrift shops, camp out at the choice three-car garage sales, wheedle their way into friends’ musty basements, and just generally make a nuisance of themselves wherever old LPs, 45s and 78s are found.
Then, they grab a random pile of discs and try to come up with a pithy, enlightening, illuminating or entertaining (to them, anyway) theme around which to build the weekly episode of Record Bin Roulette.
The results are heard each week on flagship station KPLU-FM in the Seattle area, on the web, and via growing network of Record Bin Roulette Affiliated Stations in the US and abroad, and overseas to our men and women in uniform via the facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Okay, we lied about that last part, but the network is really growing and might someday include the AFRS.