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Pat Matthews Rocks the Internet with Beatles-a-Rama

Seven years after it's launch, Beatles-A-Rama and its founder, Pat Matthews, continues to keep the music of the Beatles alive and their fans coming back for more.

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A few weeks ago, Pat Matthews took his nine-year-old son, Frank, to a baseball game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.

During a lull in between innings (and much to Matthews' surprise), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles came blasting out of the arena's overhead speakers. Almost immediately, thousands of people jumped to their feet and began to dance as both father and son, who were sitting in the upper deck, were given a bird's eye view of it all.

Matthews, 55, observed the scene for a few moments in awe. Feeling quietly nostalgic, he leaned over to his son and said, “That song still sounds good 40 years later.”

Hearing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” elicits a special childhood memory for Matthews. And watching the people dancing around him, Matthews found it nice to see that, at least as far as the other 40,000 people in that baseball stadium were concerned, he was not alone.

“The crowd went wild,” said Matthews, who lives in Mission Viejo, California. “The only time they ever play a Beatles song [at a baseball game] is "Twist and Shout." Except for my station, I haven't heard that song in a long time.”

Matthews' station is Beatles-A-Rama, an Internet radio show that, since its inception seven years ago, has become a 24-hour listening mecca for Fab Four lovers around the world.

Dubbed in one of its promo spots as “a Beatles paradise,” Beatles-A-Rama, the station averages more than 30,000 listeners a day and boasts a playlist of 5,000 songs that includes the music of the Beatles and their work as solo artists. Matthews, who is the program's founder and host, also features music from other British Invasion artists, Beatles soundalike bands, groups inspired by the Beatles and more than 700 Beatles cover songs.

“One thing I like about Beatles-A-Rama over other Beatles channels I've heard is how [Matthews] plays a variety of stuff, including other Apple artists,” said David Haber, founder of What Goes On, a popular Beatles news site.

A Beatles-A-Rama fan who tunes in on any given day will hear special programming, rare recordings of the Beatles' appearances on radio, interviews, classic commercial snippets and in-the-studio Beatles segments. Listeners can even phone in and leave a message detailing their most treasured Beatles memory, which will be played on-air.

“People listen to radio very passively,” said Matthews of his programming style. “You have to do something different that grabs their attention.”

Dana Silver of Greensboro, S.C. is among the millions of Beatles-A-Rama listeners who agree that the show's varied programming is an attention-getter.

“It's the reason I keep listening,” said Silver. “I enjoy the behind- the-scenes information…and the stories.”

Some of what is heard on Beatles-A-Rama is contributed by fans and celebrity listeners, like Allen Wentz, bassist for the "70"s group, Wild Cherry and “Play That Funky Music White Boy” fame, who sent Matthews a Wild Cherry cover version of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Another Beatles-A-Rama fan, Graham Goble of the Little River Band, sent in his group's version of “In My Life.”

“I get that kind of stuff all the time,” said Matthews, a well-known radio personality and New Orleans native who, in his early radio days, disc jockeyed alongside a would-be actor named John Larroquette.

Apart from what listeners send him, Matthews pays for all the songs he gets and is always on the lookout for material. Most of what is heard on Beatles-A-Rama comes from his extensive vinyl record collection, the majority of which has been transferred to CD.

“I used to have 12,000 vinyl albums,” said Matthews. “Now I'm down to 2,500.”

Matthews has been involved in radio for most of his adult life, a love that he says began with an introduction to the Beatles.

“The Beatles are single-handedly responsible for turning me around and making me like Rock music,” said Matthews, who admits to being a bit of a nerd who spent most of his time listening to talk radio before he discovered the lads from Liverpool at the age of 12.

“I was at a party,” Matthews recalled. “And someone put on'I Want to Hold Your Hand.'They just kept playing it over and over. They must have played it about 50 times. I asked the host who it was and she said it was the Beatles. That was it for me.”

Like many young boys who were inspired by the Beatles, Matthews discovered a passion for music. He played keyboard in a band in high school and at 19, got his first radio job as a board operator for a Sunday morning religious program. By 1969, Matthews was a full-fledged disc jockey, and just four years later, a radio program director over one of the first automated stations in the country.

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Comments (17)
#1 by shelly, Apr 21, 2008
I love Beatles-a-rama. Thanks for writing this!
#2 by Joe, Apr 21, 2008
Great article for a great station.

Thanks Pat for Beatles-a-rama!

JC
#3 by Pat Matthews, Apr 23, 2008
Lakendra,
Thanks for the great article...I appreciate it very much! Hope you will all tune in.

PM
#4 by Debby Fannin, Apr 25, 2008
Pat....you rock!
#5 by gloria farjardo, Apr 25, 2008
good article -
#6 by Brian, Apr 26, 2008
wow super article, super show ,i live 40 miles from liverpool and grew up within reach of every thing the Beatles ever did,and boy am i proud to be a Beatle fan,i have just put a Beatle tribute out on enips, it is called friends across the universe,myself and all of the Beatle fans all across the world did a Beatle karaoke cover song,and they sent them to me and i put it all together and produced a beatle tribute album /folder i then put it on esnips for all to listen too,and it was awesome,if you would like a listen its under scarrabri/friends across the universe,i also have beatles karaoke ,that i have done,again under scarrabri,best wishes my dear friends Brian/scarrabri
#7 by B. Mitchell Reed, Apr 28, 2008
30,000 listeners a day? My word, I guess you have 250 on Shoutcast, and 29,750 on iTunes?
#8 by Jim Morley, Apr 28, 2008
Pat That is a great article. You have worked so hard at giving us all the music of the greatest band there ever was. Keep up the good work. Take care Jim
#9 by Doctor Robert, Apr 29, 2008
Pat lies about the listener base and you remove others comments, what kind of blog is this censored I guess for nice comments ONLY.
we challenge Pat to prove 30,000 listeners a Day:
BS
#10 by Rama Listener, Apr 29, 2008
How come you don\'t play as many Beatles Songs as BeatlesRadio.com? I listen to them more because they do.
#11 by Welsh paul, Apr 29, 2008
You just ripped off< beatlesradio.com> dude! I was and still am listening to a far superior internet beatles site. You should be ashamed of yourself.
#12 by Heather Mills, Apr 29, 2008
Look, when I'm not counting Paul's money, and I need a Beatles fix, I'm tuning into BeatlesRadio.com - bottom line, end of story
#13 by Pat Matthews, May 3, 2008
It's certainly a thrill to have the Beatles wives, ex-wives and song characters writing to admonish me. Let me tell you something, Mr.Fake British accent Beatlesradio.com dude, yes, you DO have more simultaneous Shoutcast listeners than I...BUT...you don't stream Windows Media...and I DO! So, when you're on the Shoutcast directory with your 500-600 listeners...you are beating me there...however, Beatles-A-Rama!!!, which DID begin on 9/11/2001...before you...I'm crusing along with 350 SLs on Shoutcast and 600 WM listeners...so, who has more, I ask? If you were savvy enough to have a National Advertising contract, you, too would be able to gauge how many tune ins you get per day...as of December, 2007, Beatles-A-Rama!!! had upwards of 30,000+ folks tuning in throughout any 24 hour period. If you would like me to guess, you have probably 20,000-25,000 listeners thoughout the course of a day.Rama listener just ask Welsh Paul/Heather Mills/Yoko/B. Mitchell Reed/Dr. Robert (same person) why they play more Beatles...he'll tell you he's streaming out of the UK and it' then okay to do it...but he's really some NoCal punk faking the accent and acting all hip...Beatles-A-Rama!!! was first and will always be. Thanks for listening!
#14 by Really a Brit, Jun 3, 2008
Hey Pat, not only was that tirade uncalled for - its also HIGHLY inaccurate!

Surely it doesnt take a genius to work out that the streaming laws in the UK are even more drachonian than the US ones - so what you say doesnt even make sense.

Obviously you are sore about the Beatles Radio just having more listeners than you on Shout cast, but the answer is simple - if you're gonna run a Beatles station, then play the friggin' Beatles!

You can't break your US streaming artist separation rules a "little bit" (I've seen you call it "creative programming" in the past!) - the fact is you are breaking them - so you may as well go the whole hog and do what you say on the tin, rather than these half-measures, followed by flat attempts at self-publicity (such as this article).

You know what they say about starting to believe your own publicity, Pat! C'mon...
#15 by Cassie, Jun 5, 2008
Lakendra -

Thanks for the article! (Finally getting around to reading it and wanted to send out kudos on a job well done.)

Cassie
#16 by Pat Matthews, Jun 12, 2008
In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"Obviously, there's enough listeners for everyone...just give it a rest..C'mon, if I wanted to play the same 400 songs over and over, I would..I chose/choose not to...that's all!As for the "self publicity", I did not seek this article...I was approached by it's writer, a free-lancer from Texas. She just happens to be a big fan of Beatles-A-Rama!!! I'm sure you have your own fans...
#17 by Pat Matthews, Jun 12, 2008
By the way, Mr. Canon Can (one of your stable of non de plumes, no doubt), 1250 Simultaneous Listeners for 7 hours of the day, trump 650 any day...just so you know. :)
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