Posted in: Oldies by Lakendra Lewis on April 20, 2008 | 21 Comments
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.
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.
“I’ve worked in every format of radio from Christian to Country,” said Matthews. “The only thing I haven’t done is classical.”
In 1986, Matthews moved to California, where he worked for five years as a television news anchorman before becoming a freelance actor and voice-over artist.
In the mid-70’s, Matthews put his vast collection of Beatles records to use by producing and hosting a syndicated radio show out of New Orleans called Beatles Forever, based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Schaffner. After a brief but popular run, the program was nixed and Matthews shelved the tapes. But the advent of the Internet and a collaboration with a then little-known radio website called Live365 rekindled Matthews’ desire to share his love of the Beatles with the world.
Matthews launched Beatles-A-Rama (named as an ode to a New Orleans radio station Matthews used to listen to as a boy) on September 11, 2001, unaware at the time that that date would become synonymous with the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
“Of course, nobody listened that day,” Matthews said. “But the next day, the airwaves were jammed with listeners.”
To keep those listeners, Matthews devotes about 60 hours a month to Beatles-A-Rama, scheduling music, selling advertising and overseeing all content that comes into the website. Running a popular Internet radio site isn’t cheap. The monthly cost is about $925, which goes toward bandwidth and server costs, music licensing and program software. Matthews recoups some of that cost from banner ads and donations from listeners, which can be made by going to the Beatles-A-Rama website. The rest comes out of Matthews’ pocket but he views it as small price to pay for keeping the music of the Beatles alive.
“I’m a real fan of Pop tunes,” he said. “The Beatles’ music is timeless. I think that’s why so many bands have been influenced by them.”
Since it first hit the Internet airwaves, Beatles-A-Rama has become almost as popular as the group for which it pays tribute, gaining honorable mention in Rolling Stone magazine and winning Live365’s Classic Rock Station of the Year award two years in a row. Some of its biggest fans are people who actually knew the Beatles, like George Harrison’s big sister, Louise, and Monty Python alum, Michael Palin, both of whom have recorded segments for the show.
In 2005, Matthews left Live365 and now runs Beatles-A-Rama from his own server. He also has an official website: Beatlesarama.
A married father of four and a grandfather of six, Matthews continues to do voice-over work for radio and television, with most of the voice-over work done out of his home studio. He also teaches voice acting and Internet broadcasting at Saddleback Community College.
shelly April 21st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I love Beatles-a-rama. Thanks for writing this!
Joe April 21st, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Great article for a great station.
Thanks Pat for Beatles-a-rama!
JC
Pat Matthews April 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Lakendra,
Thanks for the great article…I appreciate it very much! Hope you will all tune in.
PM
Debby Fannin April 25th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Pat….you rock!
gloria farjardo April 25th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
good article -
Brian April 26th, 2008 at 5:24 am
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
B. Mitchell Reed April 28th, 2008 at 9:17 am
30,000 listeners a day? My word, I guess you have 250 on Shoutcast, and 29,750 on iTunes?
Jim Morley April 28th, 2008 at 10:22 am
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
Doctor Robert April 29th, 2008 at 9:00 am
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
Rama Listener April 29th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
How come you don’t play as many Beatles Songs as BeatlesRadio.com? I listen to them more because they do.
Welsh paul April 29th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
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.
Heather Mills April 29th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
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
Pat Matthews May 3rd, 2008 at 1:03 am
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!
Really a Brit June 3rd, 2008 at 12:24 am
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…
Cassie June 5th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Lakendra -
Thanks for the article! (Finally getting around to reading it and wanted to send out kudos on a job well done.)
Cassie
Pat Matthews June 12th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
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…
Pat Matthews June 12th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
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.
Loyal BeatlesRadio.com Listener November 15th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Dear Mr. Matthews:
I am reading all this banter and have not seen an apology to Dr. Robert of BR for your mean and schoolyard-like childish competitive/prideful comments. Getting along begins with burying the hatchet.
I am a loyal listener of BeatlesRadio.com for sure! I have also donated and bought items on their site to support them.
Did you know that Dr. Robert of BeatlesRadio.com is Welsh and has lived in the states for a long time? This explains the diminished brit accent. Not fake OK?
You seem all about business and advertising. Ads everywhere like graffiti and litter on the street. Your obnoxious player comes up on many Beatles sites automatically very loudly. You undoubtedly paid for that.
Your stream is not listenable for a long period of time due to all the ads that are about anything and everything and rarely with a Beatles theme. I turned you on once and started to hear a cool interview and then an ad popped up in the middle of John talking asking to click here to win a Nintendo Wii that muted John’s comments! Ridiculous!
BeatlesRadio, like XM/Sirrus plays more great music and less ad garbage and their site is less commercial. Better sound too when you compare both 128k streams. More speed choices. Better!
John would be appalled how you schlock your wares under the umbrella of your love for the Beatles.
Oh, and one more thing. I read a few articles about BR starting on 9/9/1999. This is two years before your claim to fame.
Admit that BR is a good stream and less commercial, and apologize to Dr. Robert who is getting major surgery this weekend from what I heard on the stream this week.
His desire seems to truly keep the Beatles Alive and not get rich doing so. What do you have to say about that?
Pat Matthews November 18th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Dr. Robert,
I apologize. I have always said there is room for both of us. You break the rules…I bend them. My stream is a different beast attempting to do what a stream such as martiniinthemorning.com does, for instance…they don’t just play Sinatra singing That Ole Black Magic, they play Robert Palmer’s version as well…Yeah I know you play covers, too…but I have “expanded the Universe” of all things Beatles. As far as commercials, one needs to air them to exist. I’m not as independently wealthy perhaps? But if pop up ads are interfering with the stream (huh?)…maybe one should try a different player on my site or maybe you should launch from iTunes, as you can do for Beatles Radio, if that’s your cup o’ tea.
Hope you well with your surgery…I have my own problems…i.e. Prostate Cancer.
Thank you
Pat Matthews
Beatles-A-Rama!!!
Loyal BeatlesRadio.com Listener November 21st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Thank you Pat for following through on my request to bury the hatchet and apologizing for some of your comments, and accusing Dr. Robert of not being a real Brit and a (NorCal Punk), as well as the comments about who has more listeners which was the equivalent of (mine’s bigger). LOL!
Much appreciated and I assume that Dr. Robert would probably feel the same, but I only speak for myself. I promise you that I am not Dr. Robert but truly a loyal listener of BeatlesRadio.com (I am an American) that is passionate about the Beatles and turns the dial from time to time and have tried to listen to your stream on a number of occasions. Now you can make your Rodney King comment in peace.
Not sure what rules are being bent or broken and as a listener I really don’t care. Listeners want more music and less schlocking of the wares. For Beatles fans that means BeatlesRadio.com. Even their few ads generally have Beatles theme and the pages is neat and not cluttered with ads.
As far as a streaming player goes I am a 23yr+ experienced IT specialist and use Windows Media Player 11 as it best displays HTML content inside. On your stream there is a constant click in the middle of songs as you have banners that keep changing every few seconds with ads. Even when the player is in toolbar mode. Very distracting. If an ad has a sound of vocal such as (You’ve won a Nintendo Wii) it will play on top of what you have going on the stream. So if winamp or real or iTunes does not pop up all that content then that hurts your ads getting displayed right? You could at least disable the sound on your ads and the transitions.
Covers on BeatlesRadio.com? Tons of covers and a show dedicated on the weekends to covers. The Beatles Underground Lounge. Even so, I am a purist and enjoy the real Beatles much better than any cover. The lads solo careers? All there. Even Pete Best’s new CD that is just great is on there. Been to the Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool twice and had a great time with Pete’s brother Rory. Pre Fame Hamburg, The fame and concert days up till 1966, and up until they broke up. Its all there on BeatlesRadio.com and much more of it than anywhere else!
Anyway, thanks again and lets all feel the love because that is all we are supposed to need right?
Cheers!
P.S. Blessings and prayers for your healing and for a lack of pain and discomfort on the Prostate Cancer. Hope it was caught early and your are recovering well.
Kate July 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I am a recent convert to the wonderous Beatle-a-rama so I am really pleased to be able to singalong to all those lovely tunes. Keep up the good work. I have also followed you on Twitter. You could really use Youtube Twitter Facebook Friendfeeed etc to Beatle-a-rama’s advantage. Thanks for all your hard work. A very good station (previous to this I listened to another Beatles Station but this is the best station I have ever heard Beatles wise).