NEW AAA WEEKLY SHOW “THE CONNIE CLUB” TAKES LISTENERS TO THE PARTY • REMEMBERING MARK PLOTKIN

Philadelphia’s intense and smart rock band Low Cut Connie [link] is launching a new weekly radio show for AAA and Alt Rock stations. The Connie Club is a one-hour program filled with hot music from all eras.

The Connie Club [link] was created by Low Cut Connie's front man Adam Weiner, a media savvy pianist and songwriter. 

Weiner describes the show's concept as a virtual visit to “…a dirty, divey little local bar where everyone is welcome. The air conditioning is broken, the food is terrible, but the music is slamming and there’s always a party going on.”

Adam Weiner

The Connie Club is a mash-up of music and the sounds of a hopping club scene. 

The show captures the energy of Low Cut Connie’s live show, that the LA Weekly gushed: “Their ferocious live show...is unmatched in all of rock right now."

Public radio has never had a program like The Connie Club. 

It is brash, loud, smart and sexy.  But will it work? Time will tell.

The Connie Club appears to be built to last. The show will debut on six stations in early October including noncommercial WXPN, The Current, WFPK, Louisville, WYEP, Pittsburgh, and Colorado Public Radio’s Indie 102.3 in Denver. Also on board is commercial station WDST Radio Woodstock.

The show also starts national syndication with two sponsors/underwriters: Ben & Jerry’s and Lagunitas Brewing Company.

BORN TO BE ON THE RADIO

The Connie Club emerged from conversations Weiner had with Jim McGuinn and David Safar from The Current. Their goal was, according McGuinn, to create a program that captures “the wild raw abandon [that is] seldom heard on the radio.”

McGuinn told Spark News about the birthing of The Connie Club:    

“Adam is a big fan of radio.  He had a couple conversations with Safar and myself about it – and we encouraged him to try out his idea – to make a [pilot], with the idea that we might air it on The Current.”  You can hear the 2018 pilot for The Connie Club on The Current’s website [link].

McGuinn said that the pilot “totally blew his mind.” The Current aired the pilot on a night when Low Cut Connie was performing at First Avenue in Minneapolis.

“It was like, as you left the show, the party switched to “the Connie Club” in your mind!” Listeners loved it, so McGuinn had hunch that the program would be a hit.

Though The Connie Club received plenty of advice from McGuinn and others at The Current, Minnesota Public Radio is not formally involved with the show at this time.

POLITICAL COMMENTATOR MARK PLOTKIN DIES AT AGE 72

Mark Plotkin in the year 2000

Mark Plotkin was an essential Washington, DC icon. 

The former “advance man” for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign was a journalist and commentator at WAMU and WTOP.

He is remembered as a longtime DC statehood advocate. 

Plotkin was 72. According to The Washington Post, the cause and manner of death had not yet been determined.

In 1989 Polkin convinced WAMU’s Program Director at the time Steve Martin that his institutional knowledge, insightful analysis and humor were perfect for public radio. Plotkin and Martin created the DC Politics Hour, which is now called The Politics Hour and is still one of most popular radio programs in our nation’s capital.

Plotkin had a tireless passion for the District and the effort to make the city America’s 51^st state. Plotkin’s custom licensed plates had the slogan Taxation Without Representation.”

After many years at WAMU, Plotkin hosted a local politics show on WTOP for nearly a decade.

Martin, who now owns SFM Consulting [link] ,told Spark News via email:

“I am mourning the loss of a colleague and a friend. I took a gamble when I decided to put Mark on the radio back the late 80’s. He was not a polished broadcaster -- he didn’t know how to use a tape recorder or work a typewriter, but he knew politics and was passionate about the District of Columbia.”

“I suspected that his passion would be felt over the air, and it was. It didn’t take long for the weekly DC Politics Hour at noon on Friday’s to become as former Mayor Muriel Bowser said “tuning into Mark’s show was must-listen radio.”