a to z

What a long, strange trip it was! The 33rd annual A to Z. Thanks for listening to the radio event of the year in Maine! Here are some A to Z Fun Facts

WBLM's A to Z is on the radio! We have loads of vinyl, cassette, 8-tracks, CDs, rarities, and bootlegs, and once a year, we haul them all out and go through everything in alphabetical order.

We wrapped up our annual A to Z today with "Zoot Suit" by the High Numbers. Thanks to you, this year's journey through the legendary Blimp archives was our biggest and best ever. With more and more of you listening on the WBLM app, we set new records for our streaming audience. WBLM's A to Z became a WORLDWIDE event this year, with over 1000 different cities and towns around the planet rocking out to A to Z. You were listening in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, France, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Namibia. Russia, Sri Lanka, and many more places around the globe. We do A to Z for Mainers, but if the rest of the world wants to join in, then have at it! The power of Rock and Roll is certainly one of the most powerful forces on this or any other planet!

Where are the Blimp Archives? Legend has it that the treasure trove of Classic Rock is housed in the basement of our beautiful and wonderful home at One City Center. Now, if you've ever BEEN to the basement of One City Center, you know it can be a dark and scary place. You never know who you might meet down there. It's something right out of a movie. So we thought, why not actually MAKE a movie about the Blimp Archives? We got some of the legendary Blimp DJ's and put together this fun trailer with an epic cameo from our great friend, comedian Bob Marley.

There's much more than just music in the WBLM A to Z archives. There are a whole plethora of amazing Maine rock and roll memorabilia. As we were digging through one of the largest Classic Rock collections in the world doing A to Z, we came across these gems.

We are wrapping up our 30th annual trip through the WBLM Archives. A to Z has been fantastic this year. We REALLY needed this! Thank you all for listening from all over the world! A to Z is always a great celebration of WBLM and the power of Rock and Roll.

Sometimes it's a connection with what the songs are about, sometimes it's the beauty of the most unlikely pairings. Either way, here are some A-Z highlights that you absolutely, positively would not have heard anywhere else...

...because we've spent years (and years!) assuming Joan Jett must have written: "I Love Rock 'N' Roll". Not the case, as we are about to learn.

Sometimes these "Same Title/Different Song" combinations are really bizzaro-city. "One" by Three Dog Night followed by Metallica's "One" being a primo example of how to hurt your head. There are other back-to-back song situations though, where the undeniable artistic quality of the songs involved can make for a rather pleasant "Oh-my-that-was-a-good-one!" moment. Like these...

It's a little weird. We've already covered songs ("A" through "K", anyway) that have the same title but are, in fact, completely different songs. That got some of you wondering if there any songs that can be found under two different titles!?!? Yes(!), and here are the select few that end up getting played twice because they fall under different letters...

We've all got one (or two..or three..), an album that speaks to you so deeply you just have to share it with friends. Turns out, they all hate it and think you're nuts. (In her teen years, my wife used to play Neil Young constantly in what can only be described as a tactical maneuver to drive her Mom batty. Worked like a charm.)

You just wouldn't ordinarily hear these songs back-to-back, but sometimes a little whip-lash is what's called for. The most devasting example had to be when we made the move from the letter "C" to the letter "D":

There's much more than just music in the WBLM A to Z archives. There is a whole plethora of amazing Maine rock and roll memorabilia. As we were digging through one of the largest collections of Classic Rock in the world doing A to Z, we came across these gems

WBLM's A to Z has gone worldwide this year! Thanks to the WBLM app, people all over the globe can listen to our annual trip through the Blimp Archives. It truly is one of the largest collections of Classic Rock anywhere on Earth. We do it for all you Mainers....but if the rest of the world wants to listen in, we're cool with that.

Playing along with the Blimp from A to Z is fun, but coming up with games to play within the alphabet poses a different set of "challenges". After finishing up the Letter "B", these might be the best B titles by B artists. Maybe...

You know it when you hear it. Songs that would ordinarily never, ever get played next to each other because...well, frankly, the actual sound is rather insane, but since we're all in thrall to the rules of alphabetizing, there's nothing else to do but turn up the volume on some rather, er, unique segues.