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I Am Addicted to Yacht Rock Radio

yachtrock-fi-800x450-v1What’s Yacht Rock Radio and how did you get addicted, Lonny?

Yacht Rock Radio is a station on Sirius XM which appears each summer. The music format is tight and playlist is very short. In fact, the tightness mirrors the WABC playlist of the 60s where the #1 song was played each hour.

My love of Yacht Rock Radio was enhanced last week when I had hours of leisure time in our Belmar, NJ condo. One day I was lucky last week to be located next to a beach goer playing Yacht Rock Radio on a boom box. Alas my analog transistor only gets WFAN and local Monmouth & Ocean stations. We have not graduated beyond Sirius XM in our vehicles.

What exactly is Yacht Rock Radio and what’s the attraction?

Yacht Rock Radio (found on the Sirius XM dial at #70) is a summer format of songs from the 70s and 80s that tightly fit their “smooth rock format”.

Think Sailing by Christopher Cross or Eye in the Sky by the Alan Parsons Project. Now you got it. Mellower rock songs of that era good for an afternoon nap on the beach or tooling around on one’s yacht. I don’t own a yacht and I am not a fan of boats either, but Yacht Rock is for me.

The campiness of the format is enhanced by a voice over that sounds like Thurston Howell III (played by Jim Backus) from Gilligan’s Island, and selections from “guests” Randy Bachman, Bill Simmons, and others called “I’m the Captain Now”.

What are the artists you can expect to hear?

Michael McDonald

Christopher Cross

Robbie Dupree

Toto

Seals & Croft

Kenny Loggins (solo & with Jim Messina)

Boz Scaggs

Hall & Oates

Steely Dan

And their selection of songs from these artists is interesting too. For example, I am a big Steely Dan fan and they have many songs that could fit the playlist but the Steely Dan I hear most on Yacht Rock radio is  Any Major Dude Will Tell You, not their biggest hit, but it fits the format perfectly.

Yacht Rock radio is alas not a Strum family favorite. Even my wife Beth doesn’t dig the format and our daughter Carolyn hates the format, even if she likes some of the artists.

No matter to me, because when I control the dial, too bad for them….because I’m the Captain Now.




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5 Comments

  1. ks says:

    Yes! “Make a wish, babyah …” Was just talking with a friend of mine about music we once didn’t like but now we do. I immediately said, “Yacht rock, entire genre. Because ‘love will find a way.'” I’ve either gotten old, or my tastes have considerably mellowed from my punk rock days. Thanks as always and enjoy your summer.

  2. Harry Kerr says:

    I’m a huge fan as well and was just explaining it to friends this past weekend. I have a place in Ocean Grove, let’s catch up for dinner or drinks over the summer

  3. Harley says:

    Did you write this ON the beach? Was it really hot that day?

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