Photo courtesy Bob Murret.

"Rare On The Air"

Bob Murret AKA "Rare on the Air" started on WWOZ, when it was on the top of Tipitinas on the corner of Tchopitoulas & Napoleon Ave. It started with doing some pre-recorded tape shows for afternoon play. When OZ moved to Armstrong Park, it continued, until one day Jerry Brock, Station Manager at that time offered me the Thursday night 7-10pm slot; vacated by Ernie K. Doe. I opened each show with Lloyd Lamberts Hop & Jump Tone, and in between pauses in the instrumental I would say out loud: W W O Z, the Rare is on the Air - Yeah!

I also usually had a cast of characters that would come up every Thursday night to help out, etc. The Flirt and Coffee Pot Daddy mostly. I would play music out of my own collection of 45 rpm records, which included a mix of Blues, R&B, New Orleans R&B, Soul, and some Swamp Pop. I tried to cover as much of the listening audience as possible. What made the show somewhat unique is I would play mostly the rare, the obscure, the unheard, the who thats, and the what nots, the music most people had never heard before on radio. It was great music, it's just none of the DJ's played it when it came out. It kind of just got lost and wound up in the rare platter box.

Well, this went on for years in the 80's up until 1990, when the Rare decided to hang it up and retire from the show. I've sold my record collection since then, but before I sold it, I taped most of the music on cassettes. I still listen to that old music from time to time and think about the fun times at the station on Thursday nights from 7 "til there ain't no more."

Round Two

Well, here it is more than 20 years later,The Old Rare came out of retirement and is back on the air at WWOZ 90.7 FM, and streaming on WWOZ.org every Wednesday night from 7pm "Til There Aint No Mo."