The Swing Years and Beyond was a radio program on KUOW, an NPR station from Seattle. It began in 1968 and was hosted by then-KUOW program Director Don Wirtz before he handed the reins to Bill Snoopy who became the first to hold the position long term. In 1979 Cynthia Doyon took over the hosting duties, and in 2003 Amanda Wilde hosted until the last show on February 25, 2017.
There is a generation of Seattle residents that spent at least some of their Saturday nights listening to a thoughtfully curated playlist of music from the 1920s to the 1950s. I was able to connect with Amanda Wilde and offered to make one of her shows available for fans to download. Then, my scouring of the internet turned up two other shows available and have added them here.
If you have others that you would like to share, please feel free to reach out and I can add them to this list.
This is wonderful. I miss having this show on the air and listened for many years. In it’s absence, I created my own playlist but it’s missing the thoughtful curation and thoughts of the hosts.
LikeLike
I am glad you like it. You will have to keep checking back for more shows added. I hope to have quite a few posted!
LikeLike
Hi, thanks for doing this! I am only able to download two of the five shows posted. Two of them seem to be corrupt files and the last one redirects to one of the shows that does work.
LikeLike
I looked through the links and i cannot locate or recreate the errors you are receiving. Send me your email and I can email you the files directly. X@WALDINA.COM is an email I will recognize as from you. Just let me know you want the files!
LikeLike
Great to hear “The Swing Years” again. I’ve missed it. Wonderful music.
I’ve had trouble downloading the files too. They seem to repeat the same show under different dates. Not sure what the trouble is. Is it possible to get each of the show files sent directly? Thanks. Bryan
LikeLike
Sorry to hear you are having difficulties, I checked all the files and they seem to be attached to the corresponding show info. The files are too big to be sent via email. Each one is five hours of music. I have created a bulk link that should give you access to download them all. For some reason, Dropbox adds an expiration date on the link of 8/15/2020. Give this a try: https://www.dropbox.com/t/tpuuEuAITDBGOa8O
LikeLike
Thanks Scott. Downloads worked fine this time. I appreciate your effort on sharing the music. I’ll keep an eye out for any additional shows that are posted. Thanks for your help.
LikeLike
This is awesome! Thank you for doing this. I’m still not over KUOW ending this program so this helps.
LikeLike
I am glad you like it. Like you, I miss the show a lot. I hope to be collecting more and more and building a downloadable archive.
LikeLike
Hi Scott. I’m really enjoying these programs. Now we have another big installment of additional programs. Wonderful. I’m looking forward to listening to them.
One question about the first set of downloads. It sounds like the two Christmas shows December 18, 2010 and December 19, 2015 link to the same show. I didn’t listen all the way through but the beginnings sound the same. Let me know if I’ve made a mistake. Thanks.
I so appreciate you hosting these programs and thanks to Amanda for all the joy she brought everyone over the years.
Thank you,
Bryan
LikeLike
Bryan,
So glad you are enjoying it. I think I have untangled everything. Thankfully, listening to the news portion of the shows helps confirm the date of the show. I think I received one show with two different dates on it. I have had to delete the incorrect one, but it should be correct now.
LikeLike
This is so comforting to have back for my Saturday night background music. I hope you are able to find even more shows. Thanks so much for hosting this!
LikeLike
You are welcome! I am glad you like it. I miss it too!
LikeLike
Thank you, thank you, thank you! My wife and I listened to this show coming home from one of our first dates and really miss it.
LikeLike
I am glad you found them. I am always getting more and updating the list.
LikeLike