"The White Album Listening Party: Revisiting The Beatles' Top-Seller" celebrates the 40th anniversary (Nov. 22, 1968) of the release of the Beatles scary-new, scary-wonderful, scary-ambitious new recording.

The "Listening Party" puts the Beatles White Album in the center of a circle of non celebrity, smart, non-fanatic, well-spoken and knowledgeable Beatles experts, who share their memories, opinions and stories behind the stories and the recording.

It's great to hear this music again, but beyond quality of the music and the invigorating nostalgia of hearing hit after hit after hit -- is the listening party component of the show. It frequently reaches the high notes on the most important radio "best practices" metric board of story telling and listener focus.

You are not the unwelcome eavesdropper on a bunch of stoned college slackers having a conversation about nothing. This is a conversation with music lovers, and Beatles' lovers (who may have been stoned at one time...just not here).

Remarks and the stories behind "Dear Prudence," "Happiness is a Warm Gun," and "Why Don't We do it in the Road?" feature amusing stories and insight, and they may answer White Album questions we've perhaps been trying to formulate for the last 40 years.

Also fresh -- the discussion brings forward the notion and memory that this was a scary album for a number of reasons -- to paraphrase, "What happened to 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand'...where are my Beatles?"

The discussion proceeds by track order, usually two tracks at a time, followed by both songs. Almost each segue from discussion to music generates both a musical "AHA" moment and an satisfying internal organic physical reaction as well -- the kind you get from Bach, Mozart, Bill Evans, Dylan etc.)

The 3-hour presentation of the program, producer Paul Ingles recommends, "Is the best experience for your listeners as it recreates the experience of listening to the whole album. If you can only accommodate a two-hour slot there will be a two-hour version available at PRX."

Three hours is tricky -- two hours is tricky, but your thoughtful, OES promotion strategy (promo materials provided on PRX), the anniversary peg, the 1968 - 2008 connections, the music that still holds up, the stories behind the music and the assembly, tone and flow created by Paul Ingles will likely create a banner day for your listeners and your station.

This could be a Saturday or Sunday afternoon listening and good for any evening -- especially a blue Monday or Friday night. See the PRX page for a range of date specific scheduling options.

I'm pretty certain that both Bungalow Bill and Long, Long, Long are in the long long long version of this program. The three hour non-newscast version.

http://www.prx.org/pieces/29916-the-white-album-listening-party-revisiting-the-be

Just fantastic.

Something of this nature is very heavy. The entire album is being played front to back and people are weighing in on it with personal experiences, opinions, and information. It's not an easy task.

However, this program feels very light and palatable. The conversation doesn't take away from the music and vice versa. And in the end, I think playing the tracks all the way through was the right way to go.

It's the 40th anniversary of an album worth celebrating.