Happy April Fools' Day! What songs make you smile? For Dave it's a knowing wink from an artist that knows this music can be ridiculous and yet, still love it. For Holly, it's music that makes her do a goofy dance or reminds her of her children. We go from pop and rock to dance and folk. We also learn during our Pop Quiz that, even though Holly is a stickler for "word crimes", she's not as strong when it comes to 80s lyrics.

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Harold Bronson may be best known as one of the co-founders of Rhino Records, but when he was a student at UCLA, he was in a band called Mogan David And His Winos. The band consisted of future New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Kellerman, future Columbia Records Head Of Promotions (and friend of the podcast) Paul Rappaport, music journalist Mark Leviton, as well as fellow Rhino co-conspirator Richard Foos. 

The band made one album, fusing all their influences. The result came out in 1973 and was entitled Savage Young Winos. It became a cult classic, but has been out of print since 1976. Enter Liberation Hall Music, which has re-released the album with additional demos, live recordings from that period, and two tracks from a Winos' reunion session in 1993. 

Harold Bronson has graciously joined the podcast to share just a few of the stories he's accumulated over the years.

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Let's play St. Patrick's Day music to recognize a number of our 80s music favorite artists from The Emerald Isle. While we have a hard time pronouncing names like Cathal McGarvey, Seamus Ennis and Liam Ó Maonlaí we certainly do love the music they created. So raise a pint to the Irish. Sláinte!

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Author Steven Blush has just completed his rock trilogy, When Rock Met Disco, When Rock Met Reggae, and the just-released When Rock Met Hip-Hop.  Steven recalls times spent with Rick Rubin, The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and Russell Simmons, and the huge influence they had on the 80s music scene and pop culture.

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Paul Rees was a young lad living in Scotland during the heyday of Album Oriented Rock (AOR). From a distance, Paul became a fan of American radio and the artists played on those stations, which led him to write the book Raised On Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986.  It's an oral history of the golden era of critically derided, yet monumentally popular radio rock, when Journey, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Toto, and others ruled the airwaves. Paul joins the podcast to chat about his book, and to fanboy about his favorite artists from this era.

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Roddy Bottum is one of the founders and keyboardist of the iconic band Faith No More. In his memoir, The Royal We, Roddy shares his coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet stories in a pre-tech-boom San Francisco. He joins our podcast to chat about the bands, his upbringing, his addictions, and how he managed to survive it all with a sense of humor.

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We at What Difference Does It Make love love and what better way to say it, than with a song from the 80s? We discuss a number of our favorites that make us feel all warm inside. Happy Valentine's (and Gal-entine's) Day!

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Arielle Nissenblatt, Founder and Head Curator of Earbuds Podcast Collective AND a 2026 Podcast Hall Of Fame Inductee, joins our podcast to share her origin story, and insights into the industry. She then steps out of her comfort zone and into our favorite topic, 80s music! Arielle offers up her Millennial opinion on music from 1989 based on Los Angeles radio station KROQ's year-end playlist.

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Andy Greene, Senior Writer for Rolling Stone, has been with the storied magazine since 2004. Andy shares with us his origin story of how a shy, young boy from the suburbs of Cleveland finds his way to New York City to write about his idols and rub shoulders with artists like Phil Collins and Bruce Springsteen. We also asked his opinion on the music played on Los Angeles radio station KROQ in 1989, specifically songs 100 to 91 from their year-end playlist.

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And so it begins again, as we start our look at the top 106.7 songs played on radio station KROQ in Los Angeles in 1989. Upcoming episodes will feature ten songs each and a special guest, but for this episode, we’ll look at the bottom seven songs, 106.7 to 101, based on the station's year-end playlist. It's quite a start to the last year of 80s music, and a fine intro into the type of music featured on The World Famous KROQ.

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The year 1989 was more than just the number...another summer...the sound of the funky drummer. It was the year we first fell in love with The Simpsons, the Game Boy, and The Arsenio Hall Show. It was also the year of amazing movies, and of course, music. While we can't do a "We Didn't Start The Fire" type of song with the year, we can revisit as much as possible in under sixty minutes. Tune in and bust a move!

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