About - Mix Tapes With Paul Tarver

The first music Paul Tarver heard was gospel being played and sung by his mother who was a church pianist and a member of a group of three women who sang together as the creatively named group, “The Trio.” When he rode around in the back seat of the family car, he listened to the country music radio station favored by his mom and dad and heard artists like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Jerry Reed, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Charlie Pride, Porter Waggoner & Dolly Parton. He even watched Hee Haw every week with his parents.

But in 1976, Paul got his first transistor radio and he learned the world of music was much bigger than the two kinds of music he had heard to that point. While other kids were reading comic books under the covers, Paul was avoided sleep by listening to great Jackson, Mississippi pop and rock stations like WJDX 62AM, WTYX 94FM and of course, WZZQ 102.9FM.

In the late seventies, the Golden Days of AM Radio were drawing to a close, but when Paul wanted to hear pop music, he tuned in to 62JDX to hear Elton John, Paul McCartney & Wings, Paul Simon, Barry Manilow, Diana Ross, or England Dan & John Ford Coley. But if he wanted to hear something a little harder, rougher and tougher, then he tuned into late night radio on WZZQ where the FM DJ’s could play just about anything they wanted to play and often did. Deep cuts, entire albums, B-sides, obscure artists, and songs with lyrics his parents probably didn’t approve of were there for the hearing and to some extent for educational purposes…?

Linda Ronstadt may have been the queen of FM, but there was also a different kind of Queen who like the Beatles changed the sound of music forever by using their studio as a musical instrument. The Eagles were visiting a hotel in California and Warren Zevon chased a Werewolf in London. Nazareth pointed out that “Love Hurts” and ELO’s Evil Woman competed with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks’ telling of the story of a Welch Witch. Hall & Oates introduced Paul to soul but when the DJ’s played Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations he discovered the heart of soul. Meat Loaf found Paradise and The Allman Brothers jammed the airways. Peter Frampton played live and Thin Lizzy were back in town. Every night was a journey, an adventure and one hell of a ride.

And just when Paul thought he had heard it all, the sounds of Mississippi artists like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Dorothy Moore, Hunter Gibson, Mac McAnally, Fred Knobloch, Jimmy Buffett, Greg “Fingers” Taylor and Paul Davis floated in on the airwaves. Mississippi’s rich history of blues and rock and soul came alive for Paul over that tiny radio.

Fast forward to the night in 1981 when the owners of WZZQ 102.9FM changed the station name to MISS103 and instantly became the largest country music radio station in Mississippi. Paul was listening that night when the last song ZZQ played as a rock station was The Doors’ “The End” and the first song they played as a county station was George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” As sad as the moment made him, he realized after years of avoiding “his parent’s music,” he had come full circle and was suddenly right back in backseat of his parents car listening to George Jones once again. But the most important thing he discovered was different types of music are NOT mutually exclusive! You can love Rock & Roll AND Country AND Gospel AND Classical AND Blues AND Motown AND even Disco and they are all connected and all music comes from the same source and all music has the same goal: to make you feel good. Good music doesn’t happen in a void. It is mostly evolutionary and sometimes, if we are lucky, it is revolutionary. Not the other way around.

So, fast forward forty years and after a lifetime of listening and collecting music and honing his skills as a talk radio host, it is time for Paul to combine those two passions and relive those heady days of Album Oriented FM radio to remind you of some great memories and maybe, just maybe, plant a seed in the ears of some young listener who 40 years from now will be keeping the sounds of great music alive on the radio for future generations.

As Huey Lewis famously sang: “Now the old boy may be barely breathing, But the heart of rock and roll, heart of rock and roll is still beating…”

Join us every Monday from 7:00pm – 9:00pm on 97.9 The Buzz as Paul plays his favorite music mixes bridging genres, generations and groupings. Each show will be themed and the content will be selected by Paul from his personal collection and shared for your listening pleasure. We hope you’ll join Paul every week for a new music journey down the corridors of your memories and hopefully you’ll hear a few surprises along the way.

Be sure to like this page because we’ll be posting hints of upcoming shows and playlists of every show that is broadcast! You can even post your suggestions for future shows!

Just like the title says, if you know what a Mix Tape is, then you are going to love this show!