The Ben Maynard Program
"Tell Your Story". Everyone has a story. Not just the famous. This is a guest driven program but when we are "guest free", It's just YOU and ME! I love music and we will talk a lot about it. Enjoy the ride!
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Episodes
146 episodes
EP. 147 VAN HALEN....THE SAMMY YEARS!
Van Halen loses David Lee Roth and the world starts writing the obituary. Then Sammy Hagar walks in and everything changes, not by imitation, but by evolution. We look at how one of rock’s most debated lineup switches becomes one of its most su...
EP. 146 9/11 Never Forget
You can watch 9/11 footage any day you want, but it still doesn’t recreate what it felt like when the second plane hit and an entire country realized the truth at the same time. We go back to Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001, tracing the t...
EP. 145 We Revisit 1986 By Counting Down Albums That Still Hit Hard
1986 isn’t just a year in music history, it’s a whole ecosystem: MTV turning videos into rocket fuel, labels chasing crossover singles, and artists trying to evolve without losing the thing that made them great. I’m back with part two of my alb...
EP. 144 A Rock Radio Memoir That Ends At The Dakota And John Lennon's Last Interview
One ordinary walk out of the Dakota turned into a memory Laurie Kaye has carried for decades. Laurie is the author of Confessions Of A Rock And Roll Name Dropper, and she joins me to trace the wild, funny, heartbreaking path that led to Decembe...
EP. 143 Charlie Calv Explains How A Modern Indie Label Survives On Quality And Trust
Vinyl is back, CDs are creeping up again, and streaming still pays less than most fans realize. So what does it actually take to run a successful independent record label right now without turning into a faceless upload machine? We sit down wit...
EP. 142 ANSON CORSAIR - What If One Song Could Save Someone
He walked away from a dead-end lab job, flew to India for 40 days of yoga teacher training, and came home with a new relationship to music, purpose, and faith. Musician Anson Corsair joins us for a long-form conversation that starts with albums...
EP. 141 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE"! Raul Explains Why Trades Work Still Wins
One wrong answer and you’re chewing a jelly bean that tastes like wet dog. That’s the deal we make on a live Friday night, and it somehow becomes the perfect way to talk about what really matters: consistency, craft, and showing up when it woul...
EP. 140 How Hugo Valenti And Adam Holland Keep Journey Alive On Stage
You can fake a lot online, but you can’t fake a band that actually sounds right in the room. We sit down with vocalist Hugo Valenti and guitarist Adam Holland to talk about the real journey behind a Journey tribute band that’s built on musician...
EP. 139 Ben Franklin As A Rock Star & The Day MTV Begged Reporters To Watch TV
A bronze statue on a bench sounds simple until you hear what it takes to make it real and why it changes the feel of a town. I’m joined by Pam Lewis, founder of PLA Media and a true music and media insider, to talk about how she gifted “Ben on ...
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EP. 138 BEATLE MANIA ORIGINS: A Lifelong Fan Explains How The Beatles Became The Beatles
You can hear the moment a fan becomes a historian, and that’s exactly what happens when my longtime friend Mario Rodriguez sits down across the table with a lifetime of Beatles knowledge. Mario takes us back to 1968 when he’s three years old, h...
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EP. 137 Two 1981 Rock Masterpieces And The Memories They Trigger
Two records dropped in the summer of 1981 and somehow never stopped living in our heads. We’re celebrating the 45th anniversary of Foreigner 4 and Journey Escape, and we’re doing it the only way that feels honest: track by track, memory by memo...
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EP. 136 Celebrating 40 albums from 1986 PT. 1
Some years don’t just age well, they keep proving their point. 1986 is one of those years, and I’m celebrating the 40-year anniversary by ripping through 20 albums that still deserve a spot in your rotation. Think of this as a fast, listener-fr...
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EP. 135 BREAKFAST WITH BEN - No Ties For Dad And No Mercy For Bad Wi-Fi
Saturday morning starts simple: I’m adjusting the mic, talking breakfast, and chasing the kind of easy conversation that feels like radio you can actually live inside. Then the calendar gives us two perfect springboards for stories: World Marti...
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EP. 134 Donald Mustang Meets Steve Perry
Raul Ortega hijacks the Ben Maynard Program and turns the tables on me with one goal: trace the exact moments that built my music brain. It starts with a scene that’s almost too perfect to be real, my mom dropping a Beatles 45 on the family ste...
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EP. 133 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!" We Put “No Hangover” Vodka And Aged Tequila To The Test
We tried to go live, realized we weren’t actually live, and somehow that set the perfect tone for a Friday night that spirals from goofy to surprisingly useful. After we kick around the day’s “national holidays” and swap a hot air balloon horro...
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EP. 132 My Record Store Day Haul....So Good!
They can take your seat, shrink your legroom, and apparently now charge you for a carry-on, but they can’t take the joy of a great live show and a fresh stack of vinyl. I’m back from a quick Vegas hit with Kathryn, and I’ve got thoughts, starti...
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EP. 131 THE BEST OF THE BILLBOARD HOT 100 MAY 7, 1983!
One week. Forty songs. A whole time machine. We’re building a Billboard Top 40 playlist from May 7, 1983, and the deeper we go, the more you can hear the early 80s music world colliding: rock guitars next to synth hooks, country crossover next ...
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EP. 130 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!" The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Keeps Getting It Wrong
The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame just dropped its latest class and I’m equal parts pumped and irritated. Some picks feel overdue and undeniable, and others make me wonder what the Hall thinks “rock and roll” even is anymore. So I grabbed my notes...
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EP. 129 We Build The Ultimate April 1976 Playlist
April 1976 is one of those weeks where the radio dial feels like an entire universe. We pull up the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 from the first week of April 1976 and react in real time, from songs we wore out as kids to deep cuts we barely recogni...
EP. 128 Growing Up Under Iran’s Regime And Finding Freedom In America
Most Americans only meet Iran through a headline, a chant, or a talking head. Then Sormeh walks into our studio and calmly says what almost never makes the news: the Iranian people are not the Iranian regime, and many Iranians don’t hate Americ...
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EP. 127 How The Roth Era Made Van Halen A Game Changer
Van Halen didn’t just get popular, they changed what rock music sounded like when the needle hit the record. Craig Dodge joins me after a year of planning to talk through the David Lee Roth era and why those early records still feel loud, hungr...
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EP. 126 We Rewind To 1976 To Pick Must Hear Albums Turning 50
1976 is having a moment again, and not as a dusty nostalgia trip. We rewind to the albums turning 50 and lay out a practical listening roadmap for anyone who wants to remember what made the 70s album era so powerful or finally understand why th...
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EP. 125 KISS Destroyer Turns 50 And Still Sounds Massive
Destroyer turns 50, and I’m not letting that milestone pass quietly. KISS released this album on March 15, 1976, right after KISS Alive! lit the fuse, and you can hear a band going from hungry club monsters to full-on arena legends. I break out...
The Abrupt End Of A Drunk Show
The last 20 minutes are the part I can’t fully remember and that’s exactly why we’re talking about it. After our “drunk show” ended abruptly, I went back and watched the footage, and what I saw was a clean, uncomfortable lesson in how fast alco...
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EP. 124 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!"....THE DRUNK SHOW Part Deux
How many drinks does it take before you swear you’re fine, even when your body is clearly not? We put that question on a timer and a breathalyzer, turning a Friday night live hang into a public service experiment with real numbers, real impairm...
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