CHUCK CECIL The Swingin Years radio show

Chuck Cecil (December 26, 1922 – April 30, 2019) was a veteran Los Angeles radio broadcaster and longtime host of the syndicated program "The Swingin' Years", a "Best of" radio show for the "big band" era in music, which lasted from 1935 to 1955. While working at KFI, Cecil pitched the idea of a Big Band oriented radio show to the station's management; they agreed. So in June 1956, "The Swingin' Years" went on the air for the first time. The concept was simple: "The Swingin' Years" perpetuates the memory of swing music, popularized by such acts as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. The program focuses primarily on Swing, but also included many of the popular ballads of the era that topped the record charts from 1935 to 1955, that Cecil calls "The Swingin' Years". The music played on the program originally came from KFI's vast record library, as well as from Cecil's personal collection of 40,000+ 78 rpm records. As the show progressed, Cecil included audio clips of his interviews with some of the brightest stars of the big band era. "The Swingin' Years" began as a local Los Angeles show in 1956, but by 1973, Cecil began syndicating the program through American Radio Programs, Incorporated. During its peak, the show aired on hundreds of radio stations across the United States, in Europe and on the Armed Forces Radio Network. During its first three decades the show proved popular with members of the World War II generation, but by the late 1980s, that generation had started to die off, as did the number of stations carrying a Big Band format. "The Swingin' Years" has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts over the past decade among younger people interested in swing music and swing dancing. Recently, "The Swingin' Years" has aired on a number of listener supported public radio stations across the United States. With the emergence of the internet, fans worldwide have sent contributions to keep "The Swinging Years" on public radio, and, by extension, streaming on the Internet. Cecil produced "The Swingin' Years" from his home in Ventura, California, where he moved from the San Fernando Valley in 2002, utilizing "a massive library of more than 30,000 78-, 45- and 33-rpm records, and his own personal library of interviews with 356 band leaders, singers and sidemen..." In June 2013, the show celebrated its 57th anniversary of existence. more at WIKIPEDIA