The Weekend Jamboree With Gene Casey Airs Weekends on WLIW-FM

While driving down the highway on a Saturday afternoon, listeners of WLIW-FM might notice the vintage honky-tonk, “alt-country,” or swampy soul sound coming from the radio, accompanied by the soothing baritone voice of local musician Gene Casey.

Long Island’s only NPR station has introduced “The Weekend Jamboree with Gene Casey.” On Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 11 p.m., East End residents can tune-in to Casey’s new program, which debuted on May 27.

For Casey, it’s an old dream, come true.

“I think every musician has a fantasy of being on the other side of the radio,” Casey said.

Casey believes in the power of music and radio and how it keeps a community of people connected. Fans of live radio participate in a community of people listening to the same music at the same time. Casey said that he looks for and listens for talented local artists and other great musicians that he already knows to feature on his show.

Casey said that he is a total music nerd, so when the idea for the show was first presented to him, he was thrilled by the opportunity — but also nervous.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, I can do this,’ and then I realized how difficult it is to do a show,” Casey admitted. “You need to cover all the ground you want to, and make announcements.”

However, despite the complexity of hosting his own show, Casey overcame his nerves and has been doing it twice weekly since Memorial Day weekend. With each show, Casey said, he learns how to better balance chit chat with music. He noted that he wants to share his passion for music with the public, and hopefully impress his listeners with his vast knowledge of music history.

“I am finding the balance in the first couple shows of an anecdote here and there. I know a lot of the artists that I am playing, or I know a lot about them, and I am such a nerd about music history,” Casey said.

Casey is still learning the best way to host his hour-long show. Since he only has room for about 16 or 17 songs during the show, he must put careful thought into his lineup. He plays local artists with real talent and promise, and hopes to have them come down to the studio so he can support them in the best way possible.

“Right now, I have been strictly curating from my record collection,” Casey said. “But, as I progress, I will be doing interviews live and over the phone, and we have the capability to do live music in the future a little down the road.”

Casey explained that he hopes to continue to support local artists and friends through his new radio show, as that type of publicity can really help their musical careers.

Casey himself is a local musician who has lived in Southold for 20 years. He first came to the East End over 30 years ago, and was strictly focused on working a summer job at the time. But his plans changed. Casey ended up staying and starting a band called the Lone Sharks.

“Nineteen eighty eight is when I started the group, and the East End was a lot wilder back then. There were a lot of bars and places to play music,” Casey reflected. “I have been out here a long time, and every building you point out I have probably played in.”

The East End bar scene has drastically changed since the late 1980s, and distanced itself from the chaotic and sometimes dangerous bars of the past. However, the closing of bars also led to the loss of great places to play music, Casey said.

“As I have gotten older, I have realized how important music is to people. When you have been doing it for a long time, you see how it has impacted people in profound ways,” Casey said.

During COVID-19, Casey came to understand the importance of the social aspect that music and live performances provided to the public. He said that he tried to keep in touch with fans over the pandemic, and in doing so learned how much people missed each other.

“They missed the band, of course, but they missed seeing each other at these venues, too,” he said. “We are providing a service, and we are keeping people connected to each other and to us.”

Casey’s radio show aims to bring people together through music and utilize the medium to connect people from all over the region in listening to the same music at the same time.

Casey himself grew up near Manhattan listening to radio, and the AM WABC was where he recalls he first heard the Beatles. He said that he believes the FM style is a little more laid back. While growing up on radio, Casey began to dream about getting behind the microphone and sharing music with people in the same way that radio show hosts shared music with him.

Now, on The Weekend Jamboree, Casey is living that dream. He enjoys curating a new set of songs for each weekend show. He said that he has a huge collection of music that he has gathered over the years.

If he could only bring a handful of songs and albums with him to a desert island, one of them would be the song “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin. Some might have heard this song on their most recent United Airlines flight, but Casey noted that it is purely beautiful music. The other songs Casey loves are those that Elvis Presley recorded with Sun Records, before anyone really knew him as an artist, and the album Rubber Soul by the Beatles.

It’s that range of music, and an explanation of why it’s dear to his heart, that he hopes to share with his new audience every weekend over the airwaves.