THE MEAT WAGON – APRIL 9, 2025

1985

Air Date: 04.09.25 7PM CST

The debut episode of The Meat Wagon dives into the music that shaped my world in 1985 — a year of bold pop, punk grit, early hip-hop, and underground weirdness. It was the year of New Coke, Reagan’s second term, and the AIDS death of Rock Hudson. Things were loud, flashy, and fucked up — just like the music.

Back then, I was glued to the radio – trading tapes with neighborhood kids who raided their older siblings’ record collections. In the Midwest, metal was king, punk was creeping in, and I was still hooked on pop radio — Prince, The Commodores, Morris Day, Madonna. That was my soundtrack. But when I found WMSE 91.7 in Milwaukee, everything shifted. Their punk and metal shows cracked things wide open, and my obsession with music began.

• Theme from Growing Pains
• USA For Africa – We Are the World
• The Commodores – Nightshift
• Prince – America
• Run DMC – King of Rock
• LL Cool J – I Can’t Live Without My Radio
• Metal Church – Metal Church
• Blacklist – Steady on the Steel
• Depo-Provera – Chips Ahoy!
• Couch Flambeau – Mobile Home
• Circle Jerks – Mrs. Jones
• Killdozer – Going to the Beach
• Ramones – Bonzo Goes to Bitburg
• The Replacements – Hold My Life