Sirius Satelite Radio will be celebrating what would have been legend Hilly Kristal’s 76th birthday, with a special broadcast celebrating his life. Hilly Kristal, the founder and owner of the legendary rock club CBGB, died in late August.
The show, "Happy Birthday Hilly Kristal," will rebroadcast an interview conducted with Kristal by his friend and Sirius host, Meg Griffin.
Recorded at CBGB on Thanksgiving Day 2003, the interview features Hilly Kristal describing the early days of CBGB and the artists who broke out during that era including The Ramones, Pattie Smith, Talking Heads, Television and Blondie. Hilly also discusses how important providing a space for artists was to him and how the most legendary ‘punk’ club became so by accident.
Kristal lost a bitter fight with the club's landlord last year to stop the club's eviction from its home of 33 years. Last October, CBGB had its final show featuring Patti Smith who first performed at CBGB in February 1975. The show was broadcast live on Sirius. During the final show, the legend was using a cane to get around and showing the effects of his cancer treatment.
Sirius Disorder (ch 70), will air "Happy Birthday Hilly Kristal" this Sunday, September 23rd at 9am ET and again at 6pm ET. An encore broadcast will air September 24th at 5pm ET.
Wish I had Sirius I would love to hear something like this. It beats crap like Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio.
He;s still dead, though
First, as a New Yorker who went to CBGB a few times, and an XM subscriber, I wish I could hear the show too. But Bob Dylan's show is one of the best things to come from a broadcasting signal of any kind in years. If he had never written one song, he would be one hell of a radio personality! Dreams, themes and schemes. You go, Bobby Zimmerman. You tell it.