PODCAST · music
The Ben Maynard Program
by Ben
"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! #podcast #benmaynardprogram #music #tellyourstory #music #spotify #maynard #videopodcast #[email protected] #socialmedia #journey
Episodes
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EP. 151 1982 BILLBOARD HOT 100 - OCTOBER 16, 1982!
Send us Fan Mail One chart date can tell you everything about an era, and October 16, 1982 is one of those weeks. We go guest-free and turn the Ben Maynard Program into a playlist workshop, running the Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 from #40 to #1 and pulling out the tracks that still sound like “radio...
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EP. 150 Claude Carmichael: The Music Stories You’ve Never Heard & His New Album Tennessee Hill
Send us Fan Mail Claude Carmichael joins The Ben Maynard Program to discuss his new Americana and country-leaning album, *Tennessee Hill*, and a remarkable music career filled with legendary artists, studio stories, film and television work, and lessons learned behind the scenes. Claude shares...
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EP. 149 Bob Dylan’s Country Roots Explain More Than You Think
Send us Fan Mail Bob Dylan gets labeled a hundred different ways, but one connection keeps coming back: COUNTRY. On this episode of The Ben Maynard Program, I sit down with author, producer, and longtime music business professor Don Cusic to talk about his book Country Bob: Dylan and Country…
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EP. 148 DARLENE KOLDENHOVEN — FROM CHURCH SOLO TO HOLLYWOOD, GRAMMY SUCCESS & YANNI
Send us Fan Mail What does it take to build a music career that lasts more than 45 years? GRAMMY Award-winning singer, pianist, composer and educator Darlene Koldenhoven joins me to talk about her incredible journey—from a shy three-year-old hiding behind her dress during a church solo to the...
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EP. 147 VAN HALEN....THE SAMMY YEARS!
Send us Fan Mail Van Halen loses David Lee Roth, and the world starts writing the obituary. Then Sammy Hagar walks in—and everything changes. We go record by record through the Sammy years: 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Balance—four albums, four #1s, and millions of records…
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EP. 146 9/11 Never Forget
Send us Fan Mail 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 timeline from the first impact at the...
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EP. 145 We Revisit 1986 By Counting Down Albums That Still Hit Hard
Send us Fan Mail 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 albums turning 40 countdown, and while…
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EP. 144 JOHN LENNON'S LAST INTERVIEW!
Send us Fan Mail 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 December 8, 1980, when she co-conducted…
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EP. 143 Charlie Calv Explains How A Modern Indie Label Survives On Quality And Trust
Send us Fan Mail 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 with Charlie Calv, president of Deko...
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EP. 142 ANSON CORSAIR - What If One Song Could Save Someone
Send us Fan Mail 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 you can actually hold in your hands...
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EP. 141 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE"! Raul Explains Why Trades Work Still Wins
Send us Fan Mail 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 would be easier to tap out. We start…
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EP. 140 How Hugo Valenti And Adam Holland Keep Journey Alive On Stage
Send us Fan Mail 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 musicianship, not costumes and tricks. From…
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EP. 139 Ben Franklin As A Rock Star & The Day MTV Begged Reporters To Watch TV
Send us Fan Mail 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 the Bench,” a Benjamin Franklin…
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EP. 138 BEATLE MANIA ORIGINS: A Lifelong Fan Explains How The Beatles Became The Beatles
Send us Fan Mail 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, his dad drops the needle on Meet The...
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EP. 137 Two 1981 Rock Masterpieces And The Memories They Trigger
Send us Fan Mail 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 memory, with the little details that…
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EP. 136 Celebrating 40 albums from 1986 PT. 1
Send us Fan Mail 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-friendly guide to building a killer…
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EP. 135 BREAKFAST WITH BEN - No Ties For Dad And No Mercy For Bad Wi-Fi
Send us Fan Mail 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 Martini Day and American Eagle Day. One...
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EP. 134 Donald Mustang Meets Steve Perry
Send us Fan Mail 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 stereo and typing out the lyrics to…
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EP. 133 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!" We Put “No Hangover” Vodka And Aged Tequila To The Test
Send us Fan Mail 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 horror story that makes skydiving sound...
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EP. 132 My Record Store Day Haul....So Good!
Send us Fan Mail 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, starting with why Frontier’s bag policy...
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EP. 131 THE BEST OF THE BILLBOARD HOT 100 MAY 7, 1983!
Send us Fan Mail 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 to new wave, and the MTV era…
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EP. 130 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!" The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Keeps Getting It Wrong
Send us Fan Mail 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, went live on the patio, and did…
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EP. 129 We Build The Ultimate April 1976 Playlist
Send us Fan Mail 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 recognize until the title jogs the memory....
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EP. 128 Growing Up Under Iran’s Regime And Finding Freedom In America
Send us Fan Mail 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 Americans at all. She grew up in Tehran,...
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EP. 127 How The Roth Era Made Van Halen A Game Changer
Send us Fan Mail 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, hungry, and unreal decades later. We…
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EP. 126 We Rewind To 1976 To Pick Must Hear Albums Turning 50
Send us Fan Mail 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 these records still dominate classic...
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EP. 125 KISS Destroyer Turns 50 And Still Sounds Massive
Send us Fan Mail 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 record, the memories, and the...
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The Abrupt End Of A Drunk Show
Send us Fan Mail 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 alcohol can flip the switch on judgment,...
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EP. 124 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!"....THE DRUNK SHOW Part Deux
Send us Fan Mail 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 impairment, and a hard line about never...
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EP. 123 We Break Down Who Deserves A Spot In The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Why
Send us Fan Mail Three things collided this week: desert heat, a driverless ride that actually worked, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ballot that begged for a verdict. After a two-day run at Phoenix’s Extra Innings Music Festival, we came home with sunburned shoulders, a camera roll of Waymo...
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EP.122 From Streets To SWAT - What Makes A Good Cop In A Hard World
Send us Fan Mail A directionless teen takes a wild turn into purpose, discipline, and service—then ends up racing across Morocco on TV. That’s Jim Vaglica’s path: 32 years in law enforcement, 16 on a regional SWAT team, and a front-row role in the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt. We open the door...
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EP. 121 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE"!....FROM JASON WITH LOVE!
Send us Fan Mail A cool 58 degrees, an empty propane tank, and a heroic cup of hot cocoa set the stage for a live Friday night hang that turns into a love letter to radio, a deep dive into Friday the 13th, and a reality check on Valentine’s Day. We kick off with World Radio Day and trace how…
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EP. 120 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!"....From National Days To Super Bowl Takes
Send us Fan Mail Friday Night Live returns with a burst of energy, a few hot takes, and a whole lot of nostalgia. We kick off with quick, friendly reminders to subscribe and jump straight into National Working Naked Day and National Frozen Yogurt Day—because yes, the strange rhythm of our…
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EP. 119 Merch, Music Charts, And A Comeback Catch-Up
Send us Fan Mail The lights are back on, the hat is on, and we’re rolling with a no-spin catch-up that turns a rough few weeks into fuel. I open the studio door on the cold, the flu, and the beard that survived it all, then lay out how we’re rebuilding momentum: new hats for the community…
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EP. 118 MARISA FULLENKAMP...A Young Songwriter, Live And Unfiltered
Send us Fan Mail Two chords in and you can already feel it: the tug of a small town, the pulse of a busy café, and the stubborn belief that songs should sound like people. We sit down with 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist Marissa Fullenkamp to talk through the craft and courage behind her...
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EP. 117 We Revisit January 1980’s Billboard Hits And Build The Ultimate Playlist
Send us Fan Mail Ready for a time machine that still grooves? We kick off the year by rewinding to the Billboard Hot 100 from the first week of January 1980 and taking a lively, story-rich tour through the songs that defined a moment when radio rotation and word of mouth made hits last. From the...
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EP. 116 Three Friends Reflect On 2025, Trade Stories On History And Family, And Toast To A Brighter 2026
Send us Fan Mail A different backdrop, the same heartbeat. We took the year-end show to the patio and opened the door to a free-flowing conversation with friends—part celebration, part confession, all connection. Between mic tests, guest links, and a stubborn winter cough, we found a groove that...
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EP. 115 IT'S THE CHRISTMAS SHOW 2025!
Send us Fan Mail Holiday shows should feel like a living room: a little noisy, full of laughter, and anchored by stories that matter. This Christmas special does exactly that. We start with a simple question—what does Christmas mean to you?—and follow it into memories of ping pong tournaments in...
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EP. 114 BILLBOARD'S 50 "BEST" BANDS....WHAT A JOKE!
Send us Fan Mail Rock deserves better than vague labels and fuzzy math. So we pulled up Billboard’s “50 Best Rock Bands” and put it under a bright stage light, testing every pick against a simple, honest standard: influence, longevity, catalog depth, cultural impact, and rock radio airplay. When...
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EP. 113 ASHLEY FELTON! Blending 90s Heart With Today’s Country
Send us Fan Mail Country music hits different when you hear the story behind the song. We welcome Southern California’s own Ashley Felton, a powerhouse vocalist who blends the heart of 90s country with a bold, modern edge—and a schedule packed with 150-plus shows a year. We talk about the real…
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EP. 112 From Ranch Life To The Road, Olivia Harms Shares How Tradition Shapes Her Music
Send us Fan Mail If you miss steel guitar, two-step tempos, and songs born from real work and long roads, you’ll love this one. We welcome Olivia Harms—a ranch-raised artist carrying the torch for true country western honky tonk—who opens up about life on a cattle ranch, the Bakersfield legends…
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EP. 111 Valor And Faith: Mel Borden’s Journey
Send us Fan Mail A firefight in a jungle clearing. A river turned to splinters by a Browning Automatic Rifle. A mountain trail threaded through rocks and rigged with explosives. Then months of hospitals, traction, and quiet miracles. That’s the terrain of our time with Mel Borden—101st Airborne...
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EP. 110 A Friday Night With Ben: From Malört Mayhem To Music History
Send us Fan Mail The phones won’t stop ringing, the Malört keeps pouring, and somehow we still manage to time-travel back to the moment music met television and everything changed. We kick off with the Malört Challenge and a flurry of live calls, then pivot to a genuine, grounded tribute to...
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EP. 109 From MTV’s Birth To Billboard’s Top 40: November 1, 1981 Unpacked
Send us Fan Mail Ready to drop into a very specific moment when radio ruled and MTV was just learning to crawl? We spin the clock back to November 1, 1981 and walk through the Billboard Top 40, blending chart facts with the stories, studio secrets, and memories that make these songs glow again.…
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EP. 108 IT'S HALLOWEEN! Our Top 10 Halloween Movies: From Classics To Cult Favorites
Send us Fan Mail Three longtime friends sit down to build the ultimate Halloween watchlist—and accidentally write a love letter to the entire horror genre. We start with a simple premise: the best movies to watch in October don’t need jack-o’-lanterns on screen, they just need that unmistakable...
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EP. 107 "GALE BIRD"....Country Music, Faith, Marriage and Real-Life Stories
Send us Fan Mail What if a country song could change the way you love the people closest to you? We sit down with Josh Gale and Sean Monahan of Charleston’s Gale Bird to unpack their high-energy live show, the heart behind their new single “Roses,” and why they reject the “Christian country” box...
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EP. 106 RIP ACE FREHLEY....MY TRIBUTE TO THE SPACEMAN!
Send us Fan Mail The news hit like a power chord: Ace Frehley, the Space Ace who helped launch KISS into legend, is gone at 74. We didn’t plan this show, but some losses demand a pause, a story, and a stack of records. So we pulled the vinyl, opened the gatefolds, and traced how one guitarist...
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EP. 105 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE"! The "Greatest" Greatest Hits Albums of All Time
Send us Fan Mail What if a single album could define an era, spark a memory, and convert a newcomer in one spin? We dive into the compilations that earned permanent residency in car stereos, living rooms, and playlists—records that are more than samplers, they’re time machines. From Queen’s...
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EP. 104 From No-Show to Big Show: Sheriff Chad Bianco on Leadership, Crime, and a Blueprint to Rebuild California
Send us Fan Mail The show opened on an empty chair and an honest apology—and then turned into one of our most substantive conversations yet. Sheriff Chad Bianco, longtime Riverside County law enforcement leader and 2026 California gubernatorial candidate, sat down with us to map out practical,...
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EP. 103 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE!"....The One-Hit Wonder Time Machine
Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered about the untold stories behind those songs that dominated the airwaves for just a fleeting moment? Friday Night Live takes you on a musical journey through decades of one-hit wonders, revealing the surprising connections and career trajectories that followed these...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
"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! #podcast #benmaynardprogram #music #tellyourstory #music #spotify #maynard #videopodcast #[email protected] #socialmedia #journey
HOSTED BY
Ben
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Ben Maynard Program have?
The Ben Maynard Program currently has 150 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Ben Maynard Program about?
"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! #podcast #benmaynardprogram #music #tellyourstory #music #spotify #maynard #videopodcast...
How often does The Ben Maynard Program release new episodes?
The Ben Maynard Program publishes regularly with 150 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Ben Maynard Program?
You can listen to The Ben Maynard Program on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Ben Maynard Program?
The Ben Maynard Program is created and hosted by Ben.
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