Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
Lake Wales residents Mike and Irene Spotswood produce Cup of Joe Radio show, a nationally- syndicated radio show aimed at veterans with "the healing power of music." The show is intended to ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD, that continues to affect veterans who experienced the stresses and horrors of war.
Mike, who is a Marine who did two tours in over the course of 20 months in Vietnam, and Irene, a former nurse, say their two-hour radio show has grown tremendously since LakeWalesNews.net featured their story in 2022.
Mike and Irene Spotswood visited numerous legendary music venues during a recent road trip with their "Cup of Joe Radio" show, receiving warm welcomes and gratitude for their work in using "the healing power of music" to aid veterans. They travel with Mike's service dog, Truman, and were guests of Fame Studios in Mussel Shoals, Alabama, among other venues.
Mike said he wants the information and interviews on the show to reach generations of younger veterans to help make their return to civilian life easier. Speaking from experience, Mike expressed a strong belief in the therapeutic power of music and has struggled with PTSD since his return from Vietnam so many decades ago.
"Everyone seems to like music," Irene said. "It changes your mood, it lifts your mood. It makes you think about where you were at the time you first heard it. It helps you heal."
"There are many studies in the healing power of music and many health professions have contributed to the show by interviews," she added.
The show is the number one rock & roll show every Friday, and Saturday in the 4-6 PM Eastern time block on iHeart Radio via Wreaths Across America Radio Network. Cup of Joe Radio was the 1st external radio show that Wreaths Across America picked up outside their own radio network. It has forged the way for over sixty independent shows that now air on Wreaths Across America Radio Network.
Doug Bradley, a weekly guest on the program, wrote about music therapy and war in his book "We Gotta Get Outta This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War." Rolling Stone magazine named the book the Best Music Book of 2015.
Bradley said his experience with this is personal - he was in a combat reporter in Vietnam - but it is also an area he has studied and interviewed others about extensively
Many veterans Bradley has spoken to from recent wars do not have this same sense of a shared soundtrack, as music has become more splintered and personal. However, younger generations still enjoy the shared soundtrack of the Vietnam War, he said.
"We'd ask them 'If you guys listened to music in a group, what did you listen to?'" Bradley said, "and they said ... some of that would be CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and (Jimi) Hendrix, the kind of stuff that we listened to in Vietnam."
Jason Murray VSO Veterans Service Officer still gives weekly updates on VA Veterans Administration updates. Mike said there's one rule: "no politics." He said he is independent and more concerned with veterans' issues than politics.
Cup of Joe Radio host Mike Spotswood paused in from of the famous marquee of Stax Records in Memphis Tennessee during their radio-show road trip to famous music venues and recording studio. The show is produced seasonally in their home studio in Lake Wales.
The show's debut episode on Feb. 14, 2020, was recorded in the couple's Laker Wales studi along with former AFN Armed Forces Broadcasters. Mike has worked in television and radio around the world, broadcasting with the Armed Forces Network in Germany from 2000 to 2003, before retiring to split time between Tupper Lake, New York, and Lake Wales, while globetrotting and recording their "Boomers on Travel" podcast.
Last year Irene, and Mike took their radio show on the road, and were guests of some of the most iconic recording studio's who shaped this country's music. Traveling West from their summer home in the Adirondacks, Mike, and Irene were guests of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio, and Stax Records in Memphis Tennessee.
They also visited Sun Studios, a music destination in Memphis, Tennessee, that tells the critical story of the musical pioneers who overcame racial and socio-economic obstacles to create the music that changed the cultural complexion of the world.
The Cup of Joe Radio hosts were also guests of the Bob Dylan Center in Oklahoma City Oklahoma. which offers unprecedented access to the creative life of one of America's most important and influential artists.
Mike and Irene visited Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals Alabama. a very special place for artists. Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Lou Rawls and many others have recorded for the Muscle Shoals sound, and Mike said this was " the icing on the cake."
Mike says he was stunned by the welcome they received at Fame Studio. Linda Hall, the founders' wife, called her son Rodney Hall, "who came into the studio to give us a special tour of the studio, and treated us like family."
Last year they traveled to Liverpool England's Cavern club the birth place of the Beatles, The club's band announced Cup of Joe Radio is in the house, and they were greeted warmly, and the patrons responded with a loud round of applause.
Mike Spotswood brought his "Cup of Joe Radio" show to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland during a recent show road trip.
So, what does the future hold for Cup of Joe Radio?
"I think another road trip may be in the cards," Irene says, "Visiting these famous music studies and experiencing the dedication to music they represent is like a rebirth for our beliefs in the healing power of music, and it never gets old it just gets better."
"There is a DJ in California who is still on the air in his 90's and that is our goal," Mike added.
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