The Biggest Beach and Shag Music Listening Audience (documented 15 months and still growing). The Endless Summer Network has ranked in the Top Ten in the world with Warp Radio for the past 10 months (7 months at #5, 3 months at #4)--(see www.warpradio.com for their Top 10). We salute each of You for making this the Premier Beach Music Network.

Current Lineup:

8-10 a M-F: Fessa Hook

10a-2 p Big Daddy Larry Jones

2 p-6 p Fessa Hook

Send requests via e-mail to the address top right above, or call 843-399-WODR (9637)

Hear the Endless Summer Network on 105.3 FM WODR on the Grand Strand (click here for the coverage map).

"Beach Music Top 40 Countdown" with Fessa Hook from 9a - noon Saturdays and Tuesday nights 7-10 pm

"Saturday Night Fish Fry" with Fessa Hook from 6p - 9p Saturdays

On the Beach with Charlie Brown from 9p-Midnight Saturdays

"Totally Northern Soul" with Kev Roberts in England, Sundays, noon to 2 pm

"Roadhouse Blues & Boogie Show" with Fessa Hook, Sunday nights, 9p - midnight

"Shagging In the Carolinas" Status : the book is in the final editing process....!

Meanwhile, we're completing another book: "Beach Music--the First 60 Years."

Beach Music and Shag evolved under different names and styles in many places for nearly 60 years. Some call it good time oldies, Soul, and Rhythm 'n Blues. In other parts of the world the same music is the foundation for Steppin' and Modern Soul. This is the oldest site on the web for news, charts, and now free Webcasts (Beach Music online this week) for Beach Music from the Edge of Paradise with Fessa John Hook (for those of you from the WBT and Beach 106 days; it was Dr. Hook at that time, but hey, I'm evolving too!). Enjoy!

Our Mission

To provide the largest network of Beach Music and Shag aficianados in the world with the complete history, past and present, of the music you love.

Company Profile

The Endless Summer Network currently provides several perspectives on Beach and Shag music to listeners worldwide. #1) From the Roots in the 40s and 50s to the Classics of the 60s, 70s and 80s, to the Great Shag hits of the 90s and Today.

However, we know there are many of you who like yours on the somewhat more energetic, sometimes dark, side. That's where #2 comes in--Roadhouse Blues and Boogie: Jump Blues, Roots, and Good Time Roadhouse music from the past and present.

We offer Specialty shows: 1 includes Beach Music Classics, Spotlights on Artists, Special Summer Spotlights, The great Clubs of the Past, a Special Fish Fry Show on the Weekends (which Fessa Hook first launched over 20 years ago), Roadhouse Retrospectives, a Roadhouse-style Fish Fry and more to come.

If you're an advertiser who wants to reach the largest possible Beach and Shag audience, you're in the right place, with the people who have been doing exactly that for 25 years.

Welcome to the Gateway for Beach Music and Shag history past and present. Beach Music's nearly 60-year heritage is known by many names, from A to Z, by people and fans throughout the U.S. and many parts of the world.

Some associate Northern and Modern Soul with Beach Music from the 60s to today. To many it is a form of Swing Music, Rhythm and Blues, Soul music, Motown oldies, Southern Soul , Carolina Beach Music , and dances including the Bop , the Basic , the Beach Bop , the PC Bop , Fas Dancin , Shag , Soul Dancing , or simple Diggin’ in the Sand.

Beach Music's popularity has evolved in Myrtle Beach , Charlotte , Raleigh , Athens , Augusta , Columbia , Florence , Sumter , Charleston , Savannah , Wilmington , New Bern , Chapel Hill , Goldsboro , Atlanta , Knoxville , Johnson City , Lynchburg , Roanoke , Nashville , Jacksonville Florida , Panama City , Danville , Richmond , Virginia Beach , Kitty Hawk , Nag’s Head , Morehead City , Jacksonville North Carolina , Spartanburg and Greenville South Carolina , Rock Hill , Cheraw , Anderson , Lake Murray and hundreds of points in between.

The Beaches which cradled Beach Music and Shag , Beachdiggers , Shaggers , and Boppers include all those from the sands and pavilions of legends like Ocean Drive , Wrightsville Beach , Carolina Beach , Folly Island , Tybee Beach , Atlantic Beach , Myrtle Beach , Topsail Beach , Minnesott Beach , Oriental Beach , Virginia Beach , Norfolk , Portsmouth , Mosquito Beach , Seabreeze , Shell Island , Bop City , Ocean City and more.

The Shag has been the inspiration for the South Carolina State Dance 1984, and has spawned innumerable dance contests like the National Shag Dance Championships , the Grand Nationals with Charlie Womble and Jackie McGee every May in Atlanta, Georgia , S.O.S. Spring Safari and Fall Migration and Fun Monday , the Jr Shaggers and Junior Shag Contests , Shag Instructors , teachers , lessons , videos , books and brochures , the Association of Beach and Shag Club DJs ( deejays ) , over 100 social Shag Clubs (and their close cousins the Bop Clubs , Swing Clubs , Swing Societies , Lindy Clubs and Jitterbug Clubs throughout the U.S. and the world ).

Beach Music has inspired the Cammys (the Carolina Beach Music Awards ) , the Beach Music Awards of the 80s , the Headliners Awards , It Will Stand Magazine , Dancing On The Edge Magazine , the Beach Music Association International , Beach Nights Magazine , Carolina Class Magazine , The Breeze Network , the legendary Beach 106 or WRDX , 94.9 The Surf or Beach & Boogie the Surf , the Saturday Night Beach Show with Fessa ( the former ‘ Doctor ‘ ) Hook on WBT , Fred Fox's "Million-Dollar Oldies Weekend" on WEWO and now on WLNC , Laurinburg, Tommy Walker's "Midnight Train" on WKDX , Hamlet (and later on KIX/Raleigh), Rockin' Ray Caulder on WEWO , the late Mike Shadeed of WJNC Jacksonville, N.C., Ted Ours on WFLB , Fayetteville, Russ Spooner / WGNI , Wilmington, Bunky Odom on WLNC , or Tommy Stanley's R & B Hour on WEWO , later on WDKD , Kingstree, WDAR , Darlington, WGNI , and now on WTXY Whiteville and co-host of the Sunny Beach syndicated radio Show. And how about Dick Reus, who 'broke' "Girl Watcher" on WLEE , Richmond and sadly passed away while still workin' the phones on Hometown Beach ' Boogie , WTXY . Plus, the original Buddy Edwards Beach Party, on WENC and now on WGQR . (and a guy by the name of Jim Quick started the Coastline Band in the studios of WLNC , while he worked a weekend shift there.) John Fox, Billy Melton, Jerry Peele, Charlie Brown, Jim Henderson, Bill Weathers, Fred Owen, Sunny Beach..... (and more to be added).

Beach Music in one form or another has inspired Beach Music Bands galore for decades ( Embers , Fantastic Shakers , Catalinas , Tams , Coastline Band , Chairmen , Bill Deal & the Rhondels , Delbert McCLinton , Holiday Band , Heart and Soul , O’Kaysions , Band of Oz , Georgia Prophets , Billy Scott , North Tower , and more) (learn more in the Hey Baby Days of Beach Music books by Greg Haynes ) and many other Beach Music Radio legends like Sandy Beach , Steve Hardy , Charlie Byrd , Big John Ruth , Charlie Brown , the Rhythm ‘n Beach Network , the Beach Music Top 40 Countdown , Rhythm ‘n Beach Classics , the Fish Fry , The Roadhouse , Luke Vail , Larry Crockett , Randy Rowland , Dan E. Lockemy , Billy Smith , Freakin’ Deacon , Curtiss Carpenter , April McIntyre , the KIX Good Guys , Kebo Davis , and again dozens more.

Beach Music 45s , cassettes , 8 tracks , LPs , albums , CDs , even a few movies and VHS s.

This is the Gateway.

http://www.beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html

A Huge Thank you to Fessa John Hook for sharing his history of Beach/ Shag music with us. Please see John's wonderful website for more information on the Shag Scene!

The answer is broad and complex--the Shag is just the tip of an iceberg of multi-cultural history lost in the fog of time. The myths about the origin of the Shag leave out 90% of Southern history and its contribution to the world.

For example:

The Shag was active, and 'named' long before the Lindy Hop.

The Shag came before the Jitterbug.

The Shag propagated the Big Apple (not the reverse).

The Shag grew and evolved at the coast in the 50s....the 40s....the 30s....but it started 'elsewhere.'

The Shag pre-dates Rhythm 'n Blues by 40 years.

The alleged 'Northern' Shag was not a northern Shag, it was invented in North Carolina.

The 'two different Shags' were different, but connected (actually, there were Three Shags).

The Shag WAS called the 'Shag' at the Beach in the 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. (as well as 'fas' dancin'', 'bop' and 'basic')

Although the Shag and Swing are cousins--(Shag is clearly a 'swing' dance)--it preceded the Swing by decades. (Although, a case could be made that they both had clear lineages into the teens, even then they diverge in their origins).

Together with the Charleston and the Big Apple, Shag History--when it's fully laid out--depicts Southern history in a way that has never been documented.

Bo Bryan's book, "Shag--Legendary Dance of the South," scratched the surface by portraying the elite community of dancers we now characterize as the Shaggers Hall of Fame. Yet even that history is but the tip of the iceberg--the butter on the grits.

Like to learn more? You'll soon have the opportunity (a new book is coming. 2004 at the earliest, 2005 at the latest).

Contact John Hook via e-mail:

johnhook@mindspring.com

'Fessa John Hook's weeklyThe Beach Music CD Top 20, Beach Music Top 40, Roadhouse Top 40 and Bubbling Under!

See http://www.beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/CDTop20.html

Beach Music's only weekly Beach Music CD Top 20 chart began in 1996 as an extension of the documentation begun by "Dr." Chris Beachley and 'Fessa John Hook in 1979 with It Will Stand Magazine and later with It Will Stand News, Carolina Class Magazine, Dancing On The Edge, the Rhythm 'n Beach Newspaper, and the Rhythm 'n Beach Newsletter.

The weekly charts are developed via reports solicited from the Association of Carolina Shag Clubs (including the Bop clubs of the Mid Atlantic and South), the Association of Beach and Shag Club DJs, the Association of Rhythm 'n Blues DJs, record distributors, retailers, the top, independent Rhythm 'n Beach radio DJs throughout the Southeast, and a wide spectrum of listeners and fans all over the U.S.

A casual look at each chart demonstrates that Beach Music is wide in diversity representing the culture and communities it expresses. This is no surprise when one realizes that "Beach" music culture preceded Rock 'n Roll by more than a decade. It preceded Rhythm 'n Blues by a decade. The why's and wherefores--including 'why' this has never been part of the national consciousness--has been the foundation of Fessa Hook's commitment to Beach Music for 25 years.