Online Podcast Brings Big Band Music to Seniors

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Gone are the days of record players, juke boxes, and big band music. But a local music historian isn’t letting our past disappear for good. He produces and hosts a monthly podcast featuring songs from the good ole days.

41NBC caught up with seniors living at the Gables at Wolf Creek retirement community in Macon to learn how they’re using the new technology to recall the greatest memories of their past.

“It sounds like an old radio show, the biggest difference is its on the internet,” podcast producer and host Ben Sandifer said.

The podcast is called “The Greatest Memories.”

“The music starts in the big band era, the late 30s, and the jazz and swing and the era of the crooners like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, some of the 50s and 60s music,” Sandifer said.

Sandifer says he hears from listeners who tell him they don’t hear these songs anymore and it is really neat to have something like this podcast.

“Music has a way of taking you back,” Gables resident Annie Kalitta said.

“It makes me go back when I was younger,” Gables resident Kathy Affolter said.

Kalitta and Affolter are learning how to access the podcast online and listen to the music that takes them back in time.

“The internet to the senior market can still be a bit intimidating,” Sandifer said. “Some are still learning but we’re showing them how to do it and they’re finding its not as scary as they thought.”

“And if they can’t figure it out they can ask their grandchildren to help them!” community manager at the Gables Jimmie Powell said.

“This place was rocking! I mean there were some people that couldn’t stand up but they were rocking in their chairs,” Kalitta said.

Powell says the music played during the podcast revives the senior citizens.

“It rejuvenates us and it makes us feel totally young again and there’s not that many things that do that for us,” Powell said.

“When somebody says ‘Wow, you played a song that I haven’t heard in a long time, it brought back this memory or that memory,’ that’s what makes it all worthwhile,” Sandifer said.

The newest podcasts are launched the first of every month and it’s free to listen. In first two months, people in 33 states and 17 countries have tuned into the show.

The podcast also features memories from the residents living at the Gables and the Cottages on Wesleyan in Macon, the Cottages of Woodland Terrace in Milledgeville, and the Cottages of Monroe in Monroe County.

Click here to connect with “The Greatest Memories” and to request your own songs.