‘It’s All Happening’ music-based program is ‘reinvention in how we inform ourselves’

Big Beef has been a video production house and record label since it was founded by Andy Valeri in Dayton in 1978. The independent media company has entered the radio broadcasting realm with “It’s All Happening,” a one-hour music program with a wonderfully eclectic playlist presented in a sound-collage style.

The music is a mix of genres, from rock, punk and Americana to rap, world beat and electronic music often with social or political themes. Valeri is the host of the program, which also includes soundbites, commentary and speeches over instrumental tracks.

“Big Beef is a lifelong thing,” Valeri said. “It’s a platform for all this creative work I’ve done with people for a long time. I also have a long history of policy, political action, political work and civic engagement but this isn’t a news program. It’s fundamentally a music program. It has information and shares realities but it’s not a newspaper. We use music to address issues and to connect the mind and the heart.”

Valeri is known for video programs, from the culturally anarchic “The Eat More Carp Show” to the political commentary series “UnCommon Sense TV.” However, this isn’t his first radio venture. Since 2007, he has been co-piloting the long running “Around the Fringe” with Jim “Rev Cool” Carter on WYSO-FM (91.3). He is also a fill-in DJ at the Yellow Springs station, often covering for Evan Miller’s weekday program, Midday Music, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The website touts “It’s All Happening” as “a reinvention in how we inform ourselves.”

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“The idea for this program first came 17 years ago,” Valeri said. “I started working actively with Rev Cool and the influence and the experience of doing that helped form ideas. The program kept shapeshifting a bit. There was always something there, but I was working, and you’ve got life, so it was always on the backburner. A couple of years ago I got serious and started doing the material work, instead of just ideas. I started the long march, because that’s what it was.

“I had to do this and that,” he added. “I had to set up a business bank account and redo the Website, which took a year. I also started compiling pieces and amassing a library of music and audio clips before I could start making episodes. Now, we have this music radio program for a TikTok world. It does the scrolling for you. It’s an hour; you get in and get out. It replicates how people operate today in our interweb 2.0 world but through radio.”

You can listen to “It’s All Happening” and download episodes at bigbeef.com.

Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or donthrasher100@gmail.com.

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About the Author

Don Thrasher

Don Thrasher, a native of Gadsden, Alabama, has been a weekly contributor for the Dayton Daily News since 2003. He covers national and international music, performance and art. Don is a versatile writer, who has interviewed ballet dancers, professional athletes, authors, comedians, filmmakers, rodeo clowns and other disparate figures.