A sky the color of orange sherbet and ash settles over fresh snow as I learn my 2018 Mustang GT needs a transmission—first a hopeful $500 fluid fantasy, then a hard $10,000 estimate, and finally a lifeline: a $4,500 rebuild with a one-year warranty and a two-day turnaround. That whiplash becomes the heartbeat of this episode: how fast perspective can flip when the right voice picks up the phone, and how gratitude shows up in the small things—heat from a wood stove, power that stays on, and a plan you can execute.

From there, we slide into radio life—guest-hosting swaps, clearing the throat after a cold, and the easy rhythm of doing a show from home while snow stacks up outside. With the tow arranged and the budget triaged, I lean into the nostalgia that shaped my ears: Columbia House’s 13-for-a-penny thrill and the parental scolding that followed, the K-Tel commercials that promised “20 original hits” in a single breath, and the occasional heartbreak of sound‑alike tracks posing as the real thing. Those compilations taught a generation how eclectic radio once was—disco next to rock, novelty next to soul—when Top 40 felt like a big, unruly family reunion.

We cap it with a time-capsule track: Charlie Daniels’ Uneasy Rider, a talk‑sung barroom tale that somehow climbed into the top ten with all its sharp edges intact. It’s a reminder that pop radio once embraced long narratives, jagged language, and songs that played like short films. That sets up the big question I’m bringing to the air: what’s the most underrated classic rock song? The pick you defend in your car, the one that never got its due, the track that still makes your chest tighten when the first chord hits.

If you love real-life curveballs, radio craft, and music rabbit holes, you’ll feel at home here. Listen, share your underrated classic rock contender, and if this episode hit you somewhere between the wallet and the heart, subscribe and leave a review so more folks can find the show.