All the Top 40 Songs in 30 Minutes!
Radio has a way of bringing people together and sometimes in unexpected ways. For Chris O’Brien, listening to shortwave with his young son on a C. Crane Skywave eventually led to something neither of them could have anticipated: a new radio show. Chris recently shared his heartwarming story of how the show came to be, and with his permission, we’re sharing it with you in his own words.
I had the honor of working for many years with veteran radio programmer and CHR voice icon Mark Driscoll. Working with Mark was what my buddy Tim would call “a lifestyle.” More than once we talked from sundown to sunrise. He first taught me through his work at my hometown CHR Top 40 station, Q102 WIOQ. When we began collaborating in 2005, his encyclopedic knowledge of radio and marketing became a daily masterclass. Mark passed away on August 22, 2022. I went through a rough period—I was a new father who had just lost one of my best friends and the best voice in radio imaging with whom to create.
I spent two years on a project that ultimately didn’t work out. Importantly, I had never been—and never had any desire to be—a radio DJ. Then, a little over a year and a half ago, my then-three-year-old son and I started listening to shortwave together on my C. Crane Skywave radio. One day he asked, “Hey, Daddy, how does a radio show come out of the radio?” I played him some old recordings. He stopped me: “No, Daddy… the real radio,” pointing at the Skywave.
So I arranged some time on WRMI in Miami, a 100,000-watt blowtorch on 9455 kHz. The show had to feature me on the air—per my son’s instructions. I had always thought it would be great to just play the hooks of the songs. Attention spans are shrinking; in a TikTok world, a four-hour countdown could be distilled into 30 minutes. All the Top 40 songs in half an hour.
What to call it? Since it would be heard globally, it became The International Queue Forty—or The IQ40 with Chris O’Brien. The concept evolved into a weekly time capsule: news, pop culture, gossip, and radio history sprinkled throughout.
After the first few episodes, emails started coming in, and the rest was history. In February the show gained a great opportunity to air on the Las Vegas-based streamer Max Hits Now (MaxHitsNow.com) throughout the day on Sundays.
You might hear me comparing which KYW Newsradio jingle in Philly is the best, recording thunderstorms in stereo and ranking them, or following a certain Goodyear Blimp around the world just because. And who can forget the time we aired 1190 AM WOWO Fort Wayne’s old C-Quam stereo jingles? They still sound great.
The C. Crane Skywave inadvertently helped create a new radio format I dubbed “Micro-40.”
We now have listeners all over. Our first listener, “Rich from Tampa,” has his own jingle during our weekly thank-you segment. Sue from Manning, South Carolina, received a birthday jingle. Predictable unpredictability is the name of the game—the show is never produced from a rigid template, so each week feels unique.
We just surpassed 40 shows.
And guess what? I love being a DJ. My now five-year-old son works on the show most weeks—unless his duties with the Paw Patrol keep him from the studio.
Thanks, C. Crane.
Today, The IQ40 with Chris O’Brien can be heard around the world on shortwave via WRMI and online. Tune into WRMI with one of our shortwave radios or listen via YouTube (we think you should).
About Chris O’Brien:
I was blessed with a fun career in radio imaging. At 20, Tim Sabean (of the Howard Stern world) hired me as Imaging Director at WYSP in Philadelphia. Later, Lee Abrams and Dave Logan brought me to XM Satellite Radio as one of the original Imaging Directors—Audio Animators for the network. There I produced the imaging for BPM, served as a station voice, and produced XM’s flagship Comedy Channel. Legendary program director Gerry DeFrancesco then hired me to return home to Philadelphia and craft the female-friendly sound of Mix 95.7.
Beyond radio, I co-wrote, shot, edited, and directed the independent feature film Tapped in 2008. I also directed and produced Lou Nolan: A Hockey Life, which screened at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia before several NHL Flyers games, and Penning the Pursuit, an independent documentary about the writer of HBO’s 24/7 series featuring actor Liev Schreiber. I hosted a talk show on XM and, years earlier, on shortwave radio.