Mark Farner was co-founder/singer/guitarist for Grand Funk Railroad who were founded in 1969. With Grand Funk he had 6 Platinum and 3 Gold records from 1969 to 1975. In 1976, Mark went on to release 7 solo albums including his latest Closer To My Home that dropped in 2024. In our May of 2025 interview with Mark, multi-award winning program director Ray White delves into many of his career highlights going back to his breakthrough in the music industry, up to talking about his latest album release. In our showcase segment we also feature a band that launched their career in the late 1960’s…Jethro Tull whose brand new project is titled Curious Remnant. Don’t miss this special “Back From The 1960’s” episode brought to you by your friends at Classic Artists Today!
Ray's passion for music and the musicians, started as a youth listening to transistor radios under the covers at bedtime. The bands and performers he liked, he followed throughout their career. In 2005 he was fed up with the evolution of a majority of the music the radio stations were playing and began investigating the bands he grew up listening to in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. Radio wasn't playing any of those band's "new" songs, just the "classic" hits. Researching the industry for a year, Ray launched Classic Artists Today syndicated radio show - featuring "new" songs by "classic" artists and included interviews and classic tracks too. The show was carried by several dozen radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. Featuring Rock/Pop musicians and bands, Ray and the show won several awards from New Music Weekly magazine. With the success of these shows, he launched Coool CAT syndicated radio show, 5 years later, featuring Soul/R&B/Smooth Jazz/Blues performers and bands. In 2017, Ray starting producing his show in a 30-minute podcast format. Today, you can hear his work at Sittin' In With The CAT and Sittin' In With The Coool CAT. The legacy continues!
