Valley Streamer serves up music

He may be practicing law as a personal injury and defense attorney Monday through Friday, but come Saturday, Gary Carlton is rocking out on his weekly web radio show.

Appropriately called “Choice Cuts,” his show focuses on serving up the best in 50 years of contemporary music. You can hear him on the OWWR station at SUNY Old Westbury live for two hours every Saturday afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. “I tap into the best of yesterday to today,” said Carlton, of Valley Stream. Though the show only began last year, Carlton is no stranger to the airwaves.

He said his interest in being a disc jockey began several decades ago, at a sixth-grade dance in 1966. He played with music during high school. Then, while enrolled at George Washington University, he worked on a radio show for four years and played music at the Black Ulysess, a disco club there in the 1970s. While on the radio show, he worked with one of his good friends, Dr. Michael Mand, a Hewlett High school graduate. That friendship would help land him his current gig at Old Westbury. “Last year, my friend did a radio show,” he said, “and asked a professor if I could try. And the rest was history.

Carlton plays all kinds of music from holiday to religious tunes. He recently had a show “Long songs,” referring to the latest songs. After his show, several people made requests on his Facebook page, and there was so much input that he was able to do a second show to incorporate their responses.

In addition, he also did a show playing songs with religious themes. “I try to vary, try to expand the audience so they can listen to any music over the past 50 years or so,” he said.

And the show is also somewhat of a family act, as Carlton’s adult daughters, Lindsay and Julie, help out with several shows. Some include a recent “Best of 2011” songs show, and holiday-themed show.

For the music lovers out there, Carlton keeps the focus strictly on music, he explained. Despite his role in local politics as a Democratic zone leader, it is a topic never mentioned, he said, except to stress the importance of voting. And as far as his listeners, it is hard to tell how many tune in to the show, but he gets responses and requests from them on Facebook.

In fact, he posts the weekly themes before the show on Facebook, and his old shows are put up on the website, www.choicecuts.info.

And as far as expanding, Carlton said that is not much of a possibility for right now with his busy attorney schedule. He is satisfied with the way things are going. “We have the right balance,” he said.