The Phantom Dancer - new to CRN

The Phantom Dancer is a treasure trove of swing, jazz & dance from live 1920s-60s radio & TV, presented by Greg Poppleton from the studios of 2SER in Sydney.

The original 1920s-60s announcers introduce each song. As Greg puts it, the show is “exciting music and mid- 20th century actuality all in one”. The playlist includes Australian, UK, US and non-English language swing orchestras, vocalists, society bands, bop, trad, blues, cool, jive as well as the occasional hillbilly, western swing and early rock ‘n’ roll live radio material. It's Australia’s longest running swing jazz show playing live 1920s-60s radio material, on the air continuously since 1985, and was the 2007 CBAA award winner for Excellence in Music Programming.

We had a quickfire Q&A with presenter Greg Poppleton.

How did you originally become interested in the music of this era?

At the age of 3 I saw Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet on TV

Where do you source the audio?

I started buying old time radio swing and jazz shows in record shops on LP and the CD. I now source material online, buying mp3s and audio CDs

You've been presenting the show on 2SER for many years now - do you worry about running out of material!?

I started in 1985. At the time one of the station producers asked if I might run out of material in 6 months. 27 years later...

As well as producing this radio show you're also a leader of not one but two vintage bands - tell us about those.

I'm band leader and singer with two vintage bands staffed by world-touring swing jazz musicians. I'm billed as Sydney's only authentic 1920s -1930s dance band singer. Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Broadcasters is a duo to 6-piece band specialising in the pop songs of the 1920s and 1930s. The Lounge Bar Lotharios is an authentic 11-piece 1920s Dance Orchestra

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The Phantom Dancer can be heard weekly on 2SER 107.3, and is now available for rebroadcast by stations through the Community Radio Network satellite service (CRN), playing Mondays from 18:04 to 19:00 EST.

For more information about the program, or CRN, contact the CBAA office on 02 9310 2999 or email