They play 2 repeated episodes (1 Countdown and 1 Rock Arena) in week 2 and then won't show Countdown on week 4. As it won't be Recovery in week 4 it may be OK, as long as there are not more repeats of whatever they will be showing.

This week had better have some good stuff on it, hope they make use of the early start and don't waste too much time showing clips.

Bring back John Williams to the ABC archives, Retro Month has dropped since he left.

So rage have made it official that weekend four is the 90's. How very putrid ... Enjoy this last weekend.


rage say: week 4 is 1990s retro... but it's a goodin because it's from the rage archives. yes, we are officially retro and feeling mighty old.


What do they mean from the rage archives? .... What... video clips of the ghastly 1990's?

And ummmm .... rage began in 1987 and not in the 90s!

I would have thought at least a few 1990 Countdown Revolutions.

That doesn't sound good, there's a lot of 90's I like Blur Suede Oasis Radiohead are a few. But Rage 90's probably means something dreadful like Nick Cave and You Am I that is lame 90's Australian artists :grimacing:

Sounds like it could be all Countdown Revolution episodes from 1990 then. Or, much worse, 10:30 Slot, if there are no Recovery episodes part of the playlist either.

While I actually like to see some Countdown Revolution as part of retro month, they've never dedicated a full night to it before, and if so, it would seem bizarre to me that they would *only* show episodes from 1990.

The 1990 episodes were bad in terms of hosts, but (for me) there could be some rare music videos or some acts I like performing 'live' in the studio.

Still, I would prefer rage had a Factory and/or 1989 Countdown Revolution night if they were to spend a whole night on this era.

edit - oh, from the 'rage archives'. That sounds to me like they might be re-airing guest programming segments/selections from the 90s... which is a dumb idea (during retro month, anyway), IMO. Expect to see Triple J-favoured acts like Silverchair, Powerfinger, You Am I guest programming segments, then; not visiting international artists (unless they're 'alternative').

If that's the case, the only 'highlights' could be if they were to show some music videos that never get selected by guest programmers now... but even then, that's not really 'retro month'.

I really don't think rage will even feature Countdown Revolution on 'rage goes retro 4' this year.

It sounds like rage are making it about rage in the 90s playing inserts of a whole decade of Guest Programmers which really defeats the purpose of 'rage goes retro'.

If rage had recorded copies of their beginnings in 1987 up until about 1991 with their original programs then that would be interesting but I think they just played videos rather than recording the shows as such like Countdown, Rock Arena, Flashez, Countdown Revolution, The Factory, GTK e.t.c..


Maybe rage want to place rage into the main arena and it's some new idea they have thought of but I thought that's what their Birthday celebration specials were for a few years ago.

This year so far started out so BRILLIANT on weekend one with five unplayed 1982 Episodes of Countdown. And then last weekend on weekend two we get three unplayed Countdown's and then two repeats which didn't make sense, especially the Rock Arena with The Reels!

Hopefully this weekend rage make the best of their time starting at 10:41 and fill the show with as much Countdown as possible alongside the GTK Episodes they are playing.

I have noticed this year that Countdown Episodes are finishing around 4:00 am when in past years it went till 5:00 am. I am finding this annoying as it's an hour of archival footage they are not playing whether it be Countdown, Rock Arena or Countdown Revolution etc...


It's also interesting that rage scrapped the Dr Hook episode of Countdown which i would have loved to have without Timer Code and aren't making that episode up in a hurry!

I also find it interesting that rage still haven't played the remaining one episode of Flashez they have and none of the fantastic inserts for the show as they are very fun and sooooo retro!.

Anyhow, they have put their foot down for 'rage goes retro 4' and have made it very clear they don't really care for their main audience in January, so it's goodbye to Countdown after this weekend for another year.

Goodbye beautiful world after this weekend.

I wonder if the finishing at around 4am thing has to do with daylight saving being/not being a thing in different states? Though it has never been a problem before.

From the last couple of years, rage have been very rigid about retro month content (and guest programmer/special content, for that matter) that isn't just a repeat of part of the Saturday morning show (the 5-6am Sunday hour) finishing by 5 a.m.; presumably so they can be sure that only PG content is repeated on ABC ME, even though the ABC ME shows don't start until 9:30 p.m. at the earliest (and often start later). Though nothing on Countdown is above a PG rating anyway! It's silly.

I remember when we used to get new retro month content up until 7 a.m. Sunday. That gave them plenty of time to squeeze in things like GTK etc. without impacting too much on the rest of the show.