There are many and varied songs and grabs in the Radio Marinara theme but one song makes up the bulk of it. That song is "Captain Dread" by Dreadzone. As far as we can tell it was released first in 1995 in those halycon days of thet that very special genre of music: the early-90s-maritime-ballard-dance-tune-fusion. There was talk at one stage of MTV starting up a special music prize category for the genre but it seemed to have its day in the early 90s.

Of course we love it and it seems so do you. Of all the emails and phone
questions we have got since 1996 when we started this show, "what is the
theme song?" has been the most consistent.

Here are some FAQs about the theme.

Where can you get a copy?

Not sure. It has been spotted on a number of compliations around the town. There was a strange MTV extreme sports dance album in the late 90s that featured it. Thanks to a listener for letting us know about that. There was a give-away disc with a game cube/box/playstation thingy in the early 2000s. But there original album name has been losting in the mists of time by us. If you find it out, please email us and let us know. Or you could try the Dreadzone website

What is the other stuff in the theme?

Well, there is a mixture. Some is obvious, such as the short grab from "The
Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles. We'll see if you can pick any others.
Let us know if you do.

Who actually put it together?

Way back in late 1996 when we started on 3RRR, Tim Allen, Dave Speller and Anthony Boxshall thought of a few different ideas, but one dark and stormy night Tim Allen hid himself in the studio and mixed and matched and sampled and grabbed... and by the next morning there it was: the theme was born and we have never looked back. Thank goodness Tim did hide himself away because the themes suggested by Anth were all 80s new romantics and Dave wanted some blues guitar thing. All were fine tunes but nothing like that developed by Tim Allen.

Has there always been an outro as well as an intro?

No. Originally, the only theme was the intro, but after a while (i.e., in
the late 90s) it became apparent that we needed an outro as well. The
obvious choice was the end of Captian Dread, so Anth & Dave disappeared into the same studio and didn't do too much mixing, sampling, matching or grabbing and the outro was born. It is about the last 60 seconds of the original track. It keeps us honest and on time!

Is there any other uninteresting trivia to be learnt about the RM theme?

No, not really. But if you ask us questions about it, we'll try to answer
them...