Sweet & Swing is a radio programme broadcast on Manx Radio, featuring music from the big band era. The show is presented by Howard Caine (known as "H"), having previously been a joint presentation with the late Jim "The Jazz" Caine, the programme's creator.
In January 2017 Manx Radio introduced a sister programme to Sweet & Swing titled Jumpin' In. Originally the sister programmes alternated on Manx Radio's Friday night schedule over a fixed schedule period until October 2019, when Jumpin' In was allocated its own designated transmission slot on Saturday night.
This was revised in June 2022, following a reshuffle of Manx Radio’s evening programme schedule, which resulted in Jumpin’ In returning to the Friday 9pm spot whilst Sweet & Swing moved to the Tuesday evening slot which had been vacated following the announcement of the suspension of The Folk Show. The revision proved to be only temporary, and Sweet & Swing resumed its Friday night transmissions on September 30.
Sweet & Swing features music from the 1920s through to the 1950s; however, music by contemporary big bands is also included on the playlist. The programme is transmitted on the station's 9:00pm – 10:00 pm slot on Friday nights and is broadcast on FM and MW frequencies as well as worldwide through the Manx Radio website.
Show format
Introduction
The programme begins shortly after the conclusion of the previous music slot at 9:00 pm. Howard Caine commences each episode with the greeting "A very good evening to you" and then proceeds to play the show's theme tune, Slow Train Blues by Eric Winstone.
Main content
The show uses various features in the form of mini series. During its 2017 autumn-to-Christmas run, the main content was entitled Hits of the Blitz, comprising solo artists and renowned acts such as Flanagan and Allen. A new and popular dimension to the show during its spring run of 2018 was a 'Guess-the-year' feature, recalling music and news with the listener invited to recall which particular year was being referred to.
Following the death of the show's creator, a regular feature during the spring run of 2018 was devoted to Jim Caine's personal recollections. Paying tribute, the snippets recalled a personal critique of the band leaders and solo artists who had featured during previous editions of the show.
Another regular feature of the playlist is what Howard Caine refers to as a "twofah", i.e. two-for-the-price-of-one, where two recordings from a particular artist or dance band are played in succession.
Conclusion
The broadcast generally ends with Howard Caine reviewing certain aspects of that particular night's show, whilst Slow Train Blues fades in the background. The edition is then available on the Manx Radio website to be listened to again for the following seven days.
The presentational style of the programme is light-hearted, educational and informative. The programme has listeners as far away from the Isle of Man as the Philippines and New Zealand.
While Manx Radio is a commercial radio station, Sweet & Swing is not interrupted by the playing of commercials. However for a time from September 2022 the show was sponsored by a Manx-based vintner.
History
The programme can trace its lineage from former Manx Radio programmes of a similar genre such as the late Jim Caine's previous jazz show and Manx Radio's Big Band Hour, which was presented by Mark White, a former BBC Radio Controller. Sweet & Swing bases its format on a mixture of music from British dance bands of the 1920s and 1930s and from the big band era. The show was originally presented solely by Jim Caine, but his workload was reduced following a bout of illness; this led some listeners to fear for the show's continuance. However, Howard Caine, employed primarily as a Manx Radio journalist and newscaster, then began presenting the main content of the show.