Wednesday Playlist Day (Off Air)

Not much to tell today.

Had to actually do some work other than music stuff, but managed to make some substitutions in the playlist to toughen it up a bit. Added more Canadian but in the rock genre, so hopefully the mix will be more evenly balanced.

It honestly feels kinda weird to be consciously changing things around to sound more like the show usually sounds. Wow, what's happening? Is there a cross over of two worlds or what?

However, there is always a bright side. I brought home a whack of CDs from the station (never do that) so that the sounds were fresh to me. The strange thing about CIUT is that there are tons of discs but no one ever uses them. In this corner at least, that is going to change, pronto.

Never a dull moment.

Have posted to blogger the playlist. Let's see how it plays out.

A Typical Tuesday (off air)

It used to be that when I was under stress, I just clock watched all night long. You know, woke every hour checking to make sure the alarm didn't crap out or the power hadn't been cut or something.

Last night, instead, I dreamt that I was doing a show and not only were the ads thrown all over the station out of their cases but I had no idea what I was supposed to be playing. The CDs were running at the same time as the prerecord ahead of me and then...DEAD AIR... and I was powerless, catatonic in fact, to do anything about it.

Woke up in a cold sweat. Later than usual, as a matter of fact.

I can only hope that when the specialists' appointments I am facing are over, things will go back to their usual mildly chaotic ways.

Mind you, I would rather have nightmares about monsters or falling than screwing up while on air.

There's no denying it, I am a programmer to the core.

New Direction?

Survived another weekend. Have to admit to not listening to the local music stations while commuting out of town to see my father. Somehow the sound of silence (OK, I don't drive a hybrid, I did have road and engine noise) was a better choice in some ways, but not so in others.

Was thinking the entire time about what changed with the show.

Now I know that sounds kinda of stupid, in fact typing this calls into question my sanity even as I say it. Yup, I am the one picking the music. As much as I blame the dog (also for foul odours, losing lottery numbers and a general messiness) she doesn't really have a lot to do with it. And for the last four years or whatever it is now, I seem to do this organically. So I decided when I got back from the trek to start looking at music for this week.

Weird. Another one with a lot of eerie, contemplative, almost spiritual stuff.

Is it because of the fall? Is it because of all the personal shit that is swirling around of late?

Might take another run at this tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm burning this one. It really does reflect a deep seated connection to something. Maybe it's only for me.

Stay tuned.

Uh Oh (Off Air)

The day after a show airs is full of apprehension.

I sometimes question why I put myself through this every week.

Normally there is some sort of feedback in social media during the actual broadcast and thus an affirmation that the playlist is going over well. But when the Twitter and Radioflag feed is quiet....
Well, it's easy to think that perhaps the direction of the show was not what the audience thought it would be.

This week, for example, there was more experimental and electronic music in the mix. Not really sure how that happened but it did, that's the way an open format show rolls sometimes. If it stuck to strictly indie and rock, well, it wouldn't be open format any more. There was also a very large Canadian component. Not a liability normally but most of the artists were perhaps not familiar to a broader audience. In any case, my canary in the coal mine, a friend and faithful listener, noted that the show was different in it's over all feel. Translation: thud?

Add to that the fact that the previous show on air was kinda off the beaten track too. At one point I thought perhaps she had played Michael Buble. Not the usual fare for Catwoman (a rockabilly/garage/punk/Latin show) (Was there something in the air this week?)

Today will spend some time going over the playlist and see if I can figure out what changed. Also review and pull from a stack of CDs from the station proper.

I'm likely being overly sensitive.  Sometimes this gig is hard.

Game Day (On Air)

You would think after all this time, years in fact, the prospect of going on air would be like rolling off a log.

 Well, have never been know for my agility and in fact feel more like I'm about to do a face plant.

Remember the episode of WKRP when Johnny Fever suddenly realized a whole whack of people were listening to him? He choked. I have to fight that each and every week, that is after I stress that the CDs for the ads and station ID will play without too much dead air and without a hitch.

Of course once the first song from the playlist actually gets going, things seem to calm down a bit. And using the same intro patter also settles jangled nerves.

Gonna let you in on a little secret.

A lot of people who go into radio are actually very shy in person. Broadcasting allows those of us who have issues with that to communicate in a safe and protected way.

Just hope I never really figure out who is on the other end of the receiver.

The other concern is how long the milk has been in the station frig.

The Playlist Day (Off Air)

Well, it's Wednesday. And that means it's high time the playlist was chosen for this week's show.
Sure it seems kind of early to be doing this, but in the event of a family or other crisis, it's nice to know that the one thing I don't have to worry about is Ruby Slippers.

Having said that...

The problem with setting the playlist this early, posting it online, burning it to disc and reviewing those discs is that if something really great comes up between now and Friday, well, it may just have to wait another week. I realize this sounds inflexible and rather anal retentive, but it's a system that has worked for nearly 4 years and why mess with success.  It's crazy enough that just pulling 17 songs and rearranging them, replacing the ones that don't work, rearranging again, etc etc takes hours of time.

There are days that the use of vinyl exclusively seems so much more freeing. Who cares if you shuffle the albums while doing the show?

Sadly, volunteer organizations don't have therapists on staff. Perhaps I need one.

But for now, excuse me while I go back to pulling the playlist.

Observation (Off Air)

What's not to love about a track entitled "This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things?"

Or "We are Going To Hell...so Bring The Sunblock" ?

Who are you, "The Blackout"?

Clearly I have some previewing to do tonight

Inspiration For This Week's Show (Off Air)

While at breakfast with a couple of tuned in folk, the topic of Riotfest came up.
I asked, out of the lineup, who would they most like to see?

Now for those of you who aren't familiar with Riotfest, here is the skinny.

A) Takes place in a very large field/park with an enormous Devil mask at the front gate.

B) Happens regardless of the weather. This year, there was a rather large Saturday deluge of water. It was fast and furious however and no doubt did nothing to dampen the spirit of the event. (People in the know take rubber boots and rain gear)

C) Generally concentrates on pretty heavy awesome stuff. As witness, this year had Motorhead.

Well, the concensus was that Weezer would be the marquee act. Yes, Weezer, along with enough brain melting music to keep most metalheads very happy for months.

Apparently they were going to play Pinkerton and either the Blue or Green album in their entireties on Saturday and Sunday.

So this got me thinking.

What kind of pairings could I do this week that would be diametrically opposed and yet satisfy everyone?

This will be my quest for the next two days.

Be very afraid

Towers of CDs (Off Air)

Every music programmer has a different spin on how they do their show.

For some, the playlist is on their iPads or (shudder) iPods.  Some bring in laptops or access their library from the station computers in the control room. There are those who peruse the extensive vinyl library or even bring in their own albums (they are the ones with very long arms from carrying all that weight) Still others, the ones with nerves of steel, show up, pull tons of music from the station library and do the entire show on the fly.  These are excellent shows.  I wish I knew how they ended up sounding so awesome.

I can only assume it's magic and they are wizards.

I am not  a wizard.

I pull my playlist from my iTunes library at home and mountains of CDs in the house.

The iTunes library threatens to shut down my old MAC as the storage space grows smaller and smaller.
Top of my to-do list: start deleting stuff everyday until it's under control. Frankly I hate doing that, it's like picking your favorite kid. And I suspect I am in denial.

I still have room in the bathroom to stack more CDs. That can wait for a while.

But the interesting addendum to this music situation is the mounting collection of burned show playlists.

You see I burn the list to disc in duplicate each week and then run between the two while on air.

This accomplishes three things.

First of all, I can concentrate on social media while the songs are on, knowing that it's just a matter of going from one to the other.

Secondly, although I check both discs before the show,  if one craps out (or the CD player proper, it's happened) there is back up.

However the third thing is the following : I have this ENORMOUS collection of playlist CDs.

Remember when people made mixtapes for their friends and families? And how you felt about receiving them for every birthday and Christmas?  Imagine belonging to a family that thinks Billy Joel is the voice of our generation and your show is a happy jumble of punk, psychedelic, garage, rock, indie...well you get the drift.

I'm not sure Daddio would survive listening to my show very long. To try might result in a stroke.

So, each and every time someone tells me they liked a track from that week, I mail them the disc.
It gets really expensive during the Membership Drive as a community radio station doesn't have the funds to pay for that kind of postage.  And I have no doubt there are rules about this sort of thing, you know, copyrights and stuff.

I really wish I could be one of those other programmers. But that would mean joining the 21st century.

And I suspect that might not happen anytime soon.

In the meantime, watch your mailbox. You never know what might be coming your way.

Love Your Radio

Hey everybody,

While walking the dog this morning, I suddenly was struck by an inspiration. Or maybe it was more like caffeine deficit catching up with me. Either way, I decided to start an independent blog about what goes through the mind of a programmer (me) who does an on air  show each and every week.

There's a lot more to the process than you would think. The commitment goes well beyond that 56 minutes (ads and station IDs aside) of the actual show. There's gathering music (ongoing) pulling a playlist and rearranging it 6 or 7 times until it flows, posting playlists, social media, responding to emails from bands who have stuff to share, answering mail from listeners (not as common as you would think for an open format music show on community radio LOL) occasionally attending events but more often sending regrets because everything happens on Fridays and THAT'S WHEN THE SHOW AIRS. (I'm not bitter, really I'm not)

As for the day to day stuff that happens when one is in the station proper...well that's a story unto itself.

Am going to try to do this for one year.

And thanks for listening