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.