i turned up the radio
every day is national radio day in my world
Today is National Radio Day!
Unsurprisingly, I love the radio. My comforting Saturday ritual is listening to the weekly syndicated rerun of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 (the four-hour ’80s edition, thank you very much) on a far-flung radio station in South Dakota or Quincy, Illinois, or Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, or upstate New York. Who cares that today you can look up every show’s playlist in advance? It doesn’t diminish the pleasure of hearing Casey Kasem count down the top hits from a banging week in 1984.
Also unsurprisingly, I’ve always been this kind of nerd. In fact, I have undeniable proof I was all-in on radios from a very young age. Behold actual childhood art of mine:
In elementary school, I occasionally lugged that radio to school—apparently so I could listen at recess? (Why did my parents let me do that? As if I wasn’t quirky enough as it is!)
Later, as a teenager growing up in boring old suburbia, radio was my lifeline to much cooler things. When the wind was blowing just right, I could move my radio antenna and pick up The River (93.9) from Windsor (Ontario) or one of the excellent rock stations from Detroit. Closer to home, I was a loyalist to Cleveland’s alternative rock station, 107.9 The End. Ever the low-level rebel, I used to sneak-listen to the station at low volumes on my Walkman in freshman study hall.
Back then, I was also obsessed with the amazing college radio stations in Cleveland, including WJCU, WCSB, WBWC, and WRUW. I even used to tape my favorite shows so I could listen back later after school and discover new tunes. Knowing about music other people didn’t made me feel cooler and reassured me that life was indeed far more interesting somewhere else.
In college, I pulled the late, late night shift as a DJ on Record Hospital on WHRB (95.3) Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Seriously, one semester my show was 3:30-5am on Monday night.) But it didn’t matter: I was so excited to be a college radio DJ. Now, the rock format on WHRB was known for being pretty out there and uncompromising, and while I tried to learn about (and appreciate) super-noisy stuff, my heart wasn’t into harsher sounds and abstract music. I loved hooks and melodies too much.
Typically, my show involved me playing weirdo post-punk/electro/indie, with a heavy emphasis on my beloved ’80s. I discovered a few cassette tapes of my show not that long ago, which I will not share because my vocal vibe then was Pretentious Aloof Radio DJ and my breaks are equal parts hilarious and horrifying.
Years later, I was thrilled to become a programmer on the St. Louis community radio station KDHX. My show was called "International Pop Overthrow" (yes, that's a Material Issue reference) and I played power-pop, ’80s indie/new wave, British rock, and modern indie.
Oddly enough, I didn’t plan out my setlist in advance. I lugged a bag of CDs back and forth every week, and plucked albums from the station’s “this just in” shelf to play, but my recollection is that I slotted in tunes that seemed to fit the vibe on a given day. Being casual and spontaneous is very much not how I am in real life; I’m a planner to an annoying degree. But I thrived in the pressure cooker of live radio. Somehow, in that environment, winging it just felt right.
Live radio was always a challenge, but a rewarding one. I had regular callers (like a cabbie who listened to my show whenever it was on) and listeners from afar who tuned in. I also discovered so much new music then, which was exhilarating. But I could also sneak in the songs that changed my life and worldview—paying it forward to the radio deities and putting that enthusiastic energy back into the universe.
Maybe one day I'll get back to being a DJ, but for now I've parlayed my radio days into being a podcast guest and occasional music commentator on various radio platforms: Sirius, the BBC, NPR, local public radio (shout out to WKSU!) and more. Viva la radio!
For fun, I dug up a couple of old playlists from my KDHX show to demonstrate the range of what I played:
International Pop Overthrow, 08/03/2010
Drive-by Truckers “Daddy Learned to Fly”
Blue Giant “Clean the Clock”
Owsley “Coming Up Roses”
Teenage Fanclub “Baby Lee”
The New Pornographers “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”
The Chills “Heavenly Pop Hit”
The Go-Betweens “Streets of Your Town”
Crowded House “Saturday Sun”
R.E.M. “Auctioneer (Another Engine)”
The Acorn “Restoration”
Maps & Atlases “Living Decorations”
Wavves “King of the Beach”
Pixies “Bone Machine”
Deer Tick “Twenty Miles”
Sea Wolf “Wicked Blood”
Tokyo Police Club “Favourite Food”
Two Door Cinema Club “Do You Want It All”
Ra Ra Riot “Boy”
The Cure “Inbetween Days”
Foals “What Remains”
Active Child “Wilderness”
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti “Can't Hear My Eyes”
Joy Division “She's Lost Control”
Hot Hot Heat “Future Breeds”
Devo “Human Rocket”
The Juan MacLean “A New Bot”
LCD Soundsystem “Home”
Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”
International Pop Overthrow, 03/01/2011
The Autumn Defense “Tell Me What You Want”
Pretty Little Empire “Islands (NC)”
Grant Lee Buffalo “Lone Star Song”
James Vincent McMorrow “We Don't Eat”
PJ Harvey “The Words That Maketh Murder”
Asobi Seksu “Perfectly Crystal”
Siouxsie and the Banshees “Kiss Them for Me”
Eisley “Better Love” from The Valley (2011) on Equal Vision New
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart “Heart In Your Heartbreak”
Dum Dum Girls “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
The Radio Dept. “Pulling Our Weight”
Ivy “Thinking About You”
Papercuts “Do What You Will”
Iron and Wine “Me And Lazarus”
Destroyer “Chinatown”
The Smiths “Stretch Out And Wait”
Cut Copy “Take Me Over”
The Naked and Famous “Punching In a Dream”
The Rosebuds “Get Up Get Out”
The Get Up Kids “Automatic”
XTC “No Thugs In Our House”
Yuck “The Wall”
The Baseball Project “1976”
R.E.M. “Mine Smell Like Honey”
Devotchka “All the Sand In All the Sea”
The Twilight Singers “Last Night In Town”
I somehow didn't know you had a KDHX show! Great setlists. If you do ever share a recording of one of your college shows, I would totally listen!
I was a DJ on Wash U's radio station KWUR for 7 or 8 years (much longer than I was a student, haha) where my show File Under: Easy Listening concentrated on power pop and hooky indie rock. For the last couple years, I split my show where the first hour was all stuff from the new release shelf (totally flying by the seat of my pants, as you did) and the second hour was all bands/artists that started with the same letter (which was at least semi-planned, though the actual order was always decided live and usually with some additions from the station's stacks). It was so much fun, and you can see some sample playlists here: http://kwur-fuel.blogspot.com/ I really miss it and have been tempted to start it back up but there's only so many hours in a day, y'know?
Discovered your writting through the BBC & Twitter and recently listened to your U2 take on the Songs That Explain the 90's. Love the writting, would love to read more of your music writting. Are there any other U2 articles?