Mr. Rollins is patiently expecting your roast

Henry Rollins is a Gen X renaissance man, starting out as the former lead singer of the seminal hardcore punk band Black Flag, in addition to being an author, actor, spoken word artist and perhaps the man with the most independent music documentary appearances on earth. On top of all that, Mr. Rollins is also a host on music-centric public radio station KCRW in Santa Barbara Monica.

However, it looks like he’ll be away from the station during its pledge drive next week, which is apparently a big faux pas, especially for the man who famously bellowed, “gimmmie gimmie gimmie, I need some more / gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, don’t ask what for!” (How’s that for a pledge drive pitch?)

So, as a form of discipline the station has decided to take a page from the Comedy Central book and is going to put on a roast of Rollins next week when the pledge drive starts. Instead of limiting it to a single show, KCRW will be interspersing the barbs throughout the week’s programming.

The twist is that KCRW is asking listeners and fans of Rollins to call in with their own punchlines. They only ask to “keep it clean, make it weird, but don’t pull any punches.” They have a toll-free number set up to take messages at 877 789 8355.

I just recommend not leaving your real name or home address.

As a bonus, here’s a Disneyfied version of that Black Flag classic I mentioned above:

Elivs Mitchell (left) and Marc Maron (right)

Elvis Mitchell, that is, host of public radio KCRW’s half-hour interview program, the Treatment. This week’s edition of the program has comedian and podcast host Marc Maron as guest, and at the beginning Maron makes a point of the fact that Mitchell was willing to say the show’s abbreviation name (though clearly not what it stands for), while the New York Times declined to even mention his podcast’s innocuous three-letter name.

This is actually the best interview I’ve heard with Maron since he started his podcast. He and Mitchell develop an almost immediate chemistry, and Mitchell sounds like an actual fan. He is quickly able to dive in and discuss how Maron is able to get comedians like Norm MacDonald to let down their guard, drop their persona and go deep.

What’s notable about this appearance is that the Treatment more often features actors, authors, musicians and other personalities who are there to promote a project that has been validated by a studio, publisher or label. While Maron is a working comedian and former Air America radio host, his podcast is self-produced. Maron does make TV appearances on shows like Conan, but those primarily feature his stand-up bits. The Treatment interview, on the other hand, is really about Maron and his podcast, treating WTF as a media production just as legitimate as movie or television show from a studio or network.

Now, it is true that an edited version of WTF aired on some public radio stations this past summer. But Mitchell made no mention of it in their interview; there’s no indication that the brief public radio run was used as the bona fide to justify Maron’s appearance. Rather, it sounds like Mitchell is listener and fan, and actually wanted a chance to talk with Maron.

I see an interview like this as another sign of the growing prominence and legitimation of podcasting as an actual media form, rather than being simply dismissed as the audio equivalent of bad public access television. While there are certainly the audio equivalents of Wayne’s World in iTunes, there is an increasing number of thoughtfully produced programs that could belong on radio, if only radio were interested in more diverse and creative fare.

Record Store Day 2011 on Saturday April 16

I’m already starting to map out my list of record stores to hit this Saturday, April 16, 2011 for the 4th annual Record Store Day. Some people will be lining up for limited edition releases (particularly vinyl), others will be heading to stores to check out live performances, and many (like me) will just be happy to be out celebrating independent record shops and dropping some cash into their coffers.

As with last year’s event, there are a number of radio stations hooking up with like-minded independent record stores for special in-stores, DJ sets, parties, and limited edition releases. Here’s a short guide to some of the radio-related goings on:

Boise, Idaho: Radio Boise’s Record Store Day Pre-Party and Launch Celebration

On Friday, April 15 starting at 8pm, Radio Boise will host a party to celebrate the launch of their new community radio station and to serve as a kick-off for Record Store Day. Performances and DJ sets will be part of the event at Neurolux (111 N. 11th Street in Boise) which will also serve as a fundraiser for the new station.

Boulder and Denver Colorado: Radio DJs at Twist & Shout, Radio 1190 at Absolute Vinyl

University of Colorado’s college radio station KVCU (Radio 1190) will have members of their promotions team hanging out at Absolute Vinyl in Boulder (4474 Broadway) on Saturday for Record Store Day.

Twist & Shout (2508 E. Colfax, Denver) will feature a number of radio DJs spinning records at their store on Saturday. DJ Arturo Gomez from public jazz station KUVO spins from 10am to noon, DJs from community radio station KGNU are up from noon to 2pm, and Radio 1190 DJs are on from 2pm to 4pm (Professor Mikey and DJ Sam).

Calgary: CJSW to Air Record Store Day and Vinyl-Themed Programming

University of Calgary campus-community radio station CJSW will be celebrating Record Store Day with special programs starting at 7am Friday and continuing through Saturday, including vinyl showcases and interviews with folks from local record stores about both Record Store Day and the future of vinyl.

Chicago: Numero Group’s Pop-Up Radio Station

Take a look at Paul’s post earlier this week about the pop-up record store and radio station courtesy of the record label Numero Group. Their low power radio station WTNG will begin streaming at 9pm Central time on Friday, April 15. The terrestrial broadcast over 89.9 FM will air on Saturday from 9am to 9pm Central Time. A lovely PDF of the full schedule is posted on their blog.

Greenville, Illinois: WGRN Airing Record Store Day Special

Tonight from 8-10pm Central Time, WGRN at Greenville College aired a special focused on Record Store Day, featuring interviews with owners of local record stores, as well as an interview with one of the organizers of Record Store Day: Eric Levin.

Hoboken, New Jersey: WRXP DJ Paul Cavalconte at Tunes

Vinyl-loving WRXP DJ Paul Cavalconte (here’s an interview I did with him in 2009) will be hanging out at Tunes Records (225 Washington Street) in Hoboken, New Jersey from 1pm to 3pm. Another WRXP DJ, Rich Russo, will be trekking between various records stores in the vicinity of New York City and will document his journey on Twitter (@DJRichRusso).

Hollywood, CA: KCRW DJ Henry Rollins at Amoeba Music

At 2pm the rocker, poet, and KCRW DJ Henry Rollins will be spinning music at the Hollywood location of Amoeba Music on Saturday.

Minneapolis: Radio K’s “Stuck on AM 7: Stuck on Tape” Cassette Release

To coincide with Record Store Day, University of Minnesota station KUOM (aka Radio K) is releasing the latest in their series of recordings (“Stuck on AM”) culled from live performances at the station. This cassette, release (which also includes a code for free digital downloads of additional tracks) will be available free on Record Store Day at the Electric Fetus record store in Minneapolis. Radio K will also be at that event, playing music out of their Radio K van at a cookout in the backyard of the record store.

Portland, Maine: WCLZ’s Record Store Day Special

On Saturday from 9am to 10am Eastern time, Portland radio station WCLZ will air a Record Store Day special featuring Bull Moose staffer (and Record Store Day visionary) Chris Brown playing Record Store Day exclusive releases.

San Francisco: Live 105′s Aaron Axelson at Amoeba Records

Commercial radio station Live 105′s DJ Aaron Axelson will be at Amoeba Records on Haight Street from noon to 8pm Saturday with a live broadcast and on-air interviews.

San Jose, CA: KFJC DJ Curtis Kimby spinning at Streetlight Records

At 11am KFJC DJ Curtis Kimby will be spinning records at Streetlight Records (980 S. Bascom Street) in San Jose on Saturday. Live performances by Judgement Day and Mercy Ties will happen later in the day starting at 4pm.

If you know of other radio stations doing special events in honor of Record Store Day, please add details in the comments section.

A small pocket radio is my constant traveling companion to help me make every hotel room a little more homey, in addition to letting me check out the local radio scene. Whenever I’m in a new city I immediately check out the left end of the dial. In LA the first station I came to was the well regarded public station, KCRW in Santa Monica.

KCRW stands apart from most public radio stations in its commitment to music programming, in addition to the standard national news programs like All Things Considered. It was an unusual pleasure to listen to Morning Edition transition into the long-running Morning Becomes Eclectic from 9 AM to noon, giving me an opportunity to get both my dose of drive-time news and some nice indie-leaning musical sounds.

After noon through the evening drive KCRW goes back to news-talk programming, but again shifts to music at 8 PM most weekdays. The station’s music programming roughly fits the format known as Adult Album Alternative, or AAA. In fact, KCRW is one of the originating stations that can be said to have defined the format. But as Generation Xers enter their 30s and 40s, AAA stations like KCRW seem to be staying more current, playing more cutting-edge indie rock–bands like Best Coast or MGMT–that appeals just as much to 20-somethings.

Looking for something a little more challenging I tuned down a little more left on the FM dial and found KXLU at 88.9 FM, broadcasting from Loyola Marymount University. I found the station on Monday night and mostly kept my radio tuned there for the next two days. KXLU sounded like good college radio, with a very eclectic mix of musical genres and styles that nevertheless worked well together.

The program I enjoyed the most was Monday night’s She Rocks, featuring women in rock music. The night I tuned in the hosts were playing a tribute to Ari Up, vocalist for the pioneering punk band the Slits, who passed away on Oct. 20. The hosts had interviewed Ari a few years earlier and so replayed parts of that interview along with music from different stages of her career, including tracks from the Slits, as well as her many innovative dub projects.

The hosts of She Rocks were clearly touched and affected by Ari Up’s music and life, which came across so well on air that a listener couldn’t help but be drawn in and affected. To me this is the sort of programming that college and community radio do so well, and that is rarely heard on commercial–and even public–radio except in the case of very well-known celebrities, like Michael Jackson.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to tune in clearly any other interesting college, community or public stations during my stay. Nevertheless KCRW and KXLU made for very comforting companions for my off-time in my hotel room. And that’s something which radio is uniquely suited to do.

SXSW 2010

Well, the geeks are getting ready to flee Austin to make way for all of the radio folks streaming in for the music portion of this massive festival of technology, music and film that is South by Southwest (SXSW).

As in years past, radio stations have both a visible and audible presence; hosting shows, doing live broadcasts, and sending contingents of DJs to check out up-and-coming bands and blog about the proceedings.

If, like me, you are fixated on radio, here’s a guide to some of the terrestrial radio stations who will be on the scene this year. Times are all CST. (If you know of more, please let us know in the comments section.)

Wednesday, March 17th:

KEXP broadcasts live (and hosts bands) from the Gibson Studios:

11:30am – Fanfarlo
1:30pm – The Middle East
3:30pm – Best Coast
5:30pm – The Crayon Fields
7:30pm – Title Tracks

KXT 91.7 FM, Dallas (along with SESAC) hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
12:00pm – Acrylics
1:00pm – MNDR
2:00pm – Abe Vigoda

KUT – Austin hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
3:00pm – Bobby Bare Jr w/ David Vandervelde
4:00pm – Jason Collett
5:00pm – Nneka

KCRW Showcase at The Galaxy Room Backyard:

8pm: Soko
9pm: Choir of Young Believers
10pm: Fanfarlo
11pm: Ozomatli
12am: Fitz and the Tantrums
1am: Miike Snow

Thursday March 18:

KCRW Live Broadcast of their show “Morning Becomes Eclectic” from Tequila Mockingbird Studio from 11am-2pm:

1:15pm: The Middle East live performance

KEXP broadcasts live (and hosts bands) from the Gibson Studios:

11:30am: JEFF the Brotherhood
1:30pm: Quasi
3:30pm: Drive By Truckers
5:30pm: Choir of Young Believers
7:30pm: The Very Best

KEXP – Seattle hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
12:00 – The Walkmen
1:00 – Frightened Rabbit
2:00 – Capsula

The Current – Minneapolis hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
3:00 – Sondre Lerche
4:00 – Codeine Velvet Club
5:00 – Dr. Dog

Friday March 19:

KCRW Live Broadcast of their show “Morning Becomes Eclectic” from Tequila Mockingbird Studio from 11am-2pm:

1:15pm – The XX live performance

KEXP broadcasts live (and hosts bands) from the Gibson Studios:
Noon: Ozomatli
2pm: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
4pm: Freelance Whales

Radio K (college radio out of Minneapolis) will devote much of their broadcast schedule to SXSW-themed programming, including recaps of the festival and in-studio performances:

12noon: Shearwater in-studio on Radio K
1:00 pm: Dengue Fever in-studio on Radio K
2:00 pm: Malachai in-studio on Radio K

KPFT – Houston hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
12:00pm – Elizabeth Cook
1:00pm – TBD
2:00pm – Carolina Chocolate Drops

WXPN – Philadelphia hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
3:00pm – Diane Birch
3:50pm – Citizen Cope
4:30pm – Court Yard Hounds
5:10pm – Jakob Dylan and Three Legs (Featuring Neko Case and Kelly Hogan)

WFMU (along with Aquarius Records) will broadcast live from Encore on 2 stages:

OUTDOOR STAGE
7:00pm   Liturgy
8:00pm   Speedwolf
9:00pm   Iron Man
10:00pm Moon Duo
11:00pm Shit and Shine
12:00m   Pierced Arrows
1:00am   Dengue Fever

INDOOR STAGE
7:00pm   Epileptinomicon
8:00pm   Drunkdriver
9:00pm   Home Blitz
10:00pm Headdress
11:00pm Sonny & the Sunsets
12:00m   True Widow
1:00am   Todd

Saturday March 20

Radio K continues with their broadcast coverage of SXSW with in-studios, interviews, and recaps of the festival.

12:00 noon- Holy Fuck in-studio on Radio K
1:00pm – Peter Wolf Crier in-studio on Radio K
2:00 pm – A Sunny Day in Glasgow in-studio on Radio K

KCRW – Santa Monica hosts bands at the Day Stage Cafe:
12:00pm – Lissie
1:00pm – The Middle East
2:00pm – Rogue Wave

Jeff McMahon's Rare Panasonic RF-1130 Radio

It’s time for another installment in our ongoing series Radio Obsessives, in which we share tales about people who are passionate about radio.

So far we’ve profiled Garrett Wollman’s Radio Tower Quest, Jose Fritz and his amazing Arcane Radio Trivia website, Radio Sticker of the Day curator Greg Blouch, and radio historian/Seattle Radio Theater founder Feliks Banel.

Blogger Jeff McMahon muses about radio on his blog Herculodge. Although the blog is ostensibly focused on a myriad number of topics (from vegetarian cooking to parenthood to cars), Jeff found that his posts about radio seemed to generate the most interest and excitement from readers.

Filed under the category “Radio Lovers Can’t Be Cured,” Herculodge’s radio posts typically focus on reviews of both new and vintage radios, as well as radio-related products. Written by Jeff and a crew of guest contributors, the radio section of Heculodge is kind of like a clearinghouse for feedback about specific radios. I was also amused by a post by Radio Russ enumerating a “12-Step Program for Radio Addicts.” He writes that step 1 is: “We admitted we were powerless over Radios, that our lives had become unmanageable without a radio in every room.”

On the site, Jeff also has a 3-part semi-autobiographical story “The Man Who Loved Radios Too Much,” in which he describes both the origins of his radio love and how he has descended into obsession.

In our email interview, I chatted with Herculodge founder Jeff McMahon about his website and why he’s so passionate about radio and radios.

Jennifer Waits: Herculodge covers a range of topics, but the majority of the most
 recent posts deal with radio. What’s the main goal of the blog and how does radio fits into that?

Jeff McMahon: I had no main goal except to cover a wide range of passions, radios, books, movies, etc., but I noticed early on that over 90% of the web traffic was for radios, so I focused more and more on them. You know the saying, a tree that falls in an uninhabited forest makes no noise. I wanted readership. I wanted my posts to be read and I learned early on that a blog should be focused, achieve brand identity, and fill a niche. I still write about other topics, but mostly I deal with radios.

Jennifer Waits: Why is it that you are so passionate about radio?

Jeff McMahon: My radio passion stems from childhood memories of radios, falling in love with the music of the Delfonics, the Ojays, The Isley Brothers, Carol King, to name a few bands and singers whose songs played secretly through my earbuds and a transistor radio while listening to KFRC in San Francisco; also, a good radio is like a security blanket, a constant friend during nights I don’t sleep well. In general live radio makes me feel connected.  Readers talk about the same nostalgia and sense of connection, so I know I’m not alone.

Jennifer Waits: What is it that you find fascinating about radios themselves (vs. radio broadcasts)?

Jeff McMahon: I like that a familiar voice can be something, a personality, who becomes part of your life over the years. Of course, it remains a miracle to me that voices and music can play through a little box.

Jennifer Waits: When did you start collecting radios and what was your first radio?

Jeff McMahon: I got the radio bug inexplicably in 2004 after eating a Lucille’s Barbecue. My wife Carrie and I exited the restaurant, entered a nearby electronics store on a whim and I walked straight toward a blue Tivoli PAL and bought it. That began a long trek into a radio obsession.

Jennifer Waits: How many radios do you own and what are your favorites?

Jeff McMahon: I own or have owned about 50 or so. My favorites are my Panasonic RF-888 and Sony ICF-5900. My favorite modern radio is my Sangean U3 worksite radio, which I use in my office/power yoga room.

Jennifer Waits: Do you prefer vintage or modern radios?

Jeff McMahon: I like both. Obviously, a heavy vintage has a grandeur that today’s cheaply made radios don’t have.

Jennifer Waits: Have you ever worked in radio? Where?

Jeff McMahon: Never. I’ve been a full-time college English/Composition instructor for 25 years.

Jennifer Waits: What type of radio programming do you enjoy the most? What are some of your favorite stations?

Jeff McMahon: I love KPCC 89.3 (NPR), KCRW 89.9 (NPR), 88.1 KJAZZ, 640 KFI AM, 570 Fox Sports [KLAC].

last.fm has a Joe Frank radio channel

I forget when I first started listening to Joe Frank. The other problem is that his half-hour to hour long programs are so weird that one can’t trust one’s memory about them. I mean, I think I remember an episode about a hysterical waiter who, after a long tirade, vomits on his patrons, a furious ex-girlfriend who leaves a long message for some guy alternately begging to get back together then fantasizing about murdering him, and a radio evangelist who claims that the actual physical process of dialing in to give him money will bring salvation.

Anyway, I really like Frank. “I’m sitting at a dinner party attended by Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao,” begins one episode. “Seated at another smaller table are Sadaam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Pinochet, and some others that I don’t recognize.” What’s not to love about this stuff?

Like so many great radio personalities, Joe got his start at WBAI-FM in New York City, then he did Weekend Edition for National Public Radio, followed many productive years at KCRW producing his “Joe Frank: Work in Progress” series. He’s won all kinds of neat awards, especially for his “Rent-A-Family” shows.

As already suggested, Frank is particularly reverential to religion [not]. In another episode he’s got somebody who just had a stroke calling in to another Pentecostal type.

“Repeat after me,” the preacher healingly declares.

“Oh Lord.” “Oh Lord. . . .”
“Roll me.” “Roll me.”
“Knead me.” “Knead me.”
“Slap me.” “Slap me.”
“Let me be like a mouse.” “Let me be like a mouse.”
“Inside a mouse trap.” “Inside a mouse trap.”
“Feed me.” “Feed me.”
“Bread.” “Bread.”
“Wine.” “Wine.”
“Hamsters.” “Hamsters.”
“Rats.” “Rats.”
“Bullfrogs.” “Bullfrogs.”
“African-Eurasian tiger pussycats . . . . ”

At some point the prayer asks The Lord to “take me to heaven on a muskrat.” From there it’s pretty much LOL to the end of the program.

It’s easy to lapse into B Movie prose when writing about Frank, about how he transports you “into the dark/absurd/existential/[insert your mediocre adjective here] regions of the soul,” etcetera. But what really makes him so engaging is that he’s just willing to follow wherever that brain of his goes, then write it down, script it, give it over to a small acting team, and put it up on the radio.

What Joe Frank does, in the end, is really listen to and acknowledge what’s happening in his head. That’s something most of us, including me, are very much afraid to do.

From Joe’s FAQ page it doesn’t look like he’s produced any new programs for about four years. You can support his work by going to his site, signing up as a premium member, and/or buying his shows in CD format.

KOME Sticker

Recently I was tracking some college radio news when I ran across Greg Blouch’s website, “Radio Sticker of the Day.” Immediately I was taken back to my junior high school years when radio station stickers were a hot commodity. My classmate Ricky Kanazawa would spend most of our English class time focused on a stack of bright yellow and black KOME stickers and an exacto knife, carving up new, inspired, psychedelic creations. I’m not sure if Greg has tapped into this aspect of sticker art; but his website is a testament to the most visible radio station branding that there is.

KISR Sticker Courtesty Greg Blouch

I dropped Greg a note to find out what fuels his obsession for radio station stickers and learn more about his website, “Radio Sticker of the Day.”

It turns out that his fascination with stickers began in the 1980s, around the same time that my friends and I were plastering KOME, KSJO, and KMEL stickers (with a picture of a camel on them) all over our notebooks, windows, and Pee-Chee folders.

Over the years he’s accumulated around 12,000 stickers and largely credits the Internet for making it easier for him to contact stations. His site only features pictures of stickers that are in his collection. I love that attention to detail! On to the interview:

WYSO Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer Waits: How did you get started collecting radio stickers and what was your first sticker?

Greg Blouch: When I was 13 years old our family moved from Middleport, New York (in the western part of the state near Niagara Falls/Buffalo) to Celina, Ohio.  I was homesick and wanted to get my hands on something that reminded me of New York.

My favorite radio station had been 107.7 WUWU which was an offbeat, almost freeform, rock station heavy on the new wave music of the time (this was around 1982/1983.)  I wrote to the station and asked for a sticker which I promptly wasted by slapping it on a book cover for school.

WUWU Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

My obsession really began after I found a book in the library with station mailing addresses and started sending out self-addressed stamped envelopes with a note asking for decals.

My success rate was only about 50% but it was fun to get an occasional surprise in the mailbox…and it still is.  The Internet and the ability to write to stations instantly has helped the collection grow tremendously.  About 90% of my stickers have been acquired since I  got online in 1997.

Jennifer: How many stickers do you think you have?

Greg: I’ve tried to count them more than once but got bored and gave up.  My guesstimate would be somewhere around 12,000 different stickers.

KMLE Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: How do you find your stickers?

Greg: I subscribe to 100000watts.com, a subscription-only website with updated information on every radio station in the United States and Canada.

I find station websites through the 100000watts database and email every one of them going state-by-state (I’m currently canvassing my own state of Ohio, next is Oklahoma.)

I always offer to send a SASE but usually they just mail them to me.  Every once in a while I’ll venture overseas and email foreign stations but the return rate is much lower.
I also trade stickers with a small group of like-minded hobbyists and am a member and column editor of Decalcomania, which is a newsletter for radio enthusiasts and radio promotional item collectors.

Jennifer: What’s the strangest promotional item that you have from a radio station?

Greg: I received a whoopee cushion from a rock station in California, a fishing lure from KARP in Minnesota and a condom packet from Germany, but the strangest might be a bar of soap from Earlham College’s WECI in Richmond, Indiana.  The station logo is engraved into the bar itself.

I have a few boxes of non-sticker stuff…lots of keychains, magnets, mugs, t-shirts, pens, buttons, mousepads and on and on.

WECI Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: Do you ever visit radio stations?

Greg: Rarely.  I annoy the receptionist at the Dayton Clear Channel cluster every few months and ask for stickers but that’s about it.

Jennifer: Have you ever worked at a radio station?

WWSU Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Greg: I did college radio for three years at WWSU which is Wright State University’s station.  While still in college I answered an ad that my future wife saw in the paper looking for air talent for a brand new radio station.  I threw together a tape, got an interview with the PD and somehow got hired.  I was the night jock on WZJX “94-5 XRock” which was Dayton’s first commercial alternative station.  This was 1993/94.

I was on the air about 35 hours a week plus a little bit of production and promotion work as well as being in school full time.  It was a tough schedule to pull off but a great experience where I learned that I like radio but didn’t necessarily like working in radio.

Speaking on the air never came naturally to me but I think I faked my way through it fairly well.  When the ownership group sold the station and flipped it to Oldies it was both a disappointment and a relief that I was no longer in the biz.  I got a steady civil service job and never attempted to get back into radio.

WZJX Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: What do you love about radio?

Greg: So much of my love for radio is music-based and now that I’m on the curmudgeonly cusp of 40 I find it hard to listen to a lot of it.  It’s either songs I’m burned out on or styles that I can’t get into.

I fully admit that my musical tastes are permanently stuck in the 1980s and early 90s.  I do love good sounding production and a DJ who sounds like he’s into what he’s playing and is doing more than reading liners.

Jennifer: What kind of radio do you listen to? (college? commercial? music? talk?)

Greg: As far as terrestrial radio goes, it’s almost all college/non-commercial and sports talk radio these days.  I love college radio because it’s usually music you don’t hear everywhere else, presented by kids who are just being themselves in all their unprofessional glory.  It’s refreshing.
My job allows me to listen to a few hours of podcasts a day.  Most of it comes from WNYC, KCRW, WBEZ and a whole lot of individual NPR shows.

Jennifer: What are you favorite radio stations?

WOXY Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Greg: I could pick up WOXY from Oxford, Ohio when they were on 97.7 FM so I regularly listen to the Internet version.  I like listening to my old stomping grounds of WWSU although, at only 20 watts, it can be a tough catch. 

WYSO from Antioch University in Yellow Springs is a solidly quirky NPR affiliate.  My favorite might be 6 Music which is the BBC’s “alternative” digital radio station.  I especially like Roundtable, where four music geeks meet to hear, discuss and judge new music releases.

Besides the aforementioned WUWU, my favorite station from the past would be Toronto’s CFNY in the 1980s.  A friend would send me tapes of the station which had tons of cool music, about 30% of it (by law!) consisted of mostly-unheard-of-in-the-States Canadian artists.

WFMU Sticker Courtesy Greg Blouch

Jennifer: What can a sticker tell you about a radio station?

Greg: Hmmmm…not much.  I guess the only answer I have is that you can tell it’s a Clear Channel station because they often use the same logos for their stations across the country.  The blandness is kinda sad.  A single generic logo for all their “Kiss” and “Mix” stations…only the frequencies on the stickers are different.

Jennifer: Anything else?

Greg: If anyone out there has any stickers to swap, I’m always looking for a trade.  Email: radiodecals@gmail.com

Thanks to Greg for sharing his radio obsession with me and for turning me on to some more stations. Your sticker is in the mail…

Previous Radio Obsessives:

Garrett Wollman’s Radio Tower Quest

Jose Fritz’s Arcane Radio Trivia