Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Staying Relevant

I have been thinking - when I should be packing - of things I can do to keep reminding you that there's a radio show called Self Help Radio that is currently on hiatus but which - I promise! - is returning soon.  But what things can I do?  Here are some of my dumb idears:

1) Revive "Self Help Radio Extra"

I used to do a (mostly) monthly mix of music I was listening to - hardly ever organized around a theme - which I would call "Self Help Radio Extra."  It gave me a chance to put together music that was free of the thematic constraints of SHR & also was often skewed toward the new.  I listen to stuff all the time, & I stopped making "Self Help Radio Extra" because I could play that music on WRFL when I subbed other people's shows.*  Now that I'm not doing that anymore - should I bring back "Self Help Radio Extra"?

2) Present a "classic" Self Help Radio episode

I remove episodes of Self Help Radio from my website after a while, but of course I don't throw them away - I have copies of them.  I can feature an old, probably embarrassing episode in lieu of producing a new one.  But - embarrassing.  Yeah.  Okay.  I guess I can handle that.

3) Make a new episode, damn it!

I boasted yesterday that I could easily make a show while packing.  Of course I could.  That is, until I pack all my CDs & records.  & then.  Er.  But I could do a lot of preparation for a lot of shows & then pack everything, making sure I pack my computer last.  I could even record some of my podcast airbreaks on the road.  "Self Help Radio live from Paducah!"

Truth is, none of these seem like very good ideas.  My wife has already voted that I stop whining about this nonsense & pack my crap up.  But I do feel like the more time it takes for me to get back to Self Help Radio, the farther away the show gets in everyone's minds.  & it barely exists there already!

What a worry-wart I am.

* At WRFL, they still call them "fills."  At KVRX & KOOP they were called "subs" & I never stopped saying "subs."  I got somewhat used to saying "block show" instead of "specialty show," & could use "grant" & "underwriting" interchangeably, but I stayed with "sub" for some reason.  I was always against using "back-sell" instead of "back-announce."  I have a problem with "back-sell."  But the others I didn't have a problem with, they were just competing with nearly fifteen years of saying the same things differently.  Apologies for the geeky radio talk.

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