(Original image here.)
It is all over now, baby blue. I did my first sub show (or "fill" as the kids at the station call it) on August 19, 2010. Nearly six years ago. I had been living in Huntington, West Virginia, & had been doing a show on WMUL. But that was a town of barely 50,000 people. Lexington was maybe six or seven times larger - & WRFL was a station with programmers on the air every hour of every day. While WMUL valued its sports shows, most of its programming was done with automation software. Soon enough I discovered that WRFL had a long history & fierce listenership. It was a fun place to discover & become involved in.
Maybe one day I'll write about all the changes I helped make behind the scenes - about the wonderful, sometimes intense, arguments we had about the direction of the station, & the hard work some of us did to make the place more accessible to UK students & the Lexington community. What always ends up being important, however, is the programming - RFL's on-air signal is, of course, the face it shows the world. I did my best, with my obvious limitations, to make sure when I was on the air, it was at least listenable. If I succeeded sometimes, it probably has more to do with luck than skill. I mean, I was on the air a lot. Please don't hold that against anyone at WRFL!
& here is the last show I'll do on this dear, dear radio station. As I write this, I'm sitting in a house I love so much which, after tomorrow, I won't ever be in again. My heart, so used to being broken, is still surprised after all this time that it bothers to become attached to people, places, & things. But it also thrills to new adventures ahead - to new radio stations, a new city to explore & learn about, new friends & old in a sort-of familiar setting. That's why I'm not too sad - I honestly never expected to be in Kentucky, to have had such an amazing experience with this radio station & its people, with this lovely city, with this part of the world. I will miss being here, certainly, but mostly I am glad I was here at all.
Self Help Radio will go on, & I hope you find it wherever it ends up. But if you want to hear it say goodbye, you can do so now on the show's website. The two parts have lots of goodbye songs, which are listed below.
When next we talk, I'll be back in the state where I was born!
(part one)
"Hello & Goodbye" George Carlin _Playing With Your Head_
"Bye Bye" The Clean _Vehicle_
"Bye Bye Baby" Fats Waller _1936_
"Gotta Say Goodbye" The Fun & Games _Elephant Candy_
"Bye Bye" Pipas _Chunnel Autumnal_
"The Long Goodbye" A Girl Called Eddy _A Girl Called Eddy_
"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" Helen Grayco _After Midnight_
"Adios" Esquivel _Other Worlds Other Sounds_
"Auf Wiederseh'n" Gus Backus _Die Singles 1959-1961_
"Adieu Adieu" Stereo Total _Musique Automatique_
"Goodbye" Psychedelic Furs _Forever Now_
"Rhymes Of Goodbye" Scott Walker _Scott 4_
"Seasons In The Sun" Black Box Recorder _England Made Me_
(part two)
"Goodbye" Elephant Parade _Bedroom Recordings_
"Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" Leonard Cohen _Songs Of Leonard Cohen_
"Hometown Farewell Kiss" The Triffids _Calenture_
"How To Say Goodbye" The Magnetic Fields _69 Love Songs_
"There's No Beautiful Way To Say Goodbye" Television Personalities _My Dark Places_
"One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell" Morrissey _Years Of Refusal_
"Bye Bye Baby" Hattie Burleson _I Can't Be Satisfied: Early American Women Blues Singers - Town & Country, Vol. 2 "Town"_
"Good-Bye" The Four Freshmen _Four Freshmen & Five Trumpets_
"Bye Bye Baby" The Popguns _Alvin Lives (In Leeds): Anti Poll Tax Trax_
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" Bob Dylan _Bringing It All Back Home_
"Goodbye, Goodbye" Billy Bragg _Tooth & Nail_
"What's The Theme, Gary?" Luxuriator _What's The Theme, Gary?_
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