Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: World Hypnotism Day

The first Dickenbock Report of 2026 involved World Hypnotism Day. What is hypnotism? Can Dick Dickenbock be hypnotized? Will Dick Dickenbock be hypnotized on air? How many musical reports entitled "Hypnotized" can there be? Almost all of these questions - or perhaps none of them - will be answered on the show.

Which airs Sunday, January 4, on XRAY FM - that's 91.1+107.1fm in Portland & online everywhere at xray dot fm. Suggestible listeners should tune in.

This Week In Self Help (Last Year Tho) December 28 + 30

Look it's me walking all my beagles. I did that a lot last year. Though most of the year I only had two beagles. Anyway that was last year. This also was last year.

December 28 The Dickenbock Report on XRAY FM.
It was Card Playing Day. I lost big. Listen to the show at XRAY FM. Listen to the show at Self Help Radio.

December 28 KBOO.
Someone couldn't make their Sunday night show so I stepped in & played lots of newish stuff. Listen at KBOO FM. Listen at Self Help Radio.

December 30 Self Help Radio on KBOO.
The 79th installment of the Indiepop A To Z series. Listen at KBOO FM. Listen at Self Help Radio.

December 30 Corporate Standardized Programming on KBOO.

More music by artists we lost in July 2025. Listen at KBOO FM (after Self Help Radio). Listen at Self Help Radio.

Are you listening at Self Help Radio's website? The username is SHR & the password is selfhelp.

So glad 2025 is over & I don't have to write about it any more!

The Year In (My) Radio (Shows)

A couple of years ago - during the pandemic, probably, when I was doing more radio shows than usual - I started keeping track of the shows I do. & I just spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to count the shows I've done, to get the number of shows plus the amount of time I've wasted spent on the air.

There is a note here. I have two radio shows that air back-to-back - Self Help Radio & Corporate Standardized Programming. They are however two distinct shows - & the latter is prerecorded, so I don't even stick around after Self Help Radio to do the show. I therefore count them as separate shows - though if you don't, you can subtract that number from the total.

What is that total? Here it is:

52 episodes of Self Help Radio.
52 episodes of The Dickenbock Report.
49 episodes of Corporate Standardized Programming.
52 sub shows on KBOO, XRAY, & Freeform Portland*.

That makes 205 radio shows I was responsible for in 2025. I did 104 of them live, 101 of them were prerecorded. It's a total of 304.5 hours of radio in 2025. & this is probably approximate - I had to have missed something somewhere.

In addition, in between Self Help Radio & The Dickenbock Report, I explored 70 new, unique themes.

What to make of this? I dunno. I didn't have a goal in mind or anything. I just made radio shows when I could. & that's how it'll probably be in 2026 too. So, you know. Apologies in advance.

* This includes episodes of The Songcircle, though I am technically a member of the show's collective, & not a substitute deejay, but I started out the year substituting. I'll count it differently if I do this again next year.

Self Help Radio 123025: Indiepop A To Z # 79

(most if not all images from Discogs)

The last Self Help Radio of 2025 is not the last of the Indiepop A To Z series. I just went from Sissies to Slowpoke. I think I have a few more of these to get through just to get to the letter T!

Here's a reminder that almost all the previous episodes are available at the Self Help Radio website. That link should take you to the page that has all the links to the individual episodes. It's a lot. I'll understand if you'd rather listen to a murder podcast or something.

Meanwhile! This show! It's now at the KBOO website & at the Self Help Radio website. For the latter, please use the username SHR & password selfhelp if necessary. It was me talking & playing music so there's nothing else to do but show you the playlist which is below.

Happy new year to you! Thank you for listening in 2025!

Self Help Radio Indiepop A To Z # 79 Show

"Stand Up" Sissies _Look Back & Laugh_

"Daisy Putter" Sissy Bar _Songs For Peeps_

"Bookends" Sister Cities _Library Records 1998-2003_

"Burt Reynolds" Sister Rain _The Sound Of Leamington Spa Volume 1_

"Two Of Us" Sister Vanilla _Little Pop Rock_

"Your Swimming Suit" Six Cents & Natalie _When Punk Fell To Earth_

"You You You You You (feat. Katharine Whalen)" The 6ths _Hyacinths & Thistles_

"The Oysterboat Man" Patrick Skelly & The Prescriptions _The Hedonism EP_

"Lucille" Skinner _Lucille_

"The Thrill Of Thirty Seconds" Skint & Demoralised _Love, & Other Catastrophes_

"Mountain Code 9" Skistar _This Is The Cafe Superstar Beat Vol. 1_

"Bicycle Boy" Skypark _Summer Days Are Forever_

"Movie Star" The Skywriters _The Skywriters_

"Phil Spector's Birthday Song" The Sleazy Beats _Pure Spun Sugar: An International Pop Compilation_

"Inbetweener" Sleeper _Smart_

"Vogelbird" Sleeping Policemen _Sleeping Policemen_

"You & Me Against The World" The Sleeping Years _You & Me Against The World EP_

"Change" Sleepy Township _Library Records 1998-2003_

"Play" Sleepyhead _Play_

"Hot On My Heels" The Slingbacks _Hot On My Heels_

"Baked Alaska" Slipslide _The World Can Wait_

"Typical Girls" Slits _Cut_

"Once & For All" Sloppy Joe _Waiting For The Night Begins_

"Show & Tell" Slow Hello _Audio Baby_

"Not That Hard" The Slow Summits _Every Intention_

"Machine Gun" Slowdive _Souvlaki_

"Half-Life" Slowpoke _Julep: Another Yoyo Studio Compilation_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 79?

(probly playing something off this tonight - image from here)

Every four months I return to an absurd series that I started too many moons ago in which I play indiepop artists in alphabetical order. This would've ended some time ago but I wanted to be thorough. So, seventy-nine episodes in, I'm at the letter S. & almost certainly will still be on the letter S for some time.

So. If you like indiepop - the genre, not simply "independent pop" - &/or if you're a fan of alphabetization - &/or you like to hear music from lots of places, well then heck. Tonight might be the experience for you.

Self Help Radio airs midnight to 2am on 90.7fm in Portland town, & all over the universe (I'm told) at kboo dot fm. & oh yeah! It's the last show of the year!

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 79: That Time Again

That's my beagle Pete. It's a pic I shared recently on Bluesky. I actually take a picture a day of him - our youngest hound - & our youngest cat. He's not our newest dog - that's a beagle we adopted about two months ago that we named Stuart. But Stuart is nine years old. Pete is not even yet three. He's still a bay-bee.

It's almost certain I've told this story before but once - before we were married - my girlfriend & I went to see a band - I'm sure it was this band - & they had decorated their tiny stage with all sorts of toys & animals. Afterwards she approached the band & told them they needed a beagle amongst their stuffed toys & one band member said, "It's true, the beagle is the most indiepop of dogs."

If indeed I have told this story before, did I tell it the same? Stories are weird like that. For many people they solidify into songs in their head, unchanged beyond whatever editing one might have done to keep oneself sane. But I suspect that I am constantly rewriting the stories in my head. To make them sound better, obviously, & depending on the intent, to either lessen or increase any humiliation I may have personally experienced. Luckily there was no humiliation in the indiepop beagle story!

Anyhoo. I do this every three months. Not tell stories that may be rewritten but play indiepop in alphabetical order on the radio. I am deep inside the letter S where I'll probably be this time next year too. I always say I don't imagine I will ever finish the series but I never thought I'd still be doing a radio show called Self Help Radio after a few years either. Hardly anything ever turns out like one might have planned. In a sense the older I get the less likely I am to make any plans. Maintaining schedule is understandable, but making plans? That just seems ridiculous.