Intros

I am pretty awful at keeping things organized, which is a terrible confession from someone who does a radio show centered around themes. This morning I woke up wondering, how many introductions have I made for my radio show? I have been doing the show for over eight years - one might assume I've done as many intros. It's true, I have - though I actually should have done nine. I'll explain - & I'll share.

The first intro was slapped together quickly but I think it was done by the time of my first show in October 2002. I have a tape recording of that show, but I don't have a digital copy, so I can't check.

You can listen to the 2002 intro here.

I didn't like it much - I felt like I could do better. So sometime in 2003, I made another intro. I liked this one so much I kept it for a couple of years. I hadn't remembered that, so it surprised me.

You can listen to the 2003 intro here.

One thing I never liked about my intros was me singing "Self Help Radio." (My wife, however, completely disagrees.) So I got my friends Suloni & Michelle to record themselves singing it. You can hear that in the intro I started to use in 2005.

You can listen to the 2005 intro here.

I think that, by this time, KOOP had instituted "seasons," which meant that the schedule would change in May & November. I like me some arbitrary reason for mixing things up, so I began to make new intros in May. This hasn't really changed - even after I left KOOP, I have tended to make a new intro annually, around May.

You can listen to the 2006 intro here.

The 2007-2008 intro was the last intro I did for KOOP, & the last time you'll hear me say their call numbers. Fun fact: at some point someone realized that KOOP had gotten its license in Hornsby, Texas, & not Austin, so later intros (not this one) say, "K-O-O-P, Hornsby Austin," to be legal. We got a lot of calls about that. I wonder if they still do.

You can listen to the 2007 intro here.

I went into the wilderness & began podcasting in 2008, & created a brand new intro to celebrate that. Though I would have made a new intro anyway.

You can listen to the 2008 intro here.

& though I landed in West Virginia in the summer of 2009, I wasn't sure about radio there & figured I'd keep podcasting no matter what. Though I later added a legal ID to it, here's the podcast version of the 2009 intro.

You can listen to the 2009 intro here.

Which brings us to the one I currently use, which has the WRFL legal ID attached. I'll be changing it come May - I almost changed it to reflect my brand new time slot this coming Tuesday, but restrained myself - but if you listen to the show, either in Lexington or from the website, this is how it always begins:

You can listen to the current intro here.

I should mention it took the better part of an hour to find these. Even if you don't enjoy listening to them, at the very least I have them organized. I wonder how long it will take to mess them up again.