You might notice that I don't repeat themes - except on my anniversary shows - so when something strikes my fancy, & it makes me think of a theme, but I recognize (despite my early-onset senility) that I have in fact done that theme before, one thing I can do is see if there's some kind of semantic loophole I can utilize to "revisit" the theme without actually repeating it.
One of the earliest shows I did, back in July of 2003, when Self Help Radio wasn't even a year old, was a show with the theme "The Devil You Say." It was songs about devils. Since there are so many songs simply about devils, I didn't have to add songs about the other names of The Devil - like Satan, or Lucifer, or Beelzebub, or Justin Bieber - they remained in limbo. Until this show idea came along. Therefore, I am doing what appears to be another show about the devil - only no "devil" songs on it. A loophole! Unlike the kind you wish you could find in contracts you sign with the Evil One for your soul.
By the way, when I did the "devil" show, way back when, I got a call from a listener - this was in Austin, mind - who asked me if I was doing the show because that same day an inexplicably popular morning deejay on the NPR station - whose name I shall not say because he might be conjured by the attention, & he's a great reason not to be in Austin - had done a similar show. I told the caller that, no, I didn't listen to that particular person on the radio & would prefer electro-shock therapy to having to endure his dreadful idea of a radio show, & also that I had been working on the show all week without knowing he had done a show with the same theme (though I didn't have the interns he had to find music for me).
The caller seemed alarmed. "What do you think it means," he said, "that the two of you came up with the same theme on the same day?"
I said, "It's a pretty broad theme. It's just a coincidence."
"I don't think so," the caller scoffed. "It seems kinda ominous."
In radio land, you don't want to tell a listener that they're acting dumb & superstitious - or just dumb - & you certainly don't want to engage them & ask them what sort of supernatural mechanism known only to their tiny brains might be at work in such a situation - I'm sure he wouldn't have been as freaked out if the theme coincidentally repeated by the two of us had been "cheese" - so I just said thank you for the call & hung up.
Ah, Austin.
Meanwhile, in Lexington, you can listen to lots of songs about properly-named devils tomorrow on Self Help Radio on the 88.1 frequency at 7:30 am, following a new Sugar Substitute at 6am. You can listen everywhere that Satan can (especially in Austin, where the success of that NPR deejay can only be explained by a deal with Beelzebub) online at wrfl dot fm. I'll be archiving the show later that day, but just in case Satan doesn't allow it to air - you should listen!
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