This is a nice web page: the Best College Radio Stations. It lists the criteria at the bottom:
"Must be non-commercial;
Must be affiliated with a college/university & be (mostly) student run;
Must have a full schedule of freeform programming;
Must broadcast a live, high-quality .mp3 or .ogg stream."
You'll see my station WRFL hovering over Kentucky, kinda alone in the midst of things. You'll not see WMUL, as they don't stream, except for sports programming. You can find my alma mater KVRX down ol' Texas way.
They also have a nice Google Calendar of notable shows. How lovely it would be if Self Help Radio made it on there!
I think the map is really cool, & it's fun to taste the occasional college radio station from time-to-time. It makes you believe that there's a lot of great radio happening, utterly in spite of awful commercial radio. Good for everyone involved! & much thanks to this site's creator!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
For You, On This Valentine's Day
Oh you, you, you, my dearest vinyl covering, my darling caramel coating, my favorite cheese! Self Help Radio's Valentine's offering - a radio shows about love songs - is yours for you as I know you would want it - on the internet for all to see - of course at self help radio dot net. But wait! I know you long for nothing more than the mopey lope of my voice going on & on about some trivial inanity - but I adore you so, my chocolate snail, that I have collected for you in a handy zip file usually openable on most computers in the 21st century of all the songs I played on that magical show - plus some I didn't have time to play - because if you love something, you should set it free, & I am setting myself free from the music I play, mainly so I can get some sleep. Self Help Radio's Valentine's gift to you is right here for you, my semiprecious waffle cone, to enjoy when & if you wish. It's only available until Valentine's Day - oh, & while I'm at it, did I mention that last year's Valentine's Day show, about girlfriends, is also available to listen to? I mean, if you can't get enough of me, which I know is highly improbable.
Please enjoy my collection of songs about love songs & also love songs which call themselves love songs, which encapsulates both the meta-ironic side of our relationship as well as our mutual love for painfully obvious things that calls attention to themselves. My flying buttress! My detached megalomaniac! My product of an inspired lapidary!
Please enjoy my collection of songs about love songs & also love songs which call themselves love songs, which encapsulates both the meta-ironic side of our relationship as well as our mutual love for painfully obvious things that calls attention to themselves. My flying buttress! My detached megalomaniac! My product of an inspired lapidary!
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Valentine's Deliverance
I don't really think much of Valentine's Day - but others do, & so I've devoted several Self Help Radios to it. I am all in favor of love, of course, although I am also grateful I don't have to love so many people. Just the requisite familial love (most of it in neutral, saved for awkward occasions), then the more important friendly love, for my dearest friends, & then at last the love for the wife & our family, most of whom smell doggy, while those that don't, smell a little catty. (I won't tell you which category the wife falls into.) None of them expect a valentine from me. Or if they do, they expect it every day.
But tonight! It's Self Help Radio's annual Valentine's Day show, this one subtitled "love song." I'm sure it's something you'll want to share with your special someone in your life who smells either doggy or catty. Or both. It's on at midnight tonight on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington & it's streaming from the WRFL website all over the world except maybe Egypt. You should listen.
If you can't listen, I'll archive it in time for Valentine's Day over at the Self Help Radio website. Just follow the trail of chocolate hearts. Or rose petals. I haven't decided yet. I mean, the dogs'll probably eat the hearts, but then again they'll probably eat the rose petals, too. They're romantic like that. Also, beagles.
I hope you listen! I'm dedicating a love song to you!
But tonight! It's Self Help Radio's annual Valentine's Day show, this one subtitled "love song." I'm sure it's something you'll want to share with your special someone in your life who smells either doggy or catty. Or both. It's on at midnight tonight on 88.1 fm WRFL in Lexington & it's streaming from the WRFL website all over the world except maybe Egypt. You should listen.
If you can't listen, I'll archive it in time for Valentine's Day over at the Self Help Radio website. Just follow the trail of chocolate hearts. Or rose petals. I haven't decided yet. I mean, the dogs'll probably eat the hearts, but then again they'll probably eat the rose petals, too. They're romantic like that. Also, beagles.
I hope you listen! I'm dedicating a love song to you!
Monday, February 07, 2011
Whither Love Songs?
Well, I spoke too soon. It's snowing like a mothersnower out there. Gigantic flakes. It's like I'm living in a snow globe.
It's 2011, & I'm doing my annual Valentine's Day show, which I started doing during the first Valentine's Day I had Self Help Radio, which was in 2003. Eight years ago! I've had the same Valentine since then. At the time, if you had said that to me, I would've scoffed. I would've scoffed in your face!
That first show was generic. I decided that, if I were to continue doing annual shows, I should make them somewhat more specific. For example, I have specificized (that's not a word) my Halloween shows. They're not just about "Halloween," although I could do a Halloween show about Halloween, just like I could - & may yet do - a Valentine's Day show just about Valentine's Day. Not yet!
Anyway, here's a rundown of my rundown themes for my rundown Valentine's Day shows:
February 12, 2003: Valentine's Show
February 11, 2004: The LOVE Show
February 09, 2005: The HATE Show
February 00, 2006: No Valentine's Day show - no station (it had burnt down the month before)
February 09, 2007: Valentine's Day 2007 - Crushes
February 08, 2008: Valentine's Day 2008 - Jealousy
February 14, 2009: Valentine's Day 2009 - Boyfriends
February 08, 2010: Valentine's Day 2010 - Girlfriends
I did sort of do a Valentine's song show for my first Valentine's day - but it wasn't comprehensive & I call backsies.
This year's show is a Valentine's Day show about love songs. That's pretty vague, yes? Not really. There are two rules:
1) It has to be a song about love songs.
2) It has to be a love song that calls itself a love song.
For example, the song "Silly Love Songs" by Linda McCartney & Wings is the perfect example of both. It tells you it's about love songs, but also the male Linda in the band sings "Here I go, again! I love you..." to a derivative disco beat that embarrassed even Barry White at the time. I would never play that song on Self Help Radio despite the fact that Linda had once been in the Rolling Stones, her claim to fame, before she tried to kill George Harrison with a melody. Where was I?
One song I may play, in some form or another, is "Lovesong" by the Cure, which is a love song that calls itself a love song, but economizes by making it one word instead of two. I will not play "Lvsng" by the Cur, which is a love song that calls itself a love song, sort of, but economizes by making it one syllable instead of two. Also, the song is twelve seconds long. & it sounds a little too much like frogs fucking. I'm just saying.
Another song I won't play is the corny "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song" by Three Dog Night. Why not, you may ask? It's because I have three dogs & they like to sing that song every night. That, & the Jeremiah was a bullfrog song, every night, like an insane postmodern dog melody that makes every stray & feral cat in the neighborhood howl like there's blood in their stool & all they have is Bill Frist's idea of feline health care. I just couldn't in good conscience play a song like when I know so many kittens are listening.
I still haven't decided what all I'll play so you have time to write me with suggestions. & if you want a Valentine's Day present from me, you should totally 'like' the show on Facebook to keep up with what present I'll give you the day after the show, which will be before Valentine's Day, so you won't be as disappointed as last year, when all the presents I sent were eaten by the staff at every West Virginia post office which is why they're so obese & no one likes them.
We're safer in Kentucky. Unless it smells like bourbon. So I won't be sending that sort of thing.
It's 2011, & I'm doing my annual Valentine's Day show, which I started doing during the first Valentine's Day I had Self Help Radio, which was in 2003. Eight years ago! I've had the same Valentine since then. At the time, if you had said that to me, I would've scoffed. I would've scoffed in your face!
That first show was generic. I decided that, if I were to continue doing annual shows, I should make them somewhat more specific. For example, I have specificized (that's not a word) my Halloween shows. They're not just about "Halloween," although I could do a Halloween show about Halloween, just like I could - & may yet do - a Valentine's Day show just about Valentine's Day. Not yet!
Anyway, here's a rundown of my rundown themes for my rundown Valentine's Day shows:
February 12, 2003: Valentine's Show
February 11, 2004: The LOVE Show
February 09, 2005: The HATE Show
February 00, 2006: No Valentine's Day show - no station (it had burnt down the month before)
February 09, 2007: Valentine's Day 2007 - Crushes
February 08, 2008: Valentine's Day 2008 - Jealousy
February 14, 2009: Valentine's Day 2009 - Boyfriends
February 08, 2010: Valentine's Day 2010 - Girlfriends
I did sort of do a Valentine's song show for my first Valentine's day - but it wasn't comprehensive & I call backsies.
This year's show is a Valentine's Day show about love songs. That's pretty vague, yes? Not really. There are two rules:
1) It has to be a song about love songs.
2) It has to be a love song that calls itself a love song.
For example, the song "Silly Love Songs" by Linda McCartney & Wings is the perfect example of both. It tells you it's about love songs, but also the male Linda in the band sings "Here I go, again! I love you..." to a derivative disco beat that embarrassed even Barry White at the time. I would never play that song on Self Help Radio despite the fact that Linda had once been in the Rolling Stones, her claim to fame, before she tried to kill George Harrison with a melody. Where was I?
One song I may play, in some form or another, is "Lovesong" by the Cure, which is a love song that calls itself a love song, but economizes by making it one word instead of two. I will not play "Lvsng" by the Cur, which is a love song that calls itself a love song, sort of, but economizes by making it one syllable instead of two. Also, the song is twelve seconds long. & it sounds a little too much like frogs fucking. I'm just saying.
Another song I won't play is the corny "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song" by Three Dog Night. Why not, you may ask? It's because I have three dogs & they like to sing that song every night. That, & the Jeremiah was a bullfrog song, every night, like an insane postmodern dog melody that makes every stray & feral cat in the neighborhood howl like there's blood in their stool & all they have is Bill Frist's idea of feline health care. I just couldn't in good conscience play a song like when I know so many kittens are listening.
I still haven't decided what all I'll play so you have time to write me with suggestions. & if you want a Valentine's Day present from me, you should totally 'like' the show on Facebook to keep up with what present I'll give you the day after the show, which will be before Valentine's Day, so you won't be as disappointed as last year, when all the presents I sent were eaten by the staff at every West Virginia post office which is why they're so obese & no one likes them.
We're safer in Kentucky. Unless it smells like bourbon. So I won't be sending that sort of thing.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Preface To Love Songs: A Love Song To Ronald Reagan
Well, not a love song exactly. More like an antidote to the hagiography that has probably infected every little bit of media not swallowed up by the Super Bowl (although there might be a Ronald Reagan parade during the Super Bowl! it's happening in Dallas, after all). (I haven't watched any television today, so I wouldn't know.)
When Reagan died, & the same sort of nonsense happened, my friend Ken attempted a curative on one of his best Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza shows. He called it "The Great Communicator" & it's an awesome reminder of how awful a president he was. Please note: there have been reports of the show inducing nausea in listeners. Don't listen while operating heavy machinery. Or even while driving.
Now I'm off to watch the Puppy Bowl! I am praying there are no Reagan references on it.
When Reagan died, & the same sort of nonsense happened, my friend Ken attempted a curative on one of his best Ken's Last Ever Radio Extravaganza shows. He called it "The Great Communicator" & it's an awesome reminder of how awful a president he was. Please note: there have been reports of the show inducing nausea in listeners. Don't listen while operating heavy machinery. Or even while driving.
Now I'm off to watch the Puppy Bowl! I am praying there are no Reagan references on it.