Why There Won't Be A Self Help Radio Podcast This Week (Excuse # 3)

Are you tired of these yet?

On Monday, I whined out four excuses why there won't be a Self Help Radio podcast this week.  To remind you, they were:

Excuse # 1) I am going to visit my mother in Dallas.
Excuse # 2) I got sick.
Excuse # 3) I am a terrible planner in general.
Excuse # 4) What the hell was I thinking?  (The self-pity excuse.)

Today I will talk about excuse three.

Look.  If you're me, & you've done the same radio show thing for years & years (this October it'll be THIRTEEN years), it's natural to develop a system.  An average show takes weeks, sometimes months, to make, usually because they start as an idea & then slowly grow until I think they're ready to be an actual radio show.

& yeah - lots of shows never happen.  I can't make them happen.  They don't seem to want to happen.

& I know some of the best radio programmers grab a bunch of stuff & decide what to play the second they're on the air.  I've done that before - it's thrilling!  But I've found I can't do Self Help Radio that way.

Like, once I was doing a show about - oh I don't know.  Let's say it was a show about lotions*.  A person called & said, "I hear you're looking for songs about lotions."  I responded - I didn't want to be mean - but I responded by saying, "I have plenty of songs - why would I come up to the radio station to do a show about lotions & not have two hours of songs about lotions?"  The caller seemed a bit insulted anyway.

The point is: I have a system.  It's designed to work over long periods of time.  When it's disrupted, it just doesn't work.

Because aside from this, I don't plan well at all.  I honestly thought I could gather enough songs, make a few funnies, record some airbreaks, & get it all together in less than three days.  I thought this completely aware that, even if I worked on the show during all my waking hours, it was probably not enough time.

Seriously, what was I thinking?  I'll beat myself up about that tomorrow.

* My friends in the excellent Austin band Luxuriator actually have a great song about lotions.