Boy, someone "confesses" a lot on this blog, doesn't he?
A brief search through this blog finds not a lot about changes or reevaluations of how Self Help Radio was made over its somewhat long run, but if you were a listener in early 2014, you noticed something. One, the show was no longer on WRFL - I took a semester off. The other was that, suddenly, out of the blue, in addition to interviews, the show featured fake advertisements. "Self Help Radio was brought to you today by.." absurd businesses or people, unconvincingly voiced by yours truly, in mostly unsuccessful attempts at being funny. Lots of those businesses were crowding the streets of poor, maligned Paint Lick, Kentucky.
There were precedents. Some time in the mid-early-oughts (whatever you call them), I discovered the Firesign Theatre, & I loved their fake radio spots. (I can't find an example, but perhaps you've heard "Ed's End Of The World Restaurant.") At KOOP, I attempted to write & "perform" (read) some on the air, but I failed to make them funny. I put that practice aside.
But! Away from WRFL, without its spots to make radio lulls for which to change gears musically, I needed to make something myself, & I revisited that practice. It became something I felt I needed to do every show. So much so that now, your weekly Self Help Radio show features at least two fake ads. Mostly they're silly, occasionally - very occasionally - they are somewhat amusing. I have yet to make one that's actually funny.
Anyway. The confession. I have had a hell of a week. In working on the birthday show (on tomorrow night), even though I will not repeat songs I've played previously, I lazily thought, what if I recycle a couple of fake ad spots? Who will know? No one who might have listened two years ago is listening now!
So this is what I did. The two fake funny ads on tomorrow's show first appeared two years ago, on the birthday show then. Again: nobody but me would notice. But I feel guilt no matter what. So. I need to tell you what I've done.
You want to hear about all the money I've stolen from the elderly? No? Cool. Cool.
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