Self Help Radio 083116: Lakes

(Original image here.)

Seriously I am trying to remember the last time I was at a lake.  I know I've driven by a dozen lakes in the past year - you have to cross a lake to get into the Dallas area from the East on I-30.  There's also a super cool lake you drive over somewhere in Tennessee, if I am remembering correctly, between Nashville & Memphis.  I know!  Sometime in the past year, when visiting Dallas, we spent time at White Rock Lake, walking the dogs down there!  It wasn't quite the same lake visit that others have, but it was "time at the lake."

Meanwhile, I tried to bring Texas Lake Culture (tm) (as if that's a thing that's different elsewhere) to Kentucky with the first Self Help Radio on WLXU.  While I remain grateful for the opportunity to do
the show, I am still a bit ambivalent about two things: 1) doing a show so far away on a station in another city that celebrates "local" programming; & b) doing a prerecorded show that's actually airing & not downloadable as a podcast.  I am certain I can get over both these things, but I will understand completely if someone notices that SHR isn't local & wants to do another show at that time.  Completely totally understand.

Meanwhile, if you missed it, or miss the lake, or for any reason really, this week's Self Help Radio is now available at the Self Help Radio website.  It's in two parts, there's a password, yadda yadda yoda.  The songs I played are listed below.  The interviews - there are four of them! - are not.  There!  Some enticement for ya!

(part one)

"Year Of The Lake" The Smittens _Believe Me_
"Lake Como" Celestial _Dream On_
"The Sand That Holds The Lakes In Place (Lake)" His Name Is Alive _Stars On ESP_

"Loch Ness Monster" King Horror _Wavy Gravy_
"Claramount Lake" Tomorrow _Tomorrow_
"The Lake" Laurie Anderson _Homeland_

"Lake Lagoon" Jandek _Graven Image_
"Lake Of Fire" Meat Puppets _Meat Puppets II_
"Back To The Lake" Guided By Voices _Universal Truths & Cycles_
"The Deepest Lake On The Planet" Dengue Fever _The Deepest Lake_

"The Lake Isle Of Innisfree" The Waterboys _An Appointment With Mr. Yeats_

(part two)

"Indian Lake" The Cowsills _Captain Sad & His Ship Of Fools_
"Lake House" Vivian Girls _Share The Joy_
"Chandelier Lake" Tilly & The Wall _O_

"Deep Forbidden Lake" Neil Young _Decade_
"The Bottomless Lake" John Prine _Aimless Love_
"Lake Wasood" Michael Showalter _Sandwiches & Cats_
"Lake Front" Belmondo _Lake Front 7"_

"The Truth About Lake Ronkonkama" My Favorite _Love At Absolute Zero_
"Lakeside View Apartments Suite" The Mountain Goats _Transcendental Youth_
"Great Five Lakes (Cornelius remix)" Buffalo Daughter _CM - Cornelius Remixes_

"Lake Song" The Decemberists _What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World_
"We Live By The Lake" Fanfarlo _Fire Escape_

Whither Lakes?

(This image from a Youtube video about the deepest lakes in the world.)

Why do a radio show about lakes?  Is it because I have recently traveled from a state that has fewer lakes to one than has more?  Or the opposite?  Does Kentucky have more or less lakes than Texas?

Certainly that seems a trick questions.  Texas is over six times larger than Kentucky.  You can drive from Ashland, at Kentucky's northeast tip, to Paducah, at its southwest tip, in under seven hours.  That's around 378 miles.  To get from Texarkana to El Paso (814 miles) takes half a day.  More telling, you can travel from Bowling Green in the south to Covington in the north in only three hours or so (218 miles); to travel from Brownsville, Texas, at the state's southern tip, to Amarillo, Texas, in the Panhandle (777 miles) takes another half a day - & that's not even the northernmost part of the state!

The lesson is clear: it takes a hell of a lot longer to get out of Texas than it does to get out of Kentucky.

What that has to do with lakes is this: Texas could have more lakes than Kentucky just because it's so big.  But I checked this website, which calculates what percentage of the state's area is water, & it's interesting: Kentucky is 2.3% water, while Texas is just 2.7%.  So maybe not much of a difference in lakes, after all.  (The page lets us know that the United States is 7% water.  I feel that should be more.  Don't you?)

In any event, I can safely say that the number of lakes in Texas vs the number of lakes in Kentucky had nothing to do with why the show today is about lakes.  I thought about doing a show about lakes one day while listening to Dengue Fever's last album, which is called "The Deepest Lake."  From tiny acorns of inspiration do such big radio shows grow.

& of course, the show will air tonight!  Oh my golly!  On 93.9 fm WXLU in Lexington, & online at lexingtoncommunityradio.org (please choose the WXLU side)!  That's from 9-11pm Kentucky time & 8-10pm Texas time, & other times depending on where you are & how you got there.  The show will technically air later there than here, which is a trip.

Maybe you'll be listening along with me!

Preface To Lakes: Well? Will It Be On The Radio Or Not?

(This is a lake I live near these days.  I found this image here.)

To answer my own question, yes, I think the show will air tomorrow night on 93.9 fm WLXU Lexington, & online simultaneously at Lexington Community Radio dot org (just choose WXLU).  I put the show together today & delivered it to the powers-that-be in Lexington.  I imagine I could easily have done something wrong, so never discount user error when it comes to me.

It's very strange to have finished a radio show more than a day before it airs.  I much prefer to put the show together in real time.  I miss it, & hope I'll get to do that again soon.  But for now: tomorrow night there's a new Self Help Radio airing in Lexington & all over the internets.  & I'll be around to live stream it on Twitter!

It's been a long day.  I need to sleep now.

Oh What A Mess I Am

It might not seem so, but there's a lot of work that goes into an episode of Self Help Radio.  Not to be whiny about it, but it does take some time, & I have been waylaid by the deadline of the Wednesday show which - I believe - is tomorrow.

Tomorrow!  I am woefully unprepared!

In fact, there's a good chance that I might not be able to premiere (or re-premiere) on WLXU this Wednesday.  If so, I'll put the show up - it's prerecorded no matter what - on Friday.  I hope it doesn't come to that.  I'm going to be working as hard as I can to get it done.

By the way, this is me lowering expectations.  I shouldn't have to - certainly expectations of me are as low as is pretend polite - but I received some nice responses to my announcement yesterday that, even if they were sweetly faked sentiments, it seems to me I should be responsive to them.  & so.

Self Help Radio may or may not be on on WLXU on Wednesday! I will do all in my power to make sure it is! But my power is hardly ever enough! This is my admonishment!

You Can Take The Show Out Of Kentucky... Or Can You?

(Oh, you know about this place!)

Stranger & strangerer is the life of Self Help Radio.

Some things are certain:

1. I no longer live in Kentucky.
2. In fact, I live in Fort Worth, Texas.
3. Self Help Radio has yet to find a radio home here.
4. That doesn't matter, I'll do it anyway, & just post it online.
5. Meanwhile, back in Lexington.
6. The people I knew in radio in Kentucky were the coolest people in the world.
7. WLXU has offered Self Help Radio a spot from far away.
8. So Self Help Radio is returning to the Kentucky airways.

Yeah, I know.  The marvelous folks at WLXU, which is one-half of the Lexington Community Radio stations at which I did Cradle To Grave for about half a year, have said they'll air Self Help Radio (pre-recorded, of course) starting (I hope) next week.  Next Wednesday in fact.  From 9-11pm EST.

(My brain needs to translate: that's 8-10pm CST.)

Much gratitude to the station & especially station manager Chuck Clenney for this opportunity.  If you enjoyed listening when the show was on WRFL, maybe it'll be as much fun on WLXU.  Folks keep asking me if the show is "syndicated," which is silly - of course not!  It's airing exclusively on WLXU.  For now.  When I find a home here, I'll do it here, although that may not preclude me doing it back there.  Or a different show.  Or something.

So. Ain't that a kick in the head?!?