Self Help Radio 122017: A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2017

(Original image here.)

Hello, Santa Claus here!  At this time of year, I often guest-write Christmas blogs for those blogs which share the holiday spirit.  I don't know much about Self Help Radio except this show was full of Christmas music & that's my favorite kind of music!  So even though I've not heard the show nor will I ever hear it frankly because I am a very busy man who's guest-writing dozens of blogs simultaneously, I will go ahead & recommend it because that is the nice thing to do.

& yes, I can see you when you're sleeping & I know when you're awake.  I have recently digitized my "naughty & nice" list & I ho ho hope it doesn't get hacked & put online!  I hope the elves have decent encryption!  Let's see, I'm supposed to say that not only does this show have wonderful Christmas music but well this is exciting, there are interviews with a Christmastologist - it's well-known I majored in that in college - as well as with a historian, a producer of holiday films, & a spiritual man who discusses the old holiday Yule.  I remember it well.  It was at a yule gathering I met Mrs. Claus!

Well, I suppose that's enough from me.  The show is on a web page called Self Help Radio - I see, after the name of the show - & it's a two hour show - that's about as long as it takes me to deliver presents in the United States! - & the songs & interviews in each section are listed below.

Have a happy holiday & maybe we'll espy one another on Christmas Eve!  I certainly hope there's nothing weird or disturbing about this show which will reflect badly on me!

(part one)

"Introduction, Good King Wenceslas, Caroling In The Dark, The Holly & The Ivy" Alan Lomax _Sing Christmas & The Turn Of The Year_
"Carol Of The Bells" Jingle Babies _The Jingle Babies: Rockabye Christmas_
"The Wildest Christmas" The Boys Next Door _The Boys Next Door_

"Ho Ho Ho (Santa's Gotta Go)" Smoota & Meah Pace _Ho Ho Ho (Santa's Gotta Go)_
"Santa, Bring My Baby Back To Me" Eleanor Friedberger _Holidays Rule_
"The Twelve Days Of Christmas" Norm MacDonald _Ridiculous_
"Number One For Christmas" Bubblegum Lemonade _Laz Christmas_

interview with Christmastologist David Frucher

"The Pagans Had It Right" Devil In A Woodpile _Bloodshot Records' 13 Days Of Xmas_
"Strangest Christmas Yet" Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers _The Long-Awaited Album_
"Christmas Eve Can Kill You" The Everly Brothers _Stories We Could Tell_
"Merry Christmas In The NFL" Willis "The Guard" & Vigorish _Merry Christmas In The NFL_

interview with historian Robert Hank Caligula

"Another Christmas Song" Remington Super 60 _Another Christmas Song_
"Christmas Blues" The Wave Pictures & Darren Hayman _Christmas In Haworth: An Advent Calendar From Darren Hayman, Fika Recordings, & Friends_

(part two)

"Christmas In Suburbia" The Perfect English Weather _English Winter EP_
"The Candy Kid" The Cowsills _All Time Hits_
"O Come, All Ye Faithful" Jim Nabors _Jim Nabors' Christmas Album_

interview with holiday filmmaker Lorenzo Schwab

"Christmas Time Is A Wonderful Time" Lard Dog & The Band Of Shy _Christmas Time Is A Wonderful Time_
"Jingle Bells (Dan The Automator Remix)" Dean Martin _Holiday Lounge: The Christmas Remixes_
"Case Study: HR Giger" Drs. Carter & Gourley _Superego Volume 3, Episode 10_
"Someone To Spend Christmas With" The Spook School _Someone To Spend Christmas With_

interview with the Rev Dr Howard Gently

"Yule Tide Me Over" The Minus 5 _Dear December_
"Birthday Cake For Jesus" Shinyribs _Birthday Cake For Jesus_
"Jingles, The Christmas Cat" Freddy Cole _Freddy Cole's Christmas Dreams_
"Eight Dates A Week (Song For Hanukkah)" The Holiday Scene _Eight Dates A Week (Song For Hanukkah)_

"Up On The House Top/Deck The Halls" "Two Ton" Baker The Merry Music Maker _Christmas Party_
"Auld Lang Syne" Frank C. Stanley with Orchestra Accompaniment _Frank C. Stanley, Vol. 1_

Whither A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2017?

(found here)

Tonight is the annual Self Help Radio Christmas show.

Some folks don't like Christmas music, & that's cool.  I am a fan of Christmas music but I feel you should only have to listen to like two hours of it during the holiday season.  & you shouldn't have to listen to the same Christmas music each year.  So there are no repeated songs for any Self Help Radio Christmas show.  There are however lots of new Christmas songs, barely as old as the season.

Also the show will be informative in a way that repeated listenings of classic rock versions of familiar tunes are not.  You'll hear interviews with an actual Christmastologist (that's a thing), a holiday film maker, a historian, & a spiritual teacher.  Should you listen.

The campaign to get retail establishments to play Self Help Radio Christmas shows on a loop during the holiday season has failed.  It wasn't much of a campaign.  I made a suggestion to some guy at a local drug store & he pretended not to hear me.  So it's only tonight on 93.9 fm in Lexington or online at lexingtoncommunityradio.org that you'll be able to hear this year's a Very Self Help Radio Christmas.  That's from 9-11pm eastern.

Did you know mistletoe is poisonous?  So please don't snack on it during the show.

Preface To A Very Self Help Radio Christmas 2017: How Very?

Are there gradations of Christmas?

What might be a very Christmas?

You misunderstand.  It isn't a very Christmas.  It's a very Self Help Radio Christmas.

When talking about our animals, my wife will often say, "They love their rituals."

So too with a radio show.  It loves its rituals.

One of them is a Christmas show.  But it can't simply be a Christmas show.

It's on Self Help Radio.  But it's heightened for the holidays.

It's not just Self Help Radio Christmas.  It's very Self Help Radio Christmas.

Ask a philosopher.  The logic is sound.

Don't Make Me Beg

Okay, I'll beg.  I really hope you'll take a second to give just a few bucks to Lexington Community Radio during the Good Giving Challenge.  It's not just that they've given a place on air to Self Help Radio, but also that they've given a voice to so many different kinds of radio in Lexington & beyond.  A dizzying array of genres, community programs, issues, discussions.  Just think about what happens before Self Help Radio on Wednesdays - there is, starting at 6pm, two hours of hip hop, then at 8pm, an hour of important health information on Healthy Times, which I very much enjoy listening to before SHR.  Where else will you find such diversity, not just in Kentucky, but anywhere?  & that's just three hours!

So please go to the LCR home page to give or, if you want to be like a couple of sweet listeners, you can do it here in the name of SHR.

All of it goes to keep independent radio alive in Lexington.  So it's really, really worth it.

Monetize It

It's hard to convince people that someone is doing something because that person loves to do it.  The fact that I have been making radio since 1994 & have never been paid to be on the radio seems utterly nonsensical to some folks.   I remember a time at KOOP when a station manager told me that they were financially solvent enough to perhaps pay a stipend to some deejays who gave more to the station - implying I would be one of them.  I declined.  I had never accepted money to be on the radio before - it would be icky.

Which is a weird way to say I find it strange that Facebook - which, admittedly, thinks my show is a band, because when I signed up, I couldn't sign up as a radio show - is constantly asking me for money to promote a show for which I receive no money.

Here's a screenshot of the last three messages I've received from them:

You can't turn this off - I checked.  They will keep hounding you until, I guess, you give in & pay a few bucks to harass people who don't know about you - & doubtless don't care - have to see your shit in their feed.

Yeah, yeah, I'd love more people to know about this dumb radio show - I'd love to know how many bother to listen & then utterly reject it - but I'd keep doing it even if no one listened.  I do believe I have!  There were late nights in Austin two decades ago, & late nights in Lexington two years ago, that if I had called for help on the air, if there had been gunshots & sounds of distress & terror, no one would have come to my aid, because quite frankly no one was listening - & I still gave it my all.  Because I was having fun, playing music, being dumb on the air.  It's what I do.

& yeah, I wish I had that ambition, I know the wife would love it if I could bring in a few bucks doing this.  But I can't where SHR currently is, & in fact where Self Help Radio currently sits, any money raised goes to the saintly station that airs the show, not me.

How I wish I could make money that way!  I am terrible at it, frankly.  Even worse than I am at radio!