Last night I completed a couple of shows for KBOO - the studio has been closed for some time to staff because of the pandemic, & don't get me wrong, I think that's a very good idea. The station has more volunteers than any place I've ever been involved at, & that decision was for the safety of everyone. But some folks don't have the ability to prerecord their shows from home, & so the dedicated & frankly unstoppable staff have been filling in when needed. It was the absolute least I could do to help out with some content.
So, yeah, I finished two shows - & they're going to be on the air tomorrow! That's very gratifying & I hope you can listen. The first - which is a show about breakfast - & which leans heavily on an episode of Self Help Radio I did over ten years ago will air at 11am, & the second - a show about ambition - which borrows liberally from an episode of Self Help Radio from five years ago will air at 3pm.
Is it weird that I will be on KBOO during the day? Yes! Is it sad that it's prerecorded? Heck no! I honestly wish I could do more, but in addition to keeping myself sane in these dark days, I have a wife & many animals I need to care about as well. I am quite busy.
If you can listen at 90.7fm or at kboo.fm tomorrow, that will be swell. I'll announce it over on the show's Facebook page as well as on the Self Help Radio twitter, & I'll probably live tweet the shows.
See you tomorrow!
Random thoughts & other unrelated information from the dude who does "Self Help Radio" - a radio show which originated in Austin, Texas & now makes noise in Portland, Oregon. Listen to new & old shows & look at playlists at selfhelpradio.net.
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Saturday, March 28, 2020
Friday, March 27, 2020
Spending This Rainy Day
Making imaginary radio shows.
They're not really imaginary - they will possibly (probably?) air on the station for which I am making them. They take me a bit of time despite the fact that I am purposely repurposing old Self Help Radio shows. What's taking me some time is that I am adding new songs, I am relistening to the songs in case there are FCC violations, & I am of course recording new airbreaks which is what takes the most time even though I am keeping them short. Well, short for me.
The truth is, I am amazed - really, kinda flabbergasted - by deejays who just come on, back announce, & sign off. I wish (sort of) I could do that. In the case of this situation - creating content to keep stations on the air while the stations are closed to regular programmers - I don't feel comfortable being as chatty as I am when it's my show & a listener can be expected to deal with my loud mouth.
Tonight's goal - & the goal for the next few days - is a couple of hours a day. Although - I have created six hours for Freeform & the joke now is that that's what you hear when you turn the station on. I know I can destroy a lot of goodwill with overexposure. Maybe they'll take my recordings out of circulation once there's more new material.
In any event - these shows I'm doing I may well share with you, at some point. & I'll have a new Self Help Radio & Dickenbock Report in April. That's a kind of exciting, isn't it? It's keeping my anxiety at bay for the moment, anyway.
They're not really imaginary - they will possibly (probably?) air on the station for which I am making them. They take me a bit of time despite the fact that I am purposely repurposing old Self Help Radio shows. What's taking me some time is that I am adding new songs, I am relistening to the songs in case there are FCC violations, & I am of course recording new airbreaks which is what takes the most time even though I am keeping them short. Well, short for me.
The truth is, I am amazed - really, kinda flabbergasted - by deejays who just come on, back announce, & sign off. I wish (sort of) I could do that. In the case of this situation - creating content to keep stations on the air while the stations are closed to regular programmers - I don't feel comfortable being as chatty as I am when it's my show & a listener can be expected to deal with my loud mouth.
Tonight's goal - & the goal for the next few days - is a couple of hours a day. Although - I have created six hours for Freeform & the joke now is that that's what you hear when you turn the station on. I know I can destroy a lot of goodwill with overexposure. Maybe they'll take my recordings out of circulation once there's more new material.
In any event - these shows I'm doing I may well share with you, at some point. & I'll have a new Self Help Radio & Dickenbock Report in April. That's a kind of exciting, isn't it? It's keeping my anxiety at bay for the moment, anyway.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Three New Shows (Or Are They "New" Shows)
Over at the Self Help Radio website, I've added three playlists. Two are for episodes of the Dickenbock Report, this morning's & the one that aired two weeks ago. This morning's was prerecorded; the previous one was live. Both are over at the KBOO website, where they archive all their shows. Mine are under the name "Alright Radio" because for some reason I can't access the Dickenbock Report page from Spinitron. Yes, I have submitted a ticket to tech support. I suspect there are more important things going on that require their attention at this time.
The third is a Freeform sub show which I made the Monday before last when the station needed content. Interestingly, this show was on the air this afternoon when I was running errands. It's a mix of all kinds of songs, & I interrupt from time-to-time to back-announce. I try to keep it brief. I hope the music is fun to listen to.
My plans for the weekend include working on the next Self Help Radio & making a couple more mixes for these stations. As you may have heard, the United States now has the most Coronavirus cases in the world. So I suspect I may be doing this sort of thing for a few more weeks.
Maybe these shows will be diverting. In any event, there they are. I mean, really - over there. At the Self Help Radio website.
The third is a Freeform sub show which I made the Monday before last when the station needed content. Interestingly, this show was on the air this afternoon when I was running errands. It's a mix of all kinds of songs, & I interrupt from time-to-time to back-announce. I try to keep it brief. I hope the music is fun to listen to.
My plans for the weekend include working on the next Self Help Radio & making a couple more mixes for these stations. As you may have heard, the United States now has the most Coronavirus cases in the world. So I suspect I may be doing this sort of thing for a few more weeks.
Maybe these shows will be diverting. In any event, there they are. I mean, really - over there. At the Self Help Radio website.
Monday, March 23, 2020
Things That Will Happen This Week (& Later I Guess)
Besides Texas grandparents sacrificing themselves for the economy, I mean.
Can I number them? I'm going to number them.
1) There'll be a new episode of the The Dickenbock Report on Thursday morning. It won't be anything special (when is anything I do ever special?) but it'll be something new from me, & it'll be on the air, though prerecorded. Special bonus: it'll feature a report by none other than the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently!
2) Yes, I believe I'll share with you one or more of my recent prerecorded shows for Freeform. I was asked on Twitter about sharing old, not-currently-available episodes of Self Help Radio, & I may do that too.
3) This week I'll also prepare a couple more mixes for Freeform. They're fun to do, & until the station management decides how to restore some semblance of the schedule - to put shows on during their regular timeslot - I like to give them some content to play whenever, & keep it fairly fresh.
& finally 4) Since I don't know just when I'll be able to get back into the studios at KBOO & Freeform, I'll resume doing Self Help Radio as a podcast in April. Things might be more dire in the world, but hopefully I'll have gotten enough of my shit together to do that. Whether it airs on Freeform is a different thing entirely. But I'll release the show on Mondays starting April 6.
& with that, I take a couple days break from this blog. How fucking strange is this world right now? I can't even. I really can't even.
Can I number them? I'm going to number them.
1) There'll be a new episode of the The Dickenbock Report on Thursday morning. It won't be anything special (when is anything I do ever special?) but it'll be something new from me, & it'll be on the air, though prerecorded. Special bonus: it'll feature a report by none other than the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently!
2) Yes, I believe I'll share with you one or more of my recent prerecorded shows for Freeform. I was asked on Twitter about sharing old, not-currently-available episodes of Self Help Radio, & I may do that too.
3) This week I'll also prepare a couple more mixes for Freeform. They're fun to do, & until the station management decides how to restore some semblance of the schedule - to put shows on during their regular timeslot - I like to give them some content to play whenever, & keep it fairly fresh.
& finally 4) Since I don't know just when I'll be able to get back into the studios at KBOO & Freeform, I'll resume doing Self Help Radio as a podcast in April. Things might be more dire in the world, but hopefully I'll have gotten enough of my shit together to do that. Whether it airs on Freeform is a different thing entirely. But I'll release the show on Mondays starting April 6.
& with that, I take a couple days break from this blog. How fucking strange is this world right now? I can't even. I really can't even.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Days Like No Other
On Sundays I usually spend a great deal of time working on Self Help Radio. I usually have hours of music to listen to (but I've hopefully done that before Sunday) which means I have many songs to sift through. I have my silly interviews & "comedy" to edit. I have the entire thing to put together & then to write stuff about. Because of the fake interviews, I don't write as much as I used to - that work is being done for the Dickenbock Report now - but there's still information to look for & organize.
Maybe I've not mentioned this, but when we moved to Oregon - gosh, it's almost been a year - we worried a bit about our dogs. In Texas they had a magnificent backyard, but the rental we got had a treeless, almost grassless square in the back that would have perhaps made a great "beginner's yard," but was nothing to write home about. So, to engage the pups - already traumatized by the four-day journey across half the country - we started walking them twice a day. The walks - in the morning & evening, when possible - take about an hour each time, often more. That means some time between an eighth & a sixth of my waking hours is spent walking dogs.
Not that I don't enjoy it, & not that I'm unaware of the health benefits to me. But it can be quite a hole blown into one's daily routine when one has a lot of work to do. & Sundays - since September - have been quite busy days for me.
Until last week. That's when I decided, upon hearing that Freeform was closing its doors to help deal with the pandemic, that I'd not do Self Help Radio for a while, with the excuse that I preferred to do it live. & that Sunday was just fucking weird.
This Sunday has been worse. I have this sense - I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow morning too - that I'm not doing what I should be doing. I am unable to enjoy this as if it were a vacation. Although to be fair enjoying anything at all in these times seems awkward & even impolite.
Though, please, enjoy life. We'll need something like joy to help us through this. It's obvious very few who are "in charge" - I speak of those at the national level - have any real sense of the urgency of this & will many blame others when the dust settles & we see what's left.
Which is ultimately why it's weird to talk about my life or my dumb radio show. Dylan once sang,
I wish I'd been a doctor
Maybe I'd have saved some lives that'd been lost
Maybe I could've done some good in the world
Instead of burning every bridge I crossed
It's astonishing to hear Bob Dylan be so self-piteous - his music has helped me beyond calculation - but I sympathize with the sentiment. The best I've done this past week is cooked for the wife & made prerecorded radio shows for Freeform. Yes, I've avoided hoarding toilet paper & willfully defying social distancing requirements, but even I can't imagine being such an asshole.
How weird to yearn for the Sundays I was scrambling to put a radio show together! They seem so far away - two weeks ago! - & in a world that simply no longer exists.
Maybe I've not mentioned this, but when we moved to Oregon - gosh, it's almost been a year - we worried a bit about our dogs. In Texas they had a magnificent backyard, but the rental we got had a treeless, almost grassless square in the back that would have perhaps made a great "beginner's yard," but was nothing to write home about. So, to engage the pups - already traumatized by the four-day journey across half the country - we started walking them twice a day. The walks - in the morning & evening, when possible - take about an hour each time, often more. That means some time between an eighth & a sixth of my waking hours is spent walking dogs.
Not that I don't enjoy it, & not that I'm unaware of the health benefits to me. But it can be quite a hole blown into one's daily routine when one has a lot of work to do. & Sundays - since September - have been quite busy days for me.
Until last week. That's when I decided, upon hearing that Freeform was closing its doors to help deal with the pandemic, that I'd not do Self Help Radio for a while, with the excuse that I preferred to do it live. & that Sunday was just fucking weird.
This Sunday has been worse. I have this sense - I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow morning too - that I'm not doing what I should be doing. I am unable to enjoy this as if it were a vacation. Although to be fair enjoying anything at all in these times seems awkward & even impolite.
Though, please, enjoy life. We'll need something like joy to help us through this. It's obvious very few who are "in charge" - I speak of those at the national level - have any real sense of the urgency of this & will many blame others when the dust settles & we see what's left.
Which is ultimately why it's weird to talk about my life or my dumb radio show. Dylan once sang,
I wish I'd been a doctor
Maybe I'd have saved some lives that'd been lost
Maybe I could've done some good in the world
Instead of burning every bridge I crossed
It's astonishing to hear Bob Dylan be so self-piteous - his music has helped me beyond calculation - but I sympathize with the sentiment. The best I've done this past week is cooked for the wife & made prerecorded radio shows for Freeform. Yes, I've avoided hoarding toilet paper & willfully defying social distancing requirements, but even I can't imagine being such an asshole.
How weird to yearn for the Sundays I was scrambling to put a radio show together! They seem so far away - two weeks ago! - & in a world that simply no longer exists.