(Image from here.)
October 9, 2002, was a Wednesday. This is a story I've told before, on this blog, too, but I'll tell it again. I finally got a show on KOOP, after two years of volunteering. It had been a long wait, & although I got to sub several shows, I missed doing a regular show. I hadn't had a regular radio show since 1999.
The first slot was Fridays at 9am. I loved it - I could come do the show, I could go to work, & I stayed late at work some days anyway. I cleared it with my boss. I was excited, I did a couple of shows at that slot (sadly, during a Pledge Drive, & I got zero bucks), but I felt like it was a warm-up - I hadn't even thought of a name yet!
But then I got a phone call from a KOOP programmer named Danny. He had been given a slot, on a Wednesday afternoon, but to do the show, he was taking vacation time from work. Apparently he too could go in late on Fridays, but he couldn't get off Wednesday afternoons. I wasn't sure I could, but I thought I'd check - the boss didn't mind me leaving in the middle of the day to do the show if I came back & stayed late. It was nice I could do that.
There was a Programming Committee meeting when this arrangement was decided & I attended & it turned out there was a stray hour before or after my show. I guess it was my suggestion - I'm not sure - it was decided the hour before my show would be what we called a "pilot show" for people who had just been trained to have an hour to show us what sort of show they would do. Ever the helpful person, I agreed to oversee it, although I was to coordinate with another programmer for Spanish-language shows. This caused some KOOP people to refer to the hour that I helped oversee as the "Anglo" Pilot Show, which I'm sure made programmers who weren't white - we had Asian- & African-Americans come to do shows as well - feel a bit weird. But that was KOOP.
My first show - on that Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - I didn't have time schedule someone for the 2-3pm hour, the Pilot Show. So I did it. I played songs of greeting, I called it "the hello show." It was technically Self Help Radio's first theme - although of course, it wasn't Self Help Radio. Yeah, I had come up with that name by now.
The first slot was Fridays at 9am. I loved it - I could come do the show, I could go to work, & I stayed late at work some days anyway. I cleared it with my boss. I was excited, I did a couple of shows at that slot (sadly, during a Pledge Drive, & I got zero bucks), but I felt like it was a warm-up - I hadn't even thought of a name yet!
But then I got a phone call from a KOOP programmer named Danny. He had been given a slot, on a Wednesday afternoon, but to do the show, he was taking vacation time from work. Apparently he too could go in late on Fridays, but he couldn't get off Wednesday afternoons. I wasn't sure I could, but I thought I'd check - the boss didn't mind me leaving in the middle of the day to do the show if I came back & stayed late. It was nice I could do that.
There was a Programming Committee meeting when this arrangement was decided & I attended & it turned out there was a stray hour before or after my show. I guess it was my suggestion - I'm not sure - it was decided the hour before my show would be what we called a "pilot show" for people who had just been trained to have an hour to show us what sort of show they would do. Ever the helpful person, I agreed to oversee it, although I was to coordinate with another programmer for Spanish-language shows. This caused some KOOP people to refer to the hour that I helped oversee as the "Anglo" Pilot Show, which I'm sure made programmers who weren't white - we had Asian- & African-Americans come to do shows as well - feel a bit weird. But that was KOOP.
My first show - on that Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - I didn't have time schedule someone for the 2-3pm hour, the Pilot Show. So I did it. I played songs of greeting, I called it "the hello show." It was technically Self Help Radio's first theme - although of course, it wasn't Self Help Radio. Yeah, I had come up with that name by now.
Self Help Radio aired at 3pm & the first official theme was "war." A year after 9/11/2001, the Republicans in power were looking for ways to invade Iraq, & had already begun to invent reasons to do so. War was on my mind like everyone else. I think I have a recording of the show, on cassette, but it hasn't been digitized, so I haven't listened to it - probably ever.
One thing I did do was save a CD of all the songs I played & I bought a little CD booklet in which to save my shows. I really didn't expect I'd be doing the show for long. I don't know why I thought that, but I felt I'd do something else at some point. Maybe I wish I'd saved records of my shows at KVRX. I don't know. I certainly didn't think I'd be doing Self Help Radio nineteen years later! & two thousand miles away!
One thing I did do was save a CD of all the songs I played & I bought a little CD booklet in which to save my shows. I really didn't expect I'd be doing the show for long. I don't know why I thought that, but I felt I'd do something else at some point. Maybe I wish I'd saved records of my shows at KVRX. I don't know. I certainly didn't think I'd be doing Self Help Radio nineteen years later! & two thousand miles away!
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