Preface To Too Much: Isn't Three Hours Too Much

(image & article answering that question here)

A long time ago, when I first starting doing Self Help Radio, I was oh so glad & grateful to have an hour-long show on the airwaves at KOOP.  It was very competitive at that time on the station - most shows were thirty minutes or an hour, & the two hour shows had been around for a while.  & frankly, I had come up with the idea of exploring a different theme every week out of a kind of desperation - I needed an angle to get my show approved.  So who knew if I could fill an hour a week with a show about donuts or diapers or whatever?

But when I had the opportunity to do the show for two hours, I took it.  & then when the station decided to change the schedule, I was happy to do ninety minutes.  & I kinda felt at the time that that was the perfect show length for Self Help Radio.  When I started at WRFL in 2010, the timeslot was three hours long - so I divided the time between a freeform show & Self Help Radio, although eventually I did expand it again to two hours, & ended with a two hour show before I left Kentucky.

When I moved SHR to KBOO, I knew I wouldn't be splitting the timeslot - but I did wonder if maybe I should reserve the last hour for something else, like only instrumentals, or perhaps "re-running" a previous show.  Eventually I decided, you know what?  I will do a three-hour show.  They've given me three hours.  Nothing else made any sense.

But to answer my own question: yes, three hours is too much.  When I have five interviews, it is handy, but I wouldn't have so many interviews if the show were only two hours long.  & I hold out hope that either a) the station decides to carve up the late-night hours into smaller timeslots so more shows can happen or b) I get an earlier two-hour timeslot at some point.  Because doing three hour shows - & then doing the Dickenbock Report - yes, that's too much.