It’s leap-year-day or something. So whyntcha hop on the crazy train with me?
I slept through my alarm and was a couple minutes late to the studio this morning. Good thing I had a bit of an idea of what I wanted to play…still, things were rather hectic. I’m beginning to think that such scenarios make for some of the goodest shows. Am I right?
This is the special 2012 Fun razor edition of Break Your Radio. Somehow it turned into something like a novelty show, which I’m all right with, and I’m also A-OK with the amount of money WCBN (and I) raked in…collectively, we raised more than $30,375. Thank you thank you thank you generous and gorgeous donors, including Drs. Root and Loteyro, Jeff and Barbrow, whom I was unable to thank on the air within the hour (I give them their due gratitude in next week’s show). Of course, thanks again, Gramma K!
The figure above does not count the donations we obtained through credit cards. hooray! I think >$30k will tide us over til next year. It may even enable us to erect a brand new bigger better transmitter so 88.3 WCBN-FM can infiltrate the ears of Michiganders far(ther) and wide(r). Nor does that figure include donations received at the several live events sponsored by WCBN in celebration of our fundraiser. Along those lines, I’d like to share a little story.
Karl is the man. I love it when I get the chance to hear his Monday afternoon freeform show. Karl and I were minding the WCBN welcome-merchandise-bumper sticker-donation table at one of our fun razor events. Karl is a rugby player. He has rugby player friends. When one rugby player calls another rugby player a coward, a battle ensues. In this case, they ate a sheet of permanent-marker-stained paper and washed it down with gin. Who wins–Karl’s buddy, because he swallowed the paper AND a dollar bill? or Karl, because he did not commandeer a portion of WCBN’s fundraiser money to stuff into his gullet? you decide.
Hey, just think about this for a second–what if a rugby player ate a dollar bill and expelled 3 quarters, 2 dimes, and a nickel? How does he express his surprise as he hears the succession of clinks in the porcelain bowl below? OK, stop thinking about it.
HEREIN thou shalt encounter:
boobs
tap dancing
children
animal (and other) soundz
yodeling and waltzing
and such
(perhaps not in that order)
I was mighty intrigued when a WCBN colleague (insert pipe tobacco into corncob here, and adjust your smoking jacket lapels) mentioned the fact that an Alan Lomax-esque amateur recording engineer headed over to a Harlem jazz club called Minton’s Playhouse a whole bunch in the early 1940s and taped jazz musicians doing their thang. Some of the material recorded by this guy–Jerry Newman, for those following along–later were pressed as albums for public consumption, one of which I play on this show. So intriguing, the many avenues by which sounds travel to our ears!
On that note (har har), the results of additional amateurish recordings are peppered in this here episode of Break Your Radio.
along with a bunch of electronic music that I just felt like sharing at the beginning of the show. officerfishdumplings anyone? anyone?
huh, what’s that noise? Oh, it’s Rob, drilling pieces of wood in the FM studio.
Please do stay tuned, for next week is a very special Fundraiser Edition of Break Your Radio. Buy yourself a NEW WCBN shirt (or three)! Perhaps some coffee? How about other stuff! Rest assured that those bucks of yours will be devoted to perpetuating the radio waves emanating from ground zero, i.e., 88.3 FM WCBN-FM Ann Arbor. We love you.
P.S. I really do believe that people who play trumpets should be called trumpeteers. So there, it’s an emboldened vocabulary word, like in a textbook. That means it’s true and important.
Paula Poundstone pops up in this show because her set addresses the minor theme of swimming. She came to Michigan a few years ago and performed in the auditorium of a high school in Brighton. She thanked the audience for coming to see her instead of attending the wrestling match that was going on in the gymnasium next door. Good ole Paula Poundstone.
The following is a message for Jana Hunter: Your album There’s No Home is a masterpiece.
l i z w a s o n 