When I lived in Houston, I enjoyed listening to the college radio station. You never knew what they would be playing. It could be anything from Robert Johnson to the Muppets. The best part of finding the channel was the DJs. After most blocks of songs, there would be at least a 10 second awkward silence before you would hear, “Uh… yeah… uh… that was the Moody Blues covering the theme song from Flash Gordon….. uh…. up next… uh….. Mike with the Chamber Music hour….”
Who runs these college stations? I always thought the point of the stations was to train students going into radio. I suppose this might be why radio is phasing out now and continious music on Sirius and Spotify is more popular.
I’ve missed the creepy college station here in Stockholm, but yesterday while driving in the car (I blame you for that McDonald’s), I found an odd station in English playing old 60s music. It’s not common to find English speaking radio here, so I listened for a while as the British DJ talked about the songs. Imagine my joy as I heard the completely inexperienced man say in a drawling, monotone voice, “uh….. that was The Doors…. Hello, I Love You…uh…kind of short song….. most of their songs were longer….. not that one….. uh…. going to play some blues next….. the blues are not so happy….. usually men compaining…… uh…. not good relationships…… yeah….. um…. here’s Buddy Guy.”
What sort of station is this?! It’s now on Pre-set number 1 in the car. I’m not sure if it’s an English learning station or some lonely British guy in Stockholm stuck in a basement with his old records. But this is what I’ve been missing. Good for you, creepy British radio guy! Our kids need to live in a world with mysterious, confused radio DJs. Keep up the good work!
Sometimes, that’s the best listen out there… 😀
That sounds a cool station, hopefully devoid of advertisements?
Good question. I think the only advertisements they had in Houston were for things at the college that the “DJ” would read out very slowly and very creepy. “Uh…… Literature club meeting at … uh….. 5pm Tuesday….. uh….” I’m not sure about the one here, but I’m happy to report that when I got in the car the other day, they were playing Robert Johnson!
You can’t go wrong with Robert Johnson 🙂 My favourite bluesmen are the old Mississippi blues singers like Johnson, Skip James and Son House, as opposed to the Chicago, electric style.
My Mrs hates my old blues music! She doesn’t even like the names! The more unusual sounding ones I mean.
The unusual sounding ones are the best! Lightnin’ Hopkins!