Rubbish, With Occasional Music

On July 2nd, I hosted The Pilot Show (one hour of radio magic from new, up & coming programmers) on KOOP Radio. I’d seen Gina Pina host it twice in the studio, and by that point I’d also apprenticed with John in the studio three times, so going in I felt fairly confident in running the board, watching the levels and cuing up the turntables and CD players. Sitting down and actually executing all this however was chaotic and terrifying. I was so nervous in the beginning of the hour that my hands were shaking pretty badly which made it rather difficult to cue my first two records, but I managed to calm down near the end of the show. All in all it went pretty well I think, and I certainly had fun. I can only remember making two mistakes, which isn’t bad that bad I suppose:

1) When I cued up Fascist Cops, I forgot to give the turntable a ½ spin backwards before the start of the song, the result of which was you could hear the record spinning up. Technically, I guess this isn’t really my fault, because the track before it leads directly into them counting into the song.

2) I saw both turntables had their levels up, and I accidentally turned down the wrong one. The result was Pressure drop fading out then in over the air. Oops. In hindsight, a better way to handle that would have been to start up the next song and sacrificing the last minute or so of that song.

Doing the show certainly made me appreciate the effort that a lot of the programmers at KOOP put into their shows, especially ones like Stronger than Dirt where the DJ plays several seven inches in a row. On the other hand though, I can certainly see the appeal of playing most of a show off a CD or laptop like other DJs do.

In the next few months, KOOP members who have completed the apprenticeship program, FCC training and studio training will be eligible to pitch their shows to the Programming Committee. I haven’t decided whether I’ll actually apply for a show or not. I’d like to have one, playing the same sort of stuff I did on The Pilot Show, but I think I’d have a hard time making a case for it (How would it benefit the community?) when they already have an excellent reggae show and another show covering a good variety of punky stuff.

Eventually, I’ll make a digital copy of the recording of the show and host it here. In the meantime, here’s the playlist:

La Fraction - Dansez Les Mortes
The Buzzcocks - Fast Cars
*The Clash - Police and Thieves
*The Kids - Fascist Cops
Ronnie Davis - False Leaders
*Johnny Clarke - Simmer Down
Peter Tosh - Stepping Razor
*Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
Dandy Livingston - Trouble In The Town
Don Carlos - Lazer Beam
Cornel Campbell - Fight Against Corruption
The Selecter - Too Much Pressure (Live)
The Specials - Skinhead Girl
*The Jam - In The City
*Radio Birdman - Murder City Nights
Teen Cool - Partners In Crime
Les Calamites - Toutes Les Nuits

* denotes vinyl, yay!