One Year Without Radio (The Coronavirus Diaries, Part XIV)
In the last week or so there has been a lot of media coverage of "one year of the coronavirus pandemic", supported by many of my friends posting similar memories as Facebook shows a lot of concerned "on this day one year ago" items. I actually already got into this a bit with yesterday's post about it being a full year since I ate in a restaurant, and my exhaustive notes certainly cover other notable anniversaries, including:
- one year since I bought groceries in person at either Giant Eagle or the West Side Market (March 14)
- one year since I worked in the office ( March 13)
- one year since I saw a movie in the theater ( March 8, Onward)
- one year since I was on a plane ( February 18, return from Disney)
I could probably figure out the last time I picked up books at the library or the last time I was at the gym, but frankly all of those will probably revert to normal as soon as this pandemic ends, which hopefully will be soon (as of this writing, M's parents and sister have gotten both shots, my parents and my sister have gotten the first shot, most of my teacher and medical friends have gotten both shots, etc.) The thing that probably won't restart is my radio show.
Sunday, March 15 was the last edition of Soul Delirium. The pandemic killed my radio show. We're now in the third scheduled semester since my last show, and I wasn't on any of those program guides. Given Birdie's arrival, I won't be on any in the foreseeable future either. Essentially, the pandemic killed my radio show and my daughter drove a stake through its heart.
I'm not actually particularly upset by this. I've enjoyed having my Sundays free for the first time since 2002, even if during the pandemic it was the freedom not to go anywhere else. Honestly, I always sort of assumed that if I ever had kids I'd stop doing radio, so it's just the pandemic portion doing it slightly earlier that was a surprise.
I have but two small regrets and one weird thought.
Regret #1: I came oh so close to finishing the radio encyclopedia project, which was in the literally the last two pages of agate type in the "cut from the prior edition" pages. I had two weeks of Ds in the can, which are here:
3/08 - Bobby Day, The Diamonds, Dick and Dee Dee
3/15 - Dino Desi & Billy. Ral Donner, Ducks Deluxe
If I had ended radio at the end of Fall 2020 Semester, I would absolutely have finished it. Missed it by *that* much.
Regret #2: In a normal non-pandemic world, once we knew Birdie was on her way the Fall 2020 Semester would have been announced as my last ride. I would have done a lot more "best of" lists. I would have tried to have as many of my eleven co-hosts back as guests as I possibly could, and hopefully some of my old trainees as well. The last couple of shows would have been wall to wall favorite songs, and we certainly would have ended with a party! Instead, it died abruptly with no notice. Ah well.
Weird Thought: Since I first arrived in Cleveland, the longest I went between visits to University Circle (home of my alma mater, my radio station, the Cleveland Cinematheque, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra and much else) was probably four or five months when I lived at home after graduation. Now I haven't been there in a solid year, since all of those arts activities were closed and only the Art Museum at this point has reopened. How weird is that?
Back in 2018 I wrote up how I was prepping for my radio show. That stayed relatively solid up until the end. One of those approaches was to write down a list of music during my show I wanted to play during the next show. I've had that last list on my desk for a year. For posterity, here is the artists that might have been on the March 22, 2020 edition of Soul Delirium if it had occurred.
+ = on the new shelf at that time, which usually meant it was actually new but not always. Spelling approximate. Even I can't read my own hand writing sometimes, especially a year after the fact.
(X) = indicates I already played this track from the album
SOUL
+Madison McFerrin
+Shawn Amos
+Tre Burt
+James Hunter 6 (2)
OTVS - The Get Down
+Mary Lou Williams
+Swamp Dogg (1)
Delirium
+Harrow Fair
+Ruth Collins
+Esme Patterson
+Mija
+Split Moon
+Sweet Lizzy Project (2, 8)
+Angelica Garcia (4)
I also had notes to remind to do a ticket giveaway for Here Come the Mummies the Sunday before they turned up at the HOB on May 9. That show obviously didn't happen, and neither did any of the six I announced during my last show. Within days of March 15 every show on the calendar had been canceled or postponed. Most of the postponed ones were also cancelled, eventually.
Because next week never arrived, so the very last song I played on the radio was an old favorite by Polyphonic Spree. I played Light & Day off of the Murderball soundtrack, and that was it. It's not the last song I would have chosen with an entire semester to prepare, but if I have to go out at all, I'm not displeased it was with this one.
Addendum - the video for this song even ends up looking not dissimilar to a Zoom call. How appropriate.
I've got some 15+ years of radio shows saved in MP3 format (the pandemic probably saved me from buying a new external hard drive), so I can bore my daughter with music from when I was (slightly) cooler. Or she can listen to new stuff on WRUW, which seems like a better way to go. You personally should definitely tune into WRUW on Sundays at 2pm, because my friend Lazybones took over my time slot with her show Sweet & Lowdown, and it's very good.
- one year since I bought groceries in person at either Giant Eagle or the West Side Market (March 14)
- one year since I worked in the office ( March 13)
- one year since I saw a movie in the theater ( March 8, Onward)
- one year since I was on a plane ( February 18, return from Disney)
I could probably figure out the last time I picked up books at the library or the last time I was at the gym, but frankly all of those will probably revert to normal as soon as this pandemic ends, which hopefully will be soon (as of this writing, M's parents and sister have gotten both shots, my parents and my sister have gotten the first shot, most of my teacher and medical friends have gotten both shots, etc.) The thing that probably won't restart is my radio show.
Sunday, March 15 was the last edition of Soul Delirium. The pandemic killed my radio show. We're now in the third scheduled semester since my last show, and I wasn't on any of those program guides. Given Birdie's arrival, I won't be on any in the foreseeable future either. Essentially, the pandemic killed my radio show and my daughter drove a stake through its heart.
I'm not actually particularly upset by this. I've enjoyed having my Sundays free for the first time since 2002, even if during the pandemic it was the freedom not to go anywhere else. Honestly, I always sort of assumed that if I ever had kids I'd stop doing radio, so it's just the pandemic portion doing it slightly earlier that was a surprise.
I have but two small regrets and one weird thought.
Regret #1: I came oh so close to finishing the radio encyclopedia project, which was in the literally the last two pages of agate type in the "cut from the prior edition" pages. I had two weeks of Ds in the can, which are here:
3/08 - Bobby Day, The Diamonds, Dick and Dee Dee
3/15 - Dino Desi & Billy. Ral Donner, Ducks Deluxe
If I had ended radio at the end of Fall 2020 Semester, I would absolutely have finished it. Missed it by *that* much.
Regret #2: In a normal non-pandemic world, once we knew Birdie was on her way the Fall 2020 Semester would have been announced as my last ride. I would have done a lot more "best of" lists. I would have tried to have as many of my eleven co-hosts back as guests as I possibly could, and hopefully some of my old trainees as well. The last couple of shows would have been wall to wall favorite songs, and we certainly would have ended with a party! Instead, it died abruptly with no notice. Ah well.
Weird Thought: Since I first arrived in Cleveland, the longest I went between visits to University Circle (home of my alma mater, my radio station, the Cleveland Cinematheque, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra and much else) was probably four or five months when I lived at home after graduation. Now I haven't been there in a solid year, since all of those arts activities were closed and only the Art Museum at this point has reopened. How weird is that?
Back in 2018 I wrote up how I was prepping for my radio show. That stayed relatively solid up until the end. One of those approaches was to write down a list of music during my show I wanted to play during the next show. I've had that last list on my desk for a year. For posterity, here is the artists that might have been on the March 22, 2020 edition of Soul Delirium if it had occurred.
+ = on the new shelf at that time, which usually meant it was actually new but not always. Spelling approximate. Even I can't read my own hand writing sometimes, especially a year after the fact.
(X) = indicates I already played this track from the album
SOUL
+Madison McFerrin
+Shawn Amos
+Tre Burt
+James Hunter 6 (2)
OTVS - The Get Down
+Mary Lou Williams
+Swamp Dogg (1)
Delirium
+Harrow Fair
+Ruth Collins
+Esme Patterson
+Mija
+Split Moon
+Sweet Lizzy Project (2, 8)
+Angelica Garcia (4)
I also had notes to remind to do a ticket giveaway for Here Come the Mummies the Sunday before they turned up at the HOB on May 9. That show obviously didn't happen, and neither did any of the six I announced during my last show. Within days of March 15 every show on the calendar had been canceled or postponed. Most of the postponed ones were also cancelled, eventually.
Because next week never arrived, so the very last song I played on the radio was an old favorite by Polyphonic Spree. I played Light & Day off of the Murderball soundtrack, and that was it. It's not the last song I would have chosen with an entire semester to prepare, but if I have to go out at all, I'm not displeased it was with this one.
Click to viewAddendum - the video for this song even ends up looking not dissimilar to a Zoom call. How appropriate.
I've got some 15+ years of radio shows saved in MP3 format (the pandemic probably saved me from buying a new external hard drive), so I can bore my daughter with music from when I was (slightly) cooler. Or she can listen to new stuff on WRUW, which seems like a better way to go. You personally should definitely tune into WRUW on Sundays at 2pm, because my friend Lazybones took over my time slot with her show Sweet & Lowdown, and it's very good.