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Friday, April 9, 2010

WHY DO I GET FLAK FOR DOING THE PSYCHEDELIC LIMITS ON KSMU?


I've mentioned before that my first job in radio was at KSMU-FM. I was one of several young media students who worked overnights as part of a show called the Midnight Snack. We would take in our own got college credit and, most importantly, we got radio experience. Once a month, I would play only psychedelic music on my show with some comedy from the likes of Firesign Theater, George Carlin and Cheech & Chong. I called this segment, The Psychedelic Limits. I was inspired to do this show from a syndicated radio show called Flashback (which didn't air in Springfield at the time - it later ran on KWTO-FM and KKLH), the All-Night Coffee House on KCFX, and Beaker Street. Many of my radio instructors at MSU (then SMSU) told me to mention the show in my resume because "it would show potential employers that I was creative."


For some reason, I have gotten flak from several people in the radio industry (and radio fans too) for doing this show. I was told by one former boss that the show was "unethical" and the "equivalent of pushing drugs on the radio at the tax payers expense." This was from someone who thinks great radio is a program called "Bids for Bargains."


At my current job, my college work gets the same kind of disrespect. I was told the music I played on that show was "hippie" music and "hippies have ruined America." That's funny, I thought it was the Republicans. Oddly enough, "hippies" are still a worry for some of my co-workers. They tend prefer the company of redneck women who talk about blowing people's heads off or old men who wish we would bring segregation back.

I would just like to go on record for saying that the lyrics of most psychedelic songs are more creative and meaningful than most of the country songs that Ozarkers and local radio management find so wonderful (Yes, Desdinova has been forced to play country music in his radio career). I'll give you the lyrics to four songs I played on my KSMU psychedelic show: "Incense and Peppermint" by Strawberry Alarm Clock, "Mister, You're a Better Man Than I" by the Yardbirds, "Requiem For the Masses" by the Association and "Planet Caravan" by Black Sabbath. Now compare these to the silly lyrics of "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band, a favorite of many Ozarkers. I think you can see my point (BTW: Do you hear the line "A yardstick for lunatics with one point of view" and immediately think of Glenn Beck?). Some feel this music is destructive. That is dumb, especially considering that the same people think good radio is having a host wishing for the Springfield school board to die in a car accident or hoping that someone burns down MSU.

Much of this bile from the local industry comes from the fact that this was on KSMU, which is not only public radio, but owned by a state university. I was supposedly "wasting the taxpayers dollars." They could have been spent on something like a war. That would be a much better use of taxpayer money than my training for the radio industry. Oh yeah, I forgot, I should have gotten a MBA.

I just think I'm getting too much heat over something that could have helped the industry. Of course, opinions like this are why I'm considered the Super-Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Enjoy a little psychedelia from the Pretty Things.







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