If you happened to listen online to KUYI between 3pm and 5pm on Thursday, you may have noticed that I was nowhere to be found. Funny story.
I had been talking back and forth with the station manager all week about coming in to the station to play some Tucson music. I mentioned that we had a similar type of community radio station in Tucson (KXCI), and that I was a member. So I spent an embarassingly long time (several hours) picking out and ordering about two hours of Tucson's best music. And there's a lot of good stuff out there, so it wasn't an easy task. But I eventually came up with a pretty decent set list, and I burned it onto a couple of CDs (thankfully, rural general stores have come a long way).
The station manager suggested that I arrive a couple of hours early to familiarize myself with the equipment, since "it may be different than what I'm used to using at KXCI." This was the first of many opportunities for me to explain that there is a huge difference between KXCI members, and KXCI DJs. Like, enormous. However, I missed the chance (along with every one that followed).
So there I was, two hours before air time, cluelessly playing around with equipment that cost more than a car. And to make matters worse, it was actively broadcasting things while I was playing with it. KUYI broadcasts an NPR feed from 1pm to 3pm, so if I pressed the wrong button, I would cut it off, and there would be dead air until the frustrated manager came running in to set things straight. Needless to say, I was terrified. So I sat there, staring at the CD player's load button, for somewhere around five minutes before I worked up the guts to press it. And even when I did, it was with the unsure timidity of a first-time bomb diffuser. I tell you, the moment when that CD player's tray popped out (and the NPR continued playing), was one of the finer ones of my existence.
By the time 2pm rolled around, I hadn't figured out much more than how to load CDs. I was starting to get a little nervous, since I would have to introduce myself on the air in less than an hour. I mentally replayed what I would say over and over again, although it was pointless. I knew that I would ultimately just blurt out whatever came into my head at air time.
It was about that time that the manager came into the booth to tell me the usual format of the 3-5pm time slot: traditional Native American music, and oldies. I had known this going into the broadcast, but I thought that there was an implied exception for the "guest from KXCI". However, the manager didn't seem to be implying diddley squat when he came into the booth at 2. Clearly, my precious playlist would need to be tossed out the window. That hurt.
I was getting a little panicked. Not only would I have to come up with two hours of music, I'd have to do so using two of my weaker genres. So I scanned my playlist to see what would be salvageable. Thankfully, I had brought some traditional Pascua Yaqui and Tohono O'Odham music, so that could stay. And the station had a pretty lose definition of "oldie", so I could keep the Tucson music made during the 70s (although I ended up playing a whole lot more than that). However, both categories combined left me with a whopping 10-15 minutes of music. So I had to scan the loosely organized CD racks of KUYI to see what I could possibly scrounge out to fit a Tucson theme. I came up with "Get Back" by the Beatles (with it's nice Tucson shout-out), but that was about it.
By 2:45, I was starting to feel some knarly butterflies, as I realized that my theme didn't have a prayer of surviving. And since my prep time was mostly spent figuring out what I would play, I didn't have any time to figure out how the hell I would play it. And operating a 60,000 watt broadcasting system is no walk in the park.
By 2:58, I could hear the NPR broadcast winding down. Sheer terror. The manager said that he would take care of the transition from NPR, but he was nowhere to be found. I was already trying to convince myself that a few minutes of dead air would be no big deal. "AHHH!!!!!" I put on the headphones and double-reminded myself to speak slowly, since I knew that the panicked late start wouldn't help. At 2:59 and 59 seconds, the manager casually strolled in and pressed a few buttons. He played the station ID, and cued up the Johnny Cash song that I had used for practice (but had no intention of playing).
With Johnny Cash singing about ghost riders in the sky, the manager looked at me playing pretend DJ (with my headphones on and microphone up close), and said that I didn't need to worry about back-anouncing. Aka, I wouldn't be saying one word on the air. I was filled with both dissapointment and relief, since I knew that a music-only show would be WAY easier, but far less personal. Plus, I wouldn't be able to talk about the Tucson connection for each song that I played. Although, that last bit was probably for the better, since my Tucson theme barely lasted three songs (and that's if you exclude the accidental Johnny Cash track).
The only reason that I look calm in this picture is because it was staged two hours before I started to DJ. I had the self-respect to not take any panicked, sweaty photos of my actual broadcast. Plus, I would have had no time. Without a real playlist to work from, I was barely coming up with a song to play before the previous one ended. At my worst, I was just yanking CDs off the shelf, and tossing them into the player with seconds to spare. (I'll use that excuse to justify the Beach Boys song, even though I'm secretly a huge fan.)
At 5:01, I couldn't have been more relieved to see the station manager come back into the booth. He stepped though the puddles of sweat to transition into news programming, and officially relieved me from the board. He said that he really enjoyed the mix; I lied and said that it was no problem. He invited me back whenever I like, which I may do--as long as I don't have to talk!
-M
If you're interested, here is the final mix:
- Ghost Riders in the Sky - Johnny Cash
- Get Back - The Beatles
- Deer Dance - Jessita Reyes (Traditional Pascua Yaqui song)
- Wham - Santana
- Roka - Calexico (Not a N.A. song, or an oldie, but it's a great track by my favorite band)
- Georgia on my Mind - Ray Charles
- Cuera Mohelam - Pascua Yaqui Singers
- Malaguena - Richie Valens (A cool cover by one of the most famous Yaquis)
- Tired of Being Alone - Al Green
- Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Stevie Wonder
- Luck in the Hunt - Jessita Reyes (Yaqui)
- La Bamba - Richie Valens (Aside from the Yaqui connection, this was my first cassette tape)
- Por Un Amor - Linda Ronstadt (A classic Romantico by the great Tucson singer)
- Harvest - Neil Young
- Echo Song - T.O. Singers (Tohono O'Odham)
- Dallas Blues - Tom Walbank (A new song by one of Tucson's best musicians. I thought that I could sneak it in as an oldie)
- I'll Be Around - The Spinners
- Dropping Quarters for Jane - Al Foul (Another oldies sound-alike by a great Tucson musician)
- Deer Dance - Tosay Hwilit (Yaqui)
- Suspicious Minds - Elvis
- Tumbleweed - The Modeens (Tucson band, oldies sound-alike)
- Help Me, Rhonda - The Beach Boys (Yeah, I played the Beach Boys. Deal with it, Mike.)
- Heragua Loco - Pascola Music (Yaqui)
- Trop Expres - Marianne Dissard (French-born Tucson musician. Also not an oldie.)
- Beautiful Boy - John Lennon
- Rain Dance #3 - Navajo Singers
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Otis Redding
- Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Simon and Garfunkel
- Maggie's Farm - Bob Dylan
- Flower of the Dark Tree - Jessita Reyes (Yaqui)
- Tell Me the Truth - Fats Domino
- Sweet Caroline - Elvis (This cover rocked!)
- Alone Again Or - Calexico (A great cover of a 1967 song by Love)
- Emergence - Will Numkema (This Hopi traditional song had a spoken word segment that completely caught me unaware, and I thought for sure that I had bumped the NPR feed button!)
- Yuwa - Key Ingredients of African Soul (A timeless African spiritual from a very cool Tucson band)
- Mustang Sally - Maurice Williams
- Navajo Song #3 - Todd Honyouma
- All Done In - Rainer (A great song by one of Tucson's most talented musicians)
