Wednesday, October 29, 2003
APOLOGY and MANIFESTO
To start with, I call my show the Record Hospital after the underground rock show at WHRB, 95.3 FM in Cambridge where I was a DJ in college. Now, this will strike some as (a) a pathetic attempt to relive the glory days of my time as a student in college radio or (b) as total lack of creativity to come up with a name for my show on my own. I can assure you, the listener or reader, the former isn't the case. Unfortunately, there may be some truth to the latter. Mainly, I was a DJ at WHRB for five years and then I was out of radio for five years. I moved down to Greensboro, NC for work for a two year stint, after having lived in New York and D.C. I thought it would be good to get back into radio to have something to do here and stay connected to music, and I was happy to find Greensboro has two good college stations (a relief after D.C. that has none), WQFS and WUAG. Finding that WQFS welcomes community DJs, I am happy to have a show. When I first got back in front of the controls after my hiatus, it seemed completely natural. In fact, I found that I had to stop myself from saying "the Record Hospital". At first I did stop myself and let my show go on with no name. I became determined to create a name for my show that would be concise and yet descriptive. This did not prove an easy task, so I finally decided that this is my self-indulgent radio show in Greensboro, and if I want to call it the Record Hospital, I will. Besides, my show is very much a continuation of the show I did before, although my tastes have certainly evolved and matured (also I find that at QFS I can't play as much hardcore because of the strict no naughty words policy, even though my show is on late.) At first, it was going to be the "Record Hospital South", thereby acknowledging the existence of the real Record Hospital, but I decided that this would just confuse my listeners. No one is apt to confuse my show with the real Record Hospital (and probably no Greensboro listener has ever heard of the real Record Hospital.) No harm, no foul. If any current Record Hospital DJ disagrees, email me at recordhospital@netzero.com. Now that I have justified, at least to myself, my illicit use of the term "Record Hospital" I can give the details of my show and this site.
I play underground punk, hardcore, no wave, and art music. I mix in new and recent music with the older stuff, but I do not apologize for the somewhat historical and academic approach I take to parts of the show. I am an unrepentant record collector. My show is generally on Friday night/Saturday morning from 2-4 AM although sometimes I do a different slot as well or in place of this if subs are needed because of holidays, etc. This isn't the best slot imaginable, but student DJs get priority over community DJs, as they should. I had a better slot over the summer when the students were mostly away, and that was great. The Friday slot isn't terrible though because more people listen to the radio late on Friday night because they are out, and I can sleep in on Saturday morning because I don't have work. On this site I will post my playlists and commentary about the show. I will try to have this done by the end of every Sunday after my Friday show, but I make no promises. I will also give my musings about the scene. This may be done through links to a separate blog. There is also a link to another site that I maintain that serves as a concert calendar for the Greensboro area. This is all a work in progress. I will provide links to sites of general and local interest. Keep listening to WQFS. Write to recordhospital@netzero.com with requests, questions, etc. Of course, distributors and labels are welcome to send records for review and play on the show, just use the email and I will send an address. - Michael Petitpas
To start with, I call my show the Record Hospital after the underground rock show at WHRB, 95.3 FM in Cambridge where I was a DJ in college. Now, this will strike some as (a) a pathetic attempt to relive the glory days of my time as a student in college radio or (b) as total lack of creativity to come up with a name for my show on my own. I can assure you, the listener or reader, the former isn't the case. Unfortunately, there may be some truth to the latter. Mainly, I was a DJ at WHRB for five years and then I was out of radio for five years. I moved down to Greensboro, NC for work for a two year stint, after having lived in New York and D.C. I thought it would be good to get back into radio to have something to do here and stay connected to music, and I was happy to find Greensboro has two good college stations (a relief after D.C. that has none), WQFS and WUAG. Finding that WQFS welcomes community DJs, I am happy to have a show. When I first got back in front of the controls after my hiatus, it seemed completely natural. In fact, I found that I had to stop myself from saying "the Record Hospital". At first I did stop myself and let my show go on with no name. I became determined to create a name for my show that would be concise and yet descriptive. This did not prove an easy task, so I finally decided that this is my self-indulgent radio show in Greensboro, and if I want to call it the Record Hospital, I will. Besides, my show is very much a continuation of the show I did before, although my tastes have certainly evolved and matured (also I find that at QFS I can't play as much hardcore because of the strict no naughty words policy, even though my show is on late.) At first, it was going to be the "Record Hospital South", thereby acknowledging the existence of the real Record Hospital, but I decided that this would just confuse my listeners. No one is apt to confuse my show with the real Record Hospital (and probably no Greensboro listener has ever heard of the real Record Hospital.) No harm, no foul. If any current Record Hospital DJ disagrees, email me at recordhospital@netzero.com. Now that I have justified, at least to myself, my illicit use of the term "Record Hospital" I can give the details of my show and this site.
I play underground punk, hardcore, no wave, and art music. I mix in new and recent music with the older stuff, but I do not apologize for the somewhat historical and academic approach I take to parts of the show. I am an unrepentant record collector. My show is generally on Friday night/Saturday morning from 2-4 AM although sometimes I do a different slot as well or in place of this if subs are needed because of holidays, etc. This isn't the best slot imaginable, but student DJs get priority over community DJs, as they should. I had a better slot over the summer when the students were mostly away, and that was great. The Friday slot isn't terrible though because more people listen to the radio late on Friday night because they are out, and I can sleep in on Saturday morning because I don't have work. On this site I will post my playlists and commentary about the show. I will try to have this done by the end of every Sunday after my Friday show, but I make no promises. I will also give my musings about the scene. This may be done through links to a separate blog. There is also a link to another site that I maintain that serves as a concert calendar for the Greensboro area. This is all a work in progress. I will provide links to sites of general and local interest. Keep listening to WQFS. Write to recordhospital@netzero.com with requests, questions, etc. Of course, distributors and labels are welcome to send records for review and play on the show, just use the email and I will send an address. - Michael Petitpas
