This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves.

My pal who’s spent many, many years holding down the Sunday night, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. shift at my beloved college radio alma mater, WWSP-90FM, did a little traveling this past week and put out the call for a substitute. I eagerly threw my had in the air and got the always-welcome chance to once again take to the airwaves. As always, it was bliss.

This time, I opted to follow the lead of the skilled broadcaster whose headphones I was attempting to fill. On the program, Then and Now, he often lets musician birthdays, notable anniversaries, and other nuggets of news and information help fill in the playlist. Of course, I had to also start the show off with a few cuts appropriate for the Hallmark holiday.

For posterity’s sake, and my own record-keeping, this is my playlist, with a few annotations, from Then and Now on June 18, 2023:

Jane’s Addiction, “Had a Dad”
Violent Femmes, “Gone Daddy Gone”
Was (Not Was), “Somewhere in America There’s a Street Named After My Dad”
XTC, “Hold Me My Daddy”
Colin James Hay, “Hold Me”
TV on the Radio, “Golden Age”
The Clash, “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe”
Big Country, “Flame of the West”
Urge Overkill, “(Today Is) Blackie’s Birthday” (to note the passing of drummer Blackie Onassis)
Material Issue, “When I Get This Way (Over You)”
Inspiral Carpets, “Caravan”
The Police, “Synchronicity II”
The Police, “Synchronicity I” (this and the song preceding it were played because the day before the radio show was the fortieth anniversary of the release of the Police’s fifth and final album, Synchronicity)
Pulp, “Disco 2000”

LCD Soundsystem, “I Can Change”
Big Audio Dynamite II “Rush”
Bangles, “In a Different Light”
Cracker, “My Life Is Totally Boring Without You” (because the band’s frontman, David Lowery, was playing a solo acoustic show downstate in Madison at the time of the radio show)
Alison Moyet, “And I Know” (because the radio show was on Alison Moyet’s birthday)
Beastie Boys, “Stand Together”
Ra Ra Riot, “Ghost Under Rocks”
Beck, “Derelict” (this cut and the two that follow are all from albums that were released on June 18, 1996)
Patti Smith, “Gone Again”
Lyle Lovett, “Private Conversations”
Paul McCartney, “Temporary Secretary” (because the radio show was on Paul McCartney’s birthday)
Radiohead, “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”
10,000 Maniacs, “Like the Weather”
Toni Childs, “Don’t Walk Away”

Phoebe Bridgers, “Kyoto” (because the radio show was on the three-year anniversary of Phoebe Bridgers’s Punisher)
Angel Olsen, “Shut Up Kiss Me”
Modest Mouse, “Dashboard”
Paul Westerberg, “A Few Minutes of Silence” (because last week marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Paul Westerberg’s solo debut, 14 Songs)
Billy Bragg and Wilco, “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key” (because this week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Mermaid Avenue)
Swamp Thing, “Surgery on Himself” (because the band is reuniting at the end of the month to play a show benefitting another favorite station that broadcasts at 89.9 FM)
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, “The Shapes Between Us Turn Into Animals”
Depeche Mode, “Strangelove” (from the live album 101, because the concert in question was recorded on June 18, 1988)
R.E.M., “Texarkana”
Liz Phair, “Baby Got Going”
Too Much Joy, “Susquehanna Hat Company”
Psychedelic Furs, “Mr. Jones”
The Reverend Horton Heat, “The Happy Camper”
Mike Watt, “Maggot Brain”

Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Radio Days” tag.