On the radio

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(“Havin’ a Party” by Sam Cooke)

I had a lot of fun listening to Laura on KFAI yesterday – she was Cyn Collins’ guest on “Spin with Cyn” and brought records by the fourteen awesome groups playing here this weekend for Record Store Day (you can hear it on the KFAI archives here…you can support KFAI community radio, by the way, by clicking on the link at the top of the page linked here).  I was in the shop with Nova, and while we were listening to the show one of our Record Store Day guests came in to join us.

So I was there when he heard a song he wrote on the radio.  It was the first time one of his songs had been played on the airwaves.  And being there for that moment was the most rewarding experience I’ve had since I was fortunate enough to be the one to care for this record store.  Wow!

There’s a scene in that movie That Thing You Do that sort of captures it.  They all go wild and celebrate the first time they hear their single on the radio.  Yeah, this was KFAI and not mass media, and yeah it was only the once, but you gotta start somewhere.  I’m really proud that we did what we oughtta to help them get to that starting point.

And up comes Record Store Day.  Hundreds of special releases are on their way to record stores all over the country this week, and on Saturday we will participate in the frenzy.  We’ll also have all kinds of other great records that aren’t limited editions, and all kinds awesome bands playing free sets in a fun setting.  Each of the fourteen has an album or cd or single you can buy, and we hope each will sell fourteen copies.  We’d like you to have a chance to hear their music, which we hope won’t ever be limited in any way.