Song Of The Day 3/24/2016: Inez Foxx – “Circuit’s Overloaded”

Star Time Preview – I'm sure you're all wondering how this whole process of getting back on the radio went down. It was fairly simple but a little drawn out. I think it started in 2013, which was a pretty mediocre year for me personally. Well, “mediocre” is too generous a term: I hated 2013. I don't think I let it show too much and I certainly didn't express it here, but it wasn't good. I can say that now because there's been some distance and things are a lot better, though I'm still vaguely pissed-off about some unmet goals and failed plot lines.

ANYWAY, I think my wife might have tipped me off about Rainier Valley Radio. It might have been something she saw on Facebook. I don't think I had the resources at the time to find it myself. I went to a meeting. This was the first time I heard about the prospect of Seattle microstations. Everyone was very excited. I signed up on some address list. I knew back then that if I got a show again it would be Star Time. Although I didn't have the name back then.

I don't think I heard much from RVR during 2014. I knew the efforts were still happening but there wasn't much to report. Then finally at some point last year we heard the licenses had been granted and if we wanted to do a show we had to submit proposals by June 1. I had mine in on May 1.

It was around that time I realized I needed to come up with a name. This was hard, because I couldn't be flippant and call the show something comical like Shrug Festival. This one had to lose the self-consciousness. My history of naming things is scattershot at best (The Benign Comedy) and near-disastrous at worst (Field Gulls). So I spent a little bit of anguish about the show name.

But I got it after two tries. The first title I decided on was Time Is Tight, which is the name of a song by Booker T. & the MG’s. I was only okay with it, although I relished the idea of naming something after Booker T. & the MG's. Then I realized that if I ever felt the need to use an acronym for the show it would be TIT. Although I personally found that funny, I thought that might not be the best way to endear myself to the Disney segment I sometimes find myself trying to cater to.

I liked the idea of naming the show something time-related, though. Beat, rhythm, tempo, that whole line of thought. I also remembered my lifelong magnetism toward the letter “S,” for reasons I’ve never really nailed down. So it would be great if I could find some way to indulge that pretty fey affectation without anyone noticing. That’s when Star Time came to me. It’s a phrase you find in a few places relating to James Brown: as an introduction on both his Live at the Apollo records and as the name of his box set from about twenty years ago. Quick, catchy, short enough not to ever need an acronym. I mean, after the first ST there’s really no ergonomic reason you can’t just type the whole thing out by that point. Now for the T-shirts.