About The Show and How It’s Created

I have been doing the “Hidden Treasures Of Rock’n’Roll” show for over 14 years now, since UIC Radio went on the air in 2000.  We DJ’s now are requested to blog about our shows, so I thought I would explain how it has evolved in that time, and how each week’s show is put together.  Originally, I did two different shows, from 12-2PM  I played new music and from 2-4PM  I could play whatever I wanted.  Most people only do two hour shows, so when I signed up for 12-4 PM on Monday afternoons, the powers that be at the time, divided it into the two different shows.  I like playing what I want to play, so after a few months of this, I asked if I could just do one show and play whatever I like, and they agreed.  I’m not sure when I hit upon the current format of the show, but after a bit, I decided to do the show based on the rock’n’roll calendar, featuring different artists on their birthdays and albums on the anniversary of their release.  That way the show stayed fairly fresh, and you didn’t hear the same artists  over and over.  The reason I decided to do a show when UIC Radio started was my frustration with broadcast radio, especially classic rock stations that play the same 100 songs over and over.  Frankly, if I never heard “Stairway To Heaven” again, I would be OK with that.  So each week, there are five different features (artists or albums) and they are rotated throughout the show.  Why five?  Any more than that, and I wouldn’t do justice to the featured music.  Some weeks it’s really hard to narrow the features down to five, and there are occasional weeks where it is hard to find five features, but generally the problem is too much great music in a week, rather than not enough.  I also have artists in for interviews and live acoustic sessions, so that is an extra feature on those weeks.  Between the featured music, you will hear new music from artists, local and from around the world. that have sent me their music for the show.  I love discovering great new music, and as I say at the end of every show, “there’s great music out there, you just have to look for it.”  So I hope you will join me on a future Monday afternoon at http://uicradio.org/ !