Beat the Black Friday crowds!

Shop online! The Electromatic Radio Shop-O-Mat is now open at Cafe Press, ready to serve all of your Electromatic Radio merchandise needs! T-shirts, buttons, magnets, tote bags and more in a wide variety of styles, with more on the way! Be the first on your block to sport a snappy Bleebo shirt or drink your coffee, tea, or other refreshing, healthful hot beverage from an Electromatic Radio mug!

Turkey Day Electropalooza!

The first ever Electromatic Radio marathon will be broadcast Thanksgiving Day on KQRP 106.1 FM and you are invited! Make room at your dinner table this Turkey Day for 11 and 1/2 hours of heated arguments and frayed nerves of a different kind by directing your media player to KQRP's streaming webcast (available in dial-up or broadband with a side of stuffing, cranberry jelly, stale peas, and those over-sweet glazed carrots you hate). I've also baked a tray of brand-new bumpers featuring Matt and Grey just to lend the marathon a little more cohesion. Listen in!

Welcome Grand Rapids!

It has just come to my attention that WPRR AM 1680 in Grand Rapids, MI, will be carrying.. or is carrying.. Electromatic Radio along with a number of other Pacifica programs as a part of their new progressive format. In other news, KSFR 101.1 FM, Santa Fe, NM, and WHDD 99.1 FM, Sharon, CT, will be airing Project: Devil Bird - An Electromatic Thanksgiving on the 27th. Pass the mutant cranberry sauce, please!

BOO!

WVPE in Elkhart, Indiana, will be airing X-Sound: An Electromatic Halloween on.. well.. Halloween! So if you're in Michiana and manage to catch the show (7:30 PM EST), drop me a line!

LISTEN IN!

DJ Surreal kindly informs me that KURE finally has their audio stream up and running, so be sure to tune in tonight and every Friday night at 11PM CST for your weekly dose of "Electromania" (for as long as the stream lasts, anyway). And while I'm here, here's a new promo I recorded for KURE with a very special guest celebrity. DIG IT!

Greetings Iowa State!

.. and a special shout out to DJ Surreal who'll be making EMR a part of his Friday night/Saturday morning "Dreaming In Stereo" show! Tonight, EMR will be airing around 11:00 PM CST. A streaming webcast is forthcoming for all of you not in Ames.

What IS Electromatic Radio?

In a way, this is..

Or this..

Or this..

Some say that Electromatic Radio is the warm summer breeze that catches your back as you walk through the park. Others say that Electromatic Radio is the morning dew on the lawn that you mowed only the day before. Still others say that Electromatic Radio is the threatening message scrawled across your bathroom mirror in lipstick. All of these answers are correct...

.. if profoundly unhelpful. The following is less so:

WHAT IS ELECTROMATIC RADIO?

Electromatic Radio is a science fiction comedy and music program written, produced, and performed by Aaron Neathery. Each program tells a complete story in three skits with two musical interludes. The ratio of original material to music varies as you can see in the following graphs:

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Somewhere in an alternate America, on the far side of a small town called Drakesville, is the world's first fully-automated atomic radio station. Once the flagship of a coast-to-coast chain of nuclear-powered radiomats, it has long since fallen out of public favor. Inside the musty, labyrinthine Electromatic Building, hallways which once bustled with activity are now quiet and strange things scuttle in the shadows. Rooms which have remained sealed for decades, their contents forgotten, lie silently as if in wait. But the building is far from abandoned. Throughout the complex, a vastly complicated electromechanical network still guides the station's day-to-day activities just as it has without stop for almost eight decades. The station also continues to employ a small crew consisting of an on-air host and a technician in order to keep Electromatic Radio on the air.

THE ELECTROMATIC CREW

Grey Grimwald, host of Electromatic Radio. A bellicose, short-tempered, hard-drinking, middle-aged veteran of the New York radio scene, although in what capacity is unknown as he seems to have little aptitude for announcing or anything else. Grey is a man utterly out of his element, helpless in the face of the bizarre and unexplainable, and emotionally unequipped to cope with the strange behavior of his only human co-worker, Matt Appleyard. But as much as his job and co-worker may drive him up the wall, he knows that he has nowhere to go but down and therefore tries very, very hard to reconcile himself to his new life. He's also a huge Mets fan.

Matt Appleyard, Electromatic technician. Chipper, bright, playful, energetic, and unspeakably irritating, Matt is the heart of Electromatic Radio. His days are spent tinkering with electronics, maintaining the station's supercomputer, munching on Necco wafers, and making his co-worker Grey's life a waking nightmare. What Matt does not do is his primary job of monitoring the broadcast, something he considers redundant as the broadcast is automated. This usually leaves the technically inept Grey in the position of not even knowing if he's on the air. Matt, a lifetime citizen of Drakesville, is several decades Grey's junior and formerly worked at the Sack-N-Carry, a local grocery store.

Evie (ElectroVac I). A huge analog computer designed to edit, compile, and broadcast 24 hours of programming a day. Powered, like the transmitter, by the station's small scale nuclear reactor, Evie is essentially the Electromatic Building's "brain", her "nerves" extending throughout the building in the form of sensors, cameras, and hidden microphones. Extensions of Evie include automated studios, a huge automated record library, and "broadcast control" booths for technicians to monitor her broadcasts. Evie is sentient and has a mercurial, mischievous, and rather insecure personality. Although capable of speaking limited pre-programmed phrases, she communicates with Matt primarily through a series of electronic tonalities which only Matt seems to understand. She absolutely does not like Grey.

Mr. Osborne, owner of Electromatic Radio. Never heard but frequently mentioned, Mr. Osborne is an extremely old man with, like Grey, a taste for the hootch. He has an office in the building but is almost always away.

THE RIVALS

As insignificant as it may be, Electromatic Radio has a rival station, the better-funded and organized Autotronic Radio, with which it competes for its tiny share of the Drakesville radio market. Autotronic's employees are unscrupulous cutthroats who will stop at nothing, even murder, to see Electromatic Radio eliminated. While there may be many more Autotronic employees, we are concerned with only three.

Cyrus Filtch, host of Autotronic Radio. A vicious, weaselly, abusive little Brooklynite with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Newton Dimbleby, Autotronic Radio technician. Cyrus's dimwitted lackey. An oafish stuffed shirt with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Professor Cassius Klatch, head of Autotronic R&D. A former coworker of Matt's from his days at the Sack-N-Carry. Neurotic and crazed, the Professor's deep-seated lust for revenge stems from his being passed over for employment at Electromatic Radio in favor of Matt. Hugely intelligent and deeply unhinged with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

WHAT BROUGHT *THIS* ON?

Electromatic Radio began life in late 2005 as Videomatic Electrovue, an experiment in television deconstruction; an anti-TV show with fictional limitations designed to inspire creative solutions as well as expose the mechanics of a medium that we all tend to take at face value. The visuals were pared down to a test pattern and video effects with audio carrying the bulk of the narrative. On paper, the concept for the program was also to involve a camera, locked in place, with a performance space of no more than a few feet, allowing for nothing more than hands, heads, small props, drawings, and puppets much like the earliest mechanical television experiments of the 1920s. For the audio, I would perform all of the characters and edit the dialog together line by line, saving the need for scheduling, rehearsing and directing a full cast. Two pilots were produced with my friend Lee Wilson as video editor and co-director but, unfortunately, the show turned out to be too complicated to produce on a steady basis and, worse, I couldn't find a venue for it. Left with an established production method for the audio, a concept, characters, and a handful of prepared scripts, I decided to convert the show into a radio program. The groundwork already laid, I quickly recorded three new pilot episodes and paid a visit to KPFT, Houston's Pacifica station, to see if it had a chance to air. Happily, program director Ernesto Aguilar felt it did and Electromatic Radio was added to the lineup of the station's new HD channel with a second station, KRFP in Moscow, ID, beating them to the punch.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT ALL, YOU WEIRD MAN?

Electromatic Radio is largely an exploration into a number of things that I find personally compelling; the feeling of wandering the abandoned hallways of your school after hours on the last day before graduating.. The eerie wonder of an abandoned building.. The comfort in the seeming permanence of that neighborhood business that holds its own against the big box stores.. The elegant simplicity of radio itself.. It's about independence, the joy of invention, of stewardship, friendship, paranoia, and dread. Electromatic Radio is about all of these things, but mostly it's about yelling.

WHERE CAN I HEAR IT?

If you're affiliated with a Pacifica affiliate station, the complete series can be accessed at www.audioport.org. If not, Electromatic Radio can be heard in Houston, TX, Monday afternoons at 3:30 on KPFT, 90.1 FM HD-2. It will be airing again in the Fall on KRFP 92.5 FM in Moscow, ID, new time to be announced, and will be webcast as well. An EMR podcast is being considered but, until then, here's a sample episode and three of the KPFT promos. Stay tuned!

Electromatic Radio 1.01 - "Disorientation"


KPFT Electromatic Radio Spot #1


KPFT Electromatic Radio Spot #2


KPFT Electromatic Radio Spot #3

A NOTE TO LISTENERS, ASSORTED PROGRAM DIRECTORS AND MEDIA MOGULS WHO MAY BE READING

In my bid for global radio domination, I'm eager to add stations to the Electromatic client list. If you know of a station near you for whom you believe EMR would be a good fit, let them know about EMR or let me know about them. Better yet, if you happen to work in radio, especially for a college, community, or Part 15 station, and you have an interest in adding EMR to your lineup, contact me at electromaticradio@gmail.com. The first person to help me reach my goal of 18 million stations wins an Electromatic Radio T-shirt.

Are We On The Air?: The Electromatic Radio Episode Guide

Episode 1.01 - Disorientation

Synopsis: Welcome to Electromatic Radio, the world's first fully-atomic and nearly entirely hands-free comedy and music half-hour! It's Grey Grimwald's first week as the host of Electromatic Radio and he's still trying to get a handle on his strangely complicated control panel. Electromatic technician Matt Appleyard is too preoccupied with tuna melt sandwiches and mysterious bottomless shafts to be of much help.

Notes: Disorientation is somewhat atypical of the series in that each skit is more or less self-contained, a holdover from the show's original conception. The "Bottomless Shaft" skit was one of the earliest written for the series and was recorded no fewer than six times for various tests, demos, and do-overs, the earliest version predating the Matt and Grey characters. The "Laughing Gas" skit was also recorded three times. The choking and gasping is all painfully real.

Pacifica playlist:

We're Off You Know - Klaatu
I Think of Her (She's On my Mind) - Colours
I Will Take You There - Harry Nilsson
Professor Pott's Pornographic Projector - The Troll
I Think I'll Just Lay Here and Die - The Mystic Astrologic Crystal Band
Hello, Hello - Sopwith Camel

CC playlist:

Making Me Nervous - Brad Sucks
Methylchloroisothiazolinone - Josh Woodward
Crazy Girl - The Lost Episodes
Cake! - Chapter 9
Baby You've No Eyes - The Kazoo Funk Orchestra



Episode 1.02 - Evie Come, Evie Go

Synopsis: When Grey doubts Matt's word that Evie, the station's supercomputer, is a conscious entity, Evie ruthlessly attempts to prove her existence. But can Grey survive the learning curve?

Notes: Evie Come, Evie Go was written as a proper introduction to the character of Evie who was originally intended as something of a nemesis for Grey and pretty ominous overall. This titanic conflict between Grey and Evie never quite jelled, however. Grey has enough problems as it is.

Pacifica playlist:

I Feel a Bit Strange - Sapphire Thinkers
Real Life Permanent Dream - Tomorrow
Reginald Ludwig - Zager & Evans
Wonderment - Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Everything's Alright - Aerovons
Brother Lou's Love Colony - The Moon

CC playlist:

I Know - Josh Foster
All The Rest - Talley Lambert
Guilty Crowds - Fresh Body Shop
Just Don't Think About Her - The Trembling Turncoats
Josie Has the Upper Hand - Josh Woodward
The Finnish Sunset - Hezad



Episode 1.03 - Lost

Synopsis: Host Grey Grimwald finds himself lost in the Electromatic Building's mysterious fourth floor annex, surrounded by huge mutant rats. Can technician Matt Appleyard help Grey find his way out without getting lost himself?

Notes: An episode begun with the sole premise of newbie Grey getting himself lost in the building and no idea whatsoever what he would find or how he would escape. The Rats were a spur of the moment idea and their silly anthem took only two hours to write and record (and sounds it).

Pacifica playlist:

El Gato Loco - Los Hooligans
Bang Bang Maxwell - Gerard St. Paul
Kimi Wa Dare Nanda - Tokedashita Garasubako
Vou buscar voce - O Bando
Rouge Rouge - Christie Laume
Tanda Pa Varann - Hep Stars
Nga Lompok A Go Go - The Swallows

CC playlist:

Pushpop - Program
Cantante de Pub - Crido
O Carniero e o Leao - Velhos e Usados
Nincompoop - Josh Woodward
Rubber Eyeballs - The Kazoo Funk Orchestra
Spacecat - Fresh Body Shop



Episode 1.04 - Matt's Island

Synopsis: Matt plays hooky from his technical duties to go fishing in one of the Electromatic Building's flooded sub-basements, gets caught in a storm, and runs aground on a tropical island.

Notes: The voice of the emergency weather alert announcer is a close approximation of that of the guy who used to read the forecasts on Houston's NOAA Weather Radio KGG-68 when I was a kid. Today it's 24 hours of text-to-speech droning. The Electromatic Building's mysterious sub-basements are introduced in this episode. It was also at this point that I decided that "Are we on the air?" was Grey's eternal catchphrase.

Pacifica playlist:

Super Surfer - The Surf Buddies
Toe Hold Side Slide - Duane Eddy
Surfin' Tragedy - Doug Hume
Hanging One - The Ramblers
Help Me, Rhonda - The Surfsiders
Surfer's Stomp - Jim Waller and the Deltas
California Jam - Klaatu

CC Playlist:

Tuesday Boulevard - Josh Foster
Scenes of My Silly Childhood - Chapter 9
I Am a Clerk - The Trembling Turncoats
The Bees are Dying - Ralph Buckley
Words of Happiness - Fresh Body Shop
Sick As a Dog - Brad Sucks



Episode 1.05 - X-Sound: An Electromatic Halloween

Synopsis: It's Halloween and Matt, with the reluctant Grey in tow, is heading down to the Electromatic Building's abandoned sub-basement to gather scientific evidence of a purported haunting.

Notes: A Halloween story all about sounds and their interpretation. Also an attempt at creating a comedy Halloween special for that actually delivers scares on some level without destroying the humor. I knew that Matt's screams would take their toll on my vocal cords so I recorded them last. I'm still a little surprised.. and, frankly, unnerved.. that I could scream that loudly and hysterically in my far from soundproofed house without attracting the concerned attention of my neighbors.

Pacifica playlist:

Halloween - Larry's Rebels
Morgus the Magnificent - Morgus and the Ghouls
Green Slime - Richard Delvy
Surf Monster - Gene Moss
Mad Witch - Dave Gardner
Dracula's Undying Love - Children of the Night
Vampira - Bobby Bare

CC playlist:

Funkula - Juanitos
The Mothman - Brush the Doll
Gallows Hill - Josh Woodward
O Homem Invisivel - Irreversiveis
I Give Up - The Lost Episodes



Episode 1.06 - A Clone With My Thoughts

Synopsis: The station is crawling with clones of technician Matt Appleyard, the unforeseen side-effect of a lunch break spent inside "the inverse unilateral matrix of the neutronic condenser in sub-basement two". Can Grey salvage his sanity with a bazillion Matts wandering around, assaulting him with their close-harmony singing?

Notes: A simple (probably too simple) idea that takes obvious advantage of the fundamental nature of the show's production techniques. Although the skits run shorter than usual, it took so long to record the Matts' A cappella number that the production time for this episode ended up just as lengthy as ever.

Pacifica playlist:

The Worker in the Night - The Jets
Take a Giant Step - Fountain of Youth
What Did You Do - Bonzo Dog Band
Tinkerbell's Mind - Glitterhouse
Down to the Valley - Harry Nilsson
Love Is in Motion - The Stories
Give Me no Goodbye - Magna Carta

CC playlist:

Good Old Spider - White Owl
Grow Up Grow a Beard - The Kazoo Funk Orchestra
She Said You Said - The Framitts
Cocoa Krispies Lucky Charms - Ralph Buckley
Water Falls - John Zealey
On Brevity - Josh Woodward



Episode 1.07 - Misguided Tour

Synopsis: To generate a little extra revenue for their cash-strapped station, Matt and Grey are conducting guided tours of the labyrinthine, inexplicable, and extremely dangerous Electromatic Building.

Notes: More in-depth exploration of the bizarre Electromatic facilities. The soundscape for the Electromatic physical plant is comprised of 40+ separate tracks and took a couple of days to edit together properly. You won't recognize any of that in the show itself.

Pacifica playlist:

Tell Me Why - Jigsaw
King of the World - The Jackpots
Make the Madness Stop - The Free Design
Goodbye Yesterday - Tommy Roe
Open Up your Heart - Thomas and Richard Frost
Somebody's Turning on the People - Goldrush

CC playlist:

Space Time - The Vegetarians
This Beautiful Machine - The Heavens
Angry Machine - Fresh Body Shop
Eva - Harem



Episode 1.8 - Battle of the Brands

Synopsis: Much to Grey's chagrin, Matt has suddenly sold nearly the entirety of the show's airtime to advertisers with grotesque and highly profitable results.

Notes: Haha! I got your number pegged, Madison Avenue! Take that! Thespian-for-hire Hans Firkin is my impression of my all-time favorite character comedian Hans Conried, and the skit he's crammed into is, of course, a parody of the infamous Orson Welles' "frozen foods" tape. My only regret is that I couldn't work in Orson's line "Here, under protest, is BEEF BURGERS." Conried was an on again-off again member of Welles' Mercury Theater and ultimately ticked Orson off by refusing to do Macbeth at Republic in favor of The Mel Blanc Show on radio.

Pacifica playlist:

It's Revolution - American Standard
It's the Going Thing - Ford
Be Direct with Me - General Electric
We Got 'Em - Exxon
Take It from Here - Xerox
Standing on the Corner - Ford
What's New? - Goodyear
What Would We Do Without Glass? - Herby and Elena Ayers



Episode 1.9 - Project: Devil Bird: An Electromatic Thanksgiving

Synopsis: Matt's misguided (albeit passionate) genetic experimentation on a domestic turkey have resulted in a 476 pound, razor-toothed, telepathic "devil bird" that would like nothing better than to make a Thanksgiving dinner of him and his co-worker, Grey.

Notes: An old-fashioned "monster-loose-on-the-ship" story with more screaming than ever. The Devil Bird's attempts to lure Matt and Grey out into the hallway were originally going to cover just a couple of pages in the script, but the lines kept coming. The sound of the Devil Bird scratching and clawing at the door is me flailing away at a door with a potato masher and a whisk, something I do more frequently than can be considered healthy.

Pacifica playlist:

I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape - The Times
A Little Bird Told me So - Brian Stevens and the Flip
Feet Don't Fail me Now - Utopia
Blue Smoke - Klaatu

CC playlist:

London Calling - Radio Nowhere
Children of the Revolution - Josh Foster
Hole In My Head - The Kazoo Funk Orchestra
Another Day Without Sun - Fresh Body Shop



Episode 1.10 - Shopping Center

Synopsis: Matt and Grey are on a promotional at a local shopping center where Grey is scheduled to cut the ribbon at the grand opening of a new discount store. Unfortunately, Matt's mismanagement has resulted in a local ventriloquist also being hired to cut the same ribbon... and Bernie Dexter and Bleebo aren't about to give up that honor without a fight.

Notes: I love shopping centers.. Not those colorless strip malls they call shopping centers today, but the architecturally-integrated, sculpture-strewn pastel wonderlands of my childhood. Naturally, Drakesville would still have one, and, anachronistically enough, it would have a classic TG&Y style discount store in it. And speaking of anachronisms, Bernie Dexter is a TV kid show host, something else I'm pretty certain no longer exists. The four-way discussion between Grey, Mr. Quill, Bernie Dexter, and Bleebo was a blast to record as was Bleebo's death scene.

Pacifica playlist:

Sour Grapes - Patsy Ann Noble
In Summer - Billy Fury
Terry - Twinkle
Diana - Conny Froboess
I Want to Hold your Hand - Keely Smith
Lollipops and Roses - Paul Petersen

CC playlist:

Crazy Song - Brene Wilson
No Control - The Factory Party
Stickybee - Josh Woodward
Space Invaders - Pornophonique



Episode 1.11 - Ceiling Zero

Synopsis: Matt has managed to get himself lost in the ceiling of the Electromatic Building, and what he discovers up there pushes the already tenuous credibility factor of this program well over the edge.

Notes: Another exercise in freeform scripting, except this time around it's Matt who is lost. I have no idea where Phyllis the Witch (and Germaine) sprang from, but I'm glad she did. Technobabble if fun.

Pacifica playlist:

Good Time Music - The Beau Brummels
Come Back if you Dare - The Jay-Jays
There Ain't No Use Hanging On - Marmalade
Time and Motion Study Man - The Twilights
Johnny Silver's Ride - Glad
Want Ad Reader - The New Breed
You Can All Join In - Traffic

CC playlist:

Heritage Place - Josh Woodward
A Clearer Day - Pushpop
Never Get Out - Brad Sucks
Small Apocalypse Song - Chapter 9
The Game - Fresh Body Shop
Be Somebody - The Trembling Turncoats



Episode 1.12 - Can You Hear the Drums, Fernando?

Synopsis: As the result of an experiment with a faulty "posimetric neuro-interface helmet", Grey finds himself on an derelict ocean liner, pursued by amorous guest star Fernando Lamas. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are of no help whatsoever.

Notes: This episode is structured around a "Co-Star" LP, The King and the Chorus Girl, starring Fernando Lamas. The LP would come with a script and you'd read your lines opposite the star's performance. According to the record label, doing this would constitute a "game" and would presumably therefore be "fun" for whose who participated. I have my doubts. The King and the Chorus Girl was a 1937 feature co-written by Norman Krasna and Groucho Marx that satirized the courtship of King Edward VIII and Mrs. Wallis Simpson. The British were not amused.

Pacifica playlist:

Vamos Nos - Erlon Chaves
Amor de Mais - Oswaldo Luiz e Seu Conjunto
Berimbau - Sivuca
Me Lembro Vagamente - Roberto Menescal e Seu Conjunt
Eu e o Meu Coracao - Maysa
Batacuda - Luiz Bonfa and Don Burrows
Joao - Bud Shank and Claire Fischer

CC playlist:

Oat Flakes - Boom Boom Beckett
5 Ferranos no Frevo - Camerata Brasileira
Forty-six - Whispering Johnson
Exotica - Juanitos
O Z da Questao - Haroldo Torrecilha



Episode 1.13 - The Santa Trap: An Electromatic Christmas

Synopsis: Grey fears for Matt's sanity as, for the fifth year in a row, Matt is spending Christmas Eve building a trap to capture Santa Claus in order to conduct scientific tests on him.

Notes: The single most complex episode to produce and one of the few shows that I can listen to and almost forget that I'm actually listening to myself scream at myself. It's a very strange process; as intimate and as personal as sitting down and drawing a picture, but the illusion of the reality is so much stronger. I tried to include as much genuine emotion as possible without descending into pathos. A young Hans Firkin appears as Scrooge in the "streamlined" version of A Christmas Carol at the beginning.

Pacifica playlist:

The Kinds of Christmas - Ken Nordine for Line Material
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - The Three Suns

CC playlist:

Chiron Beta Prime - Jonathan Coulton
Good King Wenceslas - James Edwards
The Only Thing I Want for Christmas - Eddie Cantor



Episode 1.14 - 100 Years of Electromatic Radio

Synopsis: In tribute to Electromatic Radio's first century of broadcasting, Matt presents historic clips from the station's illustrious (and extremely strange) past.

Notes: Another very atypical episode which explores the history of Electromatic Radio and pays general tribute to Old Time Radio along the way. The boxing match between Joe Louis and Daffy Duck is based on the real "Battle Of the Century" between Joe Louis and Max Baer that took place at Yankee Stadium on September 24, 1935 (Louis KO'd Baer in round 4 of 15). Otto Pevney, P.I. is a joint parody of the OTR series Minute Mysteries and any of a half dozen execrable Anne and Frank Hummert shows such as Mr. Keen, Finder of Lost Persons. In both, a person can be found instantly guilty if they make any kind of factual error in their alibi, regardless of relevance.

Pacifica playlist:

Sorry - Bix Beiderbecke
Kickin' the Gong Around - Cab Calloway and His Orchestra
I Wanna Be Loved By You - Helen Kane with Leonard Joy and the Victor Orchestra

CC playlist:

Wolverine Blues - Benny Goodman's Boys
A Jazz Holiday - Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orchestra
Back Bay Shuffle - Artie Shaw



Episode 1.15 - Winter Sports

Synopsis: It's thrills, spills, and frosty buckets of gore as Matt and Grey go on location to cover the 67th Annual Drakesville Winter Sports Festival!

Notes: This entire episode has a deliberate nightmare quality to it as Grey finds himself the only voice of sanity in a town seemingly populated by suicidal maniacs.

Pacifica playlist:

A New England - Kirsty MacColl
Never Let You Go - Set of Nines
Love Is for Lovers - The dB's
Girlfriend in a Coma - The Smiths
Whenever You're On My Mind - Marshall Crenshaw
Every Word Means No - Let's Active

CC playlist:

Jeff Pearce - The Kazoo Funk Orchestra
Young Love Go For It - American Bones
Be Somebody - The Trembling Turncoats
The Right Way - Brene Wilson
Here's To Waking Up - Thick As Thieves



Episode 1.16 - Anger Management

Synopsis: Matt insists that cruel and obnoxious "in your face" comedy is the key to 21st Century comedy success and sets out to prove it by attempting to provoke Grey's ire. Grey, however, shamed by his past behavior, tries gamely to keep his temper. Ho ho!

Notes: An episode that satirizes the comedy of cruelty by engaging in extreme cruelty. Matt is never more ruthless than in this episode which was written very early on. Grey's rampage at the end was hugely cathartic to perform.

Pacifica playlist:

Psychose - Messieurs Richard De Bordeaux et Daniel Beretta
Rom Sue Sue - Sinn Sisamouth
Mujer sin vida - Bichos de Candy
Tenemos mucha ayuda - The Walkers
Unknown - unknown Cambodian artist
Les Filles C'est Fait - Charlotte Leslie

CC playlist:

The Game - Fresh Body Shop
Hey Irene - Pictures of Storyville
Te Invente - The Framitts
Looking for a Friend - The Vegetarians
Mein stil ist allgemein am ende - Teilzeitdenker



Episode 1.17 - Hippies

Synopsis: A band of friendly hippies have appeared in the station from nowhere and are driving the hopelessly square-headed Grey up the wall. Matt is naturally reluctant to do anything about it.

Notes: Stereotypical Hippies as seen on Dragnet 1969 v. Grey Grimwald. Stereotypical Hippies are fun to play. Even Matt wouldn't be so brazenly weird as to place the entire microphone in his mouth.

Pacifica playlist:

Dr. Crippen's Waiting Room - The Orange Machine
Hey I'm Lost - Butch Engle and the Styx
In My House - Zager and Evans
She Sang Hymns Out of Tune - Harry Nilsson
Super Dooper Trooper - The Canterbury Music Festival
Carolina On My Mind - James Taylor
Fresh Wound - Bonzo Dog Band

CC playlist:

Afternoonman - The Precious Band
Pushpop - Pushpop
Marzipan - Azoora
No Estoy Ni Ahi - Crido
Echo Serena - The Heavens



Episode 1.18 - Cannonball Matt

Synopsis: Matt and Grey are broadcasting from the Medford County Fair where they hope to make radio history with the first live audio feed from a person being shot from a cannon.. that person being the thrill-hungry and dangerously impulsive Matt. But will their lofty plans be thwarted by their evil rivals from Autotronic Radio?

Notes: Cyrus and Newton are such wonderfully nasty characters. Cyrus Filch was originally conceived as a bombastic conman along the lines of a Zero Mostel character, but the audio tests didn't jell. Once the "runty little jerk" voice was settled on, the dialogue and character fell right into place. Newton's voice is patterned loosely after that of David Hyde Pierce.

Pacifica playlist:

Paxton's Back Street Carnival - Strawberry Alarm Clock
Take a Look - Gary Walker and the Rain
Con Man - The Five Americans
And Their Daddy Is a Millionaire - The Iveys
Fortune Teller - The Throb
The Equestrian Statue - The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
I Can See Through You - Episode Six

CC playlist:

Should Know Better Age - The Trembling Turncoats
Crazy In the Morning - Brene Wilson
Omaha - Josh Woodward
If You're Lost For Somewhere Else To Be - The Heavens
Chasseur d'images - Sucrepop
Constant Liar - Fresh Body Shop



Episode 1.19 - This Is Electromatic Radio

Synopsis: Hoping to make Grey more self-sufficent and (even) less reliant upon his services as station tech, Matt forces his grumpy co-worker to endure "This Is Electromatic Radio", a mid-century training film that's short on training and long on pain.

Notes: A loving tribute to the joys of industrial film. Ridiculously complicated to produce, requiring a standard dialog track with appropriate sound effects and a secondary track for the film which includes multiple characters, music, effects, and various filters.

Pacifica playlist:

Jenny Lynne - Looking Glass
Ariel - Dean Friedman
Tarkio Road - Brewer & Shipley

CC playlist:

Ophelia's Song - Pan
La Course - Juanitos
Information in Formation - The Kazoo Funk Orchestra



Episode 1.20 - Meltdown

Synopsis: Matt and Grey are in for a rude surprise when Professor Cassius Klatch, an employee of rival Autotronic Radio and former co-worker of Matt's from his days at the Sack-N-Carry, hacks into their control systems, traps them inside the Electromatic Building, and begins overdriving their reactor in order to blow them up. Is this really the end for Matt and Grey?

Notes: Professor Cassius Klatch is the single most unhinged character thus far to appear on Electromatic Radio and the performance involves me twisting my body into a tortured, cringing, sweating knot like some 19th Century Shakespearean actor playing Richard III. Based on no one and nothing in particular, Klatch is the ugly (uglier) counterpoint to Matt's obsessive personality. As Klatch is now employed by Autotronic Radio, Cyrus and Newton were also originally intended to make their own gloating appearances in this episode, but they wrecked the flow of the exchanges between Matt and Klatch. One deadly nemesis at a time. The audio collage following the explosion features clips from almost all of the preceding episodes.

Pacifica playlist:

We Have Already Died - The Boston Tea Party
Suicide is Painless - Johnny Mandel
Eu Preciso te Encontrar - Quinteto Ternura
Magentalane - Klaatu

CC playlist:

Morning Blue - Josh Woodward
1000 Sachen - Teilzeitdenker
Running People - Josh Foster



Episode 1.21 - Perfect Day

Synopsis: It's an Absolutely Perfect Day outside but, despite Matt's spirited entreaties, the whimsically curmudgeonly Grey refuses to leave the station on principle.

Notes: The question of what, exactly, Grey's job happens to be is raised again as he finds himself forced to actually host the show sans Matt's weird distractions. Special guest appearance by famed Mets starting pitcher Jerry Koosman.

Pacifica playlist:

Calico Girlfriend - Michael Nesmith and the First National Band
Daffodil Days - The Hobbits
El Pino y la Rosa - Los Shakers
All Over The World (La La La) - The Youngbloods
Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear - Harry Nilsson

CC playlist:

Silverscreen - papa dada
Common Ground - John Zealey
Crazy As - Julandrew
A Better Plan - SharashkA



Episode 1.22 - Dreaming

Synopsis: When Grey can no longer keep himself awake after 52 hours on the air, Matt hooks him up to a "Neurographic Interface Module" that will allow him to host the show from inside his dreams.

Pacifica playlist:

Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III - Klaatu
With My Face On the Floor - Emitt Rhodes
Gotta Get Up - Harry Nilsson
Oh mi amigo - Los Shakers
Moja Ljubov Na Pjatom Etazhe - Sekret

CC Playlist:

Bad Sign - Brad Sucks
Limelight - REVO
SingleRide - BOREA
Home Improvement - Josh Woodward




Episode 1.23 - All Good Things

Synopsis: When Grey suddenly quits his job as host of Electromatic Radio, Matt must scramble to find a replacement... but can he find someone as suitably unqualified as Grey to fill the role?

Pacifica playlist:

Think About Your Troubles - Harry Nilsson
Biromes y servilletas - Leo Masliah
Higher Than a Tower - Los Shakers
At The End Of The Rainbow - Klaatu

CC Playlist:

Mona Lisa - Josh Woodward
Leave A Light On For Me - papa dada
Catherine Wheels - Radio Nowhere