the rix mix

It's marathon money-making time at WFMU. I'm probably the most consistently poor on-air fund-raiser in the history of WFMU, based on the number of marathons I've been through. Year after year I was the station poster boy for the policy that you never lost your slot because of a poor showing in the marathon. For reasons I've haven't completely figured out, I never built the kind of loyal listenership that generously rewarded me at marathon time. This may have proved that I was doing something right, something contrary to the station's overall creative flow - I'm stubbornly un-hip. Yet, when I took sabbaticals listeners phoned & e mailed me (& still do) whenever I did fill-ins asking when I was coming back on weekly. The best marathon show I had, Chris T (Aerial View) was my co-host & spent three hours praising me - it was embarrassing - sort of - but the phones rang. It's difficult to hype an overall style that has little hype in it - a lets not get excited kind of DJing rooted in late Sixties & early Seventies FM - rather than specific contemporary musics, lotsa live bands, or super-rarities. I present everything, including my own monologues, with an even-handedness, of all things being equal. Oh, I've always wanted to be like Glen Jones, Bronwyn C. or my favorite example, the legendary Lou "The Duck" D' Antonio, radio artists with presences that come right through the microphone & into your home or car. But when I tried to imitate them I just felt inauthentic, that I was wearing the wrong hat. Perhaps I protect myself with distance, an indistinct face, rather than with that other form of mask - a strong personna.
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