WFMU Shows

WFMU is a Jersey City, New Jersey freeform radio station.  It's incredibly awesome.  In NJ it's at 91.1

It broadcasts at 128kbps live on the internet, and all shows are permanently archived at 96kbps.

128kbps live stream works in winamp.
WFMU Homepage lists today's show schedule.

I listen to a lot of music, and since I've discovered WFMU I've listened to it about 12 hours a day.  I've practically abandoned kazaa!

On regular radio you tend to hear all different moods of music mixed together, all from the same era, and all popular.  Selection is based on era and popularity.  WFMU shows tend to have a consistent mood and since the DJs are so knowledgeable about music, it basically disregards popularity.  So 90% of WFMU music is stuff I've never heard before. 

After a while you realize that so-called pop music is just a tiny slice of all the music out there, and that just chance has determined who got big and who didn't.  Behind every popular group there are 10 groups just as good who just didn't happen to make it and were mostly forgotten.  Hearing those guys can be great.

You can feel that the DJs have total freedom.  They aren't proudly amateurish like college radio, but aren't annoyingly professional either.

Shows I Love
The Best Show on WFMU
Talk show with Tom Scharpling.  He plays music and does funny stuff on the radio.  Sometimes he interviews strange people.  Also some regulars call all the time, some he likes such as Petey (a 14 year old boy), Officer Tom (a NJ cop), No-smokin joe (formerly smokin joe), and people he doesn't like such as Skag Winesack (a detective on the wrong side of the law), Philly Boy Roy, the Gorch, etc.  He also does "unfair record reviews" where he talks over and disses some indie record.  I'm gradually listening to the archives.  It can be kind of slow sometimes but often is great.

I've taken his archive page and added comments to the shows I've watched.  So now it's my comments, his descriptions, and links to the shows together.

Music to Spazz By
50s/60s pre-rock music.  He's got a great DJ style, kind of hyper on the mic.  Like the wolfman.

The Glen Jones Radio Programme
Two fat smoking drunk NJ dudes who talk between sets.  The music is sometimes good, sometimes embarassing, but always super-positive and nostalgic and never cynical.  The good part of the show is the 20 minute long breaks where the two hosts rap back and forth.  When one's absent it's not so great, but when they're both there it's awesome.  Just random stoner meandering funny conversations.  One of them holds the record for broadcasting over 100 hours continuously.

Tony Coulter
60s pop that wasn't popular.  Some of it is awesome.

Joe Frank
Modern Radio theatre.  So awesome, but unfortunately it's on at 8am china time and there are no archives.  But it's so amazingly good.

The Radio Thrift Shop
Country music.

Advanced D&D
Fucking hard core electro, so awesome.  This show took a break during which the host moved to berlin.  Since it's been back it hasn't been so great.

Seven Second Delay
Talk show with one smart guy and one dumb guy.  Totally un-slick, pretty funny.  During the Monica Lewinsky thing, they decided to do a survey.  They'd randomly call people and rate how strongly they supported or opposed Clinton's resignation by whether they'd be willing to "see a random peruvian guy keel over before his time", "watch parents make love", or "have a brazilian spider inserted into their ear by a doctor and have it lay half a million eggs which would later hatch, but you wouldn't be hurt".

I laughed SO hard at the "keep the caller on the phone show".  Fucking hilarious.  They did a game where they'd alternate calling random numbers and trying to keep the person on the phone as long as they could.  The restriction was that they could only say 10 words in the first minute.  After that the other guy got to cut in and say 5 words to try to get the person off the phone.

I copied their archives and added a couple comments and stars.  That's here

Currently off the air awesome shows

40 Ounces and a Turntable
with the Cosmic Cowboy.  Non pop weird electro.

Aircheck
Interesting clips of radio personalities of the past.  My favorite is the total asshole gifted with a beautiful voice, Bob Lassiter, taunting and making fools of his idiot listeners.   Also memorable are clips of 70s DJs on drugs.  Each show is 15 minutes of random stuff and then a 45 minute episode of Jean Shepherd's old show, which is so great.  Jean Shepherd is the guy who wrote the book "a christmas story" was based on.  He can just ramble off strangely connected stories for 40 minutes and have it all come together in the last 5 minutes.  An amazing guy whose show was on the air for decades.

Inflatable Squirrel Carcass
spacey instrumental modern classical late night music.

Do or DIY
This is what you think of when you hear "freeform radio".  A mix of mashups, unauthorized wrong genre remixes, hyper japanese children's music themes, etc.  The DJ is English and has a great voice and a meandering DJ style.  Awesome.

Professor Dum Dum's Lab
A guy with a really fake german accent who plays orchestral death metal.  Lots of King Diamond, which is great.  In between, he proposes a poem topic and listeners call in and recite their poems.  The topic is usually incredibly blasphemous, such as "imagine baby jesus is transparent.  what message would you write on a paper to go with him as you cast him adrift on the ocean?".

Good Shows

Diane's Kamikaze Fun Machine

The Cherry Blossom Clinic

The Push Bin



Greasy Kid Stuff
kid's music.

Crappy Shows

Jewish Moments in the Morning
ugh.  It sucks too cause 6am to 9am NJ time is 6pm to 9pm here, my good listening hours.

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