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STRUCTURES

One of my first ideas
was to minimize DJ
interruptions.

So, given a three
hour show, I figured
I would do three         I picked the length of
forty five minute        45 minutes to be one
sets.                    side of a 90 minute
                         tape.
At the top of each
hour I would cluster         I tape radio shows I like.
together all of the          Why not make it easier
required                     for someone like me?
announcements,
describe everything
played before, and
maybe play another cut
or two to fill in the               (Irony #1:
rest of the time.                   I'm probably praised
                                    more often for          
                                    "having a great         
                                    voice" than for        TRACES_HOME 
                                    my taste in
                                    music.)

I was strongly discouraged from
structuring a show this way.        SHORTORDER

Being a person of extremes,
I went from the idea of
doing 45 minute sets, to
doing the shortest possible
set that could still have
some sort of structure to
it.  The reasoning being
that most listeners have
very short attention spans,
and if you're doing
something clever with the
arrangement of music, they
better not have to listen
for very long to figure it
out.

Soon after I was on the air, I
started sneaking *one* 45 minute
set into my show.

Which made it a show of extremes:
the shortest possible sets in the
first two hours, suitable for short
attention span listening, and the
last hour dedicated to the longest
possible set, designed for more
careful listening.

It made sense to me to have
something I could promote within
the show ("and at 3 AM, I'm going         I was continually trying
to be doing a 45 minute set on the        to think of a "feature"
theme of anal retentiveness.").           to start at the top of the
                                          second hour as well as
Maybe I could talk the casual             the third.
listeners into actually focusing on
what I was doing for a solid 45                I didn't get it
minutes.                                       until my second year,
                                               with The Machine.

                                                            NECESSITY

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