The Very First Episode of the Ongoing History of New Music
I vividly remember sitting down to write the first-ever episode of \u201cThe Ongoing History of New Music\u201d...I was in my living room with a blank yellow note pad...and I was terrified...\nTo be brutally honest, I did not want this gig...but the powers-that-be decreed that this was my new job...if didn\u2019t want to do it, that would have been cool...I was told I\u2019d receive a manila envelope containing a modest severance package...\nThat wouldn\u2019t work...I\u2019d just gotten married and I\u2019d just bought a house with a 12 \xbd per cent mortgage...and I\u2019d done radio all my adult life, so I didn\u2019t really have a lot of skills for any other line of work...\nSo I told the bosses that \u201cokay, I\u2019ll do it\u201d...what other choice did I have?...\n\nSo there I am, sitting looking at this blank yellow note pad this was before the internet and before anyone started writing books on the history of alternative music... ...where to start?...how to organize everything?...and how could I come up with something every single week?...\nWhat\u2019s that quote from the ancient Chinese philosopher, Laozi?... \u201cA journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step\u201d...so I just started scribbling notes...\nA few days later, I had a script for the first episode of \u201cThe Ongoing History of New Music\u201d...I decided that the best way to begin was to make a pilot, a show that laid out what the program would be...I was a total guess...I had no idea...none...\nI figured I\u2019d do the show for a couple of years and then move on...people would get tired of it, it would outlive its usefulness, or I\u2019d just end up getting fired\u2014for real, this time...\nBut here we are, 30 years later, and I\u2019m still doing \u201cOngoing History\u201d shows...and as I sit here, it\u2019s February 2023, we\u2019re about 30-ish episodes from Ongoing History show number one thousand...that\u2019ll happen sometime in November...\nThings have changed a lot since I wrote and recorded that first episode, things that we\u2019ll get into when we get to show number one thousand...but for now, to mark 30 years since the first episode aired, we\u2019ve pulled the recording from the archive and are making it available for the first time as a Podcast...God, the concept of Podcasts was still years away when we started this...\nSo just for fun, let\u2019s take a listen to that very first program, broadcast on February 28, 1993...I hope this isn\u2019t too cringey...\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices