this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
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In the 80s, I used to be a DJ at a radio station, and had the midnight to 6 a.m. shift. In the beginning, everything was OK, we had a catalogue of about a thousands songs that I could choose and pick from. Commercially the station wasn’t successful so very soon the catalogue was reduced to 500 songs, then 250, then to 100 songs, and then to a dozen songs. It was horrible, I had to come up with ideas how am I getting a story up about this stupid handful of songs. I started reading f****g poetry out loud, my own poetry because we couldn’t buy any of the real poetry stuff. I’m not a poet ! So my salary also dropped. In the end, I had TWO songs that I could choose from: BTO’s You ain’t seen nothing yet and a shitty B side by Shakin’ Stevens. SIX HOURS to play just two songs, if it had been at least three songs, I could’ve mixed them, but you cannot mix two songs! Bloody hell.
At that point you might as well start learning guitar on air
That makes no sense? Why not play small bands that would be happy to have their music on the air for free?
For free? That sounds like communism to me!
Does the word "B-b-b-baby" give you PTSD flashbacks?
I didn't have it that bad but I had to spend a whole night as a temp factory worker throwing hay into a machine to shred it into pet bedding and they had Culture Club - Karma Chameleon on repeat for 10hrs.
Liked the song before that night. I refused to work there again after that night.
I feel like that's psychological torture
I had a boss in an office that decided to have an Alice in Wonderland themed pot luck. She turned on the movie on repeat. Then she just never turned off the movie. It was on a screen on low volume right in front of my desk for weeks. She had an office, I didn't. Eventually I sent her an email saying it was phycological torture after like week 3 to have the same movie playing on repeat for 8 hours Monday thru Friday.
I also worked at a video store once that we had to play the promotional DVD on repeat. It was about 2 hours long of footage over and over and we couldn't turn it down.
My sister worked at Abercrombie & Fitch back in their late-90s/early-00s peak. Every month or two, corporate would send a CD to be played in store during open hours. A 60-minute (or less) loop of company-sactioned pop music, all shift, every shift. I wasn't the one working there and I still felt miserable on her behalf.
If the station is failing and the track selection was that dire (2 fucking songs??) I'd be contacting small labels / indie labels asking for written permission to play their music and if they can send you a CD or record or whatever. Guarantee you'd get several bites from small artists that want their music heard. Hindsight 20-20 and all though.
Should've asked for the two songs to be: What's New Pussycat, and It's Not Unusual.
Calm down, John Mulaney