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WRFL 88.1 FM Alumni Show, 16 October 2018

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Kerosene by Big Black
Just Too Bloody Stupid by Close Lobsters
Planet Of Sound by Pixies
Digital Meltdown by Pop Will Eat Itself
Ambition by Velvet Elvis
Misinformed by Overhead
Somewhere by Scissor Sisters
Fait Accompli (Single Version) by Curve
The Upstairs Room by The Cure
Pity For The Self by Poesie Noire
Control I’m Here by Nitzer Ebb
If You Want by Depeche Mode
This Boy’s In Love by The Presets
Hot Doggie by Colourbox
Give Me Back My Man by The B-52’s
The Big Sky by Kate Bush
Feurio! by Einsturzende Neubauten
Now, An Explosive New Movie by Severed Heads
Love’s Secret Domain by Coil
This Corrosion (Single Version) by The Sisters Of Mercy
You Often Forget (Benign) by Revolting Cocks
Rise by Public Image Limited
Academic by New Order
September Song by The Young Gods

“I was born in this town, lived here my whole life…”

During a recent trip to my hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, I had the opportunity to go back on the air at WRFL 88.1 FM for an alumni show. Co-host Brian Manke joined me for two hours of classic college rock (with a few new things thrown in), and reminiscing about my time at the station.

(Full disclosure: I didn’t mention this on the air, but I was in the band Overhead. The song Misinformed was written by Brian Fifield and myself, recorded and self-released in 1995. Brian is singing lead.)

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WRFL original air studio, 1988. Photo by Jack S.

The Beat Bash was an alternative dance music show which aired weekly on WRFL, 88.1 FM, from the University of Kentucky’s campus. Featuring the best in Progressive Dance, Eurodisco, Industrial, Acid House, and New Wave, The Beat Bash was one of the original shows in the 24-hour programming lineup when the station debuted in February 1988.

The show was hosted by Brian Parker and Michelle Eldridge for the first couple of years, followed by Brian Von Reber. I then took over hosting every other week, alternating with Jim “DJ Cosmic” Owens. Although I’d been sitting in on the show since the very beginning – and was already doing an occasional DJ slot at The Metro – my official debut as host was 22 June 1991. I continued to do the show for several years, taking over in full from Cosmic, then bringing on Tamara “Tam Tam” Lockman as my co-host sometime around 1993. Tam Tam eventually gave the show over to Sami Ibrahim, and at that point I moved away from Kentucky and lost track.

Over the past 25 years I’ve carefully maintained a collection of what I consider the core of the Beat Bash sound: Wax Trax! Records, Mute and Factory, Chicago house and Detroit techno, Industrial music from Germany and Belgian New Beat. It’s a sound that nostalgia hasn’t yet plundered, and after a year-long break from DJing, I felt it was time to pay tribute to the dance music that first captured my imagination.