"Gotta keep runnin' gotta be the best, gotta walk tall in the Wild West..."

4 June 1986

K Blondie – “The Tide is High”
PWR Dumptruck – “Walk Into Mirrors”
#1 Beat Farmers – “Riverside”
H Helios Creed – “Showdown”
DC XTC – “Take This Town”
M Rapture of the Deep – “Watching the Fireworks”
PWR Peter Gabriel – “Don’t Give Up”
REC Stan Ridgway – “Can’t Stop the Show”
H Jonathan Richman – “It’s You”
L Pleasures Pale – “Lovely, Lovely”
K The Raisins – “19th Nervous Breakdown”
PWR Siouxsie & the Banshees – “Cannons”
DC REM – “Feeling Gravity’s Pull”
H Robert Wyatt – “Speechless”
M The Windbreakers – “I’ll Be Back”
#2 Pete Shelley – “On Your Own”
PWR Joe Jackson – “Wild West”
REC Violent Femmes – “I Held Her in My Arms”
H The Pogues – “Body of an American”
DC The Shoes – “Too Late”
K Split Enz – “History Never Repeats”
PWR Blow Monkeys – “Digging Your Scene”
L Bryan Ferry – “Is Your Love Strong Enough”
H The Pandoras – “I Didn’t Cry”
M Zulus – “Back to Sleep”
DC Bram Tchaikovsky – “Shall We Dance”
PWR Art of Noise – “Peter Gunn theme”
REC The Jesus & Mary Chain – “Cut Dead”
H Joe Pop-o-Pie – “I Am the Walrus”
#3 Dancing Hoods – “Build a House”
DC The Smiths – “How Soon is Now”
PWR The Jazz Butcher – “D.R.I.N.K.”
K Talking Heads – “Life During Wartime”
H Jane Siberry – “One More Colour”
M Lou Reed – “Original Wrapper”
L Alex Chilton – “No Sex”
PWR The Neighborhoods – “WUSA”
DC The Ramones – “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”
H EIEIO – “White Lines, Blue Skies, Black Top”
REC The Reducers – “Let’s Go”
PWR BoDeans – “Fadeaway”
M Butthole Surfers – “Creep in the Cellar”
K The Alarm – “Walk Forever By My Side”

A few days after finishing this show, I hopped a plane to Japan as a Wright State University "Student Ambassador," which is a glorified name for an exchange student. There were 13 of us who left WSU for the summer to study language and culture at Okayama University of Science. Most of the summer semester was spent living in dorms at Okayama University, but there were also two homestays with Japanese families, each a week long. The Japanese are really big on gift-giving, and we were instructed to bring plenty of gifts for all family members as thank-yous for opening up their homes to us.


One of my host families had three sons, aged 13, 11 and 7. I gave the boys WWSU t-shirts, bumper stickers and the 7" EP the station had put out a few months prior (see photo at left). The EP had the above-mentioned Pleasures Pale "Lovely Lovely" on it, as well as That Hope doing "Spaceboys In Love" and Chain Link Fence doing a promo called "A Sound Alternative," which was our current station catchphrase. (Others included "The Ten Million Microwatt Voice of Wright State University" and "WWSU: Serving the Dayton, Fairborn and Beavercreek Metroplex.")

Anyway, the boys were crazy about the single and played it ALL THE TIME. I wasn't really that keen on the thing in the first place, and after a week of hearing it on repeat I HATED IT. Even after all these years I doubt I'd want to spin it again, even though I've a dozen of them stashed away in the basement. Who knows, I might give them away as door prizes at the reunion...

"If you want me, you can find me left of center, off of the strip..."

21 May, 1986

K Bow Wow Wow – “I Want Candy”
PWR Camper Van Beethoven – “Sometimes”
#1 Big Country – “Look Away”
H The Bolshoi – “Happy Boy”
DC Wall of Voodoo – “Back in Flesh”
M Book of Love – “I Touch Roses”
PWR Art of Noise – “Paranomia”
REC Armoury Show – “Castles in Spain”
H Robert Wyatt – “The Age of Self”
L The Hit Squad – “Libyan Hit Squad”
K The Members – “Working Girl”
PWR Husker Du – “Hardly Getting Over It”
DC OMD – “Enola Gay”
H Get Smart – “Looking Out for #3”
M Suzanne Vega – “Left of Center”
#2 Pete Shelley – “On Your Own”
PWR Let’s Active – “In Little Ways”
REC The Smiths – “The Boy With the Thorn in his Side”
H Highwaymen – “Highwaymen”
DC Devo – “Uncontrollable Urge”
K Phil Seymour – “Precious To Me”
PWR The BoDeans – “Fadeaway”
L Bryan Ferry – “Is Your Love Strong Enough”
H Jonathan Richman – “Let’s Take a Trip”
M Swimming Pool Q's – “She’s Looking”
DC Oingo Boingo – “Heard Somebody Cry”
PWR Siouxsie & the Banshees – “Candyman”
REC The Jesus & Mary Chain – “The Hardest Walk”
H Richard Lloyd – “Losin’ Anna”
#3 Alex Chilton – “No Sex”
DC Fleshtones – “Shadowline”
PWR The Pandoras – “Stop Pretending”
K INXS – “Listen Like Thieves – live version”
H The Pogues – “London Girl”
M The Style Council – “My Ever Changing Mood”
L The Alarm – “Majority”
PWR Neighborhoods – “Yeah You”
DC Echo & the Bunnymen – “The Puppet”
H Fuzztones – “Cinderella”
REC APB – “Shoot You Down”
PWR Joe Jackson – “It’s a Big World”
M Kommunity FK – “Something Inside Me Has Died”
K Roman Holiday – “Stand By”
PWR The Jazz Butcher – “The Jazz Butcher vs The Prime Minister”
#4 Belinda Carlisle – “Mad About You”

By this time I think I was really starting to hate the Swimming Pool Q's. I know that the album was played so much at the station that I started to feel ill whenever I saw the album cover. Enough time has passed, however, that I think I'd enjoy hearing it again, even if I do still think the sleeve is a bit creepy.

"These rivers of suggestion are driving me away..."

14 May, 1986

K Beastie Boys – “Fight For Your Right”
PWR The Pandoras – “Stop Pretending”
#1 Big Country – “Look Away”
H The Windbreakers – “I’ll Be Back”
DC Marshall Crenshaw – “Right Now”
M EIEIO – “Hello Heartache”
PWR Depeche Mode – “It Doesn’t Matter Two”
REC The Smiths – “The Boy w/ The Thorn in his Side”
H Roky Erikson – “Don’t Slander Me”
L Cactus World News – “Years Later”
K OMD – “So In Love”
PWR Art of Noise – “Peter Gunn Theme”
DC Rank & File – “Amanda Ruth”
H Richard Lloyd – “Watch Yourself”
M Swimming Pool Q's – “Now I’m Talking ‘bout Now”
#2 That Hope – “Spaceboys In Love”
PWR Elvis Costello – “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
REC Lou Reed – “My Love is Chemical”
H The Pogues – “London Girl”
DC The Cars – “The Dangerous Type”
K Falco – “Der Kommisar”
PWR Let’s Active – “Last Chance Town”
L Lords of the New Church – “Like a Virgin”
H Great Plains – “Dick Clark”
M Brian Setzer – “Radiation Ranch”
DC The Shoes – “Double Talk”
PWR The Cramps – “Chicken”
REC The Jesus & Mary Chain – “Cut Dead”
H Soul Asylum – “Never Really Been”
#3 Alex Chilton – “No Sex”
DC The Ramones – “Rock & Roll High School”
PWR Husker Du – “Sorry Somehow”
K Jim Carroll – “People Who Died”
H Death of Samantha – “Bed of Fire”
M Translator – “Stony Gates of Time”
L Zeit Geist – “Atlantic City”
PWR The BoDeans – “Angels”
DC Violent Femmes – “Please Do Not Go”
H Highwaymen – “Burndown”
REC The Armoury Show – “Castles in Spain”
PWR Dumptruck – “Alone”
M Book of Love – “Boy”
K REM – “So. Central Rain”
PWR Pet Shop Boys – “Two Divided by Zero”
H Get Smart – “See Who’s Laughing”
DC The Psychedelic Furs – “Dumb Waiters”
M Cocteau Twins – “Great Spangled Fritillary”