For some context, my relationship to WFMU goes back more than half of my life: As an often stressed-out, melancholy high school kid in New York City, entertainment was my one true sanctuary, and my emotional safe haven was found in music. I spent untold hours in record stores like Kim's West and Pier Platters (both out of business) and spent many nights at live music venues (most of which are since out of business).
When I was at home, the encapsulation of my sanctuary-through-entertainment was WFMU, a free-form radio station formerly part of Upsala College (also out of business) in East Orange, NJ that now operates independently from Jersey City and broadcasts on 91.1 in most of the Tri-State Region and at wfmu.org.
Seven Second Delay was probably the first show on the station to capture my affection. The hosts Andy Breckman and Ken Freedman would weave together casually hilarious material, formatted around a vague resemblance to a typical call-in radio show but always rooted in self-effacing humor and a style that was simultaneously arcane and accessible. I tuned in every week.
WFMU was also ahead of its time for appreciating the value of interacting with its audience--after writing an article for my high school newspaper in 1993 about the station and one of its annual record fairs, I was invited to East Orange for a tour of of the facilities. DJ Doug Schulkind showed me around and then chaperoned me back to NYC via NJ Transit.
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For a variety of reasons, I drifted away from WFMU for much of my 20s, and only started tuning in again when I moved to California and realized the station, both its live stream and archives, was easily available on the internet, many shows on iTunes as podcasts. Partly thanks to the depth of the archives of The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling, a show that became prominent on the station during the years I was not tuning in, I soon rediscovered the same sense of sanctuary that I had been missing for several years.
And WFMU still embraces its audience and a broader sense of community, which is how I wound up getting invited to appear on 7SD as a guest: During the station's recent annual fund-raising marathon in February, I did my best to support the station on this blog and on Twitter. In the process I became friendly with some of the station's staff, and DJ Julie passed on my name to the producer for 7SD, Mike Noble, who asked if I would like to be a guest in April (they have never had a poker player on before). Of course I quickly said, "yes."
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During the time when I was distant from the station's airwaves, I still took notice when the name Andy Breckman showed up as the sole writing credit on the excellent gambling movie Rat Race. I also distinctly remember staring in awe at the USA Network when the show Monk came on some random day and the opening credits contained both "Tom Scharpling" (whose name I knew from his pre-Best Show days at WFMU) and "created by Andy Breckman." On Scharpling's Best Show, you can hear comedic legends like Martin Short and Chris Elliott refer to Breckman with abundant reverence and affection, tracing back to Breckman's stints writing for SNL and David Letterman.
Most importantly, Seven Second Delay is still a lot of fun to listen to: still upbeat, innovative and often hilarious.
One of my favorite recent episodes, also broadcast from the UCB, involved the hosts interviewing "60 guests in 60 minutes." You can find the archive for it here. At approximately the 12:15 mark begins one of my favorite minutes from the show, a performance by Marc Charbonnet, who "channels Judy Garland doing the Smiths." He will be the musical guest on the 4/6 show.
There are a few ways you can catch the appearance: Come by the UCB Theater in Chelsea at 6PM on April 6th and pay $5 to be part of the audience, turn the dial to 91.1 at that hour if you're in the NYC area, listen to the WFMU Live Stream online, or catch it anytime after 4/6 on the Seven Second Delay podcast or the 7SD archive page.
Late edit: Legendary broadcaster Joe Franklin will be the lead guest on this episode of 7SD. So overall it sounds like a lineup that will make my father, who will be in the audience, very happy.