For those who came in late - I do a weekly two hour radio show on the local community radio station here in Canberra, 2xxfm. (I'd like to change the name to XXfm but that's another story).
I've been a fan of community radio since before I knew what it even was. I remember times sitting at home in Melbourne in the mid 80's twirling the radio dial and on occasion coming across a faint station playing all these songs that I'd never heard of. It was a couple of years before I realised that these must have been 3RRRfm and 3PBSfm - two of the coolest radio stations anywhere. (This is a measurable fact, by the way)
Community radio to me has always been about the music first and foremost - the talk and other content is great as well but it was (and still is) through community radio that I have been exposed to virtually all the great bands that I know and love today.
(For those reading this from somewhere else, community radio in Australia is non-corporate, independent, non-government, volunteer run radio)
Anyway, my show is in the drive-time slot (4-6pm) and is of a generalist rather than specialist nature. XX aims to play music that people don't generally hear elsewhere (ie overly commercial music) but beyond that, announcers have free reign. (We have to be mindful of the community sector code of practice as well as playing a certain proportion of Australian and Canberra music as well).
We have two cd players on the desk in the studio and generally speaking it's a matter of cueing up a track on one while the other is playing.
Unless, of course, you burn your songs onto one or two cds (I usually need about 1 and a bit) and you just leave them in the machines.
Selection of tunes is the key thing there - being the music junkie that I am, there are usually a few new cds floating around each week so I like to find something interesting on these, even a couple of tracks if they are particularly noticable.
From here, I like to mix it up a little - cool songs from good albums from the last 6 months or so, a few more from the last decade and generally always a few old school alterna-classics from the 70's and 80's.
Iconic English DJ John Peel had a philosophy with his show that he'd play some songs that he knew people would like and some songs that he thought they'd like.
You can see listings of the tracks I've selected on the (rather neglected) Monday Sunset blog.
(by the way, that isn't the official 2XXfm logo at the top of the page, it's just one I've been playing with. The existing logo hasn't changed in the better part of a decade to my knowledge and I think a revamp is in order)
