WCSB shows rarely measure their success by popularity, nevertheless..... I figured I'd start a thread listing my top ten favorite shows of all time. I'm not going to include any of my own though. It just wouldn't feel right. These are not in any particular order. I've probably forgoten a few of my favorites so I reserve the right to ammend or make changes to this list.

Execution of the Cool Kids (A.K.A. Dricore Respirator Hour, A.K.A. Dricore Exit Strategy, etc. ) -Hosted by Dricore (A.K.A. The Peach Prince) This Show is all over the freakin' place. I don't think there is a person that I enjoy listening to ranting about countless things when the callers aren't calling. Dricore is one of my favorite people to do a show with.

Brainrot Radio Theater - ESO Radio, Hosted by Chas Smith. This was a show that got me interested in becoming a member of WCSB. The Adventures of Lonseome Cowboy Dave, Psycopathfinder (his sometimes faithful Indian friend) and Scabby Daze are the Stuff of legends. I apprenticed with Chas. I tried not to bring down his show but feel that I must have. Chas and Einstein's Secret Orchestra would have jam sessions every now and then. Occasionally I would bring my drum and jam with them.

Wainstead All Night, Hosted by Steve Wainstead - I don't know if there was a show I tuned into more religiously than this one. It may have been the perfect College Radio Show. Steve set the bar pretty high as far as late night was concerned. I don't think anyone has come close to it yet.

The Day Crack Came to My Street (A.K.A. Lemon 714, A.K.A. Tall Skinny and Delinquent)- Hosted by Brother Jimmy Wilson -The first broadcast I ever heard on WCSB was Jimmy Wilson and Bruce Steinfurth (a.k.a. Scooter Budha of the Loud & Happy Rock N' Roll Show) filling in for "Wainstead All night". When callers asked where Steve was, Jimmy told them that Steve got into a car accident on his way back from NYC and broke his arm. A few callers after that they proclaimed he was dead. Little girls were calling in from Parma crying!!! I laughed my ass off. Needless to say I became a regular listener of Brother Jimmy's.
If "Wainstead All Night" showed me how good Late night Radio could be "The Day Crack Came to my Street" showed me how evil it could be. It was the same music every week: Lisa Suckdog, The Damned, The New York Dolls, The Pagans and Joe Pop-O-Pie. Jimmy did one of the most diplorable, objectionable talk shows on WCSB (rivaled only by Rattfink who came along a few years later). Mike Kole referred to it as "Diarhea radio". Jimmy was eventually thrown off the air for playing the "Shaft Man" album. The Day Crack Came to my Street is my all time favorite show on WCSB.

Under the Influence, Hosted by Mitch Man- Mitch had the misfortune of being the follow-up act to "Wainstead All Night". The callers hated him at first but he stuck with it and brought forth a pretty damn entertaining show- he eventually even won the callers over. I always considered Mitch the second person I apprenticed with because, he let me come up on the air after my apprenticing with Chas and Brainrot. After Mitch left, I took his time slot and the callers hated me.

Miss Scarlet Did It With a Candle Stick -Hosted by Shannon Kole- This show introduced me to the Garage and Rockabilly sounds. It was extremely influential on me and had an awsome name and an awsome hostess.

Cool Chick #59 -Hosted by Elizabeth Jadud- I used to be on before Elizabeth in my old "Plan 9!/Gag Reflex" days. I'll be honest, I hated her show. I would wrap up doing a 6 hour marathon of Punk, Surf and Talk and then Elizabeth would come in and play music that would make me fall asleep while I was trying to file the 100 or so albums I may have pulled.
Flash Forward to 1997: I started filling in during the time slot after "Cool Chick #59" doing a show that would later become "lo-fi". It was a hell of a lot easier to appreciate Elizabeth's taste in music on a full night's sleep. She introduced me to a ton of things and got me and half of Cleveland hooked on the Brian Jonestown Massacre. I love her show now and can't get enough of it. She's a great person to boot and one of my favorite people to have Breakfast with.

WWJJD? (What Would Joe & Joe Do?) Hosted by Mike Jordan and Dennis Stemplinski- Where do I begin... This show was the predecessor of my current show, "Scruggscorp Syndicated Radio" It began with Mike and Dennis subbing for Joe Harant (the guy that did the show after Dennis'). They went on and each proclaimed to be a Joe and that they were Beat Poets (winners of the Golden Quill Award!). They would preach on how to live a cutting-edge life style and how to live green. They were such good Bullshitters that I had to join them. I started off as a mute Drumer named, Silent K, who would translate for the homeless through his drum. Later On the characters of Tex Dallas, Earl Hafler and Tiny Scruggs, the worlds shortest billionaire were devloped along with the guys on Gametime and of course Hans Lieberschwanz form "Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk".
Just how good was the bullshit? We convinced many listeners that the station was bouhgt out by Texas oil barrons and that we were changing to "89 the Edge - Cleveland's Classic Modern Rock". Bullshitting people on the air is still one of my favorite things to do.

FMOTL (Fifth Man on the List A.K.A. Frequency Modulation, Our True Love) -Beatrice Crocker (A.K.A. Joe Sweeny). My time spent hanging out with Sweeny and Doug Freeble on FMOTL was hardly apprenticeship time. It was fucking WCSB Graduate School. Sweeny would have so many things going on at the same time, it blew my mind. He was the first guy I ever saw, mix three turntables at once, run them through a tape loop and then through an effects processer- and then feed the effects processor back on itself! The concept of doing a "noise" show hadn't even occured to me until I started hanging out with the Thursday morning crew. It was noise, pure brilliant noise!!! -and it still is, Beatrice is now Beatrix but is still doing Thursdays 2-7 AM. It is quite possibly the longest running late night show in WCSB history.

669- Hosted by Sweetass Sassafrass - Sweetass has got skills. He's one of the few programmers on our station that I thought could ever turn pro and make money at it. Thank God or, in this case, probably Satan that he hasn't done so! He has incredibly quick wit that I am a little envious of. Sweetass organized the Save Our Smut Benefit and gives the degenerates a place to go on Friday nights. Sweetass is a great promoter, throws great parties (on air and off) and has rabid fans. Seriously some of them have Rabies.

Dirt (A.K.A. Rubber Chiken Legs A.K.A. Horse Power) (in fact any shows by Mark Matthews) Dark Mark taught me more about Punk Rock then anyone else in the world. He also lived it, which was more then I could ever do. There was a caller named Jim, he was a pretty big influence on my punk rock knowledge as well.

Propoganda - Hosted by Mike Kole - In the 90's, it was easy to be stupid. Plenty of role models were out there for dumbing down society (including Beavis and Butthead, Bart Simpson, Brother Jimmy and Dan Quayle). Mike Kole was the antithesis of this. He brought a sense of class and decorum to the station, even when he was interviewing a Satanist. His shows were frequently informative, thought out and fun. I still remeber Kole and the Reverand John Xerxes Piche calling for the Cauldron to cease publication immeadiately (unless they adopted a High gloss, color format). Seriously the Cauldron sucked back then but Propoganda did not. Mike Kole was also responsible for bringing the "Church of the Subgenius' Hour of Slack" to WCSB.


I guess that's more then 10. Thank your lucky stars I didn't include any of my own shows or you'd still be reading.

-Keith Newman

I've done some thinking and I realize that I need to include the Hour of Slack on my list. The work of Rev. Ivan Stang has yielded some the best radio collage moments I've ever heard. I used to set my alarm clock for 6 AM on Sunday mornings so I could tape it. Thank Bob, it moved to Sunday nights. Now I can sleep in on Sunday mornings- true Slack indeed!

gotta chime in with some of my favorites.

7 hosted by robert griffin.
incredible late night show that griffin (scat records/prisonshake/spin in vain etc. 7"s only.

propaganda hosted by mike kole
for the above mentioned reasons and it was just flat out good rock

psychik danse hall hosted by mark edwards then tom wilson then paul smith
long running sat nights started by my dad is dead's mark edwards and continued in name with wilson and smith. one of the best shows ever on the uk and american indie underground. crispy ambulance, dead c, die todlich doris, daf, motorik musiks, etc. incredible.

cheap heroin hosted by jim lanza
regular thurs listen back in my high school dayz. punk rock and hilarous interviews at times. one with cheetah chrome still sticks out. i think he was in hiding from the cops at the time.

any show hosted by kurt vaigl and lou zeigler

and mike hughes's long running black metal show.
can prob think of a few more but i'm in a rush.
that's it for now

Hmm ... this takes some thinking. There have been so many excellent shows on 'CSB over the decades, and it's hard to just pick -- especially when you know you will probably forget to mention some of them. But here's SOME of the best 'CSB shows of all time THUS FAR: RAWHIDE/BRAINROT RADIO THEATRE (THE SUBGENIUS HOUR OF SLACK can be considered part of this). JELLO WITH MARSHMALLOWS, with Laura Filipkowski. THROAT CULTURE CAFE/'D/DAYDREAMING ON A TUESDAY AFTERNOON/etc., with Dave Kosky. Lo-fi, with Keith Newman. GARAGELAND, with Kristin Plambek. The sundry incarnations and spin-offs of WAINSTEAD ALL NIGHT (especially BLOOD AND SHAVING CREAM), with Steve Wainstead. ROCK SCISSORS PAPER/ICE CREAM OVERDRIVE, with Elizabeth Jadud. STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS, with Bart (who?). SERGIO VAN LUKANSTEIN'S UNJUSTIFIED POWER TRIP, with Eric Wolf. EXISTENTIAL ANGST, with Lou Ziegler. Once again, I apologize to all whom I may have excluded, but the important thing is that you folks are here, and that thanks to you, radio shall never be the same (THANK GOD!). Keep it up, people, and as always -- HARK TO THE BRILLIANCE IN THE DARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow...there were and are lots of good shows on WCSB but I'll trim it down to 10.

1. Inaudible - I can't think of a current show in the state let alone Cleveland that is playing the stuff that John is playing.
2. Propaganda
3. Cyclotron - I was never a big fan of Wainstead's overnight show (I know this might be blasphemy to some people) but I loved his afternoon music show.
4. Blows Against the Empire
5. Cheap Heroin
6. The Day Man Lost - I love the way Mike reads down a set list.
7. Twisting in Bedrock
8. Millions of Dead Chickenheads
9. Kurt Vaigl - I forgot the name of his show but Kurt had a Friday overnight show that I use to listen to when I was a janitor at an Elk's club in Parma. He would play tons of great punk and hardcore and had a really great deadpan style on the air.
10. Frequency Modulation: Our True Love

Lou Ziegler

1. Wainstead All Night - Yes, Lou. You blasphemed.
2. Blows Against the Empire - Blame Matt Dudas for my multiple overstayed welcomes. He brought me in via the ol' boy network, when things worked that way some 20 years ago. Great gravy, I'm old.
2. Smoking Spliff With Satan, Rev. John X. Piche
3. The Hour of Slack
4. Seven, Robert Griffin
5. 31337, Wainstead - Often had to struggle to understand the tech stuff, but loved it as philosophic exercise.
6. Any Jimmy Wilson. Hated him as a Program Director, loved listening when it wasn't my responsibility and thus, problem.
7. Brainrot Radio Theatre, Chas Smith et al
9. Lo-Fi, Keith Newman
10. Sergio Van Lukenstein's Unjustified Power Trip


HMs Shows by Pennie Stasik, Mark Edwards, Scary Ellen, Luigi-Bob Drake, Charlotte Pressler, Andrew Klimek, Bob Hisnay, and Timothy Steyskal were my intro to college radio shortly after I got together with Matt Dudas. They really helped form my ideas of what college radio could be. Their shows weren't so much favorites as almost legendary figures for me. Raised the bar up damn high.

Too bad I have to miss the party tonight. Campaign trail!

KRAUTY McKRAUT'S SONIC SPACESHIP--Why the Hell did he quit?

THE INCONSISTENCY PRINCIPLE w/ Martin and Greg--one of the classic "freeform" shows ever, with a different guiding principle for every show

KRAPP'S LAST TAPE w/ Luigi-Bob Drake--great blur of folk, noise, spoken word, and aleatoric actions.

1. Jock Jams
2. Not What You Think
3. Music to Crash Cars
4. Frequency Modulation
5. Garageland
6. DJ Mannequin Man
7. Record Exchange
8. Smoking Loon
9. 666 Ounces of Madness
10. An Older Lover

A Pox On You

Doug Gillard...Groove Angel

Number 1 on my list or close to it would be Psykick Danse Hall during the Paul Smith era. I was listening to this Saturday night show a lot from around the mid-1990s, after I more-or-less retired from the clubbing scene.

The music was so wierd and wonderful that I began to record a cassette's worth of Paul's show each time and continued to do this until he stopped hosting. I have perhaps 70 cassettes worth of PDH and also Paul's Sunday morning "Versions of Music as Dead Air" show.

I still listen to them each day at work, and I'm still tracking down music that show introduced me to. Just recently I found "The Tentacles of the Octopus Sometimes Compete Against Each Other" on Amazon.

I was also a huge fan of Wainstead's Cyclotron. Wainstead could do no wrong in my book.