I Want A Radio Show!!! by Kayode D. '27

I want a radio show!!

This summer, I’m going to be in Boston, working as a Summer RA, making tons of board games, card games, and other games in various UROPS [SUPAH COOL!!] and exploring Boston!! I’m so excited. It’s gonna be so fun! And I think I don’t want to use social media.

Today I realized the truth about something I’ve been lying to myself about for months [years?]: I don’t need social media. Sure, the memes are HILARIOUS, but the cost? Being unfocused and overstimulated and chronically procrastinating? Not worth it. So! No more Instagram! At least not on my phone. And I’m not about to scroll reels on my laptop in the middle of the library study space [ok, maybe i would].

With that, I want to listen to more physical music. Sure, it’s inconvenient and obsolete, but that’s the charm of it all, right? Performatively listening to music? Is it performative if I do it but don’t talk about it? I guess I’m talking about it now, though, so that defeats the purpose…

Segway!! I’m a part of WMBR, MIT’s College Radio Station. It’s really neat and I wrote a blog about it before, but it’s almost time to pitch for the summer season!! Here’s my ideas:

CHRISTMAS YEAR ROUND SHOW

I love Christmas Music. A lot. And no, I don’t just listen to it in November, or in October– I am a FIRM Believer in Christmas Music All Year Round.

Think about it: Every artist and their grandma makes music for the holidays. And you’re going to sequester these tunes, which are made with the same love, detail, and effort as their other music, to only be listened to one month of the year?? No sir!!

And I know what you’re going to say: “I don’t want to listen to Last Christmas in May!” First, you should give it a try because that’s a great song, and second, then don’t! There’s sooooooo much Christmas music out there, enough to make an entire radio show for year-round listening out of it. And from this idea was born [insert witty name for Christmas Show Year Round].

I pitched my idea to Abby L. ’26, the scheduling director at WMBR who decides what shows get time slots and which don’t for each season. She told me “Kayode, I’ve never once turned down a show proposal, but that would be my first.” 😲🤯🤯🤯 what.  

Bad take! A Christmas year-round show would be good! Here’s some episode ideas to prove it to you:

• The Vince Guaraldi Episode: Of course, you have the episode dedicated to The Charlie Brown Soundtrack–but not just from the Christmas Special. There’s a lot of wintery or holiday inspired jazz that exists, so that could be an episode!!
• Christmas Big Jazz!! : Jazz Episode, but big!! This is mainly to highlight the hilarity and awesomeness of the Anderson Pak. Spotify Single of Linus and Lucy. LISTEN TO THIS….actually this could be combined with the previous episode maybe, if the songs gradient up to get big and end with this song.
• Other music I like that I don’t know where to put it just yet, but it is Christmas-y and proves my point [and all I want for Christmas is you, for Petey of course]:

[actually, this playlist is, like, ok. I think I had a few songs in mind but it would lowk be work to find more and more. Just listen to the pom pom squad song, and The Beths one, too. I know that this counters my point of there being “sooooooo much music to choose from”, but I am writing this to procrastinate, so I will move on now.]

[I’m probably not going to pitch for this show.]

Ok, maybe I just want Midwest Pizzeria again.

From January, 2024 to May, 2025, I had a radio show with my roommate, Noah R. ’27 called Midwest Pizzeria. The name was his idea, and I’ve always liked it a lot. The idea for the show was “Songs you would hear at a dead pizza place in the midwest, with a cracked parking lot and is staffed by only teenagers.” What music would they play? Eventually, this just became music that we liked, and we would talk about stuff like what was going on in out lives or if we’d go to a muppets concert or not [yes, duh.]

Anyways, I might revive this show. It was fun, but became semi-time consuming and sort of fizzled out. I’ve had a playlist called “Midwest Pizza Coffin” Full of songs that I would play, if the show was still going and it’s pretty good, not gonna lie. I’ve been listening to it today, and it made me wish I still had a radio show. I don’t really know who would listen to it, but it’s not about who’s listening, it’s about having the courage to speak up!! Mmhmm, but that in your happy meal.

I have so much music!! I must share it!! Not to be heard, but simply to speak!! I want to blog a lot this summer. One thing I would change this time around with the radio show, is I wouldn’t pull punches. Last time, I would sometimes save songs for later episodes so I would have more bangers. But why? I know a lot of music, I can put a good episode together. So these are all songs that have been ON REPEAT for me, and will premier on episode one of the summer season, if it ends up happening.

Ok, this blog was a short one. Today at blogger meeting, Petey mentioned the idea of getting an idea, and getting a blog out in an hour. This blog took me an hour and 7 minutes to make, start-to-end. Maybe this will happen more!