Jeff Giles has been a friend of mine for a very long time now—as he notes below, it’s been a long time since he stopped away from doing anything related to family music, but the friendship has remained. He’s also the mind behind and coproducer of Keep Hoping Machine Running, a fantastic Woody Guthrie tribute record on my little label. And he’s a fantastic writer and you should all subscribe to his blog right now. Thanks to him for these kind words:
Like a lot of people, I largely stopped listening to the radio at some point in the ’90s, driven away by a combination of factors that included focus-grouped playlists, rampant consolidation across the dial, and the increased portability of my own music library. Much as it pains me to admit it to anyone reading this, I haven’t really missed it much; when presented with the choice between listening to whatever I choose or subjecting myself to an ad-supported concentric circle, there are usually perilously few reasons to opt for the latter.
That has everything to do with the current state of radio, however, and nothing at all to do with the magic of the medium. At its best, radio has always had a wonderful ability to connect us, and in the small pockets where program directors and DJs are still free to follow their muse, that still holds true — perhaps more than ever. There’s a reason that DSPs keep experimenting with “AI” “DJs,” and that reason is this: Even in the era of infinite streaming playlists, there’s still nothing like being guided to new musical frontiers by a friendly, knowledgeable voice.
“A friendly, knowledgeable voice” is as good a phrase as any to describe Bill Childs. The driving force behind Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, Bill is just as delightfully droll, kind, and curious in person as he is on the air. I can no longer recall how we met, but I’m pretty sure it happened when I was at the mast of a relatively short-lived kindie site. The fact that our friendship has persisted long after the site went bust tells you everything you need to know about Bill — chiefly, that he does what he does because he means it, not because it holds any transactional value.
This approach appears to be going the way of the dodo in our increasingly profit-driven media landscape, but it still pays dividends. Sometimes they’re financial — as with the thousands of dollars that Spare the Rock has raised for various charities with its series of non-profit compilations — and sometimes they’re worth more than money. Connecting with people; sharing ideas. Shining a light on independently made and released art. Conducting community outreach. These are all things that sound sort of quaint and/or vaguely aspirational to a lot of folks these days, but for a long time, they were part and parcel of what radio not only could be, but what it had a civic responsibility to do.
I can picture Bill bemusedly chuckling at all this highfalutin praise, and as usual, he probably has a point. After all, you don’t need to think about love over gold, late-stage capitalism, or radio in general in order to enjoy Spare the Rock; you just need a functioning ear or two, a little time, and a willingness to let yourself be taken on a journey by a host who’s got a wonderful knack for shepherding discovery. It’s kid-friendly, sure, but it isn’t for kids. That’s the key to the show’s success, and why it’s lasted through multiple moves, countless life changes, and Bill’s youthful cohosts aging out of their regular posts. Cheers to a great 20 years, and here’s to many more.
In just over a month, we’ll have been on the air for twenty years. This is objectively weird to me. I’d like to ask y’all to help us celebrate. First, a little history:
We started with Valley Free Radio, then a brand new station–they started on August 9, 2005, and we started on August 12. (They’re having a twentieth birthday party too!) I’d been involved in the station for quite a while before it went on the air, and, while it had some bumps in the road leading up to getting on the air, and presumably there have been more, it’s still plugging along providing great community radio for the Pioneer Valley.
After about 2 1/2 years with VFR as our home station, the nice folks at 93.9 The River asked if we’d like to move over there. We said sure, as long as the show could still be on VFR too, and that was our home from February 2008 until May of 2015 (we started syndicating the show in the summer of 2012).
And then 2012 is when the mighty KUTX 98.9 became our flagship station.
We’re also a good long ways into Spare the Rock Records, which has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to amazing non-profits.
Anyway. I never expected to be doing radio for kids for this long or to operate a record label or to book a bunch of shows or any of the rest of it. Both of our kids are out of college, though listeners know they pop on the show regularly. But I still love jumping on the air weekly and doing events and all the rest.
And what I love most of all is hearing from listeners. So what I’d like is to hear from folks about what the show has meant for you. I’d especially love to hear from those former kids who might have some memories of the show or our events, or from parents or guardians or caretakers who found the show fun, or from folks without kids who enjoyed it, or from current kids, or from artists who appreciated getting some love from us. I guess that’s not narrowing it down much. If the show or our events or the releases on the record label have meant something to you, let me know.
You can record a short little thing for possible airplay; you can send me an email; you can record a video; you can send a carrier pigeon, I guess? I’m at show at sparetherock dot com.
In light of the recent flooding in the Hill Country, I’ll make a donation to Kerr County flood relief efforts for each submission.
I’m going to be doing the August shows pretty soon (like next week, most likely) so if you want to potentially be included in the “official” 20th birthday show (August 9), get something in soon? But I’ll celebrate throughout the late summer and fall some, most likely, too.
