Welcome to Around The Dial, the companion blog to the online radio show of the same name available soon via Mix Cloud.
I'm DJ Cosmo (aka Dan Taylor) and I can't remember a time in my life that I wasn't a huge fan of music.
The youngest of five kids born to older parents I was lucky enough to have four siblings that had very varied musical tastes. And thank god for that since my parents watched Lawrence Welk and had a record "collection" that leaned very heavily towards Broadway musicals and The Captain & Tenille.
My oldest sister – who married and moved out when I was but a wee lad – left behind a stack of 45s and Philly radio compilation LPs while my other sister played a heavy rotation of Frankie Vali, the Beach Boys and Chicago that came through loud and clear through the paper thin walls of our suburban NJ home.
But my early music love is thanks in large part to my two brothers, six and eight years older than me, respectively. From them I got a musical education that included ELO, Frank Zappa, the Beatles, Hall & Oates, Meatloaf, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Renaissance, Queen, The Cars, Leon Russell, Linda Rondstat, Harry Chapin, the Grateful Dead, Joe Cocker, Supertramp, David Bowie and so many more.
I didn't latch on to everybody they dug (Renaissance? Joe Cocker?) and drifted aimlessly into my teenage years until I became friends with the punk kids at my Catholic high school. By the time I'd borrowed a stack of LPs including the Ramones (Subterranean Jungle) and Misfits (Walk Among Us), the Alarm's debut EP and the eponymous album from glam rockers the NY Dolls I was on a path that would take me to college radio, writing for various indie rock mags and zines, haunting thrift stores and garage sales for dusty finds, handing out Christmas lists filled with the latest from SST and Twin/Tone, and spending to much money drinking and hanging in clubs.
But it was my stint on WKDU, Drexel University's venerable college radio station, that was easily the most important part of my musical upbringing. I started at 'KDU in the winter of 1985 just as the station was coming off a suspension. New execs were in place and because I could walk and chew gum (ie, queue up a song off-air while one was play on-air) I had a Saturday afternoon show as soon as they resumed airing.
After my first show – which people actually listened to! – I was hooked. The station's extensive record library was an education in itself and my fellow djs were always happy to share recent finds and recommend bands they thought I'd dig.
I may have attended Drexel from 1984 to 1989 but I lived at and for the radio station. When I wasn't in class (or ditching class to indulge my other love – trashy horror and action flicks – in one of the many crappy theaters that lined Chestnut Street) I was at the station. My show went from a stilted mish-mash of new wave and punk to a lively blend of glam, soundtracks, novelty tunes, pop punk and garage trash that I looked forward to each and every week. Sometimes more than once a week.
Recently, the station's current management contacted alumni and asked if we'd be interested in contributing a remote show for WKDU's 50th Anniversary. I'd never done a remote or online show before but I jumped at the chance. Hearing my musical selections on the air again was a total rush and it wasn't long before I was concocting a plan to do a weekly (?) show from the confines of my suburban (MD) home.
After some back and forth with titles (Radio Lutherville? Horrible Carnage? Golf and Scrapple?) I settled on Around The Dial because I envisioned the show as the experience of sitting and spinning the dial every ten minutes or so. You might hear rock, punk, new wave, metal, instrumental, novelty, glam... who the hell knows?
Stay tuned to this blog for playlists, musings from my musical archives, links to shows and much more. Hope you'll stick around the dial. – Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor is the host of Around the Dial as well as the editor/publisher of Exploitation Retrospect and The Hungover Gourmet. His favorite band is The Replacements.
