WFMU is hard at work, raising money for another year of amazing radio, and we here at Yo La Tengo World Headquarters are doing what we can to help. And we’re hoping you will too.
On Saturday March 9, from 3-6 pm EST, Georgia, James, and I, along with our aide-de-amp Bruce Bennett, will humiliate ourselves for the greater good. Anybody who pledges at least $100 gets to make a song request, and we will do our best to play it. And if you’ve heard this show before you are well aware that all too frequently our best, to quote Eric Burdon, just ain’t good enough. This is the 24th year in a row that we’ve done this, and you’d think we’d have it down by now. Tune in to Todd-o-phonic Todd with his co-host Gaylord Fields at 91.1 FM or 90.1 FM or wfmu.org and find out otherwise.
A word or two about these requests. We will not be consulting computers, phones or anything else to help us play these songs, relying strictly on our “wits” and a lifetime of listening to records. We do not pretend to know every song ever written, and by the end of the afternoon, you’ll be wondering if we in fact know even one. If you are of a mind to give us a couple of choices, or “any song by _____,” you’ve got a better chance of hearing us try to take your request. Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen.
As the show goes by, the requests tend to pile up faster than we can keep track of them, so pledging in advance will increase the odds that we play your song. Go here and let your fingers do the walking. When you get the opportunity to leave a comment for the DJ, put in your request. We swear on a stack of Hit Paraders that the four of us will know nothing of the requests until after the show begins.
But wait! One person who pledges at the Mouse of Today level, $360 (payable in the form of $30 a month) will be selected at the end of the program and win the chance to perform a song with us, in private, at a later date. We’ll figure out the when, where and what in conjunction with you. And if you pledge $500 ($41 a month), you will automatically receive, among tons of other stuff, an lp of music recorded live on WFMU over the last decade, with cover art by Georgia.
One more thing before I let you go. Among the great dj premiums this year is another installment of Michael Shelley’s Super Hits of the Seventies series, including Yo La Tengo’s version of “Smile a Little Smile for Me.”
Any questions?
