When The Moon Sings - September 20, 2025

Over the years, When The Moon Sings has played 3500 separatesongs. That’s not counting the occasional replays. That’s thirteen and a halfcontinuous days of music. Nobody would want to listen to that, not even me. Ispread those songs over nearly eight years of Saturday nights.

The media, and that includes computer based, is a highlyemotional and noisy place, and radio is especially so. When I started show, Iwanted to feature music and talk that could be enjoyed without disturbinganyone’s store of adrenaline. I wanted to do something that was quieter andhopefully more thoughtful. I wanted to prod people’s logic, not their emotions.

That’s not a good way to influence listeners. Stirring potsof emotions works far better. Excitement is magnetic. It fuels everything fromthe crowd at Rio de Janeiro for last night’s football game to the mobs whoignite communal violence. Thought requires effort and not that many people wantto put that much work into listening to the radio. A few were thoughtful enoughto communicate their reviews. I put them to sleep, I didn’t play enough metal,I talk too much, and so on. Okay. My expectations for fame and fortune throughcommunity radio never surfaced. A twist of the dial or a punch of a button tookthem elsewhere.

Those of you who hung around enabled me to continue doingthe show. On one hand, the show wouldn’t exist if everyone hated it. On theother, I had enormous fun doing it. I talked with people I found interestingand or had accomplished something neat. Some listeners encouraged me, so theenthusiasm wasn’t always self-centered.

For most shows, I’ve included my thoughts for the week, mySoapbox, if you will. Like the music, the Soapbox was meant to benon-confrontational, lower in volume, stimulating interest and thought ratherthan emotion. Many of my day-to-day thoughts don’t fit that profile, and I leftthem unspoken on the broadcast. But if the radio music is emotional and noisy,discussion has become even more so.  Muchbroadcast commentary centers itself on anger and suspicion of bad faith.  Those things occur in my thinking as well,but not for broadcast.

The anger and yelling generally points itself at currentevents, things that matter or might matter to each of us.  The issues that cause the emotions generallywould benefit from a more measured approach, but the emotions drown out moremeasured approaches.  Many listenerssubject anyone who speaks on an issue to a litmus test:  has this person absorbed our articles offaith or is he a heathen?  As frustratingas that has been sometimes, I have chosen not to address those issues.  I will in person, at length and with somevehemence.  But not in the studio – mymission there has different objectives.

Even though I will cease broadcasting, I still believe thereis a place on radio and everywhere else for measured and thoughtful music andconversation.  Perhaps someone else willunderstand the need and take up the project. Over my years on the show, I have generated 364,000 words of musings,and sometimes what pops into my head looks an awful lot like what popped intomy head a little while ago.  Maybe I’vesaid everything I have to say.  Maybeit’s someone else’s turn.

Thanks for visiting. I wish you the very best.