As we lead up to “Floydian Slip” Show #1,000 the week of June 8, we’re digging into the archives to share relics from the show’s past.
By summer 1995, I no longer worked in radio full-time. WEXP 105.1 FM in Burlington, Vt., where I’d spent the previous year, had gone belly-up, and I’d become convinced there was a better career for me outside broadcasting.
But then there was “Floydian Slip.”
After starting the show as a college student in ’89, and then producing it at WEXP, I was convinced the show was viable and ought to be able to find a home on another station.
That summer I wrote a fairly formal proposal for the show, and mailed it to the two rock stations in the Burlington area: WIZN 106.7 FM “The Wizard” and WCPV 101.3 FM “Champ 103.1.”
Champ’s Rich Haskell immediately got in touch, expressing an interest in reviving the show. After waiting a few months for the station to find a sponsor, I started hosting “Floydian Slip” on Champ.
I was happy to have the show back up and running, but bringing it to Champ felt funny. The station was only a year old, and I’d spent the previous year at WEXP, another new station that launched just ahead of Champ, so regarded Champ as “those other new guys.” It felt a little like I’d flipped to work for the other side.
Our first Champ show — Show #8 — probably aired Wednesday, Oct. 18 or 25, 1995.
The show remained a weekly offering on Champ nearly 14 years, surviving a number of ownership changes and shuffling timeslots. (The artwork shown here was Champ’s second logo, used only in the last couple years of Champ’s time as a music station.)
Over the years we might have revised the opening montage that started each Champ show. But the audio posted here is the only montage we have archived, and it’s likely the opening that played most often during our time on Champ.
It’s pulled from Show #246, broadcast Sunday, Aug. 6, 2000.