Don Joyce, with whom I did a
very, very small number of live radio shows years ago,
died last week, and I decided to pay tribute to him with my next build of a Clever Model. I'm modifying their
Rudy's Printing structure into "Don's Radio Shop." It's a silly thing to do, but I'm a silly person, and silly people deal with grief in silly ways.
Here's the modified sign.
Crosley and Bendix are brands of radios, and Crosley Bendix was a character Don performed on the show.
Don was also established in 1944.
On the side of the building will be this ghost sign...
"Mertz" is one of Don's more inspired inventions: a fictional, brain-shaped pill which cures chronic indecision.
I'll also add a vintage Pepsi poster, as a reference to
Negativland's Disepsi album. And I'll throw in whatever other stupid inside jokes I can think of as I go along.
Don's show,
Over the Edge, ran on KPFA for an incredible thirty four years, making him the Satchel Paige of avant-garde radio.
Here's an extremely brief autobiographical sketch Don once sent to his home station:
“You’ll find I generally keep to my show (which I LOVE!) and don’t get
too involved in station business, politics, or whatever. I’m sort of a
social recluse, have a history in art/painting, and am in radio strictly
for the art of it. That’s all I care about, live mix radio as audio
art.”
That may have been all you cared about, Don, but we cared about you. Thanks for the laughs, for the rewiring of my brain, and for showing me how radio was done.
