Listen to an archive streaming version of this show at:
http://www.prx.org/pieces/56642-radiation-s-or-was-that-radio-station-s-...
Blog post on this show is at:
http://www.wwoz.org/node/100834
On December 2nd, 1942 that romantic rascal, Enrico Fermi, is under the grandstands at the University of Chicago with his latest "hot-to-trot." He's had plenty of bombshells get hot and heavy under these stands but this time his romance isn't another cheap date. This time she's a 1500 ton atomic pile as Rico-the-baby-maker light's his "I'm a daddy" cigar in the flames from the first fission nuclear reactor.
This achievement created more good topical music than all the musical yawners spawned by Easter, Thanksgiving and New Years Eve combined. In fact, Einstein's famous equation is equally true if "music" replaces "mass" in the equation:
E = MC2
Yeah, yeah we've heard the usual sonorous stories surrounding anything nuclear and that's not going to happen on my show because every Saturday night we explore the cultural anti-matter of life. For my overwhelmingly drunk listeners, only the most trivial and absurd from the trash cana of Americana will do. If you've never heard the show, make yourself a tin foil pyramid hat for protection and drink a milk carton's worth of margaritas and you'll fit right in with the crowd. This Saturday from midnight until Sunday 3am, songs about atomic bombs, fishin' and fission chips.
And here's how we make it local and contemporary including a BBC announcer who could over-amp like an American announcer: