“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human possibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man.”
— Leonardo DaVinci
I want to tip my virtual hat to Norm Whitman, a gentlemen I’ve only met a few times over the past 30 years, but whom has been an inspiration, a mentor and a friend. Norm hosted a ‘folk’ radio show on WYSO 91.3 FM Yellow Springs, OH up until his last show on September 27, 2014.
I first found when I entered Antioch College in fall 1987. I know I still have a number of cassettes of songs I found through his show. I met him at the station a few times, where I did a 2AM – 6AM show for a few months (before I realized that was ridiculous). It’s no accident I ended up hosting a folk radio show when I moved to Maine. Anyone who did a close comparison to my favorite artists, song selections, and song associations would realize that my show was just a pale imitation to the true art that was happening in the Miami Valley of SW Ohio. Certainly my choices of some more politically themed music, both old and new, were inspired by Norm’s shows and even a number of artists I hosted ‘house concerts’ with and now consider friends were first brought to my attention via Norm’s show.
To quote Mike Agranoff’s story ‘The Ballad of the Sandman’, where it’s narrator calls their hero and fellow DJ and says “I listen to your show because it’s better far than mine.“
Oh and, not that anyone from WYSO is likely ever going to see this, but I have believe they are making a mistake in letting Norm go off the air. If they had perhaps found another local host to do a show I think I’d feel better but they, once again, replaced his show with something produced ‘from away’; “Peabody Award-winning “Studio 360 from PRI and WNYC” is public radio’s smart and surprising guide to what’s happening in pop culture and the arts“. Oh yay! (sarcasm), a (syndicated) show about ‘pop culture’. Sorry WYSO, it’s been a great run but I’m tuning out and will focus my streaming exclusively to WERU
You can read a little bit more about Norm here http://acousticmusicscene.com/2014/09/28/ohio-folk-dj-norm-whitman-retires/
And WYSO has an interview with him posted on their site at http://wyso.org/post/host-highlights-norm-whitman
I started recording Norm’s shows in April 2010 and posting them in a ‘secret’ archive so I could podcast them. Later I mentioned to Norm that I had these recordings and I believe on a few occasions he’s used them to get copies of on the air interviews that were not recorded at the station.
This ‘secret’ archive is at http://baya.net/norm/ and I know I’ll be listening to them for a long while as I hope others will too.
In Norm’s final playlist posting to FolkDJ-L he wrote “It was and always has been an honor to be at WYSO for these last 30 plus years”
Well Norm, to quote Tom Paxton’s song ‘The Honor of Your Company’;
Thanks again for all the music and jokes and .. well just everything. Best wishes on your new adventures, I’ll be following them closely on Facebook and if I’m ever in SW Ohio again I owe you at least a coffee if not a full meal and big hug for all you’ve done for me and the folk and roots music communities.
