New Odd Girl Out Radio blog

I had been posting playlists for Odd Girl Out on MySpace, but I now have a dedicated site for my radio show, Odd Girl Out Radio.

The new site will feature playlists from the show, as well as other features, which will be introduced over time. I shall also be moving a few of my Blogroll sites over there. Keep checking back!

Flaked Out

Well, I am meant to be on air presenting the first edition of 2010 of Odd Girl Out. Spent the weekend editing audio clips, trying to get to grips with the limitations of Audacity, etc. But, No, tonight's live show is cancelled. The station manager was worried about getting home, as last time it snowed during a show, it took him five hours and me SIX HOURS to get back, such is the state of London's public transport and its strange aversion to a few flakes of the white stuff.

So, instead, I am home baking chocolate chip cookies. As you do. Tomorrow I hope to finally enjoy the snow, instead of enduring it. Will also listen to a bunch of downloads and try to make next week's show, which includes interviews with Chicks on Speed and Joyce Raskin, extra, extra special.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Odd Girl Out

At this time of year, with the wet and cold persisting, it's a good time to nestle in the welcoming bosom of radio (so to speak), but for me this daily ritual has added piquancy, as for the last two months I've been producing and presenting my own show. Odd Girl Out airs weekly on the web station Optical Radio, and it's been a welcome return for me to the airwaves after a long gap.

The idea came to me some time in the early '90s when I still lived in San Francisco and was writing a bi-weekly column on women and the arts for a local queer paper. Once I moved to London and began researching what should have been my book on women and underground music (long story), I began to think it would be great if there were a way to bring the music alive, so to speak.

The first version of Odd Girl Out aired way back in 1996, but it's been a long time finding an outlet for uncensored, un-formatted radio that mixes music and speech and allows me to delve into my archive and record collection.

Slowly, I have been digitising old cassette-recorded interviews and extracting short clips to air on the show. So, far the wisdom of Beth Ditto, Elizabeth Fraser, Gudrun Gut, Cornelia Schleime, Verena Kyselka and Melanie and Dolly of Mad Chicks has seen the light of day. And I've had my first live in-studio interview, with photographer Jaine Laine.

It's still a work in progress and I am adding features as I think of them, but it's great to be back on air and get the work of these amazing women out there. My playlists are posted on my journalistic site. Any suggestions, links or MP3s can be sent to valphnx (at) myspace.com.