Season 6, Episode 7
March 6, 2022
Theme: James Riley
Playlist

Long-time listeners to Community Radio know that I typically determine the themes of episodes based on what had occurred in history on the date that the episode airs. By narrowing my focus to the events of a particular day, I have been pushed to stretch my imagination and select themes that vary widely, from bridges to makeovers to sexual liberation to literacy. This has yielded some pretty cool episodes.

I’ve solely used Wikipedia as my source of information when determining themes. Every day has its own entry, consisting of a list of important events that occurred that day through the years, as well as birthdays, death days and holidays. But unsurprisingly Wikipedia also has entries for every year going back centuries. So when I realized that we would have an episode air on March 6, I began exploring the entry for 1989.

I found notes on March 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th…and 7th. There was nothing listed on March 6, and the one birthday mentioned for that date is a Polish tennis player. I find it to be pretty insulting that James Riley is nowhere to be found on either page, or in the entirety of Wikipedia itself!

There are not enough minutes in this show for me to share all of my thoughts about my brother James. It would take months for me to document all of the moments, conversations, and events which have shaped my life in ways large and small. Thankfully, Community Radio is not really about me. It’s a show we create together, and I have the benefit of relying on the rest of this community to assemble an episode about James.

That said, I’m sure it’ll be difficult to pin down one song that meets the theme of James Riley for you. Do you consider something aligned with his status as a certified Loudboy at Parties? Is it his humor that first comes to mind? For some, his wisdom and thoughts are what resonate most with them. And for others, the ones who’ve shared something special with him, it may be his emotional core that they think of first.

So whatever your relationship to James – whether he’s a close friend or just the guy who’s appeared on this show a few times – take some time this week to select a song in response to the tallest, most gregarious, most visionary Riley brother, James Riley.

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