Michael Lachowski at WUOG

After my trip to Macon, I got the honor of being the in-house dj to Michael Lachowski during his community radio shift on Valentine’s night. The programming director had asked me about it a few weeks ago and I jumped at the chance. How often do you get to dj with a living local legend?

So Mr. Lachowski had already gotten there when I arrived and he was ready to roll. He had brought a few pieces of vinyl and his laptop with tons of music on it. I really didn’t know what to expect. After the Mills “Kinky Boots” incident, I was prepared for anything. That song STILL haunts my nightmares. Oof.

Anyway, I was really digging his playlist. Lots of cool and danceable beats. Techno and dance aren’t really something I’ve ever paid much attention to. I had to ask about where he got some of this stuff and how in the world he got into it. This led to a really cool conversation about New York.

Pylon had played there often in their early days and some of the music they heard had a pretty strong effect on my guest. He heard a song coming out of a boombox, ran up to the guy and asked where he got it, found the store, and continued to order from it back in Athens. Pretty neat!

He seemed really comfortable announcing and did a great version of our Sound of the City promo. The only thing that was giving us trouble was that damned mic button. Maybe it’s the button or maybe something that guest djs that happen to be bassists do. I’ve done it plenty of times. You reach over, stop the record, start your talking, finish the talking, put on the record and then realize that you’ve still got the mic on. Common mistake. At least he didn’t do like me and start cursing with the mic on. Or nearly strangle himself with the headphones, also like me.

Probably the neatest thing was just getting the opportunity to chat. He’s got his hands full with Pylon, “Candy”, SUXSEZ.com, the photography, graphic design…it’s a lot. He very kindly answered any questions I had and even took a few pictures of the new station. If memory serves, I think his are the first actually posted to the web.

Overall, it was great to get to hang out with him for a while. Anyone who can be patient enough to deal with me on a Saturday night at WUOG deserves a medal. Hopefully, we’ll have him guest dj on SotC sometime soon.