The Time Zones Exchange Project: A Tribute To Don Joyce (#9)

In the last year I’ve written quite a bit about Don Joyce, who was not only my favorite DJ, but hosted the incredible Over The Edge program for 34 years, until he passed at exactly one year ago, today.  Over The Edge was not only near and dear to my heart, and a weekly part of my life for a large chunk of it, but was the exact influence that showed me what my radio programs could be like, and how they could take shape.  The story that won me over as a fan is the one that appears on the program today, and is an excellent entry point into the weird world of his kind of experimental radio.

“The Time Zones Exchange Project” is a story edited from several OTE Broadcasts that were on KPFA Radio from 1989 – 1992.  The story is… complicated, but immediately converted me into a fan.  But it took the CD Release for me to hear it in the most easily accessible form; the narrative played out over weeks and years, and became some of the mythology of OTE as it developed over the last 20 or so years.

To have lost Don was to loose an inspiration and a friend, one that I never met and never spoke with, save for a brief e-mail exchange in 2008.  It was the first time I cried over a celebrity death since High School, and not only showed me how much he was an influence, but how the loss of a radio personality that I became familiar with as I grew into an adult seemed far too symbolic, especially during the weekend where I had turned 40 and celebrated a bachelor party.

As mentioned on the show, archive.org has created a nearly-complete collection of Over The Edge Broadcasts, and I wrote about the release of this collection and offer some suggestions as to places you can start listening.

Don was 71, when he passed, and spent almost 50 years of his life in the service of making radio.  A single hour of my program cannot begin to do justice to this singular radio voice.  But, hopefully, it can serve as a place to start for people who never got to know how great he was.

Enjoy!

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The Time Zones Exchange Project: A Tribute To Don Joyce

Part I: “This Is The Piddle Diddle Report”

01.) The Time Zones Exchange Project Part I * Don Joyce (Edited by Austin Rich) * Over The Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project * Seeland Records (1994)
02.) Arbory Hill [Excerpt] * Negativland * Deathsentences of the Polished And Structurally Weak * Seeland Records (2002)

Part II: “This Fabled Island”

03.) [01] [Excerpt] * Negativland * Negativland * Seeland Records (1980)
04.) The Time Zones Exchange Project Part II * Don Joyce (Edited by Austin Rich) * Over The Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project * Seeland Records (1994)

Part III: “Eaten By A Black Hole”

05.) Don’t Fool Me [Excerpt] * Negativland * Deathsentences of the Polished And Structurally Weak * Seeland Records (2002)
06.) The Time Zones Exchange Project Part I * Don Joyce (Edited by Austin Rich) * Over The Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project * Seeland Records (1994)
07.) Soapbox Cutter * Porest * Modern Journal of Popular Savagery * Nashazphone (2016)