I haven’t listened to FM radio for years. At first, iTunes ate into my radio time. Then it was Spotify, SiriusXM and podcasts. That all changed a month ago.
A friend of mine, who lives in Atlanta, had enlisted my help. He was trying to win concert tickets to see a Depeche Mode concert, and I was made to listen to his city’s Alternative station, 99X, and try to call in when the contest was announced. (99X has an app, and you can listen online, so I was able to easily listen while working and traveling around my city, a thousand miles away.)
It was through this process that I discovered the absolute genius of Will Pendarvis.
Before I completely over-sell him, I will grant you this: Pendarvis, the afternoon host/DJ on the station, is not reinventing the wheel and I am sure there is someone out there who is funnier or has more music knowledge. That being said, I am constantly surprised at the absurdity, emotional intelligence, stupidity, story-telling, personal experience, dry humor, sharp wit, bad puns, obscure references, “dad jokes”, his vulnerability and his deep understanding and knowledge of music and musicians.
He is sometimes manic, sometimes grumpy. Sarcastic, vulnerable, self-deprecating, shockingly honest and slyly deceptive.
In short- Pendarvis is a completely fresh, surprising and a definitely welcome change to the same old usual radio DJ.
In one month’s time, I have been intrigued, educated, on the verge of tears from laughing, on the verge of tears from being moved emotionally but most of all- constantly surprised. Sometimes I can’t tell what’s happening at all, but my favorite times are when he says something insanely absurd and obviously untrue, knowing there are people listening and believing every word of it.
Examples Of What You Might Hear
(a few of these might be found in video form posted to his Instagram account, @deadletters)
- Discussing the time signature changes in the song “Schism” by Tool and relating the music plus lyrics to the graph algorithms used to detect cycles, vibrations that cause sound waves, pi, loops in astronomy and atomic physics.
- Seriously discussing the “fact” that the band Coldplay “had all their arms pulled off in an industrial accident” but triumphantly learned to play instruments with their feet.
- His sad and inspiring story of being a New York DJ on 9/11, and having to choose a song to play after the President’s speech that night. (What song would you choose?!)
- “It’s time for ‘The After School Special’ on 99X, and do you know what that means?! Because I don’t. I just say it so that it sounds like something interesting is happening. It’s not. I promise you, you will not learn anything or experience any excitement because of anything I do today. At least, not on purpose.”
- Talking about working with Billy Idol, being invited to his house and being pleasantly surprised to learn that Billy Idol is incredibly intelligent, overwhelmingly kind and a literature student with a house stacked wall-to-wall with books.
- After becoming a recent convert, admitting he had always been dismissive of the band Talk Talk as being “80’s Euro-garbage” and then convincingly arguing that they are one of the most underrated bands of the era. (Then complaining/challenging the listener to decipher “even one single word” of any Talk Talk song)
- A weather report where he ‘mistakes’ tomorrow’s high and low temperatures as being on the Kelvin scale, and accurately speculating what the exact results of that will be. (Also noting that “atoms might want to put on a sweater’ and “at least we know gas will be low! Apocalyptic weather… but great for the economy!)
Look. It’s just plain weird, OK?
I’ve seen what he looks like and I know what he tells me, but otherwise, I know very little about Pendarvis as a person. I know he was one of the first people to bring Punk, Grunge and Alternative music to mainstream audiences (when he originally worked at 99X in Atlanta in the early 90’s). I know he has been on The Howard Stern Show several times. He’s done radio shows in New York, Houston, Washington DC and Los Angeles. Also, apparently Pendarvis’ brother, Jack Pendarvis, is one of the creative forces and writers of the iconic animated series Adventure Time, so I guess it runs in the family. And just like that series, Will Pendarvis’ show is definitely not for everyone. Truly special things rarely are. You might not like it at all! I do, however, think it’s important to recognize and support exceptional effort, with a unique approach and uncommon talent.
In this age of giant corporations cutting down every rough edge off of absolutely everything until all we have is homogenized pablum, we must give praise to whatever CEO or President is allowing this anomaly to happen daily and for giving this very real human being the freedom to be genuinely entertaining.
Do you know of someone with a unique voice and creative approach? If you do, it’s crucial to spread the word. If you don’t, you can’t complain when nothing interesting ever happens again.
Will Pendarvis on Instagram
instagram.com/deadletters
Listen to 99X in Atlanta
99xatl.com
