The Best Show on WFMU

Apparently discussed on the Scharpling and Wurster thread last night.

I remember late last year he was talking about not getting any recognition for the show, over the course of a couple of shows, and it sounded like he was about to quit. Guess he's actually doing it.

makes ya wonder what the bar of recognition is these days

He's complained about lack of recognition for years, it's part of the schtick. If he was really worried about it, he wouldn't have done the show for 13 years.

he was talking about some podcast award thing. the show after he complained about it sounded like he didn't want to be there, like he was checked out. it was actually kinda sad.

when he was dropping hints about L.A. and being flown out there first class, I was sure it was for some great gig but yeah, sounded more like he didn't have something definite lined up--but maybe he does and he's not ready to pull the trigger on telling.

I guess at least I have like 11 years of unheard archives to tide me over for a while.

I've been thinking that.

but it's not the same :-/

maybe now i'll finally check it out. the length of one show seems overwhelming, much less all the archives + new shows.

Best Show Gems can be a good entryway to the show though as noted upthread there's a certain pleasure to listening to the full three hours.

Last week's episode was a really good one, despite only having a short Wurster call, if you're looking to start somewhere. Though I don't know how much sense the sound collage will make to a newcomer, and that's like 20-30 minutes of the show.

He's working on the Chris Gethard show for IFC, "Stupid Life."

is that actually a go? hope so. <3 gethard too

Josh Kantor ‏@jtkantor
"The Best Show on WFMU" is going off the air. I'll play their theme song on organ at the World Series.

I listened for the first time in awhile last night, and what's overwhelming is more than 18 minutes of it

just search for his rant about post-Jackie Brown Tarantino maybe (around time of IngBast)

tried searching for "tarantino scharpling" but don't see any rants. I do see a morbs post from 2010 on the first page of results though.

kewl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9N3MacZfwg&feature=youtu.be

First thing on BuzzFeed I've ever been tempted to repost/link, kudos to Matty P: http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/signs-youre-from-newbridge

Sad news (TBSOWFMU has been a pretty central and essential part of my comedic intake for the past decade) but also good if it means Tom & Jon are moving on to bigger and better things. I'm about a year behind on the show. Guess this is the kick in the seat I needed to get caught up.

Getting caught up is nice but I encourage you to listen to the live broadcast a few times instead of just listening to the archive.

Yeah I need to try to listen to some of the last episodes live.

He's working on the Chris Gethard show for IFC, "Stupid Life."

― Allen (etaeoe), Wednesday, October 30, 2013 11:52 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Word from the man himself over on the FOT board that Gethard's show was not picked up by IFC...too bad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Universe

http://youtu.be/Fh9tz_nKYYU?t=1m5s

How do I get ahold of the archives, iTunes only goes back to July

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/BS

Is there a way to download those, though?

probably, but I don't know what it is

Cool thanks! I'm just hoping they come out with an app or something. Discovering this show has been a treat

I am a regular on the Friends of Tom board, and I get the feeling more than one serious fan is sitting on the complete run of the show in MP3 form, but it is maddening because I just can't come out and ask--seems like bad form, especially since Tom seems to read everything on there. I would pay ALOT to FMU for a complete set, for like an upper level contribution to the station!

Seems like people would pay for an archive app like WTF or This American Life

There's a website somewhere with, if not all, at least a hefty portion of the shows in MP3 form. I'll see if I can find the link when I'm not at work.

Thanks, old lunch...the FMU site has them listenable on a pop-up player, I've never tried to download them individually and not sure if it's possible (don't think it is)

They used to be accessible from the FMU site via a secret webpage, but I don't know if that's true anymore. I wound up converting a ton of older shows to MP3s from the .rm files that they used to archive.

cool

Whither "Bad Company"?

Pssst: awfulsome(dot)com/tbsowfmu/.getoffmyphone/

Thank u

Thought it was funny how Tom was ragging on the Seinfeld2000 guy a few weeks ago and then in last week's episode went on a riff with Hodgman and Braunholer that was basically a Seinfeld2000-esque updating Seinfeld thing.

Yeah but it was funny

That's what I said.

No that's what I said

I know you are but what am I

GQ! It's strange to read this when you were packing t shirts with the guy in East Orange, NJ in 1998.

http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2013/12/goodbye-to-major-tom-the-gq-exit-interview-with-the-best-show-on-wfmus-tom-scharpling.html

I KNEW Dr. Morbius was Spike!

HAHAHAHA

Immediate Follower just blew my fucking mind

"Hello, Scharpling."

That's a theory that's been posited multiple times over the years.

24 hour best show on twitch / bestshow4life started 4 hours ago and it's the onljy good vibes chat I've ever seen on twitch

Caught some of Nathan Fieder this morning, which was funny. Are they going to release it as one 24 hour podcast episode? I takes me half the week to listen to one regular episode, it might be Labor Day before I get through all of this one. Not complaining though, what little I’ve heard so far has sounded fun.

^^ otm, I love the idea but listening do the whole thing sounds very daunting

they've said a few times that it will all be available in some way -- not sure if that means in the podcast feed or something else?

watching it on twitch has actually been rly nice because the nature of it makes me feel like i don't need to hear every second like i do with a downloaded podcast. i might just skip around the recordings to the parts i wish i hadn't missed, whenever it arrives/in whatever format it arrives

Well Tom made good on this (even if the book isn't out in the US yet):

Who can help your guy get a copy of the Jarvis Cocker book and who can help your guy get JC on The Best Show when it comes out in the US?

— scharpling (@scharpling) May 3, 2022

this has to be available on the Twitch channel after. They've put a lot into the camera work. And the chat has stayed good from what i saw!

this one man band closer(?) is killing it

Oh man, I missed this. I do believe that one man band closer is known to many of us

Missed the end of the 24 hour Best Show by 5 minutes because my toddler got to bed late! We tried listening right before bed but Chaki was too exciting for a 3 year old at 9pm. It was a great show. I got to see Mike Watt and the end of the Jarvis Cocker interview

— stuffing and potatoes (@AllieLibrary) July 28, 2022

And lookee that:

😁😁😁 #BestShow24 pic.twitter.com/ek417w5pBq

— Chaki (@ChakiFunkWizard) July 28, 2022

Positive reviews, too

I like Chaki's vibe.

— Mike Lisk (@APMike) July 28, 2022

I'm one of you!

Chaki is kurt?

Yas

aaa! you killed it! :)

Ty 😁🙏🏽

Crossover podcast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmNdTFbrNoE

Oz isn't just a mean POS, he's a mean POS from Jersey, not Pennsylvania. pic.twitter.com/scmvDuYBmt

— Jessica Clarice 🏳️‍⚧️ יִסְכָּה (@JeSStradiol) August 31, 2022

just thought that any fans of WFMU / John Peel may enjoy my lame mixcloud thing I started cos it was easier than sending friends CDRs.
i do detour into power rangers theme tunes, my pet Azerbaijani guitarist, and playing two records at the same time more than is advisable but hopefully there'S something in there for some of you. no DJ chat, tho. i'm shy *bats eyelids*

Well lookee what got posted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2rONbPrU-8

xpost with On Cinema at the Cinema on ilxor.com

tim heidecker hosted best show last night. it was weird (see below). tom's hosting office hours right now! i already prefer his version of this switcheroo

there was also this very awkward moment, the most awkward, in the last hour of the show. the one best show person that tim was acknowledging (because he was in the room) was the producer, jason, and he announced that the final hour would be a "no complaints" session, in which tim would not be allowed to complain. i think this might be a best show tradition, but i'm not sure, and tbh it seemed like tim wasn't sure either. then, jason announced that the special topic of the hour for callers would be to say what they think the best work tim has made, and then the very worst that he has made, and then reiterated that tim was not allowed to complain. tim seemed very uncomfortable with this, and if he was being intentional/comedic about it, i will say it was one of the greatest, most believable and subtle performances i've ever seen. if it was fake, he fooled me. he just seemed very unsure about the whole thing.

for most of the hour, the 'no complaining' and 'say your favorite and least favorite tim production' rules were fine, with the normal people who called in. (at the same time, they were also doing a worst 20 beatles list/brainstorming sesh, so that ate up most of the conversation). but then, near the end of the show they brought back 2 of the Best Show voices, the two guys on the telephone who were very briefly included as part of the show in the first 10 minutes and then completely ignored thereafter until this very point, near the end of the show. and one of the guys just kind of tore into tim's mistreatment of him on the show, how he had been completely ignored, referencing several times about meeting tim before the show and that how nice it was, but clearly mocking it, clearly it wasn't a good encounter, before the show. it went on for a while and then tim really had no real response -- again, if he was faking it he has become a fine actor, full stop -- and producer jason reiterated that it was a no complaint hour. it was very awkward! but also very gripping.

at the end of the show as they were signing off tim was, predictably, asking for reviews of his performance (one of the best show guys gave him 4 stars, lol), and jason mentioned what had happened earlier and explained that the guy on the phone was just doing a bit and he does it to everyone, that tom would have broken, etc. but tim didn't seem to believe that at all and frankly neither do i!

lol! i am actually going to xpost this to the best show thread because they will know a lot more about all of it, i'm sure.

Only now working my way through the whole 24 hour show, can't believe how great the Mike Watt Stooges set was.

Low-key highlight for me: Chris Elliott calling in to read the convoluted instructions to the Jaws board game.

FFS

‪WFMU‬
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The old WFMU blog, Beware of the Blog, has not been updated since 2015, but we've continued to keep all the pages accessible to the public. Our host Typepad is now going out of business (let this be a lesson as to how unsafe "the cloud" is), and all blog pages will disappear on September 30. (1/2)

They should get Alex in NYC to help, he apparently got assistance to fully transfer his photos over as well as his text from his personal blog there.