PORTLAND, Maine — It’s called the Unique Perspectives Radio Hour, but there’s really nothing all that special about it.
The weekly show on WMPG may be programmed by disc jockeys with intellectual and physical disabilities, but that hardly matters. Nestled into a regular Saturday morning slot on the university-based community station, the show fits perfectly with dozens of other wide-ranging voices and musical genres populating the 24-hour music and talk schedule.
Except for the joy, that is.
The Radio Hour’s DJs probably laugh more than anyone else on the air in Maine. They can’t help it. They’re having that much fun.
“I probably have just 15 minutes of you laughing today, Joe,” said the show’s producer, Greg Bazinet, while they were pre-taping an episode on Wednesday at Back Bay Connections, a community-based support program in Portland.
In answer, DJ Joe Kemp laughed some more before finally introducing “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga.
Bazinet is a supervisor at the Bayside neighborhood support program, where he’s worked for 20 years. He’s also a fill-in DJ at WMPG. Bazinet first got the idea for the Radio Hour during the pandemic, when all of the station’s shows were being taped in advance because the studio was shut down and off limits.
“I just figured they’d like doing it,” he said. “Folks here have a lot of passion for music. One person here has encyclopedic knowledge about 80s country music. Another writes songs.”
Taping the show in advance allows Bazinet to get six or seven DJs involved every week. WMPG’s small broadcast studio wouldn’t be able to accommodate that many people, live on the air. This way, DJs rotate in and out of Bazinet’s office on Wednesdays, where they record segments that include public service announcements, station identifications and discussion of their favorite music — often cracking each other up in the process
WMPG Program Director Jessica Lockhart said she didn’t have to think long before greenlighting Bazinet’s show pitch to her in 2020.
“It fits perfectly with the station’s mission of amplifying a diverse set of voices,” Lockhart said.
She did have one reservation when hearing the first episode. Like many of the station’s on-air personalities, the Radio Hour’s DJs’ speech patterns don’t exactly match up with the idea of fast-and-smooth talking radio hosts. Along with lots of laughter, there are sometimes pauses while someone looks for the right word.
“Sometimes there’ll be a full 30 seconds of silence,” Lockhart said.
While the lulls didn’t bother her, she was afraid listeners might mistake them for blunders or some kind of comedic skit.
But it turned out Lockhard had nothing to worry about. The show has received a tremendous amount of positive feedback since it began airing in January 2021, she said.
“I can’t tell you how many calls I take on Saturday mornings when this airs,” Lockhart said. “People love this show — and I’m proud of this show.”
The show’s format is simple. DJs pick songs they like and play them.
At Wednesday’s taping, Nate Doucette and Jason Haycock were the first two DJs stepping up to their mics in Bazinet’s subterranean office.
Doucette is partial to modern pop and counts himself as a Swifty. Haycock is into 70s and 80s country music. As the duo picked songs and bantered, the music swung from pop music by The Weekend and Taylor Swift, to classic country laments by Merle Haggard and Ronnie Millsap.
“I remember that song from when I was 10 years old,” Haycock said of Haggard’s 1980 hit “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink.”
“Oh, we’ve got an old timer here,” Doucette said, ribbing his co-host.
“I’m going to be 49 on Monday,” Haycock added, also laughing, before letting out a cowboy-like “Yee-hoo.”
A few minutes later, when Doucette introduced a Taylor Swift song, Haycock asked, “How swift is she?”
Doucette paused for a moment, considering the question. Then his face broke into a slight grin.
“No comment,” Doucette said, in perfect comedy deadpan.
Bazinet sat at his desk, rocking with laughter, covering his mouth.
Next up in Bazinet’s combined office-and-recording studio were Kemp and receptionist Chad Priest.
“You’re listening to WMPG. I’m Chad Priest,” the latter said with a practiced radio tone.
“The holiest man on the radio,” Bazinet said, yelling off mic from his desk, riffing on Priest’s last name.
A perfect, offbeat sidekick to Priest’s velvet tones, Kemp spent much of his airtime cackling.
“It’s fun to do this,” Kemp said. “It sure is. I’m not nervous, of course not. I’m an adult.”
He then broke into another extended chuckle.
Later, Priest played a bit of musical charades, singing classic guitar riffs and seeing who could guess which ones he was doing.
All laughing aside, Bazinet said, the show now definitely feels like a natural extension of Back Bay Connections’ commitment to community engagement for its clients. The Radio Hour is just another way of making sure the people he looks out for are heard, valued and engaged in their own community.
“It’s really about sharing music,” he said. “Plus the creation of anything is important.”
Unique Perspectives Radio Hour airs Saturday mornings from 10:30 until 11:30 a.m. on WMPG 90.9 in southern Maine. It can also be streamed at wmpg.org.