Salty Makes His Final Appearance

By Shawn M. Smith - June 24, 2011 | Email the author

How do you write a eulogy to an inanimate, intangible stored batch of 1’s and 0’s that was the only fair-weather friend that never complained and didn’t make me feel guilty? Radio Exile (and the precursory rendition Broken Dial) gave me an opportunity to have my somewhat off-kilter opinions displayed for the world. How many people get to do that? I do want to offer a post-mortem apology to my old buddy Nobby for not staying as committed as I promised I would. If I had only had the time…

Read more from Salty “after the jump”

I compare Radio Exile to a baby. It is fickle, it only grew when fed an awful lot, took up a crazy amount of time from its caregivers and in the end couldn’t survive on donations alone. This ‘baby’ of site originator SMS is no longer growing. Since I’m pretty confident that we don’t condone euthanasia or infanticide here at Radio Exile, we’re just gonna put this kid out to pasture. Enjoy the green grass and blue skies.

I’ve had the somewhat unique experience of being around from the very beginning of this venture with SMS as he and I were roommates, best of friends and had similar musical influences. (A quick shout-out to Murder By Death!). Radio Exile’s readers have not seen much of my writing as it was limited over the years and probably heard more of me as I was regularly referenced by SMS. What most don’t know about was my behind the scenes contribution to Radio Exile through the support of, and dedication to, my best friend, Shawn M. Smith. Though I could not always be there to generate content, I always tried to be a resource, an ear for listening, opinion bouncing and sometimes a vent sponge. Over the years I have been given opportunities, some were taken, some not, but all of them greatly appreciated. I listened to lots of stellar music, went to some fantastic concerts and even interviewed some pretty interesting people along the way. I still feel a little guilty whenever I stop by Radio Exile HQ and see stacks and stacks of leftover CD’s ‘to be reviewed’ and didn’t take the opportunity.

I have no regrets though, there were plenty of good times and Radio Exile lived a good and decent life. Of course I’m sad to see it go. Insert any random famous quote about how change is a good thing. To all the fans who actually cared about what we had to say, thank you for letting us speak our piece. As a fan of Radio Exile as much as a contributor, I say thank you to all the writers who made this site what it is and obviously a special appreciation for Shawn M. Smith with whom none of this would have been possible. Goodbye my old friend.

1111001001000101001001011110100000100100100100101001000100010111001 -Nobby understood that.)