i think john aelli is like the animated character “spaceghost” on the comedy central program from years ago. spaceghost would interview celebs while talking about whatever topic might be floating through his mind. john aelli is the spaceghost of KUT. After “the titantic” came out i remember weeks of interviews in which the conversation inevitably included a chunk devoted to that movie and how the guest MUST see it. other notable obsessions from the past? there were weeks devoted to john denver’s music after he died; the many hours of music by the band “queen” prompted by lord knows what; the fact that bands often do not begin performing their acts before midnight; the weather. there are so many to choose from.

over the past 25 years i have listened through the obsessions because the rest was generally interesting, entertaining often original and aelli did not feel the need to talk so much. he needs to be re-leashed.

i hate the way he does give-aways. worst is when he makes his “question” the color of his shirt, as if that’s fair b/c you can’t google the answer. does it ever occur to the windbag that he could just give the tickets away to the fifth caller, like the other dee jays?

i have discovered some good music because of his show, but mostly i don’t listen, except when he’s on vacation for the glorious aeilli-free month of august. you nailed it with your description of his indiscriminate use of the KUT music database to pull up all manner of horrid selections he hasn’t bothered to prescreen. that–to me–is unforgivable. you DON’T play music you haven’t heard before. that’s the whole point of having a show. you play what you know and want to share. this guy is l-a-z-y and overprivileged.