"One Perfect Song" is a show at KVRX which offers its guests a chance to share, what is to them, the absolute perfect song. Created by Evan Stack and Harold Urteaga in the spring of 2019, this community programming show brings a different guest into the booth each week to introduce, listen to, and talk about a perfect song of their choice.
"The appeal behind One Perfect Song to me was twofold: first, really getting to focus on the ‘community’ part of Community Programming via the thing that (presumably) connects everybody tuning in to KVRX, which is passion for music. Second was getting to highlight the great DJs we had at the station and giving listeners a chance to get to know them better,” said Harold on his reasons for creating the show, “Actually there was a third reason, and that was getting to host a show with the talented Evan Stack.”
Harold also cited the KUTX segment “This Song” and BBC Radio’s “Desert Island Discs” as inspirations for the show.
Each show, Harold and Evan began with an anecdote about BBC Radio DJ John Peel, who was so obsessed with his "perfect” song ("Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones) that he got its lyrics engraved on his headstone. Then, they would introduce the guest DJ and let the show go in whichever direction he or she took it. One thing they always asked about is what made the song perfect to the guest.
One of both Harold and Evan’s favorite memories from the show was their Neutral Milk Hotel episode, during which Evan cried in the booth listening to "Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2." According to Evan, this moment gave the song a new meaning to him.
At the end of spring semester, Evan and Harold passed the show on to hosts Sam Paulsen and Oscar de la Garza.
“I approached Sam with the idea kind of randomly because I really just enjoyed the concept of the show… I think it allows you to learn a lot more than just [a person’s] music taste. The song was an important part of the show, but I think my favorite part was just hearing people explain why it was perfect to them,” said Oscar.
One spin that Sam added to the show was writing the show description in real time, instead of before they got on air. During the show, Sam would write down a selection of words from their hour-long conversation, resulting in an interesting, seemingly random, paragraph-long snapshot of that week’s show.
Both Sam and Oscar cited their show with friend Eric Kubeczka as one of their favorite memories because of how fun the conversation was, despite getting off-topic.
“I would like to say that OPS is such a great show, hearing people talk passionately about their favorite music was truly awesome and I hope the show continues for years to come,” said Sam.
After fall semester ended, Sam and Oscar passed the torch to last semester’s hosts, Clayton Faries and Emma Walters.
Clayton and Emma continued Sam’s tradition of writing live show descriptions and also added some new segments.
One of these segments is "rapid fire questions." Towards the end of each show, guests are asked a series of questions about what their one perfect song would be if it was an emoji, dipping sauce, animal, etc. Clayton said that he came up with the idea for this segment when he was a guest on Sam and Oscar’s show, and he was spoofing the idea of having one perfect version of different things.
One of Clayton’s favorite things about the show is how it introduces him to different perspectives and allows him to figure out why people like the music that they do.
“I think it’s just cool how people look for different things in music, and what makes a song perfect to one person is different than another person,” he said.
One of Emma’s favorite memories from the show was having friend Evan Sherer on.
"[Evan] has such a vast knowledge of folk and easy rock from the 70s. We got to talk about coming of age songs and why they are just so perfect, and then we played Aphex Twin at the end and the show just went so smoothly,” said Emma.
If you’re missing "One Perfect Song" or haven’t heard it before but want to start tuning in, don’t worry! Clayton and Emma are planning on keeping the show going once programming starts back up.
“There’s a ton of people who haven’t been on the show before that we want to have on. So we definitely want to do it next semester, 100%,” said Clayton.