Radio Free America

Right now, my mind has drifted back 45 years, to the strictly analog age of radio.I'm picturing the old control room at WBRH, the FM voice of Baton Rouge High School. When we'd do the rock show after school let out, student announcers like myself liked to turn off all the lights in the studio, save for one lamp right over the audio board -- just enough to see what we were doing and read what we had to read.Then we'd crank it up. The music, that is.We were "setting the mood."  If I knew then what I know now, this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth would have been perfect.I would have been sitting there at 2825 Government St., and my target listener would have been sitting in a bedroom, stereo cranked and the lights off . . . except for the dial light and one of those flickering bulbs mounted in an old 7-Up can.If you're under 60-ish, you had to be there.Man, it'd just be you, the music and your thoughts. Yeah, this week's Big Show would have been perfect for that. It would be the next best thing to hopping on a cross-country train to Somewhere Else.I bet you might know the feeling. This show just might bring it back . . . even if the only escape lies in your thoughts and in your dreams. All aboard.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Ogbayb, dis willb be shorbt anb sweeb. I hab a code in my nobe and keeb coughinb.I dib a showb, anb I managbed to keeb thinbs togebber longb enough to doob dis edibsion ob da Bibg Showb. Anb ib turbed oubt prebby goob despibe eberythinb.And I dib nob cough onb anythinb, so I don'b thinb you bill catchb anybing fromb libbening to dis 3 Chorbs & da Trub.Ib reallyb ib prebby goob dis weebk. Lobs ob goob mubic.Ib's 3 Chorbs & da Trub, y'all. Be dere. Alobha.

In the past few decades, radio has become a real sh*thole medium.It's real programming and Music Carnage out there, people. And I alone can fix it. The fix is 3 Chords & the Truth. Bigly."Sir, I turn on the radio, and all I hear is crap. Where is this fixing you talk about?"I am glad you asked that question. And I will answer it while my Enthusiastic Supporters beat the crap out of you for your insulating . . . insurance? Impotence?I will tell you the suppressed truth while my Enthusiastic Supporters beat the crap out of you for being a Smart Ass.THE TRUTH is that Deep Radio wants this program to fail. The big men at Big Companies are censoring the programming genius -- a very great genius -- that is the Big Show. They won't put it on the air . . . something about "formatics." And that shows you what kind of Bird Brains make up Deep Radio; the show has nothing to do with countertops.They don't have a clue. They don't have a clue.And I have very wonderful countertops. The best countertops. I also have the best Music Show on the Internets, but it's not a countertop. I guess you can put your computer or smartphone on the countertop -- maybe put some speakers up there, too.It would look wonderful. It would, I think, work out very nicely. But 3 Chords & the Truth is not a countertop, but who knows? We have some Very Great Scientists . . . and I could have been a scientist, a Very Great Scientist, very much like Fat Albert Einstein . . . now that's a guy who could make the show also be a countertop, and we're working on that now . . . we're trying to get Einstein in on the project as I speak.And we'll get there. We'll get there. Because I alone can fix it, and the fix is in; we're Fixing right now.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Covfefe.

Placement is everything.Placing the right players in the right positions on the right team? It's everything.Hiring the right coaches? Everything.Placing the right people in Congress, while placing the wrong people far, far away? As we have seen the past few years . . . everything.Placing the right man in the White House? Everything.Placing the man with 91 criminal counts pending before a jury -- and definitely not placing him in the presidency again? Everything.Here at 3 Chords & the Truth, it's an undisputed canon of life that placement is everything. And that covers everything, including the music you hear. If the wrong song is in the wrong place, it will not be pleasant for anybody.If a totally unexpected song is in just the right place, it can be magical. On this episode of the Big Show -- every episode, actually -- we go for the magic. Thank your lucky stars for good placement.You see, as I've said previously, placement is everything.Now, if you would be so kind as to place yourself in a comfy chair and place your favorite high-fidelity audio device on "loud," we can commence with some musical magic.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

If you've been watching some of the 357 channels on which there is nothing much, you may have seen that MAGA Nation is convinced that Taylor Swift and Chiefs wide receiver Travis Kelce are the center of some sort of psyops operation to ratf*ck the election against Donald Trump.It's the Deep State, don't you know.Now, you may be saying these people have lost their damned minds. It does look that way.You, however, do not know the whole story. The music superstar and the future NFL hall of famer, indeed, are not the centerpiece of a CIA (Or is it the Department of Defense?) psychological-warfare operation. In a world of budget continuing resolutions in Congress, alas, the Deep State cannot afford Taylor Swift.WHAT THE government can afford . . . is me. Your Mighty Favog. And 3 Chords & the Truth.Unfortunately for the gummint, you get what you pay for. Make sure your passport is current.The good news, though, is that amid the psychological warfarin' on this edition of the Big Show, there is a lot of great, great music. As usual. So that's not nothin'.Actually, that a whole lot of something to enjoy while you're researching how to obtain resident visas for various countries not this one. So, if I were you, I'd start listening right now.Crank it up. You'll be glad you did.Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some brainwashin' to do, which is -- to say the least -- is challenging to accomplish when a sizable percentage of the population's minds are gone.A good psyops officer wouldn't have said that, would he? Again, one gets what one pays for.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

What a drag it is living here.Life is different today, I hear everybody say. People need something today to calm us down.And though we're not really ill, there's a big, big podcast show. We go running for the shelter of the Big Show outlook helper.And it helps us on our way -- gets us through our busy day.Folks are different today, I hear everybody say. Watching the TV news has become such a drag.So here's 3 Chords & the Truth, and life seems less uncouth. We go running for the shelter of Favog's little helper.And it helps you on your way -- gets you through your busy day.Let's go running for the shelter of your Big Show podcast helper. . . .It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

If you put together a lovely fruit salad -- say with apples, peaches and cherries -- and you sit it on your front porch today in Omaha, by God, Nebraska . . . how long before it freezes solid?My guess is around five minutes.That where we are, right here, right now. Baby, it's cold outside. Damn, I should have worked that song into 3 Chords & the Truth this week. Ah, the things one thinks of when it's too late to do anything about it.ANYWAY, we've been in the deep freeze for more than a week at the culture-war bunker, which lies in an urban enclave somewhere between Hooterville and Pixley. If only Arnold Ziffel were governor. . . . We'd all be sleeping better; I'll tell you that right now.Ice see you! You're wondering what this has to do with this week's edition of the Big Show.Why does it have to, and why are you being such a pedant about it? Just go with the flow, why don't you?C'mon, man. Life is just a bowl of cherries. Very, very frozen cherries.And what was I going to say? Very, very frozen brain.Just know that this week's program is a gosh darned good one -- as usual. Well worth an hour and a half of your time . . . well worth it.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

It's a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, we're walking in a winter wonderla . . . aw, screw it.Omaha is closed until April. Send hot chocolate. And thermal underwear.It's a cold, cold snowy night as this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth goes up on the Internets, to flow through the electronical pipes to your home or smart telephone. And it's about to get a lot colder, so it's a good thing that the program this week should make you feel all warm and cozy.Or, at least it's making me feel all warm and cozy . . . ish.We're talking some good, good stuff, here. Primo listening material. I think you'll like it, because I sure do. After all, that's the goal of the Big Show.If you're in these parts -- the frigid, snow-clogged Midwest -- it's perfect for listening to as you watch your obsessive-compulsive neighbor snowblow his front yard, only to bury the other half that much worse, then snowblow that part back onto the other half, then. . . . OK, that's not my neighbor, but somewhere. . . .I'm sorry, the cold is shutting down my brain. I'll go now and find a warm blanket.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

The good book tells us that the truth will set us free. If that is so -- and I believe it is -- America today might as well be a gulag.And there will be no great escape. Welcome to 2024, the year we've been dreading.Hell of a thought to sell another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth with, but it is what it is, and we are where we are this election year in America. The choice this election year in these Disunited States of America isn't just between a representative, constitutional democracy and a crazy man's authoritarian dystopia, it's also as simple as a choice between truth and lies.Reality and delusion.A more perfect union and "Screw it. Let's find some scapegoats to persecute, so that we might feel holy."That, frankly, is what on my mind as we dive into the year we've all been dreading, and dive into it with music -- as is our want.Fortunately, unlike the political news, the music on the Big Show is quite good. And it goes down a lot easier.And that's the state of things today, as seen from the culture-war bunker here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. Now you know why I have a bunker.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

The older I get, the more the lyrics to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" speak to me -- get to me.And, in a not-always-visible-from space manner, they guide your Mighty Favog in putting together A 3 Chords & the Truth Christmas each year. Don't make me count up how many Christmases that's been now.Given all this country's recent travails, the line "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" seems, to me, grossly overly optimistic. On the other hand, they could be. But still . . . you never know.So, at this time of the year, one holds onto hope. It's a terrible thing to live without hope.I won't belabor the point. It's time to listen to the music and give in to the hope that "Next year all our troubles, will be out of sight." Merry Christmas from the Big Show.It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.Have yourself a merry little ChristmasLet your heart be lightNext year all our troubles will be out of sight Have yourself a merry little ChristmasMake the Yuletide gayNext year all our troubles will be miles away Once again, as in olden daysHappy golden days of yoreFaithful friends who are dear to usWill be near to us once more Someday soon we all will be togetherIf the fates allowUntil then, we'll have to muddle through somehowSo have yourself a merry little Christmas now