If you’ve ever found yourself spinning your radio dial on Friday afternoon, maybe you’ve been lucky enough to land on UBC’s campus station, CiTR Radio, 101.9 FM.
First-timers might be totally befuddled – Rock 101 it ain’t – but after a while, you’ll have little doubt what you’re listening to: It’s the extremely high-pitched Nardwuar the Human Serviette Radio Show, which has been on the air every Friday afternoon on CiTR for the past 30 years this fall.
Long before Nardwuar became an international YouTube star (and before that, a MuchMusic personality) thanks to his earnest, hilarious and deeply researched interviews with Snoop Dogg, Henry Rollins and various prime ministers, presidents and porn stars, the West Vancouver media impresario and musician rocked the radio like no other host before or since.
It all started back in 1987, during Nardwuar’s second year attending UBC. His first-ever radio interviews were with Toronto band Rheostatics and Vancouver punk stalwarts DOA.
Rheostatics member Dave Bidini can instantly recall the interview: “It was our first time we’d ever been out west, and one of the first true band interviews we’d ever done. He was 100-per-cent the same then as he is now: electric, funny, friendly, bent. We felt we had finally met our match.”
Nardwuar graduated from UBC in 1990 with an arts degree (his dad wanted him to become an engineer), but Nard never left CiTR Radio. He still drives out every Friday from his home in West Van, where I was lucky enough to attend both elementary and high school with him. Thus, I’ve witnessed first hand his development into a respected interviewer over the decades.
Of course, that respect was hard earned. Rheostatics aside, many rock stars’ first impressions of Nardwuar were often horrible.
American punk icon Jello Biafra drew all over Nardwuar’s face with a permanent marker (and yet, years later, Jello signed Nardwuar’s band to his record label). Canadian rock star Chris Murphy from Sloan stormed out of his first interview with Nardwuar (and yet Chris now drums for Nardwuar’s band when they play Toronto), and Blur’s drummer Dave Rowntree infamously bullied and physically harassed Nardwuar on camera (and yet Rowntree, now an elected British politician, wrote a public apology to Nardwuar in 2011, admitting to a cocaine addiction!)
One of Nardwuar’s greatest skills is catching his interviewees off guard with his insatiable curiosity. The very first interview I ever tuned into on the Nardwuar show was with Johnny Freedom, an obscure and extreme hemp enthusiast. It went pretty much exactly like this (because Nardwuar, an incredible archivist, still has the clip, and sent it to me):
Nardwuar: “…Could you make a condom out of hemp?”
Johnny Freedom: “You could make a condom out of hemp because anything you make out of petroleum you could make out of hemp.”
Nardwuar: “Is hemp dangerous? Like, if you injected an erect penis with hemp, would there be problems?”
Johnny Freedom: (startled laugh) “Uh… well… I don’t know why anyone would want to do something as foolish as that! You know, I’m sure if you injected coffee into an erect penis there’d be problems.”
In other words, every Friday for 30 years, Nardwuar’s show has been bizarre, honest and passionate gonzo radio at its best and worst.
At its worst, Nardwuar will book me as last-minute guest in a segment we affectionately call “Who Cancelled?”
At its best, Nardwuar’s show stacks eclectic guests that stick around, Johnny Carson-style, to interact with the next guests and the listener-callers Nardwuar puts on the air with little to no warning. The show becomes a variety-pack circus with Nardwuar as ringmaster.
Nardwuar: “Caller? Are you there, caller? Do you have questions for Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters? Go ahead to Dave Grohl, caller!”
We’re very lucky to have Nardwuar’s unique presence on our media landscape: In 1999, Nardwuar suffered and recovered from a cerebral hemorrhage. In 2015, he suffered and recovered from a stroke. In 2016, he successfully underwent heart surgery.
Nardwuar is celebrating three decades on the air with a “marathon” of best-of interviews strung together for 20 hours straight, starting on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 9 p.m. and ending the next day at 5 p.m. Expect to hear everyone from Jay-Z to Mikhail Gorbachev, from Destiny’s Child to Wesley Willis, and countless in between. Listen if you dare at citr.ca or at 101.9 FM.
If that wasn’t enough, Nardwuar continues the celebration on Saturday, Sept. 23 with a live all-ages gig at The Hall at 1739 Venables (at Commercial) featuring his band the Evaporators (which itself has been rocking for more than 31 years), Owl Empire, and Nardwuar’s Video Vault. Tickets are $10 and the show starts at 7:01 p.m.
Thank you for 30 years of truly original radio, Nardwuar, and doot doola doot do…