Vin Scelsa
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Vin Scelsa (born Vincent Scelsa on December 12, 1947 in Bayonne, New Jersey) is the host of a freeform radio show known as Idiot's Delight.
He attended Upsala College in East Orange, NJ, where he spent his early broadcasting years at WFMU. Vin originally considered becoming a Roman Catholic priest before pursuing a career in radio. His eclectic mix of music, reviews, and lengthy interviews with authors and artists has established Scelsa as a fixture in late night New York City radio for decades.
Vin went on to work in radio on Long Island in the early 1970s at WLIR and on WBAI-FM in New York City. He became road manager for singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt and also worked for Poppy Records. On February 14, 1971, while he was music director at WABC-FM , the station changed its call letters to WPLJ, an acronym for and homage to the song, performed by The Four Deuces in 1955 and the Mothers of Invention in 1970, called "White Port and Lemon Juice."
Vin later worked at WNEW-FM 102.7 from 1973 through 1982, and then at WXRK-FM 92.3 K-Rock from 1985 through 1996. His popular show was subsequently named "Idiot's Delight," many fans of which participate in the online "Idiot's Delight Digest."
When K-ROCK decided to solidify its format as all rock (except for Howard Stern in the morning) Vin left the station returning to WNEW. When WNEW changed format in 2001, he moved "Idiot's Delight" to WFUV - 90.7 FM, the voice of Fordham University. Idiot's Delight is also on live on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons (12noon - 2pm ET), on Sirius Satellite Radio's SIRIUS Disorder32 channel. These shows are totally separate from the WFUV shows. The combined four hours are repeated on Sunday nights, 8pm to midnight, and at several other times during the week, also on Sirius Disorder32.
Though he never posed for them, Vin was the music editor of Penthouse Magazine from 1988 to 1992 and was the co-creator of a musical series with the lengthy name In Their Own Words: A Bunch Of Songwriters Sittin' Around Singing at The Bottom Line in NYC..
Vin has also appeared on stage numerous times, most notably as Vladimir in the Luna Stage's production of Waiting for Godot.
In 2006 he underwent successful prostate cancer surgery. On his WFUV show of September 16, 2006, he announced a schedule change which he attributed to his health problems. On most weeks for the foreseeable future "Idiot's Delight" will present new programming only from 8-10 pm on Saturdays, with archived material (from both WFUV and his earlier jobs) from 10 pm to midnight.
[edit] External links
- Meet Vin Scelsa
- Idiot's Delight Message Board
- Audio archive of Idiot's Delight shows
- Playlist archive of Idiot's Delight shows
- The Idiot's Delight Digest
- Complete archive of the Idiot's Delight Digest
- Disk Full! The Idiot's Delight Digest Information Hub