In addition to our own programming, KZSM.org broadcasts a few carefully chosen recorded shows. Saturdays from 8-10 p.m., you can enjoy a course of “Noise Therapy” with “The Rev,” Chris Marsh. This “fun hard rock show” also airs on stations across the United States and abroad.
The broadcast will “take you away from reality for a couple of hours, from the constant dronage of CNN, all the white noise,” Marsh explains. “That’s why it’s noise therapy.” You can escape from yourself into “an emotional rock ‘n’ roller coaster ride; it will make you go up and down; it will take you on a journey.”
That journey varies depending on Marsh’s mood, “Some weeks I’ll have kind of a heavy sound; some weeks I’ll keep it nice and pop-y. Sometimes it will take you on a path to get your aggression out,” or it might take you back to something you heard growing up.
But whatever the mood, the music must be positive. “If it’s not good enough for my 15-year-old niece to listen to, it’s not good enough to be on the radio.” Marsh’s emphasis on the affirmative grows out of hard-earned experience. After years as a successful radio personality, he was sidelined by addiction. After rehab and college, he eventually returned to radio, resolved to help others live better lives. “The one thing I cling on to is my eighteen years of sobriety, because if I can do it, coming from the gutters of Omaha Nebraska, you can.”
Most of the music on “Noise Therapy” is by unsigned artists, many of them from Texas. In keeping with his emphasis on positivity, “I don’t like rap; I don’t like death metal; I don’t like a lot of the heavier stuff,” Marsh declares.
His concern for helping others extends beyond the music. Public Service Announcements on the show and proceeds from the sale of Blackout Blend, his special coffee, go to Stop Solider Suicide, and proceeds from his music compilation Rock Against Cancer support St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Marsh became “The Rev” after acquiring an on-line ordination to preside at a friend’s funeral. The term reflects his concern for others, but it also denotes “revolution.” “The revolution is “I’m here in the house, I’m gonna cause some chaos, I’m gonna make you think differently about music,” he declares. “The revolution is here and I’m ready to take over the airwaves.”
