It all started in the winter of 2003, back when Metalcore was in it’s infancy, Roadrunner Records mattered, and In Flames was riding on the start of their downfall their transitional Reroute to Remain. One fateful February day that year, a Nu-Metal fanboy who was slowly giving into/being shown the way out of the “gateway drug” was given the chance to share his love for the music with the masses of
Hamden, CT from it’s figurative epicenter, Quinnipiac University. With little time given to prepare, the Sophomore decided on a name for the show, lined up some of his current favorite tracks, and was given a crash course on the studio equipment. At 8:00PM EST on Wednesday, February 13, 2003 Brian debuted The Sideshow on 98.1FM WQAQ and the station would never be the same…and neither would Brian. Following a WQAQ meeting that took place shortly after the second show, he met what appeared to be the only other two Metal-heads on campus, Nick and Dan, who were both year his junior. It wasn’t long before the three bonded and The Sideshow had two more hosts. Nick in particular was a game-changer for the show and Brian alike since he was more knowledgable of “true” metal than the current host. He (with the help of some other WQAQ brethren) was able to help open up a whole new abyss to Brian, which he has been staring into since. During Brian’s Senior year, an eccentric Freshman named Kyle joined WQAQ. He was into some heavy music, but was in desperate need of guidance. Paying forward the revelation Nick bestowed upon him, Brian showed Kyle the light (or darkness, as it were). While remaining under the tutelage of Brian, Kyle assisted spreading Metal across the campus and surrounding town by presenting his own show under the pseudonym The ROCK(jock). The triumvirate of Brian, Nick, and Dan would run The Sideshow until Brian graduated in May 2005, at which point he officially passed the torch to the Junior hosts. When their time was up, the already-infamous institution was passed to Kyle, who would run the show until he graduated and passed it down once again. The Sideshow became – and remains* – the longest running show in the history WQAQ. After college, Nick and Brian never really let go of the spirit of The Sideshow; the love of heavy music was in their bones. There were always emails or instant messages going around about how great this new album is, how that new single was terrible, so-and-so left a band, etc. Once his tenure ended in 2009, Kyle joined these conversation, which transformed into three Metal nerds sharing lengthy emails, expressing their thoughts and feelings on new albums and the major news stories in the Metal world. This often devolved into bickering and sophomoric name-calling, but it was all in good fun and for the love of the music. While it had been mentioned in passing once or twice before, it wasn’t until the summer of 2011 that three seriously started discussing taking “these lengthy and awesome debates out of email and put[ing] them into a podcast for all to hear.” After a few weeks of learning how to actually create and share a podcast, hammering out details about content and format, and deciding if Kyle should be allowed to use his pseudonym, the reincarnation was complete. On Friday, October 7, 2011, the inaugural episode of a show bringing you the best (and worst) to make your ears bleed was unleashed to the unassuming public.
