I am a very big radio listener. For years, before I moved to college, I would listen to the radio every day for hours while I hung around the house or worked out or was in the car, and it was always some sort of small thrill waiting to see what they would play next (unfortunately, it was usually something like the Yin Yang Twins or Lil Crunk, a genre I abhor save for that Flo Rida song).

One of my favorite parts of radio (strange as I will sound) is trying to guess what the Summer Song of that year would be. One year, it was easily Golddigger by Kanye West. Before that, it was We Belong Together by Mariah Carey, and another year it was Don’t Cha by PCD (obviously, they don’t always reflect what should have been). If the summer song is good, you’ll get to hear it 5 or so times an hour. If it is abysmally terribly awful, then that number seems to be automatically bumped up to 10 or 20 times an hour.

I am not quite sure since it’s a new track, but I am leaning to think that the new one from Boys Like Girls could become the Summer Song of 2008.

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The song is called Thunder and I saw the lyrics on a Twilighter’s myspace a month before the record label even sent it to me. When people get the song before radio people get it, then something’s up. Give it a listen and see if you’re getting the same summer feelings.

8 comments »
Posted in Reviews
Tags: Boys Like Girls, music, Radio Stuff

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Lots going on:

1. Signed up a few new affiliates for the show
2. Got a new site for the show
3. Kaza Kingsley said she will be playing my Erec Rex video at schools coming up this year on her tour.
4. My first Izzy video has gotten over 4,000 views
5. My Man-gibon video has gotten over 1,070 views in 3 days, and I didn’t even send it anywhere.
6. My inHumanities test wasn’t half bad. Luckily I knew Frankenstein pretty well.
7. Caught up with somebody I haven’t talked to in many years
8. Finally heard a Amy Winehouse song other than Rehab. Bought it.
9. Cooked a roast and took video proof
10. Rearranged my room so my video camera has better lighting and I have an L-shaped desk. I call it the Studio. My roommates call it the Office.

I have a ton of photos and video clips of this place but I have to get them all together before I get them up, which will be after the math test I am dreading today. Writing and English is my strong subject. Math is not.

During a certain class, I am often distracted by writing in my notebook the latest quote from a certain professor. I ended up with a list that certainly won’t look like homework when he checks it. Example of something the professor has said: This formula is as useful as those movies about the woman who every time she sings the flowers grow and the ravens turn into robins.

Or: I much prefer addition over subtraction, because as my grandmother always said, addition is bright and happy like the sun, and subtraction is cheap and tawdry like the moon.

Or: If I am feeling really evil tomorrow, this will be on Friday’s test.

3 comments »
Posted in About Me, Authors, College
Tags: Amy Winehouse, College, Erec Rex, Facebook, Frankenstein, Kaza Kingsley, Magibon, Mangibon, Radio Stuff, Texas

For those of you who are exasperated with best-of’s, my show is back up in full swing again, and I’ve got at least half a playlist of new stuffs. So be sure to check it out and if you want on this year doing an intro, record it and email me the mp3. Preferably the ‘hi this is * from * and you’re listening to…‘ variety since I need more of those.

I’ve got some cool stuff planned for the show this year but I’m still working it all out, so keep checking.

And Kaza Kingsley will be on tommorow! Don’t forget to come back for that. She’ll be taking questions in the comment box all day the 20th of January.

2 comments »
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Radio Stuff

Every week, I step behind a big, suspended microphone and record my show. Usually though, before I get to recording that week’s program, I make a series of liners: short commercial-like spots that promote the show on radio stations. Sometimes, last week in particular, saying ‘You’re listening to … on W-A-C-K Radio!’ in a deep radio-announce-style voice uncountable times into a microphone, whilst the house is empty and devoid of life, a certain, echoing madness comes upon me which causes me to break from my script and burst out into different voices, for no apparent reason other than I go temporarily mad. Take this clip for example:

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A total waste of time, energy, and whirling sound effects! And how the words ring true. Here’s another result of me and a mic:

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There I go. Could I stop there and end it while there was still time? Obviously not, because I made a short series of Rancher Hicks, with this one coming next:

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And another:

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And as a grand finale, I tried my hand at being a crazed hippie:

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After those, I was nearly convinced to launch an entirely new scheme which involved people sending in questions to either Rancher Hicks or Perry Hip, who would in turn answer them online to more-or-less satisfactory results. No wonder it takes all day to get these shows done.

7 comments »
Posted in About Me
Tags: Radio Stuff, The Top 5, voices

88.3 FM, WJNF The Rock, is shutting down in January of 2008 and transferring their signal to Way-FM, a national broadcaster. For those of you who have known me long enough, WJNF was the first station ever to take on my show in February of 2006. I remember spending an entire month calling every single radio station, state by state, with no takers for the program. I got to Florida and called Rene, and she took the show right there. I was so excited that when we went to the chess tournament that weekend, I told people I didn’t even know about it. It was the first time anybody else thought I was famous .

After one station took me on, just being on the air acted as a catalyst for other stations to sign on. Gradually, I learned how to host a show (ahem…perhaps I should have learned that before I went on the air…) and then I got to interview bands, go backstage and do all the stuff I had always wanted. Now I’m in 20 states and 5 countries, on all the types of radio there are- even satellite in Africa! I think I will always be indebted to the station who believed in that teenager who wanted to be a DJ.

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That’s me, around the time I first went on the air with them. Like all perfectionists, I shudder when I hear myself back then. How could they have let me go on! I bemoan. The low whisper voice! The static in the mic! Those terribly cheesy jokes! But I know without that initial boost of confidence of getting on the air, I never would have learned how to do it. So here’s me today:

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I can’t say that they were the first station that let me on the air (KNLE had the honor of a 13-year-old DJ with a squeaky voice all to themselves…another story for another time). But WJNF and I have both come a long way, and I wish them well wherever they choose to broadcast their airwaves.

3 comments »
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Radio Stuff, The Top 5, WJNF

I just finished recording a new intro for my radio show! Check it out below:

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This is taken from this weekend’s show. I didn’t know that I’ve had the same intro since October of 2006! So it was certainly time for a newer, sleeker one. Here’s the old one:

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For my friends who have been around long enough to remember, before this show was even on the air, I did this online with cheap equipment and a microphone that sat on my desk. I look back and shiver: how in the world did people put up with listening to me ? Remember this show:

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I hadn’t yet learned mastering and I had an awful microphone! My voice sounds so tired as well…probably because I used to need absolute silence and would record until 2 AM!

1 comment »
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: audio production, liners, My show, Radio Stuff, recording, The Top 5