Coming back to KSHE-FM, here's a recording of their HD 3 Stream, My 80s Channel! Wow!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
HERE'S ANOTHER HD RADIO STREAM FROM ST. LOUIS!
This is a recording of THE VERVE, the smooth jazz channel of KIHT-FM HD 3 in St. Louis, Mo.
ANOTHER ONE!
And now, let's go down the dial to WARH-FM HD 2 in Granite City, Mo., just outside St. Louis!
CHECK THIS OUT!
Hey, check this out! It's a feed from an HD2 radio station in St. Louis, Mo. None other than KSHE-FM HD2!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
THE FRIGGING MARATHON!
Just a few days ago, WDRM-FM at 88.5, the radio station of Dorchester Massachusetts University, pulled the plug on their bloodsucking "mara-mara-marathon" fundraiser. Over the past 12 months, the station has fallen on hard times. First of all, a lot of the eclectic music offerings-folk, jazz, alternative, Celtic, electronica, etc.-got replaced by news and classical music. Most of the disc jockeys who were volunteers were let go and paid professionals took their place.
Next, WDRM signed several consultants to dictate programming policies, and the overnight jazz segments were replaced by nonstop playing of the "Holy" Koran(yeah, right) for the benefit of the growing Arabic audience in the Boston area. The night after the Koran readings began, a group of Christian and Jewish girls broke into the studio and ransacked the equipment, breaking the tapes that were playing the crap. A dozen campus police officers had to be called in to break up the melee. They arrested all the girls and took them down to the police station. For more than 3 hours, the cops interrogated the girls over what they did until several lawyers came down and ordered them released.
The following night, we had a torrential rain storm that dumped 7 inches of rain in the Boston area and points South and Eastward. (Around dawn, the rain changed to snow and froze everything into ice(not to mention buried us in a 1 to 2 foot snowfall)! The equipment was ruined and had to be replaced.
So the WDRM staff decided to do a marathon fundraiser that weekend. They were asking the listening audience to raise about $2.5 million between Friday at 6 a.m. and Sunday night at Midnight. They prologued each hour with a stupid song that went something like this-
"Join us now!
We're on the Marathon!"
And the rest of it I don't know. But they were asking people to contribute money to help cover the equipment costs and restock their musical library. More than 3,000 recordings of various styles of music-on CD and vinyl-were destroyed, many beyond repair. Also, they needed help to solidify their new program line-up.
"Listen, folks!" one of the announcers said. "A lot of public radio stations have had to make cutbacks and changes, and we, too, are in a quandry. If you can help us in any financial way, we'd appreciate it."
And after their appeals, they'd play that lousy song:
"Marathon! Marathon!
Mara-mara-marathon!"
Yeah, that was a sucky piece of music. Because people had lost their homes in the double whammy storm, they were without power. Also, phone service was severely disrupted. By the time the marathon officially ended at midnight that Sunday night, WDRM-FM had only raised about $142,000. So what did the trustees of the station decide to do?
They started it up again at 6 a.m. the next morning and went another 10 days. I was working answering phones and doing on air shifts. And here I was listening to that stupid "mara-mara-marathon" jingle ad nauseaum. On the 12th. day-a Thursday-I was doing the noon to 4 p.m. shift.
"Listen, everybody!" I said to the listeners. "We've had a very lousy time this past week and a half. As we move into this 12th. day of the WDRM-FM marathon, we're asking you people to help us out of a tight spot. We've raised about $552,000, but we still need to raise $2 million more. Our goal for this fundraiser is $2.5 million. If you can..."
Suddenly, I got a phone call from the manager(who was out of town basking his fat butt in Cuba, which he wasn't supposed to do).
"Yeah...what? You're kidding...okay, I'll let 'em right now."
After I hung up, I spoke into the mike saying, "That was our general manager in Cuba, and he has ordered us to call a halt to the marathon. To those of you people who didn't respond, I'm very disappointed in you. To those of you who did, thanks from all of us. We're going to go off the air now until further notice. Thank you and God bless. And by the way, our G.M. doesn't have any right to be in Commie Land!"
We ran the national anthem and I got up to say thanks to everyone on the phones and in the control room. After that, I left the studio and found a place to have a good cry...
But there was one problems; the tears wouldn't come. After all, public radio listeners who find their favorite musical programs being sacrificed for the sake of the almighty dollar feel betrayed when their station turns away from their mission and starts going after ratings and dollars. It's just not fair.
After I left, there was a report that one of the people answering the phones started a fight with someone in the control room. But....that's a story for another day.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Next, WDRM signed several consultants to dictate programming policies, and the overnight jazz segments were replaced by nonstop playing of the "Holy" Koran(yeah, right) for the benefit of the growing Arabic audience in the Boston area. The night after the Koran readings began, a group of Christian and Jewish girls broke into the studio and ransacked the equipment, breaking the tapes that were playing the crap. A dozen campus police officers had to be called in to break up the melee. They arrested all the girls and took them down to the police station. For more than 3 hours, the cops interrogated the girls over what they did until several lawyers came down and ordered them released.
The following night, we had a torrential rain storm that dumped 7 inches of rain in the Boston area and points South and Eastward. (Around dawn, the rain changed to snow and froze everything into ice(not to mention buried us in a 1 to 2 foot snowfall)! The equipment was ruined and had to be replaced.
So the WDRM staff decided to do a marathon fundraiser that weekend. They were asking the listening audience to raise about $2.5 million between Friday at 6 a.m. and Sunday night at Midnight. They prologued each hour with a stupid song that went something like this-
"Join us now!
We're on the Marathon!"
And the rest of it I don't know. But they were asking people to contribute money to help cover the equipment costs and restock their musical library. More than 3,000 recordings of various styles of music-on CD and vinyl-were destroyed, many beyond repair. Also, they needed help to solidify their new program line-up.
"Listen, folks!" one of the announcers said. "A lot of public radio stations have had to make cutbacks and changes, and we, too, are in a quandry. If you can help us in any financial way, we'd appreciate it."
And after their appeals, they'd play that lousy song:
"Marathon! Marathon!
Mara-mara-marathon!"
Yeah, that was a sucky piece of music. Because people had lost their homes in the double whammy storm, they were without power. Also, phone service was severely disrupted. By the time the marathon officially ended at midnight that Sunday night, WDRM-FM had only raised about $142,000. So what did the trustees of the station decide to do?
They started it up again at 6 a.m. the next morning and went another 10 days. I was working answering phones and doing on air shifts. And here I was listening to that stupid "mara-mara-marathon" jingle ad nauseaum. On the 12th. day-a Thursday-I was doing the noon to 4 p.m. shift.
"Listen, everybody!" I said to the listeners. "We've had a very lousy time this past week and a half. As we move into this 12th. day of the WDRM-FM marathon, we're asking you people to help us out of a tight spot. We've raised about $552,000, but we still need to raise $2 million more. Our goal for this fundraiser is $2.5 million. If you can..."
Suddenly, I got a phone call from the manager(who was out of town basking his fat butt in Cuba, which he wasn't supposed to do).
"Yeah...what? You're kidding...okay, I'll let 'em right now."
After I hung up, I spoke into the mike saying, "That was our general manager in Cuba, and he has ordered us to call a halt to the marathon. To those of you people who didn't respond, I'm very disappointed in you. To those of you who did, thanks from all of us. We're going to go off the air now until further notice. Thank you and God bless. And by the way, our G.M. doesn't have any right to be in Commie Land!"
We ran the national anthem and I got up to say thanks to everyone on the phones and in the control room. After that, I left the studio and found a place to have a good cry...
But there was one problems; the tears wouldn't come. After all, public radio listeners who find their favorite musical programs being sacrificed for the sake of the almighty dollar feel betrayed when their station turns away from their mission and starts going after ratings and dollars. It's just not fair.
After I left, there was a report that one of the people answering the phones started a fight with someone in the control room. But....that's a story for another day.
TO BE CONTINUED....
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