It's been a long time since we spoke. Sorry about that! A couple of things to announce then it's Question Time.
1. JACK FM is now in HD! Maybe you've heard us advertise that we're now in "CD Quality HD" and wondered what it's all about. HD Radio is the new method of broadcasting for regular, over-the-air stations like JACK. Reception of HD Radio is much cleaner and clearer...no more static or fuzz, and FM radio sounds like a CD.
Down the road, we'll even be able to provide "JACK 2" or "JACK 3" on the same frequency. To hear the sweet sounds of digital JACK, all you have to do is buy a radio that receives "HD Radio"
signals. Once you have the radio it's completely free!
Where do you get such a device?
Radio Shack,
Circuit City,
Best Buy, and a host of online magazines like
Crutchfield have radios available...like the one to the left. It's from Radi-osophy and retails for $99. Find out more info
here!
2. JACK FM is presenting "Erasure" at the Uptown Theater Sunday, July 29th. Buy your tickets now or keep listening to JACK to win tickets!
Question time: Bread and Butter song complaint. Either play Lovin, Touching, Squeezin and City of Angles (sic) by Journey together, or don't play it at all. You wouldn't play We Will Rock You and We are the Champions separately, but I have heard you not play Livn (sic) Lovin Maid after Heartbreaker, that was kind of odd. -Kyle R., Lee's Summit
For ever and a day radio programmers have been editing songs for time. It didn't usually matter in the 50's and 60's when songs were 2 - 3 minutes long, but grew more common in the late 60's and 70's when long playing albums stretched the limits of song times. Mass appeal radio stations usually edited songs so they could give people a "taste" of the song while still playing as many records per hour as possible.
At JACK, we're all about the integrity of the music. When I first got here as a programmer I noticed a lot of songs were whittled down and chopped up by the people here before me. It's been a project for us to find and re-record these songs into the JACK Music Computer...(all of our music is played off of a huge hard drive - no more CD's in radio stations anymore! A look at our "Starship Enterprise" studio is to the right with all of our playback systems on those 4 computer screens.)
The great debate is on songs that were packaged together on record albums or back-to-back on cassette versions. Some of these became popular as one song (i.e. "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" like Kyle referenced). And some songs that didn't enter the popular vernacular to that extreme were broken up by radio stations to make two separate singles (Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker/Livin' Lovin' Maid"). Yes, fans of the band will recognize those as one long track, but a lot of stations got by playing them as separate songs.
Others I can think of off the top of my head:
The Kings - "The Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide"
Van Halen - "Eruption/You Really Got Me"
Anyone know any more? And I open the floor to debate...what is your preference? (Not that we'll necessary begin playing what you want!)
AS HEARD ON JACK -- So it looks like Miss New Jersey will skate by with nary a pat on the butt after jumping ahead of her "blackmailer" and showed the world those allegedly "revealing" pictures today. Hmmm....I have to say I was extremely disappointed.
Judge for yourself if these were worth blackmailing someone:
The annual 5th of July recount of the previous day's disasters is at once astounding and disheartening. The number of people who find it OK to poke at potential "duds," stare down a mortar, or stuff Roman candles into unsuspecting orifices always surprises me...why? I don't know.
Last night the City of Leawood took care of lighting the fireworks for us, with the 2007 4th of July Celebration at Leawood Park!
While the rain seemed to threaten the events at first, the skies eventually parted and the party went on! There were lots of games and rides for the kids, music for the parents, and funnel cakes for me.
Here are some photo highlights of a great evening. Thanks to sponsors Dick's Sporting Goods and Coca-Cola, and of course the City of Leawood!
Hope you had a safe 4th!
For those who have had trouble picking up JACK or wondered why in the heck we were no longer displaying song title/artist information on your radio, worry no more!
Yesterday our Engineering department cleaned up the last remnants of our fire and JACK is back at 100%! That means crystal clear JACK music all over the metro and your radio will display our RDS information once again. Just passing that along!
bt
One of the most frequent calls I get is from people asking for the name of the background music I use during The Drive Home.
Background music (or, in radio parlance, a "Music Bed") is a great way for shows and personalities to distinguish themselves. There is an almost lost art to finding the right music bed. The music chosen can say a lot about the personality...what their listening preferences are away from the records you hear them play on the radio.
I'm not going to spell out my preferences here...just yet. But here's a little primer for those who listen for the nuances of the music bed during JACK For The Drive Home:
Mocean Worker "Enter The Mowo"Some great fusion-style jazz instrumentals. I use Tracks #3, 6, and 7, but they are all good!
Striptease ClassicsTrack 1 here, the classic "The Stripper," closes The Drive Home each day at 6:50pm. This song is also used....oh wait, this isn't that kind of blog. I've never used this CD for salacious purposes. Ever. FUN FACT: The cover here is blurry because the actual cover is one of those 3D types where you can move the case left and right and the picture changes. What does it change to, you may ask? Well, this vuluptuous young woman....takes it off.
Beastie Boys "The Mix-up"The new instrumental CD from the Beastie Boys was released last Tuesday and already I like the potential for some cool music beds. I was already using some Beastie's goodness I stole off of YouTube. Now we're legit!
I also use a bed that I'm not really sure what the name of it is...it's popularly known as the music from the Vonage phone commercial, with a bunch of "whoo-hoo's" and whatnot. If someone knows what this song is actually called, we'd all appreciate it.
Phone Jack:
JACK's Email:
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