A Cellphone Live Stones Concert: Straight From The Mixing Board

(Summary from digg.com): "With technology from Single Touch, subscribers can use their phones to listen to a live Rolling Stones concert in Paris. The clarity depends, in part, on the quality of your phone's speakers. But the call isn't to some Stones groupie holding up a phone from the bleachers. This connection goes straight to the band's mixing board."

What do you think, gang? Me, I'll miss climbing to the top of A Mountain to hear the Stones play Sun Devil Stadium (this time, they inaugurate the new Cardinals Stadium in Glendale on Nov. 8). Are we getting so old we want to literally phone-in our concert experiences?

(Article in Business Week).

Happy Birthday, Mick!

Born on this day in 1943. Here's a clip of the rock icon you probably won't see on Entertainment Tonight, singing "Memo From Turner" from "Performance" in 1970.

ROLL YER OWN!!! (click here)

Six THOUSAND hits on this website?

Holeee Smaokeees Batman!

I don't know when Jimmy plugged in the counter on this site but if you scroll all the way down to it, WE ARE APPROACHING SIX THOUSAND clicks!

Who says Psychedellics don't work?

Ronco

Wavy Gravy's 70th Birthday Bash

A groovy short film showing highlights from Wavy Gravy's 70th Birthday Concert, with music by his son, Jordan Romney.

Daniel Ellsberg no longer producing Canned Heat - CLICK HERE

KCAC, Early KDKB Sadly Missing from Ultimate Radio Database

www.440int.com has become the preeminent radio data base on the web. Stations like KOY, KRIZ and KRUX have established a notable history on the site. Sadly, KCAC is non existent and KDKB is underwhelmingly represented.

On behalf of us radio fans who believe this history is important, I'd love to see you KCAC/early KDKB staffers represented. C'mon ! It's a farce that the K-Lite gang has a more established presence on the web than our beloved Phoenix rock radio pioneers.

Please consider contributing your information to this site. I hope that someone can add Bill Compton's and Toad's name to the roster.

Here's some info on the site:

Boss Jock Johnny Williams left radio in 1995 to consult, freelance and take in some Hawaiian sun and surfing -- Web surfing that is. That's when he started 440: Satisfaction as a hobby.It began with Johnny listing the radio stations that he had worked at and the people he had worked with. The initial response was so great that Johnny moved 440: Satisfaction from his personal site to www.440.com (and www.440int.com) and started 440 International Inc.By the turn of the century, 440: Satisfaction had become the radio industry's genealogy of people past and present: DJs, newspersons, engineers, sales and administrative personnel, etc. and where they are now. Literally thousands of radio stars and unsung heroes are included, with more names and their favorite stories added every day.

Keep the torch burning and rock on !
Liz

"Train-wreck" radio - a return to free-form?

"It's like listening to a middle-aged drunkard's iPod set to shuffle, but the Jack FM radio format is spreading across the dial," says Wired magazine in an article about the increasingly popular format, heard in Phoenix on stations like The Peak.
The article suggests one key to the format's success - particularly among older listeners - is its "liberal use of 'train-wreck editing,' allowing songs from completely different genres to play back to back -- Deee-Lite followed by Steve Miller Band, for example.
"Edison Media Research's Sean Ross says train-wreck editing was initially thought to alienate listeners, but is today seen as part of Jack's appeal.
"'When done well, these segues are a throwback to some of the great radio of the 1970s,' he says."
The article goes on to say, "It's in sharp contrast to conventional programming logic, where small, genre-specific playlists are thought to attract specific target audiences, and songs are repeated over and over so as to become quickly familiar to listeners."

What do you folks think? Can the eclecticism of early 70's FM be replicated with a large library of tunes set to what seems like a random shuffle? Do you ever get that same feeling, listening to your own iPod on "shuffle"? Or is there a lot more to the equation than that?

Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett dies. CLICK HERE

AZ Rock Radio Historians! What Do You Remember?! (before we all forget!)

There are zillions of really interesting stories about the Compton days. You all surely have some great stories to share. This is the place to do that, for sure! I know I'm not the only one who is interested!

So, go ahead already! Reminisce! Stir up a little of that magic KCAC spell and let's see if we can get some of the good memories pulsing through us again. So many of you have such deep ties to Bill and KCAC.

I am wondering about what you remember from that time. Like what's the weirdest thing you ever heard on KCAC? What were the most memorable broadcasts you heard on KCAC. And the funniest and most insightful things you ever heard said on KCAC? Your favorite commercial? (I liked the "Sugar Blues" - anyone remember that?) Whose live music did you hear on the air that you remember best? What kind of stereo did you listen to KCAC on? In the late 60's I'd listen to Bill on KRUX on my cherished Panasonic AM/FM (!) Radio with the nifty fold down turntable! I could take it anywhere, and I did!

I'm ready to recharge my sense of humor; swear off the news; download all the KCAC stuff; pull out the Firesign Theatre LPs for good measure and laugh myself silly. Any takers?

For Free . . .

In the mood for some Joni Mitchell? Listen to this collage from a late Saturday afternoon on KCAC, long, long ago:

powered by ODEO
. . . and part 2:

powered by ODEO

American Love Song

(Finished to the backdrop of the historic KCAC Fourth of July collage-read Jimmy's post below-this is dedicated to Bill Compton, the community, and the legacy he left us to carry on, in the spirit of patriotism and love for America)
July 4th, 2006

A PATRIOT'S LOVE SONG
by Mariah Fleming

Once safe to breathe, there's no blue sky; it's sick with acid rain
Mountains have been sliced off like boils for streets with homey names

On city streets where birds once sang, we inhale poison fumes
to a constant soundtrack in our lives that cannot mask the gloom

In theaters built like playing cards stacked up against all odds
actors drunk on White House dreams lead massacres like gods

Once Washington was Camelot, now it's Valley of the Dolls
And where our Eternal Flame was lit, only darkness falls

Politicians swear, with hand to God, to keep us free and strong
then drown us in false promises that placate us along

our journey to the future here in demographics land
where freedom is just a logo we buy at the t-shirt stands.

Oh corporate America, we bow our heads to thee
Will you sponsor every word in what's left of our libraries?

Will you decide whose thoughts are worthy of song or printed page?
who's the 'target audience' and whose ideas you'll wage?

America, land of the free, is it really thee, whose red
is blood that's spilled by kids in schools; on bombed out streets?

Whose blue's the bruised integrity of cherished freedom's heart
and whose only stars are the stars that shine on our TVs after dark?

America the beautiful, can things be what they seem?
Filled with dread, asleep, awake, we fear we've lost our dreams

We've stripped the stars off of our flag, it burns in effigy,
now the only stars are the stars that shine every night on our TV's

America the beautiful, is it really thee whose
only stars are the stars that shine every night on our TV's?

Copyright 2006

Independence Day Collage

“Some people are saying to celebrate on a day like today is very hypocritical. Because we are engaged in things that many people in the country disagree with.”
Hear more:



Most of those who frequent this blog have already heard this broadcast (heck it’s the only CD of airchecks I have! If anyone’s got more, please send!). But on this Independence Day, Bill Compton’s commentary and music collage from July 4, 1970 certainly bears repeating.
Compton was addressing the difficulty of joining in the flag-waving during a time the country was bitterly divided over a war and the president in charge (sound familiar?). At the time, the sides were divided not so much by red and green states as by which side of age 30 they fell on (kids, look up "generation gap" in Wikipedia). Ironically, of course, anyone listening to this audio who remembers hearing Compton on the radio is now on the other side of that gap – whoa! A bit of a mind-blower in itself. Nevertheless, Compton’s plea for tolerance and understanding between people of different beliefs sounds as urgent a message now as it did then, and should be required listened on this day.

Click on "Click to start" in the above playlist to hear the full 49-minute segment.
To listen in iTunes: subscribe to this podcast.
Or, download the complete broadcast as mp3 files: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7.

Media Snoozes While Supreme Court Justice Warns of American Dictatorship

When a Supreme Court Justice is worried about our government maybe we should pay attention?

NPR's Nina Totenberg was present at a talk that resigned Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave at Georgetown University in March 2006. Totenberg aired a story about the talk that has otherwise gotten no real media attention. Arizona's own O'Connor, speaking with passion and authority, warned about the "beginnings of dictatorship" in America. The first woman to serve on the High Court wouldn't allow her actual words to be broadcast which is chilling considering what she had to say. The Reagan appointee, a moderate and an American icon, shocked her audience with an astonishing wake up call which the media has all but ignored.

O'Connor all but named names in thinly veiled attacks on former House majority leader Tom DeLay and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. She ended her talk with a stunning warning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and formerly Communist countries, where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.

O'Connor told her Georgetown audience that judges can make presidents, Congress and governors "really really mad," and that if judges don't make people angry, they aren't doing their job. But she said judicial effectiveness is "premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts." While hailing the American system of rights and privileges, she noted that these don't protect the judiciary, that "people do."

Then, she took aim at former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. She quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the conservative Christian group 'Justice Sunday' last year, when DeLay took out after the courts for its rulings on abortion, prayer, and the Terry Schiavo case. DeLay was incensed that the federal courts had applied Congress' one-time-only statute about Schiavo as it was written, not, said O'Connor, as the Congressman wished it were written. The response to this 'f'lagrant display of judicial restraint' by the Supreme Court? The congressman blasted the courts, said O'Conner, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

It gets worse, she said, noting that DEATH THREATS against judges are increasing. It doesn’t help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with. It was Texas Sen. John Cornyn who made that statement after a Georgia judge was murdered in court and the family of a federal judge in Illinois murdered in the judge's home.


O’Connor observed that there have been lots of suggestions lately for "judicial reforms" like recommendations for the massive impeachment of judges, stripping the courts of jurisdictions and cutting judicial budgets to punish offending judges. Any of these might be debatable, she said, as long as they are NOT retaliation for decision that political leaders disagree with. "I am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning" O'Connor said.

(O'Connor resigned from the bench to care for her gravely ill husband.)
Link to source @ www.attywood.com and www.NPR.org