Thursday, February 15, 2007

Update on tape restoration

Hi-

I've been out sick most of the week, but will post a brief update on the tape restoration project that has been discussed here before. Jeff Crawford loaned me a tape deck that actually plays back at 1 7/8th IPS - a real rarity these days. Although the deck has some limitations and will not be adequate for archiving all of the tapes, it did give me a chance to listen to a few of them. There is plenty of public affairs programming but also some music, commercials, DJ talk, and a "community bulletin board" wherein Compton or Hank reads messages about people needing a ride to California, or giving away free kittens, or needing to buy a used car cheap, etc. And, most intriguing, there are some promotional spots for a TV show on KAET called "Stages" hosted by Bill Compton. So apparently he was doing a music show on local TV as early as 1970-1971! Anybody remember this? There are still a number of economic, technological, and practical challenges to dealt with before the tapes can be digitized and made available, but we're working on it.

Tom

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually have music from one of those shows posted on my site. When Vince Welnick died I pulled out some audio from the show on which the Beans appeared and Bill hosted. It's 36 years old but it can be found at www.auntran.com/Welnick. That particular show also featured the bands Memphis and New Moan Hey. I may still have their audio as well.

Anonymous said...

WHILE WE DEAL WITH SPAMMING ASSHOLES - Here is a message from a ship passing in the night in the form of Bob Rogers..... Former KDKB furniture weight, dreamer and father of Robin - one of the prettiest girls I've ever seen,,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Rogers" rwsfin@hotmail.com
To: jbouille@shawu.edu
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 12:05 AM
Subject: for Dick LaPalm

Dick called me tonight and said that "Downbeat" is doing an article on him.
He asked me to write something that he could quote from. He asked me to try
to describe what makes a great jazz radio dj. This is what I wrote for him.

What does it take?

Someone who is passionate about the music they play for their own pleasure, someone who is somewhat verbal and, quoting the legendary Mort Fega, "…someone sufficiently opinionated to be even moderately interesting on the air, someone who knows who they are and what they’re about."

That’s not a format,

that’s a resource.

It matters

and it happens

mostly late at night.

Bob Rogers

WSHA/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YO BOB:
Tell him I said "Follow your ears and heart and stay the hell OUT of Jazz politics and promotions!"

Ronco

Mariah Fleming said...

Holy cats, I haven't heard "Mort Fega" uttered in...well...I don't remember since when! Loved 'what makes a great jazz radio dj.' Wondering if dj will remain in the dictionary however. )o: May be replaced by rj-Robot Jockey??

Fran you have some amazing gems on your site. Did you know the Tubes are being inducted into the Az Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame? Will post when the event will be and details as they happen. Be great if you could come and hang out. It's a fun event.

Mariah Fleming said...

Tom,
Thanks for posting the update. Hope you are feeling better, you sounded miserable on the phone. It's going around...

If it hangs on you could become a great blues singer probably! That gravelly thing, you know, that Hans has down to a 'T' (o:

Anonymous said...

Mort Fega :

How could you not love a DJ who called himself "MF" ?
Had the pleasure of working with him at KXIV , and I'm here to testify that he was never boring.

His wife would occasionally take off for Miami (to hang in the Deli's ?), and his mood would change accordingly.
One nite he says, "I gotta whole new outlook on Life" :
"HooRay for ME, and Fu.k everyone else " !

Gotta luv 'im...

Anonymous said...

When I opened Dr.Munchies Grocery & Gathering Place in 73, I asked Ira Levin for a late night spot on Morts show 10 to...?....I wanted a live read of our menu and a read of the menu, per Mort...Damn but he delivered....At 1 AM people showed up an wanted his take of the treats we had to offer....Twinkie Teriffic, etc...
Yo, Mort Feiga was a saint, a Voice in the Night that spoke to the soul of the 70's we lived an died in...Dah ? More, Later, or not....Bob G, Dr Munchie, in another Life....

Anonymous said...

Hey, Bob R, Never forget what ya cant remember... Bob Gately

Anonymous said...

Hi Tom!
Hope your feeling better. We used the reel to reel with Equalizer and compression amp. With that you can get much better sound off the old tapes and be able to clean up the pops and scratches. Good luck!! KAET "Stages" I wounder if there are nay video tapes in KAET's vault?
Best,
Jeff & Jennifer Crawford

Mariah Fleming said...

Dr Munchies...wow...that takes me back to a good place. Many a night into the wee hours my pals and I spent at Munchies near the campus. And many a soiree at the Scottsdale location too. It was a real disappointment when those closed.

Dr Munchies remains one of the most lingering memories of innovative thinking in the Valley. You also supported local music! Now, where in the world can a strolling violin duo get work here? Or acoustic guitarists and singers

It's beyond a bummer that innovative thinking has disappeared almost completely here in the last few decades. Thanks for making it happen when you did.

freespeak@gmail.com said...

YO TOM....

I know you have been feeling like four nights with Janis Joplin and two more with Captain Beefheart but I just wanted to say THANKS! For what you are doing with the archives. Your well-educated approach is admirable. If you run into anything prior to about June of 1969 you MIGHT hear me on it, probably in a Moody Blues sandwich.

I didn't talk a lot. When I did Tucson just before Hank went down, I used the air name "Shadow" and I think some networthy airchecks may have credited Shadow Stevens with my work although I believe he was in a different part of the country at the time.

I would like to hear what I sounded like in those days. It would give me some idea of the quality of the drugs of the time.
I seem to recall them as being quite good although reality was something we kind of made up as we went along.....

Ronco

Tom Wright said...

Ron - thanks for the sympathy, I think I'm back up and running now. I always get some sort of crud at the change of seasons, pretty reliably in October and March, although it seems to have come early this year.

I have a brief (30-40 minutes) tape of KDKB, post-midnight, sometime in 1974, in which a wasted-sounded DJ says something like "This is Ron, here's some more music." Is that you?

Tom

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dear Memory Momma, Mariah...We were there and Mort was a spirited member of a community of concerned cultural critics that spoke from a heart burning with the desire for our town to be truly turned on...tuned in and takin over...As Tim was saying at the time...But, thats another story....Bob

freespeak@gmail.com said...

Yep Tom... That was NOT some of my best work although at the time, I (and the nose candy) may have thought so. I was caught in a Mahavishnu John McLaughlin Jazz Fusion Time Warp for a month of Sundays and should have been in church instead. I finally had to bail out of KDKB to go find Ron.

I wound up camping for several days at the edge of the Flagstaff city dump then moved on to a little station in Williams, AZ where I immediately ran into Ted Dickenso who had just steped off of a UFO at the Post Office.

That too, is another story.

We gotta get some Southern Comfort and do something about those seasonal colds of yours.

Ronco

Mariah Fleming said...

Well, fellas, I get 'seasonal colds' too, and since Russ Shaw strongly advised me to to EXACTLY as Ronco says...it could get interesting.

Embarrassing but true: I have never had a taste of Southern Comfort (unless you count the kind a very nice long gone southern guitar man knew how to give and I'm not telling)

Ahh to be 20 again!!! Or at least to do the things I wish I had done at 20 again (o:

Anonymous said...

The correct URL from Fran Bennet is of course http://www.auntfran.com/Welnick/, not www.auntran.com/Welnick. The difference is that the latter is missing the letter "f"

Atomicrev said...

I was a waiter there in 1976