admin's blog
The Sovines Reunite to Support Community Radio
Long-time Columbus “trucker country” band The Sovines are playing a special show at Cafe Bourbon Street, Thursday July 10 in support of community radio station WCRS. Joining them on the bill are Bee Humana and Closet Mix.
The Sovines formed in 1995 when a friend suggested to Bob Starker and Matthew Benz that they should form a band to play country truck driving songs and call themselves “the Sovines”, after famed country singer Red Sovine. It might have been said in jest, but Starker and Benz ran with it. With bass player Ed Mann and drummer Pete English (and later Gene Brodeur on drums), the Sovines took their revved-up take on truck-driving songs, punky rock n’ roll, country ballads and roots rock on the road and in the studio, through five albums and a lot of shows. This show will mark their first live appearance in over three years.
Bee Humana is an elegant, muddy, and thoroughly lichenized garage folk-rock trio. Singer-songwriter Bee sings in English and Spanish and plays non-classical guitar on a classical guitar. She is backed by Dave Holm (of Ugly Stick/Bigfoot) on bass and backup vocals; and Sam Brown (of the New Bomb Turks and Divine Fits) on drums. Their sound has been described as “Elis Regina and Carlos Jobim sitting in with The Dirty Three and Cat Stevens in a moonlit back-alley show, fully amped.” They’ve been playing around the Columbus area together for a couple of years now and are soon to release their first EP.
Closet Mix rounds out the bill. A quartet of local music veterans, Closet Mix is Paul Nini (Great Plains, Log) on bass and vocals, Chris Nini (Log) on keyboards, Dan Della Flora (Red Skylark, Van Echo) on drums, and Keith Novicki (Vena Cava) on guitar. Principal songwriter Paul Nini describes Closet Mix as stubborn local veterans that refuse to stop making their peculiar brand of indie-rock, which is steeped in the 80s college radio sound they all grew up with.
Nelsonville Festival 2024 Previews
Radio 614 interns, past and present, have been hard at work creating a series of shows that feature musicians playing this month's Nelsonville Music Festival
Preview #1
This first episode is from Sarah Jinx and features tracks from Courtney Barnett, Snõõper, Amyl and the Sniffers, The Nude Party, Spoon Benders, and more. It really illustrates the breadth and depth of music that one can take in at the fest.
Preview #2
Next up is Evan, with an interview with Athens singer/songwriter Caitlin Kraus. Caitlin talks about her songwriting process, the Athens Songwriter Circle, her past experiences at NMF, and who she's looking forward to seeing this year. Along the way, we also hear from Thee Sacred Souls, Bob Mould, Indigo De Souza, Florry, and more.
Preview #3
Sarah dropped another mix this week. This one features a track from NMF stalwart Michael Hurley, along with Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Sheer Mag, Will Oldham, Viv & Riley, The Wonderfool, PAL, and a whole lot more.
- Login to post comments
Paisley Rug Power Hour
Music Columbus “Earn As You Learn” summer intern Evan dropped the first episode of The Paisley Rug Power Hour during the Tuesday night "Ear Opener" slot. Evan did two interviews, one with Andy Pastalaniec of Chime School and another with Keith and Glenn Kochanowicz of Riverside. Jangle-freaks, take heed!
“Pink-paisley-tele-dec08-2” by Mike Rodriquez is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Playlist:
- Riverside - Waterfall
- The Connells - Darker Days
- interviews - Chime School Interview
- The Ocean Blue - Cerulean
- R.E.M. - Disturbance At The Heron House
- interviews - Riverside Interview
- Chime School - Give Your Heart Away
- Veronica Lake - Threnody
- Login to post comments
The Ear Opener - June 11, 2024
This show features new post-punk sounds that I'm so fond of and then mixes it up a bit with other pop sub-genres in the second half. Full playlist, as always, is below with bandcamp links.
"headphone graffiti!" by demcanulty is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .
The Ear Opener - June 4, 2024
pat radio awakens from his sleep with a new show called The Ear Opener, which is Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. Here's last night's show, which features mostly new post-punk with a little dub, electronic and international music for good measure.
Playlist:
FCC approves WCRS-LP license transfer
On November 2nd, Peter Doyle, Chief of the FCC’s Audio Division, Media Bureau, approved Simply Living’s (SL) request to transfer our community radio broadcast license to The Neighborhood Network (TNN). The transfer will become effective when legal and liability arrangements have been finalized by TNN and SL, and we notify the FCC.
Bexley Public Radio Foundation, SL’s timeshare partner on 102.1 FM, will now work with TNN to seek agreement for assigning all hours of the 24/7 broadcast clock. Currently WCRS broadcasts from 3-8 p.m. daily and WCRX, Bexley’s station, broadcasts from 11a.m. – 1 p.m. weekdays.
As a community asset, WCRS, in its short 40 months of broadcasting, has provided unique and valuable programming to Central Ohio, the majority of which is locally produced. Especially noteworthy are the following Central Ohio firsts:
First to air Democracy Now!, the nation’s premier independently produced news program
First to air Somali language programming, serving the 2nd largest Somali population
First to air a locally-produced youth radio program, Youth Beat Radio
First to air Pacifica programming
“The FCC’s decision is a victory for more full-bodied community radio in Central Ohio,” notes Marilyn Welker, Executive Director of Simply Living. “Accessibility to people and viewpoints who are otherwise not represented in today’s radio environment is more critical than ever for informed and engaged citizens. Community radio can provide this unique and valuable medium.” WCRS with its rebroadcast on 98.3 FM, the translator station owned by Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism, enables much wider listenership for the station. Central Ohio, in fact, is the largest metro area in the nation to be served by low power radio, and WCRS is the nation’s only low power station to be rebroadcast on a translator station.
WCRS Receives Comfest's Community Organization of the Year Award
With 38 years of celebrating community values and an annual feat of putting on one of Columbus' best festivals with a passionate all-volunteer crew, the Comfest organizers have our total admiration. So we were totally tickled to receive Comfest's Honored Community Organization Award for our community radio station, WCRS 102.1 and 98.3 FM this past June 26th.
In presenting the award on behalf of the Comfest Committee, Connie Everett spoke of the importance of WCRS in bringing unrepresented and underrepresented voices to Columbus listeners. Jayme Richards and Robb Ebright accepted the award on behalf of our dedicated and talented WCRS volunteers. Having just celebrated our 3rd anniversary of broadcasting, we've learned how challenging--and important--community radio is. Helpers are always welcome and needed--visit http://www.wcrsfm.org/volunteer to sign up!
Thanks to all of our dedicated helpers for greeting and talking with Festival goers at our Simply Living and WCRS booths, and for assisting the Comfest Committee with security and clean-up: Jayme Richards; Robb Ebright; Eugene Beer; Evan Davis; Pat Leonard; Joey Pigg; Adam Fleischer; Bridgette Kreuz; Cheryle Williams; Pat Roach; Ryan Branch; Kenny Acker; Carlotta Penn; Chuck Robol; Tim Anstaett; Josh Tulecke-Paulson; Kevin Menefield; and Joe Atzberger.
- Login to post comments
