Wednesday MidDay Medley
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

WMM Talks Radio w/ Sarah Bradshaw + Michael Byars + Chris Haghirian

1. “It’s Showtime Folks”
   from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / Dec. 20, 1979
   [WMM theme]

2. Joy Division – “Transmission”
   from: Permanent / Qwest Records and Warner Bros. / August 15, 1995
   [Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. // Permanent is a compilation album by English post-punk band Joy Division. It was released in the United Kingdom on May 8 1995 by London Records and in the United States on August 15, 1995 by Qwest Records and Warner Bros. Records. The album charted for three weeks and peaked at number 16 on the UK Albums Chart. // Permanent contains tracks from the band’s two studio albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer, as well as other tracks previously released on the compilations Substance and Still. // Transmission” was originally recorded in 1978 for the band’s aborted self-titled album, it was later re-recorded the following year at a faster tempo and released by record label Factory as the band’s debut single. // “Transmission” was released on 7″ vinyl in October 1979 by record label Factory. It was re-released as a 12″ single with a different sleeve in December 1980. The single charted twice in New Zealand, debuting at number 2 in September 1981 and re-appearing again at number 24 in July 1984. // The song was performed once by the band on television, for the BBC Something Else programme. Twenty seconds of the song is shown in the movie Control (2007), directed by Anton Corbijn, a film based on the biography of Ian’s wife, Deborah Curtis’s Touching from a Distance. // Greil Marcus has a chapter on this song in his book The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs. According to Marcus, “‘Transmission’ is not an argument. It’s a dramatization of the realization that the act of listening to the radio is a suicidal gesture. It will kill your mind. It will rob your soul.” Marcus also quotes the band’s bassist Peter Hook about the importance of this song: “We were doing a soundcheck at the Mayflower, in May, and we played ‘Transmission’: people had been moving around, and they all stopped to listen. I realized that was our first great song.” // In May 2007, NME magazine placed “Transmission” at number 20 in its list of the 50 “Greatest Indie Anthems Ever”, one place below “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. In 2016, Pitchfork placed “Transmission” at number 10 in its list of “The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s”. // “Transmission” has been covered by: Low (on its EP Transmission); Bauhaus (as well as by frontman Peter Murphy on his solo tours); Innerpartysystem; The Weather Station; Girl in a Coma; and Hot Chip on the 2009 War Child charity album Heroes. It was played by The Smashing Pumpkins on their Adore Tour in 1998, with performances of the song usually lasting from 15 to 25 minutes. It was also covered by the cast of Control, a biographical film about the life of Ian Curtis. In 2009, the song was covered by Russian post-punk group Последние танки в Париже as “Радиоволна”.]

10:04 – Interview with Sarah Bradshaw + Michael Byars + Chris Haghirian

Today, Wednesday MidDay Medley Talks Radio with Sarah Bradshaw of 90.9 The Bridge + Michael Byars of 89.3 KCUR + Chris Haghirian of Eight Oner Sixty on The Bridge.

We will spin songs about Radio from: Psychic Heat, Joy Division, Tito Larriva with Talking Heads, Nivea, Thundercat, Joni Mitchell, Wall of Voodoo, Regina Spektor, R.E.M., KRS-One, Molly O’Day & The Cumberland Mountain Folks, Donna Summer, and Eazy-E. We started with Joy Division and their song “Transmission.”

Plus, we welcome three voices of the radio free airwaves…

Sarah Bradshaw is 90.9 The Bridge‘s music coordinator and an on-air host evenings 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Sarah also hosts & produces “Recently Released” on Mondays at 8:00pm and co-hosts with Chris Haghirian for Eight One Sixty on Tuesdays at 6:00pm. Sarah received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Broadcast Media from the University of Central Missouri in 2007. Sarah received her Masters in Mass Communications from the University of Central Missouri in 2010. Sarah is currently working on her PhD in Communications Studies at The University of Kansas. Sarah worked as a Speech Instructor of State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Missouri. Sarah balances her academic work and extensive radio work with her husband Homer of 25 years and their 5-year old daughter Kezia. Sarah is an Air Force kid from way back with over twenty years in the Kansas City area, Sarah has been all around the world, but KC is her home. More info at: http://www.bridge909.org

Sarah Bradshaw thanks for being with us on Wednesday Midday Medley

Michael Byars graduated from Minnetonka High School in 1980. Michael has been associated with 89.3 KCUR ever since he first started volunteering for them in 1997. Michael also helped at other KCUR events such as the Great Record Sale I & II, the Ethnic Enrichment Festival, and both live broadcasts of “A Prairie Home Companion” from Starlight Theatre. His on-air career began in December 2000, as a part-time announcer during classical music. He later became KCUR’s Saturday afternoon announcer before being named full-time Morning Edition announcer in 2002. Michael also serves as KCUR’s Music Coordinator and performs various other duties, including occasionally getting to spin records as a fill-in host for “The Fish Fry,” the station’s long-running blues and soul program. Michael is proud to be a long-time supporter of the Midwest Music Foundation and the tireless work they do for the local music community. More info at: http://www.kcur.org

Michael Byars thanks for being with us on Wednesday Midday Medley

Chris Haghirian is host & Producer of Eight One Sixty, heard Tuesday nights at 6:00 PM, on 90.9 The Bridge. Chris worked for The KC Star for over 20 years and INK Magazine. Chris studied Journalism & Advertising at The University of Kansas. Chris also studied Photography at Kansas City Art Institute. Chris Haghirian currently works for Spray KC an organization that works to inspire people. From students in schools, to attendees of community festivals, to people driving by once blighted buildings, our goal is to give small glimpses of inspiration & joy to people through art around KC. Chris co-founded The Middle of The Map Fest, organizes multiple concert series, and coordinates talent on the music stages for Boulevardia, The Plaza Art Fair, Kauffman Stadium, The Chiefs, and The Innovation Fest, and others. More information at: http://www.spraykc.com

Chris Haghirian thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

All three of our guests have dedicated a huge part of their lives to radio.

Michael Byars, Kansas City radio listeners start their day with you, perhaps when their alarm clock wakes them or as they are driving to work.

Chris Haghirian is the Wizard behind the the OZ of Kansas City’s biggest music festivals, while working for The Star he co-founded the Middle of The Map Fest that brought Peter Hook and The Light to a Westport Parking Lot on a cloudy overcast Saturday night on April 25, 2015, where the band played from both of Joy Division’s two studio albums and from their singles, ending with Joy Divisions first single: “Transmission” followed by their last single: “Love Will Tear Us Apart” release a month after lead singer Ian Curtis’s suicide. Like many in print journalism, Chris has made the transition to Radio with his weekly show Eight One Sixty on The Bridge.
Sarah Bradshaw is a frequent co-host and engineer for Chris on Eight One Sixty.

Before Eight One Sixty, Michael Byars and Chris Haghirian co-hosted a podcast featuring local Kansas City and Lawrence bands.

10:22

3. Joni Mitchell – “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio”
   from: For The Roses / Asylum / 1972
   [“You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio” is a song written and originally recorded by Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell. It was released on her fifth studio album entitled For the Roses and was issued as a single as well. // Joni Mitchell originally wrote the song in response to her record label’s desire for her to write a hit song. Mitchell reveals her purpose on lines such as, “And I’m sending you out this signal here, I hope you can pick it up loud and clear”. She believed that including words in the song about radio themes would convince stations to play the recording. The song was recorded in preparation for Mitchell’s then-upcoming fifth studio album in Hollywood, California at A&M Studios. Although Graham Nash, David Crosby, and Neil Young all contributed to the recording session for the song, only the harmonica piece performed by Graham Nash was included on the official release. // “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio” was released as a single in November 1972 via Asylum Records. The song became Mitchell’s first top-ten hit in Canada, reaching the tenth position on the RPM Top Singles chart. Additionally, the single became her first top-forty hit in the United States, reaching number twenty-five on the Billboard Hot 100. Outside North America, “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio” peaked within the top forty on the Australian Kent Music Report chart.[6] The single was included on Mitchell’s fifth studio effort For the Roses, which was issued in November 1972. // For The Roses was released between her 2 biggest commercial and critical successes, “Blue” and “Court & Spark.” In 2007 it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. “For the Roses” was Mitchell’s farewell to the business; she took an extended break for a year after. The album was critically acclaimed with The New York Times saying, “Each of Mitchell’s songs on For the Roses is a gem glistening with her elegant way with language, her pointed splashes of irony & her perfect shaping of images. Never does Mitchell voice a thought or feeling commonly. She’s a songwriter and singer of genius who can’t help but make us feel we are not alone.” A nude photograph of Joni Mitchell was included on the inside cover of the original LP and is included in the CD booklet. The photograph shows the singer from the rear & was taken from a considerable distance; she is shown standing on a rock and staring out at the ocean. This created some controversy at the time.]

4. Eazy-E – “Radio”
   from: Eazy-Duz-It / Ruthless Records / November 22, 1988
   [Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. He is often referred to as the “Godfather of Gangsta Rap”. // Born and raised in Compton, California, Wright had several legal troubles before founding Ruthless in 1987. After a short solo career with frequent collaboration with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, they joined, forming N.W.A, later that year. N.W.A’s debut studio album, Straight Outta Compton, was released in 1988. Controversial upon release, it is now ranked among the greatest and most influential albums ever. The group released its second and final studio album, Niggaz4Life, in 1991, and soon after disbanded. // During N.W.A’s splintering, largely by disputes over money, Eazy-E became embroiled in bitter rivalries with Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, who had departed for solo careers in 1989 and 1991, respectively. Resuming his solo career Eazy-E released two EPs, yet he remained more significant behind the scenes, signing and nationally debuting the rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony from 1993 to 1994. He died from HIV/AIDS-related illness in 1995. // Eric Wright was born to Richard and Kathie Wright on September 7, 1964, in Compton, California, a Los Angeles suburb once noted for high crime rates and gang culture. His father was a postal worker and his mother was a grade-school administrator. // Wright dropped out of high school in the tenth grade, but later received a general equivalency diploma (GED). // No one survived on the streets without a protective mask. No one survived naked. You had to have a role. You had to be “thug,” “playa,” “athlete,” “gangsta,” or “dope man.” Otherwise, there was only one role left to you: “victim.” – Jerry Heller on Eazy-E/ // Wright supported himself mainly by selling drugs, and introduced his cousin to the illicit occupation. Wright’s music manager Jerry Heller recalls seeing Wright selling marijuana, but not cocaine. Heller would claim that Wright’s “dope dealer” label was part of his “self-forged armor”. Wright was also labeled as a “thug”. Heller explains: “The hood where he grew up was a dangerous place. He was a small guy. ‘Thug’ was a role that was widely understood on the street; it gave you a certain level of protection in the sense that people hesitated to fuck with you. Likewise, ‘dope dealer’ was a role that accorded you certain privileges and respect.” // In 1986, at age 22, Wright had allegedly earned as much as US$250,000 from dealing drugs. However, after his cousin was shot and killed, he decided that he could make a better living in the Los Angeles hip hop scene, which was growing rapidly in popularity. He started recording songs during the mid-1980s in his parents’ garage, thus starting Ruthless Records.// The original idea for Ruthless Records came when Wright asked Heller to go into business with him. Wright suggested a half-ownership company, but it was later decided that Wright would get eighty percent of the company’s income and Heller would only get twenty percent. According to Heller, he told Wright, “Every dollar comes into Ruthless, I take twenty cents. That’s industry standard for a manager of my caliber. I take twenty, you take eighty percent. I am responsible for my expenses and you’re responsible for yours. You own the company. I work for you.” Along with Heller, Wright invested much of his money into Ruthless Records. Heller claims that he invested the first $250,000 and would eventually put up to $1,000,000 into the company. // Eazy-E’s debut album, Eazy-Duz-It, was released in 1988, and featured twelve tracks. It was labeled as West Coast hip hop, gangsta rap and, later, as golden age hip hop. It has sold over 2.5 million copies in the United States and reached number forty-one on the Billboard 200. The album was produced by Dr. Dre and DJ Yella and largely written by MC Ren, Ice Cube, and The D.O.C. Both Glen Boyd from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and MTV’s Jon Wiederhorn claimed that Eazy-Duz-It “paved the way” for N.W.A’s most controversial album, Straight Outta Compton. Wright’s only solo in the album was a remix of the song “8 Ball”, which originally appeared on N.W.A. and the Posse. The album featured Wright’s writing and performing; he performed on seven songs and helped write four songs. // On February 24, 1995, Wright was admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with a violent cough. He was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. He announced his illness in a public statement on March 16. It is believed Wright contracted the infection from a sexual partner. During the week of March 20, having already made amends with Ice Cube, he drafted a final message to his fans. On March 26, Eazy-E died from AIDS-induced pneumonia, one month after his diagnosis. He was 30 years old (most reports at the time said he was 31 due to the falsification of his date of birth by one year). He was buried on April 7, at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Over 3,000 people attended his funeral, including Ice Cube and DJ Yella. He was buried in a gold casket, and was dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans, and his Compton hat. His final album, Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton, was released ten months after his death on January 30, 1996.]

10:29 – Underwriting

5. R.E.M. – “Radio Song (feat. KRS-One)”
   from: Out Of Time / Warner Bros. / March 12, 1991
   [“Radio Song” was the fourth single from their seventh album, Out of Time, where it appears as the opening track. Lead singer Michael Stipe once said that he hoped everyone had enough sense of humor to realize that he was “kind of taking the piss of everyone,” himself included. Stipe also asked KRS-One, leader of Boogie Down Productions (of which Stipe was a fan), to contribute to the track. He provides some backing vocals for the track, as well as a closing rap, and appears prominently in the video. // Dele Fadele from NME named “Radio Song” Single of the Week, adding, “The most galvanizing radio-wave song since Joy Division’s “Transmission” sees Messrs Berry, Buck and Mills pressure-cooking some dirty funk with poignant pauses (‘radio silence’ as an act of subversion).” Another editor, Terry Staunton, declared it as “predictably the most curious and out of character track, which switches from gentle Velvet Underground strumming to anxious funk workout.” Parry Gettelman from Orlando Sentinel viewed it as one of the album’s “strongest cuts” and “an adventurous amalgam of jangly funk and sugary-sweet pop balladry, with KRS-1 a good foil for otherworldly singer Michael Stipe.” He added, “While Stipe is, as usual, a bit oblique (“I’ve everything to show/I’ve everything to hide/ look into my eyes – listen”), KRS-1’s words are unambiguous (“Now our children grow up prisoners/all their life – radio listeners”).” Celia Farber from Spin felt it’s one of the few “that rocks out a little [on the album], settling intermittently on a classic dramatic R.E.M. moment, with a crescendo of arpeggiated guitars and words about the world collapsing.” // Out of Time is the seventh studio album by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on March 12, 1991, by Warner Bros. Records. With Out of Time, R.E.M.’s status grew from that of a cult band to a massive international act. The record topped the album sales charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, spending 109 weeks on U.S. album charts and, with two separate spells at the top, and spending 183 weeks on the British charts, including one week at the top. The album has sold more than four and a half million copies in the United States and more than 18 million copies worldwide. Out of Time won three Grammy Awards in 1992: one as Best Alternative Music Album, and two for its first single, “Losing My Religion.” // Out of Time combines elements of pop, folk and classical music heard on the band’s previous album, Green, with a new concentration on country elements that would continue on 1992’s Automatic for the People. It features guest appearances by KRS-One and Kate Pierson from The B-52’s. // Preceded by the release of “Losing My Religion,” which became R.E.M.’s biggest U.S. hit, Out of Time gave them their first U.S. and UK No. 1 album. The band did not tour to support the release, although they did make occasional appearances on television or at festivals. In Germany, it is the band’s best-selling album, selling more than 1,250,000 copies, reaching 5× gold. Out of Time was the first R.E.M. album to have an alternative expanded release on compact disc, including expanded liner notes and postcards. In Spain, a contest was held to have a limited-edition cover, with the winner being an abstract oil painting. // For the 25th anniversary the album was remastered. The standard version of the reissue comes with a second disc of demos, the deluxe version adds a third disc featuring live acoustic tracks. It was released through Concord Records on November 18, 2016. // Warner Bros. Records executive Jeff Gold, alongside Rock the Vote campaign co-founder and Virgin Records executive Jeff Ayeroff, approached R.E.M. in regards to printing a petition on the back of Out of Time’s CD longbox packaging in the United States, where buyers were encouraged to sign their name in support for Rock the Vote, who were in support of the Motor Voter Act to ease voter registration, and would allow voters “to register through their local DMV.” Gold reasoned, considering many of the album’s buyers would be young, that this could “vote out” the controversial Parents Music Resource Center music censorship bill, who “put pressure on the creators and distributors of ‘objectionable’ music,” as well as make good use of the popular longbox packaging format of the day, which many artists and customers considered unnecessary and wasteful. Michael Stipe also appeared in a public service announcement for the campaign. // In July 2014, radio show 99% Invisible said that because of this packaging, Out of Time is “the most politically significant album in the history of the United States.” They said that three weeks after the album’s release, “they had received 10,000 petitions, 100 per senator, and they just kept coming in droves,” and a month following its release, the campaign’s political director and members of KMD “wheeled a shopping cart full of the first 10,000 petitions into a senate hearing.” The bill was eventually passed in 1993 by Bill Clinton and was in effect January 1, 1995; one commentary later said this happened “in no small part because of R.E.M.’s lobbying.”]

10:35 – More interview with Sarah Bradshaw + Michael Byars + Chris Haghirian

Today, Wednesday MidDay Medley Talks Radio with Sarah Bradshaw of 90.9 The Bridge + Michael Byars of 89.3 KCUR + Chris Haghirian of Eight Oner Sixty on The Bridge.

There are documented studies that have shown that “Your brain is more active when you are sleeping than when you are watching television.” One of the reasons why brain activity is so low when watching television is because you don’t really have to do any thinking. When you read or listen to the radio, for example, you have to mentally create images of what you are reading or hearing.

Radio is so personal. We build relationships with listeners.

The Kansas City Radio Landscape – KCUR 89.3, KKFI 90.1, and KTBG 90.9 are all on the left end of the dial.

The Bridge has a regular team of daily announcers, Jon Hart, Bryan Truta, Misti Mundae and Sarah Bradshaw along with individuals like Robert Moore, DJ Ray Velasquez, Cuee, Skylar Rochelle, Michael Atchinson, and Chris Haghirian.

KKFI 90.1 FM has 80, weekly locally produced radio shows and 5 monthly locally produced radio shows, produced by 150 programmers and hosts, with a team of 225 active volunteers and 4 paid staff members.

KCUR 89.3 has a staff of 75 paid employees. Recently KCUR gave birth a sister station: 91. 9 Classical KC.

10:53

6. Molly O’Day & The Cumberland Mountain Folks – “Heaven’s Radio”
   from: Molly O’Day & The Cumberland Mountain Folks / Bear Family / Nov. 17, 2006 (1994)
   (2-CD LP-sized box set with 44-page booklet)
   [They called her ‘the female Roy Acuff’ for the way she sang pure mountain music in a full-throated style. Her backings featured all traditional instruments, like the dobro and fiddle. Mac Wiseman and Carl Smith are among the luminaries who worked on her sessions. These 36 titles are everything Molly recorded for Columbia between 1946-1951. Songs include Tramp On The Street, When God Comes And Gathers His Jewels, The Black Sheep Returned To The Fold, The Tear Stained Letter, The First Fall Of Snow, Poor Ellen Smith, Heaven’s Radio, Don’t Sell Daddy Any More Whiskey, as well the first recorded versions of two Hank Williams songs, On The Evening Train and The Singing Waterfall. Pure mountain music! // Molly O’Day (July 9, 1923 – December 5, 1987) was an American country music vocalist. O’Day was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007. // Lois LaVerne Williamson was born on a farm in Pike County, Kentucky, United States, to Joseph and Hester Williamson. Her father supported the family as a coalminer. Neither of her parents played music but Lois got together with her two brothers, Cecil and Joe, to practice singing and playing. Lois and her two brothers, who called themselves Skeets and Duke, began performing at local dances. // In 1939, Skeets was hired to perform in a radio band: Ervin Staggs and His Radio Ramblers at WCHS, Charleston, West Virginia. One of the more famous members of the group was Johnnie Bailes. That same year Molly also joined the Radio Ramblers as a vocalist under the pseudonym Mountain Fern. She worked with a banjoist called Murphy McClees and changed her name to Dixie Lee Williamson] Within a couple of months, she and her two brothers quit and moved to Williamson, West Virginia, to perform at a local radio station. In 1940, Lois and her two brothers moved to Beckley, West Virginia, to join the Happy Valley Boys, led by Johnnie Bailes. The band did not make much money and it disintegrated in the fall of 1940. // In 1940, Lois applied for the position as a vocalist in the band Lynn Davis and His Forty-Niners, who had performed on WHIS in Bluefield, West Virginia for the past four years. A few months later, on April 5, 1941, Lynn Davis and Lois Williamson were married. The Forty-Niners appeared on several locations in the southeast and during one gig in Birmingham, Alabama, Hank Williams performed with the group. In 1941, Lois changed her name to Molly O’Day, as there was already a singer named Dixie Lee. In 1945, Davis decided to change the band’s name to the Cumberland Mountain Folks. // The new band became a hot act. In 1946, the head of Acuff-Rose, Fred Rose heard Molly sing “Tramp on the Street”, a Grady Cole song she learned from Williams. Rose arranged a recording contract with Columbia Records. Molly O’Day and The Cumberland Mountain Folks made their first recordings on December 16, 1946. On these first recordings, Mac Wiseman appeared on bass. During her first years as a recording artist, Molly O’Day’s popularity increased, but she started to have doubts about her life’s choice. By 1951, she had made her last recording session for Columbia Records. // Although O’Day recorded albums for Bob Mooney’s Rem label (later reissued on Starday) and GRS Records in the 1960s, she preferred to sing in churches and do evangelistic work. Both the Smithsonian Institution and Ralph Stanley tried without success to get her back onstage. In February 1974, Molly and Lynn started a program on a Christian radio station in Huntington, West Virginia, featuring gospel recordings. // In the 1980s, her health began to deteriorate after she was diagnosed with cancer. She died on December 5, 1987, aged 64, at the Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. She was survived by her husband Lynn Davis.]

7. Psychic Heat – “Black Radio”
   from: Sunshower / High Dive Records / May 27, 2016
   [Psychic Heat was created by Evan Herd & Tanner Spreer. After releasing their EP Lighter and Brighter in 2015 they quickly turned their attention to their first full length Sunshower being released through High Dive Records. Sunshower is Engineered by Ron Miller (Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds) & mixed/mastered by Kliph Scurlock (previously of the Flaming Lips). Psychic Heat is: Steve/Evan Herd on guitar & vocals, Tanner Spreer on guitar & vocals, James Thomblison on bass, and Mark Rockwell on drums.]

11:00 – Station ID

8. Wall Of Voodoo – “Mexican Radio”
   from: Call of the West / I.R.S. Records / September, 1982
   [“Mexican Radio” is a song by American rock band Wall of Voodoo. The track was initially released on their second studio album Call of the West (1982). // The video for the single was regularly featured on MTV in the United States, contributing to the song’s popularity. The song peaked in the US at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also reached No. 18 in Canada, No. 21 in New Zealand, No.33 in Australia and No. 64 in the UK. // The song’s lyrics describe listening to the broadcasts of high-wattage unregulated Mexican radio stations, known as border blasters, whose AM broadcasts are strong enough to be picked up by radio receivers in the US. The song was inspired by car trips taken by Wall of Voodoo frontman Stan Ridgway and guitarist Marc Moreland on their way to rehearsals, when they would listen to Mexican broadcasts, preferring their programming to mainstream Los Angeles radio. During one of the band’s sessions, Moreland played them a demo tape that he had recorded of himself repeatedly singing the line “I’m on a Mexican radio” over a guitar riff and that sound clip became the starting point of the single. // The lyrics for “Mexican Radio” were written by Ridgway and Moreland; the music was written by Moreland. // Producer Richard Mazda and recording engineer Jess Sutcliffe, both from England, were invited to Los Angeles to record with Wall of Voodoo by Miles Copeland, founder of I.R.S. Records. The songs “Mexican Radio” and “Suburban Lawns”, from Wall of Voodoo’s album Call of the West, were recorded with Mazda and Sutcliffe over the course of a weekend at Hit City West studios in Los Angeles. // In order to emulate the sounds of AM radio, many of the song’s instruments, including the synthesizers, were played through amplifiers, rather than being recorded directly through the microphones to the mixing console. They recorded some of Moreland’s guitar through an amplifier placed in the restroom at the back of the studio and Ridgway sang some of the vocals through a handmade bullhorn. The song also includes soundbites recorded by Ridgway during a trip to Mexico, including the broadcast of a dog race that was playing over a radio in a bar that he visited. // The song was recorded using a Soundcraft mixing console and one 24-track recorder along with Shure and AKG microphones. The synthesizer parts were played on a Minimoog and an Oberheim-8 voice sequencer, the majority of which were recorded through Fender Twin Reverb and Vox AC30 amplifiers. It is the Oberheim-8 that was used to create the sounds right at the opening of the song. The instrumental track for “Mexican Radio” was created using two different drum machines: a Roland TR-808 and a Kalamazoo Rhythm Ace, an older device once owned by voice actor Daws Butler. // The video for “Mexican Radio” was featured regularly on MTV in the weeks following its release. It was the first music video created by filmmaker and former the Bruthers frontman Frank Delia, who had been a long-time friend of Wall of Voodoo band members. The video impressed the Ramones, who hired Delia to direct videos for them as a result. // The video also includes bizarre imagery, including a shot of Ridgway’s face surfacing from a bowl of beans. Some of the footage was shot in Tijuana, Mexico at the bullfights. Also, actor Carel Struycken makes a brief appearance playing the video’s director. // The video cost $15,000 to make and was originally shot on film. // Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single “Mexican Radio” became a hit on MTV and alternative radio. The band was known for surrealist lyrics drawing on iconography of the American southwest. // Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, a film score business started by Stan Ridgway, later the vocalist and harmonica player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks’ office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene. Marc Moreland, guitarist for the Skulls, began jamming with Ridgway at the Acme Soundtracks office and the soundtrack company morphed into a new wave band. In 1977, with the addition of Skulls members Bruce Moreland (Marc Moreland’s brother) as bassist and Chas T. Gray as keyboardist, along with Joe Nanini, who had been the drummer for the Bags, the Eyes, and Black Randy and the Metrosquad, the first lineup of the band was born, named Wall of Voodoo before their first show in reference to a comment made by Joe Berardi, a friend of Ridgway’s and member of the Fibonaccis.]

11:04 – More interview with Sarah Bradshaw + Michael Byars + Chris Haghirian

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. Today, Wednesday MidDay Medley Talks Radio with Sarah Bradshaw of 90.9 The Bridge + Michael Byars of 89.3 KCUR + Chris Haghirian of Eight Oner Sixty on The Bridge.

There are so many songs about the radio:

Radio – White Girl
Radio – Emily King – Seven
Radio – Sylvan Esso – What Now
Radio – Kristie Stremel – Here Comes The Light
Radio – Elevator Division – Years
Radio – Maal, Tom Richman – Grass LP
Radio – Kristen Ford Band – Tighten it Up
Radio – Horse Stories – Radio Radio
Radio 4 – Public Image Ltd. – Second Edition
Radio 80 – Nortec Collective Presents: Clorofila Corridos Urbanos
Radio On – Ex Hex – Rips
Radio Fly – Joel Plaskett – Emergency
Radio War – Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days
Radio Star – Martha Wainwright- Come Home to Mama
Radio Nine – Buzzcocks – Operator’s Manual Buzzcocks Best
Radio Kids – Strand of Oaks – Hard Love
New Radio – Bikini Kill – Kill Rock Stars 20 Year Anniversary Sampler
Radiostory – Clinic – Bubblegum
Hello Radio – They Might Be Giants – Miscellaneous
Black Radio – Psychic Heat – Sunshower
Radio Song – Danny Brown
Radio Song – R.E.M. Feat. KRS-One – Out Of Time
Radio Clash – The Clash – Super Black Market Clash
Bitter Radio – Hospital Ships – Bitter Radio Single
Radio Radio – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Radio Tower – Kate Gray – The Smell of Moonlight
Ghost Radio – Youngest Children – Midwest Quest
Radio Signal – The Mammals – Nonet
On the Radio – Donna Summer – On the Radio: Greatest Hits, Vol. I & II
Capital Radio – Hyperjax – Uncut: White Riot Vol. 2 – A Tribute To The Clash
On The Radio – Regina Spektor – Begin To Hope
Kill The Radio – James Christos – Midwasteland Takeover 2010
Radionic Jam – Mouth – Word Of Mouth, Volume 2
Radio Activity – Neutron Wednesday – Neutron Wednesday
Guerilla Radio – Rage Against The Machine – Body Of War
On Your Radio – Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out: The Very Best Of Joe Jackson
Radio Varsavia – Franco Battiato – Call Me By Your Name (OMPS)
Mother’s Radio – The Blackbird Revue – The Whaler & Other Stories
Heaven’s Radio – Molly O’Day & The Cumberland Mountain Folks – In God’s Countr
Little Red Radio – Magic Kids – Memphis
Late Night Radio – Slow Down, Molasses – Uncut: New Directions Home
Late Night Radio – Afton Wolfe – Late Night Radio
Radio Campaign – M. Ward – Transistor Radio
Radio Retaliation – Thievery Corporation Feat. Sleepy Wonder – Radio Retaliation
Radio Borderland – Nortec Collective Bostich/Nortec Collective Fussible Bulevar 2000
Capital Radio Two – The Clash – Super Black Market Clash
Turn the Radio Up – Kyle Andrews – Robot Learn Love
Turn the Radio On – J.E. Sunde – Alice, Gloria and Jon
Boys On The Radio – Hole – Celebrity Skin
The Spirit Of Radio – Rush – Freaks And Geeks
Song On The Radio – Al Stewart – Time Passages
Static On The Radio – Jim White – Hear Music Volume 3
Raised On the Radio – The Ravyns – The Ravyns
God Bless the Radio – Flat River Band
Golden Age Of Radio – Josh Ritter – Golden Age Of Radio
Radio Ga Ga (Live Aid) – Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (The Original Soundtrack)
Killing Your Radio – Kiz One – Intelligent sound
Don’t Mess With The Radio – Nivea – Got Hits! Perfect Pop Album
You Turn Me On I’m A Radio – Joni Mitchell For The Roses
Loopzilla – George Clinton – Greatest Hits: Straight Up (Remastered)
BBC Radiophonic Workshop – The Magnetic Fields – Holiday
Even If It Breaks Your Heart – Will Hoge – Ryko: Flash Of Light Sampler
Radio Kaliningrad – Handsome Furs – Sub Pop Cybersex Digital Sampler
Radio Baghdad – Patti Smith – Patti Smith Trampin’
Radio Ethiopia – Patti Smith Group
Radio Prague – This Heat – DJ Kicks
Rock & Roll – Velvet Underground – The Essential Lou Reed (Remastered)
Darkness – Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas
Oh Yeah – Roxy Music – Flesh + Blood
Sometimes – Daniel Lanois – Hear Music, Vol. 10: Reveal
Transmission – Joy Division – Permanent
Matanza Funk – Monareta – Picotero
Left Of The Dial – The Replacements – Tim
Two For Tuesday – Dan Baird & Homemade Sin
Wkrp In Cincinnati- Various Artists – All-Time Top 100 TV Themes
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter- Nirvana – In Utero
Hello – Turn Your Radio On – Julia Othmer – Seeds
Bury me Not Mexican Radio – The Electric Horseman
I Can’t Live Without My Radio – LL COOL J – All World: Greatest Hits
Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft – The Carpenters
Radioactivity – Kraftwerk – Radio-Activity (2009 Remaster)
FLAR 86.5 Imersive Radio (Interlude 2) – Flare Tha Rebel – Summer You, Summer Me
Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio? – The Ramones – Mania
Radio Head (Tito Larriva Vocal Version) – Talking Heads – True Stories (Reissue)

All three of our guests are actively involved in Kansas City’s music community, working with Midwest Music Foundation, and area venues, artists, studios. The Area Kansas City Music community is represented on all of our stations.

11:22

9. Donna Summer – “On The Radio”
   from: “On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II / Casablanca / November 23, 1979
   [On the Radio” is a song by American singer-songwriter Donna Summer, produced by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, and released in late 1979 on the Casablanca record label. It was written for the soundtrack to the film Foxes and included on Summer’s first international compilation album On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II. // The song was released in three formats: the radio 45rpm single; the 5+ minute version included on Summer’s Greatest Hits double album package, and a DJ Promo 7+ minute version released on 12″ single (and included on the Foxes film soundtrack album).[1] This last version was later released on the Bad Girls CD digipack double CD release. The Foxes soundtrack also includes an instrumental version of the song in a ballad tempo and crediting Moroder as a solo artist. In the film, the ballad tempo and the disco version are both heard with Donna Summer’s vocals. Donna Summer performed “On the Radio” on many television shows such as American Bandstand. // The instrumental parts of this song were occasionally heard on the US version of The Price Is Right in the early 1980s when they displayed jukeboxes and stereos as prizes. While the first two versions included all written lyrics, the DJ Promo omitted the final verse, opting instead to repeat the third. Only the first “short” version ended with the famous “on the radio – adio – adio” echo vocal effect. For the second consecutive year, Summer placed at least three singles in the Billboard Year-End charts in 1980. // “On the Radio” was released as a single and became, in February 1980, her tenth top-ten hit in the U.S. as well as her eighth and final consecutive top-five single. “On the Radio” peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number nine on the soul chart. The song was also Summer’s 14th entry on the Billboard Disco chart, where it peaked at number eight. In Canada, it peaked at number two.// Donna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the “Queen of Disco”, while her music gained a global following. // Influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, Summer became the lead singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City. In 1968, she joined a German adaptation of the musical Hair in Munich, where she spent several years living, acting, and singing. There, she met music producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, and they went on to record influential disco hits together such as “Love to Love You Baby” and “I Feel Love”, marking Summer’s breakthrough into international music markets. Summer returned to the United States in 1976, and more hits such as “Last Dance”, her version of “MacArthur Park”, “Heaven Knows”, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, “Dim All the Lights”, “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” with Barbra Streisand, and “On the Radio” followed. // Summer amassed a total of 32 chart singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 in her lifetime, including 14 top-10 singles and four number-one singles. She claimed a top-40 hit every year between 1976 and 1984, and from her first top-10 hit in 1976, to the end of 1982, she had 12 top-10 hits (10 were top-five hits), more than any other act during that period. She returned to the Hot 100’s top five in 1983, and claimed her final top-10 hit in 1989 with “This Time I Know It’s for Real”. She was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach the top of the US Billboard 200 chart and charted four #1 singles in the US within a 12-month period. She also charted two number-one singles on the R&B Singles chart in the US and a number-one single in the United Kingdom. Her last Hot 100 hit came in 1999 with “I Will Go with You (Con te partirò)”. While her fortunes on the Hot 100 waned in subsequent decades, Summer remained a force on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart throughout her entire career. // Summer died in 2012 from lung cancer, at her home in Naples, Florida. She sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She won 5 Grammy Awards. In her obituary in The Times, she was described as the “undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom” who reached the status of “one of the world’s leading female singers.” Moroder described Summer’s work on the song “I Feel Love” as “really the start of electronic dance” music. In 2013, Summer was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In December 2016, Billboard ranked her 6th on its list of the “Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists”.]

10. Nivea – “Don’t Mess With The Radio”
    from: Nivea / Zomba Recordings / September 25, 2001
    [Nivea B. Hamilton (born March 24, 1982), better known by the mononym Nivea, is an American singer whose recordings reached the Billboard charts during the early 2000s. Nivea is known most for her Grammy-nominated hit “Don’t Mess with My Man” as well as “Laundromat” and “Okay” featuring YoungbloodZ & Lil’ Jon. She has released 3 studio albums: Nivea (2001), Complicated (2005), Animalistic (2006), and an independently released extended play Nivea: Undercover (2011). // On Sept. 26, 2019, she released her album Mirrors, including the single “Circles”. // Hamilton was born in Savannah, Georgia, youngest of 3 sisters. She sang in church choir and admired Mariah Carey. Nivea admitted to being shy in a BET “Finding Nivea” interview. She said, “I never wanted anyone to hear me sing… my parents would turn down the radio.]

11:29 – Underwriting

11. Talking Heads – “Radio Head (Tito Larriva Vocal Version)”
    from: True Stories (Bonus Track Versions) / Sire / September 15, 1986 [2006 Reissue]
    [True Stories is the seventh studio album by American rock band Talking Heads. It was released on September 15, 1986, by Sire Records, preceding lead singer David Byrne’s related film True Stories. // The album originally included only Talking Heads studio recordings of songs from the film; an original cast recording from the film was planned, but was not released at the time, although some actors’ performances were featured on singles of songs drawn from the album. Later that year, Byrne released the album Sounds from True Stories containing incidental music from the soundtrack. In 2018, a complete film soundtrack album was finally released, combining cast performances from the film and tracks from the two previous albums; only those three performances by Talking Heads from the first True Stories album that are actually heard in the film were included.// The single “Wild Wild Life” became the most prominent hit from the album, accompanied by its video airplay on MTV. The “Wild Wild Life” video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 1987: “Best Group Video” and “Best Video from a Film” (the video is in fact an extended sequence lifted directly from the film itself). A video for “Love for Sale” was created for use in the film (during a sequence when a woman, played by Swoosie Kurtz, watches the video on TV), and an extended version was later released as a video in its own right. // In 2006, the album was re-released and remastered by Warner Music Group on their Warner Bros./Sire Records/Rhino Records labels in DualDisc format, with three bonus tracks on the CD side (an extended mix of “Wild Wild Life”, “Papa Legba” with vocal by Pops Staples, and “Radio Head” with vocals by Tito Larriva). The DVD-Audio side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital version and the videos of “Wild Wild Life” and “Love for Sale”. In Europe, it was released as a CD+DVDA two disc set rather than a single DualDisc. The reissue was produced by Andy Zax with Talking Heads. The band Radiohead named themselves after the sixth track, “Radio Head”. // Humberto “Tito” Larriva (born 1953) is a Mexican-American songwriter, singer, musician, and actor. He came to prominence leading The Plugz, one of the earliest Los Angeles punk rock groups. Since the 1990s, his main musical outlet has been Tito & Tarantula. // Larriva was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and El Paso, Texas. As a child he played the violin in the school orchestra and sang in the church and school choirs where he met his wife Janet Carroll. In 1972 Larriva snuck into Yale University for a full term without being noticed. After being kicked out of the Ivy League university, he moved to Mexico City and in 1975 moved to Los Angeles, California. He now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter and continues to work in the music and film industries.= // Larriva was the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for punk band The Plugz. He formed The Plugz in Hollywood, California in 1978. Their presence during the birth of West Coast punk has ensured their enduring influence on punk bands. Record label Rhino recognized their role in the Los Angeles music scene by including their version of “La Bamba” on “We’re Desperate: The L.A. Scene (1976-79).” The Plugz released two albums, Electrify Me (1978) and Better Luck (1981). The Plugz also scored the cult classic film Repo Man and contributed three songs to the soundtrack. // Larriva’s first acting role was “Hammy” on The Pee-wee Herman Show in 1981. He has gone on to play notable supporting roles in big-budget films like Born in East L.A., Road House, Boys on the Side, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He often works with his friend, director Robert Rodriguez. His latest appearance was a few seconds cameo in Rodríguez’ Machete trailer in Grindhouse. He also appears in the actual, released movie. // He also played the character Ramon in the film True Stories (1986). Larriva performed the Talking Heads song “Radio Head,” and played the organ in the “Puzzling Evidence” scene. The original soundtrack album, however, only featured Talking Heads’ cover of the song; Larriva’s version, performed with Esteban “Steve” Jordan, was not released until sometime later. // Apart from acting, Larriva has scored films including Dream with the Fishes, Tin Cup, and Mi Vida Loca. Larriva features on the soundtrack album to the 2000 film The Million Dollar Hotel, written by Bono and directed by Wim Wenders. Larriva performs as part of the MDH band (a composite band featuring members of U2) and sings a Spanish version of “Anarchy In The UK” by The Sex Pistols.]

11:35 – More interview with Sarah Bradshaw + Michael Byars + Chris Haghirian

Wednesday MidDay Medley Talks Radio with Sarah Bradshaw of 90.9 The Bridge + Michael Byars of 89.3 KCUR + Chris Haghirian of Eight Oner Sixty on The Bridge.

Chris has a little project called Boulevardia that he is working on.

Boulevardia 2024 – Over 70 acts on 5 stages over 2 days, June 14 and 15.
Crown Center, 2450 Grand Boulevard, KCMO. – https://boulevardia.com

Friday June 14
MILKY CHANCE * HANSON
POM POM SQUAD • HA HA TONKA • DJ P * FRIENDLY THIEVES • STARHAVEN ROUNDERS * THE ROSELINE • BEARS AND COMPANY • JASS • LAURA NOBLE * FLAT SUSAN • WEDA SKIRTS • KIRSTIE LYNN & GALEN CLARK * DAMES OF THE DEAD • FLIGHT ATTENDANT • LYXE * KADESH FLOW * LAVA DREAMS • DEWEY AND TWINNFLAME • SHEPPA • DOM CHRONICLES * DJ JOE & DJ ICE KOLE • SANA & ZIMMERMAN • JINGRAM • DJ EJ • DJ ON 10

Saturday June 15
THUNDERCAT
PAUL CAUTHEN • BIG FREEDIA OLE 60 • POST SEX NACHOS • ULTIMATE FAKEBOOK * KRYSTLE WARREN • KATE COSENTINO • THE BURNEY SISTERS * THE PHANTASTICS • BACK ALLEY BRASS BAND • STIK FIGA & LEONARD DSTROY * ZEE UNDERSCORE • THE WHIPS * STRANDED IN THE CITY • DANNY SANTELL SASS A BRASS • THE MGDS • MARTY BUSH • THE COWARDLY LIONS THE SWALLOWTAILS • SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES * MARY AND THE MATRIX SELEKTO • BRODERICK JONES • LOVE, MAE C • ASIA TSION • IVORY BLUE • JAMOGI ASSJAMZ • DJ NESS • A SWIFTY EXPERIENCE WITH DJ DAWNA AND LANA LUXX * KAY FAN + SIRQUEEN * YUNG MAPLE • DJ DIEHARD • DJ JOE & DJ ICE KOLE • DJ MISSY E * DJ MOHEAT • DJ EJ • DJ ON 10

11:42

12. Thundercat – “Show You the Way (feat. Michael McDonald & Kenny Loggins)”
    from: Drunk / Brainfeeder / February 24, 2017
    [Stephen Lee Bruner (born October 19, 1984), better known by his stage name Thundercat, is an American musician, singer, record producer, and songwriter from Los Angeles. First coming to prominence as a member of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, he has since released four solo studio albums and is noted for his work with producer Flying Lotus and his appearances on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2016, Thundercat won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his work on the track “These Walls” from To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2020, Thundercat released his fourth studio album, It Is What It Is, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album. // Raised in Compton and other parts of Los Angeles, Bruner was born into a family of musicians, including his father Ronald Bruner Sr., a drummer, and his mother Pam, a flautist and percussionist. His father played drums for The Temptations, The Supremes, and Gladys Knight, amongst others. After Bruner Sr. got sober from cocaine, the children would watch him play gigs at the Crenshaw Christian Center. Bruner attended Locke High School, playing in the school’s jazz band. His teacher, Reggie Andrews, produced and co-wrote the Dazz Band’s 1982 single “Let It Whip” and collaborated with Rick James. Andrews re-introduced Bruner to Kamasi Washington; the two had originally met as children, through their fathers’ membership in a gospel fusion band. The reunited duo would sneak into jazz concerts, driving around in a worn-down 1982 Ford Mustang to do so. They would later get to play the same venues as the performers they watched. They also did sessions with Bruner’s cousin Terrace Martin in Washington’s father’s garage during this time. // Bruner began playing the bass at an early age, listening to bass players such as Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller for inspiration. By the age of 15, he had a minor hit in Germany as a member of the boy band No Curfew. A year later, he joined his brother Ronald Jr. as a member of the Los Angeles crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, replacing former bass player Josh Paul. Bruner’s earliest studio album appearances include playing electric bass on Kamasi Washington’s Live at 5th Street Dick’s and The Proclamation. // Erykah Badu was credited with helping Bruner find his stage presence and identity as Thundercat. Around this time, Bruner would play in live bands for Raphael Saadiq and Snoop Dogg, and both would make quips about his playing style. Bruner credited Flying Lotus with pushing him to start singing and making his own projects. // In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked him as one of the greatest bass players of all time. // In 2004, Bruner collaborated with Kamasi Washington, as well as Cameron Graves and Ronald Jr., under the name The Young Jazz Giants. The group later united with Terrace Martin and five other Los Angeles jazz musicians to form the West Coast Get Down collective, with whom they recorded several albums. // Along with his band duties, Bruner is also a session musician, acclaimed for his work on Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah (2008) and fellow Brainfeeder artist Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma (2010), Until the Quiet Comes (2012), and You’re Dead! (2014). // Bruner was a major contributor to Kendrick Lamar’s critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015, and has been described as being “at the creative epicenter” of the project. Longtime Thundercat collaborators Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, and Terrace Martin were also major contributors to the album. // Bruner was a frequent collaborator on Mac Miller’s tracks. On August 6, 2018, Bruner played bass during Miller’s Tiny Desk Concert, during which the two played their collaborative track, “What’s the Use?” In 2022, he collaborated with virtual band Gorillaz on their single “Cracker Island”, the first single and title track for their album of the same name. The song was released on April 30, 2022.]

[Thundercat plays this year’s Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at Crown Center.]

11:45 – More Interview w/ Sarah Bradshaw + Michael Byars + Chris Haghirian

Today, Wednesday MidDay Medley Talks Radio with Sarah Bradshaw of 90.9 The Bridge Michael Byars of 89.3 KCUR + Chris Haghirian of Eight Oner Sixty on The Bridge.

Sarah Bradshaw is the on-air host evenings 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm. Sarah also hosts & produces “Recently Released” on Mondays at 8:00pm More info at: http://www.bridge909.org

Michael Byars is 89.3 KCUR’s Morning Edition announcer. More info at: http://www.kcur.org

Chris Haghirian is host & Producer of Eight One Sixty, heard Tuesday nights at 6:00 PM, on 90.9 The Bridge.

11:54

13. Regina Spektor – “On The Radio”
    from: Begin to Hope / Sire Records / June 13, 2006
    [Regina Ilyinichna Spektor was born February 18, 1980=. She is a Russian-born American singer, songwriter, and pianist. // After self-releasing her first three records and gaining popularity in New York City’s independent music scenes, particularly the anti-folk scene (along with KC’s very own Schwervon and Major Matt Mason USA) centered on New York City’s East Village, Spektor signed with Sire Records in 2004 resulting in greater mainstream recognition. After giving her third album a major label re-release, Sire released Spektor’s fourth album, Begin to Hope, which achieved a Gold certification by the RIAA. Her following two albums, Far and What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, each debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200. // Mayor Bill de Blasio proclaimed June 11, 2019, Regina Spektor Day in New York City. Spektor was also inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame on May 18, 2019, by Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. // Spektor was born on February 18, 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, to a musical Russian-Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, was a photographer and amateur violinist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and taught at public elementary schools in Mount Vernon, New York, now retired.[11] Spektor has a brother, Boruch (also known as Bear), who was featured in track 7, “* * *”, or “Whisper”, of her 2004 album Soviet Kitsch. Growing up in Moscow, Regina started taking piano lessons when she was seven and learned how to play the piano by practicing on a Petrof upright that her grandfather gave her mother. She grew up listening to classical music and Russian bards like Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava.[1] Her father, who obtained recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union, also exposed her to rock and roll bands such as the Beatles, Queen, and the Moody Blues. // The family left the Soviet Union for the Bronx in 1989, when Spektor was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. She had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the Soviet Union, but they finally decided to emigrate due to the racial, ethnic, and political discrimination that Jewish people faced. Traveling first to Austria and then Italy, the Spektor family was admitted to the United States as refugees with the assistance of HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). They settled in the Bronx, where Spektor graduated from SAR Academy, a Jewish day middle school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Since the family had been unable to bring their piano from Moscow, Spektor practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces until she found a piano to play in the basement of her synagogue. In New York City, Spektor studied classical piano with Sonia Vargas, a professor at the Manhattan School of Music, until she was 17; Spektor’s father had met Vargas through Vargas’ husband, violinist Samuel Marder. Spektor attended high school for two years at the Frisch School, a yeshiva in Paramus, New Jersey, but transferred to a public school, Fair Lawn High School, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where she finished the last two years of her high school education. // Spektor was originally interested in classical music only, but she later grew interested in hip hop, rock, and punk as well. Although she had always made up songs around the house, she first became interested in more formal songwriting during a visit to Israel with the Nesiya Institute in her teenage years when she attracted attention from the other children on the trip for the songs she made up while hiking. // Following this trip, Spektor was exposed to the works of Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco, and other singer-songwriters, which encouraged her belief that she could create her own songs. She wrote her first a cappella songs around the age of 16 and her first songs for voice and piano when she was 17. // Spektor completed the four-year studio composition program of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College within three years, graduating with honors in 2001. Around this time, she also worked briefly at a butterfly farm in Luck, Wisconsin, and studied in Tottenham (in North London) for one term.]

14. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
    from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Next week on Wednesday, March 27 we have a lot of new releases to share, plus at 11:00am we’ll talk with Kim Stanton of the Rural Grit Happy Hour which happens at The Brick every Monday Night and musician Kris Bruders will also be here to share their living breathing folk song, originally created by Kristopher Bruders in Protest the Upcoming April 2 Jackson County Vote for tax payers to subsidize the creation of a new Royal Stadium in the East Crossroads Arts District that would force the removal or closing of 27 small business, and negatively effect 40 additional small businesses in the East Crossroads Arts District, as opposed to The Royals’ earlier suggested location that would only force one business to move and would only negatively effect 3 businesses in the East Village earlier location.
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Also next week – at 11:30am Musicians & filmmakers Paul Wenske and Nancy Meis share details about “I’m So Glad” their Documentary film exploring the untold story of Black gospel music in Kansas City and The Roots of Black Gospel Music narrated by internationally recognized gospel music conductor Isaac S. Cates. The documentary will have a special screening and Q & A, on Saturday, April 6, at 4:00pm to 7:00pm at The Englewood Arts Center, 10901 E Winner Road, Independence, MO.

Also next week, on Friday, March 29 on MidCoast LIVE! At Noon, Mark will welcome Cody Wyoming, Mark Smeltzer, and Kris Bruders who will play a LIVE 60 minute concert in our 90.1 FM Studios.

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers.

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

Our Script/Playlist is a “cut and paste” of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org

Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
http://www.kkfi.org,
http://www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org,
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM

Show #1038