Big news to report this early afternoon on the new KERA-owned all-music station coming to your 91.7 FM frequency, oh, two weeks from today--and, of course, Robert somehow beat me to posting it, the jerk.
But while he focuses on the new hosts at the new station--KERA's own Gini Mascorro will handle the morning show and a Friday "KXT Texas Mix" (whatever that is); Joe Kozera, formerly of Bridgeport's KBOC-FM, will handle the afternoon and evening slots; Paul Slavens, meanwhile, jumps down your radio dial a few nothces, but maintains his handle on Sunday nights--Robert kinda ignores the real juice of the matter.
Specifically, I'm referring to the in-studio guests the station will host in its first month on the air.
Here the lineup is, sans dates of shows, just as its listed in the press announcement:
* Sarah Jaffe;Funny, yes, that Jaffe needs no modifier, and Jason Isbell does. But, alas, that's not the point.
* The O's-John Pedigo and Taylor Young-from Dallas;
* Denton singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Tinker;
* Singer and songwriter Danny Balis from Dallas; and
* Jason Isbell, from the Muscle Shoals area in Alabama, and his band, The 400 Unit.
Rather, this is: Back when the news first broke on all this, I made a call to the higher-ups at KERA to get some more backstory, and got to speak with senior VP of radio Jeff Ramirez, senior VP of marketing Deborah Johnson and public relations coordinator Meg Fullerwood--all at once, via conference call--about their plans. Didn't get the chance to use the fruits of that conversation, unfortunately--shortly after our talk, we decided it seemed a hasty to write a splurging-with-excitement column for the dead tree version of DC9 when the station's launch was still months off.
But one thing has managed to keep me intrigued ever since the conversation: The news the trio shared that, among their facilities, there's always existed a room specifically designed for live performance recording--but, for whatever reason, it's been dormant for years. Well no more, it seems--which is very good news.
How so? Well, for one, it's just cool--and no other station in town boasts such a facility, far as I'm aware. Secondly, there's a heavy bent on local acts in that above list, which, out of necessity or not, shows that the station is at least trying to pretend that it's aware of the local music scene at the time of its launch. And, lastly, the presence of Isbell on that list shows that the station's also making attempts to cast a wider net than just the local scene.
I just hope I don't set this station up for a fall in my mind by putting too many high hopes into it before it actually debuts. I'm afraid to see Where The Wild Things Are for the same reason, actually...
