A few weeks ago, backstage at the Granada Theater during the Dallas Observer Muic Awards, I mentioned to Paul Slavens how much I love his Sunday-night show on KERA-FM (90.1). Then I spent the next 20 minutes bitching about how it's such a damned shame that KERA doesn't play music except during those three hours and damn that doesn't make any sense at all and good God doesn't anyone remember the good ol' days when Chris Douridas and Liza Richardson would spin the latest and greatest in local and far-out sounds during morning and nighttime drive? I am sure Paul totally loves it when people do that to him.
Anyway, this morning I was reminded of this exchange when I came across this piece about Douridas and the Morning Becomes Eclectic boys at KCRW-FM, the Santa Monica-based public radio station where Chris and Liza went to work after leaving KERA long, long ago. This part of the story made me especially nostalgic:
In Texas, Chris Douridas was producing Sound Sessions, a program with a likeminded philosophy to Morning Becomes Eclectic, for Dallas public radio station KERA. “I didn’t pattern the programming in Texas after KCRW at all,” he says, “but after I started playing eclectic music in Dallas, I started getting calls from listeners saying, ‘Hey, you’re doing something similar to this station out in L.A.’ ”Sound Sessions even resulted in a compilation CD most locals have probably forgotten about. It featured the likes of Josh Alan (performing Steve Stills' 'Black Queen"), Drew Phelps and Earl Harvin and Cafe Noir all playing together, a contribution from the original Dixie Chicks lineup and Sara Hickman and Mildred performing a wonderful version of "I Think I Love You." And Paul Slavens was on the disc as well, doing one of his songs with Brave Combo. You can actually still buy copies from KERA's Web site. Didn't know that till I looked this morning.
As far as I can tell from its Web site, KERA-FM produces only three shows: Krys Boyd's Think, on Monday through Thursday from noon to 2 p.m.; Anything You Ever Wanted to Know from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday; and Paul's show. That's 12 hours of original programing a week, not including locally produced segments that air during broadcasts of National Public Radio-produced Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
But we'll always have the BBC World Service -- and I do mean always. --Robert Wilonsky
