Category: COM 250

Several weeks ago I decided to do a radio show honoring WUTT’s 66th year on the air. The radio station at University of Tampa began broadcasting in 1952, on Christmas day (as WUTZ, on the FM band). At the time, WUTZ was the most powerful college radio station in the United States. For whatever reason, that status slipped away in the late 1960’s. WUTZ/WUTT continued as a much diminished AM radio station.

During last semester I had the pleasure of learning about the radio station in COM 250 (Practicum in Broadcast Management). Along the way I also learned about the campus radio club, responsible for maintaining the station outside of the radio class. This feeble band of students are doing a horrible job. Cronyism and favoritism run rampant in this “club” responsible for keeping this radio station alive. That sickens me.

The radio station is a boon to the university, yet the young students in charge of it see only their own boon of being paid for their positions on the radio board, without doing anything to promote, foster or grow the station’s importance in the entire Tampa community. The radio station could be a valued source of revenue for the college, yet the students only see the station as a cow’s teet that delivers free pizza when suckled.

This radio station could be so much more than it is. I intend to do something about that. And those of you who know me, know that when I decide to make a change, I bring the heat. WUTT will rise like a Phoenix.

Please lose a couple of hours with me – Merry Christmas!

My 16th show, in a class that’s only 16 weeks long.  Needless to say, I put my foot in it, so to speak.  This class, COM 250, Practicum In Broadcast Management, was more than I could have imagined it to be.  Freedom to pursue all I could pursue.  Sadly, I will say, that my younger generation students who are in this class and also in the radio club have absolutely no idea how much potential this class could offer to their life and learning experience.  I did, however, learn today what “blackfishing” is.  SMH.  So many more positive things our people could be focusing on.  Kick back and enjoy a couple hours of 80’s Metal.  I certainly did.

Our task this evening was for each of us to do a 30-minute block during our normal class time and critique each other. It was a fun class, I enjoyed hanging with everyone in our WUTT studio for the evening. Below is each show. I recorded everything and post-processed on my own gear since the studio room’s computer was on the fritz. First lesson in broadcasting – cover your own ass. Devon used the “Aux-1” channel for his playlist, and unfortunately there’s something wrong with the right channel, but his air-time was recorded.

Raven & Mark:

DJ Swagner:

Owen:

The After Party with Andrew:

Devin:

Pappa Don:

My fifteenth and nearly final Pappa Don show on WUTT, I scratch the surface of the very deep Blues genre, focusing on Texas Blues, one of my favorites.  This was a fun show, with a lot of hiccups (you may detect) – I found the gremlins from my last show (and fixed them), while also finding the telephone interface set to “auto” and the mixer phone channel set to full duplex (which causes feedback) – the studio was a technical train-wreck, which I fortunately had enough time tonight to spot and fix prior to air-time.  One thing I could have prevented…and I dearly wished I had…my Tascam DR40 recorder ran out of juice (batteries) late in the show, and consequently I lost recording a dear caller who took the time to phone in as well as the final raucous 30 minutes of  the show.  When I’m in the studio I use my own gear, I bring in my own recorder, playlists and laptop because I never know what condition things are in when I arrive.  Typically things are dorked up and I find it’s easier for me to run my shows from my own equipment…this time I should have had fresh batteries.  Lesson learned.  There is a lot to enjoy, however – I did hit my marks (radio clock speak) and even started talking to the post (first time ever).  I’ve included my all time favorite Youtube vid of Chris Duarte performing “Bottle Blues” backed by John McKnight on drums and Dustin “Red” Sergeant on bass (RIP, miss you, brother – I know you’re laying down sick foundations wherever you are).  Filthy blues! Enjoy!  WATCH THAT VIDEO!!!  This is what crawling into a bottle sounds like…

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  On this, my 14th show, I welcome Kimi Tortuga back to the studio.  Kimi brought with her two BRAND NEW songs never before heard by anyone other than Kimi and her internal universe.  I feel extremely honored to have been the first person (and you listeners were first) to have witnessed her creations.  Thank you Kimi for sharing part of yourself with us for the first time.  I thoroughly enjoyed your new tracks “Paradox” and “Respirar” and am looking forward to possibly hearing more in the future – I hope it was a cathartic experience to release these tracks.  Next time…Facebook Live!

I’m also thankful for Campus Safety for granting me access to North Walker Hall so I could continue the Pappa Don Show on schedule.  Now that I’ve “cracked the code” on access, I’m gearing up for a Christmas Day Special – WUTT started broadcasting on December 25th, 1952…so that means a Pappa Don Birthday Show sometime during the day…stay tuned!

Finally, there were some Thanksgiving Day gremlins in the board that I had to exorcise – fortunately everything was sorted by the end of the Pappa Don theme song.  Happy listening!

0:44:~ – Paradox

1:28:50~ – Respirar

In this 13th installment of the Pappa Don Show on WUTT (Spartan Radio) I delve into the genre of basic rhythm & blues.  This is an expansive genre, often blurring the lines between pop, funk and rock.  I recently read an intriguing editorial on Facebook (I wish I could remember who wrote it) about the term “rock and roll” being a white-man’s re-branding of rhythm & blues solely for marketing.  I believe that.  Elvis’ hit “Hound Dog” was originally penned by Big Momma Thornton in 1952.  And it makes much more sense when sung by a woman.  My impetus for this show is one of my favorite bands, “Vintage Trouble” – I can’t classify them into any current genre that I know.  They are extremely high energy, up-tempo, retro, r&b showmen.  AND they fronted the iconic band AC/DC during a recent world tour.  The last time I saw AC/DC live (mid ’80’s), Yngwie Malmstein (a heavy metal maestro) opened for them.  Vintage Trouble has some chops, but they’d hardly be classified as a heavy metal outfit.  High energy?  Definitely yes.  They’re breaking boundaries.  When I saw them at the State Theater in St. Pete the place was a churning throng of gyration.  They were the Pied Pipers of whatever it was they were playing.  Rock?  R&B?  Retro Blues?  Who knows…I was as entranced as everyone else.  This is what I attempt to explore during this 13th Pappa Don radio show on WUTT, Spartan Radio.

Vintage Trouble performs on the David Letterman Show, December, 2012:

In this show, I explore a musical genre I know absolutely nothing about.  I had originally planned this show to be early blues, but my good friend John Lee appeared literally at 9pm the night before.  He sent me a text on Wednesday, in town on business, wanting to get together for dinner/drinks tonight.  As my sculpture class was huge (5pm pouring bronze) and my radio show from 8-10pm, I simply couldn’t cut away.  I could drop my radio show, but that would be failing my word.  What could I do?  I asked John to come on my radio show and spin tunes with me.  He took it to a whole new level, by teaching me the DEEP genre of KPop.  John did the playlist and the theme.  I had no idea KPop had so many facets beyond “GANGNAM.”  He showed me a whole new world of music.  I’ll have to have him back to get to the deep end of the pool, so to speak.

For the record, here’s my favorite KPop track of the night, “Yanghwa BRDG (Bridge)”

This radio show culminates a hard day.  I put together this playlist days earlier (thank goodness) – today turned out to be a glorious train-wreck with my car going into the shop causing me to miss work.  But I did get to see dear friends later in the day, spend a pandemonious (is that a word?) day in sculpture class, then dash over to the studio for my time slot from 8-10pm.  I had prepared my playlist in advance, so things were relatively in control.  Tonight was about reminiscing my introduction to the various genres of electronic music through the different geographic locations I was in over the years.  I hope you enjoy it…

This radio show was literally spur of the moment.  I really didn’t have a format rushing from Sculpture class tonight, but I thought about Tuesday in Sculpture, which triggered my lean towards Progressive Rock – on Tuesday I helped one of the students (with the professor) cast her whole head in liquid rubber and plaster, with only her nostrils exposed.  I mean her entire head with a swim cap on.  It was a lengthy process – about 45 minutes with this dear child’s head fully encased in slime and plaster.  To keep her calm, she had her playlist going, streaming over a Bluetooth speaker – and to my surprise, her playlist was Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and other “older” standards I didn’t expect any post-Millennial to listen to.  She had such courage to endure that extreme level of claustrophobia.  I was amazed.

When I have a long or arduous task, like posting up a new web site or lots of digital creativity, I often turn to Prog Rock playing in the background to carry me through – to give my mind that extra distraction so I’m not completely paralyzed by extreme focus.  Kill a couple of hours and check it out:

In this show, I explored the Ska music genre – one of my favorites, because many Ska bands are “anti-establishment” and have a rough-and-tumble attitude/sound about them.  As many of you know, that appeals to me.  Also tonight was fun because I had a particularly stressful “establishment” week and I was looking forward to spinning these tunes.  In fact, I was so excited to get to work I totally screwed up the first 30 minutes of my show – I forgot to start recording ( I had planned to submit this show for grading) and then my recorder was mysteriously set to “microphone” input instead of “line” input, so my recorded levels were severely over-driven.  The first (brilliant) 30 minutes of my show had to be tossed.  True confession, I get madly OCD with all of my school projects.  When things don’t go exactly as planned it takes me a while to recover, as this recording shows.  I did soldier through, and I think it’s worthy enough to put out there…  Sit back, relax, and enjoy a playful romp through the Ska genre.