SOUND OFF: whats the deal with college radio?

Playlist #9 [Happy 2008]

2008-01-08T08:35:00.001-08:00

Hey,

Welcome back to the new year! I wanna thank all the listeners who stuck with the show during 2007, and wish you all a happy new year!

Here's the goods:

catch 22 - one love/people get ready
bang lime - iris*
saint alvia carte - l dead and gone*
mohawk lodge - rare birds*
band of horses - ode to lrc
the holloways - fit for a fortnight
locusts have no kings - catching a slow train on a dead mans birthday*
against me - new wave
young galaxy - lazy religion*
operation ivy - bad town
most serene republic - the men who live upstairs*
man man - engrish bwudd
land of talk - speak to me bones*
the honorary title - everything I once had
say anything - yellowcat slash red cat

* = Canadian Content

Live from CJAM 91.5

2007-11-26T11:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's near the end of this blog-thang so I wanna try something new and exciting. Live radio and blogging!
So here is the deal, I am going to do my show as well as blog and see how far I get. When my show is over, the blog is DONE....well this entry at least. Please forgive spelling, I am working on the fly.

Well, here I am sitting in the studio as always on a Monday. What makes this job, the incredibly glamourous occupation of DJ, so tough? Well lemme tell yea! Usually, prepared and professional DJs preplan shows, get a burned mix CD ready or at least a play list. Not this disc jay! Well I was in a rush this past 24 hours, so I am picking CDs from our gigantic CD library and this is not an easy task. I have to make sure CDs in a three song set, thats the usually radio standard 3 songs, talking, 3 songs, talking etc, mesh nicely and have a good flow. That is a task and a half because you gotta keep your show fresh each week. Not only this but I also have to play 30% Cancon (Canadian content), I will go over the qualifications of Cancon in a upcoming post, which is a pain in the ass somedays. I love supporting local and Canadian bands, but god damn some days you wanna play a certain band but it doesnt fit in the play list because you need more Cancon.

side note: I am played Cain and Abel, excellent Canadian band, check them out at myspace.com/cainandabel

I am going to keep posting and editing this entry to make it semi real time, how exciting!

Another pain of being a DJ is being knowledgeable on all sorts of quirky facts about bands, which i love knowing, but when you dont have any info on a band youve just played you kind of look like an idiot.....like i did earlier in this show.

side note: remember when I said the 3 song sets needed a flow? Well here I go ruining the flow of this set.....Less than Jake followed by Mutemath....yikes... (for those of you unaware of these bands...think poppy punk ska followed by electronic melodic rock....awesome job, Pat!)

What others wonders can i share with these fine people....oh yeah! Commercials! CJAM has mandated themselves to less than 2 mins of commercials an hour. And yes, that is what CJAM plans to do. But often, idiot DJs like myself, forget to play the commercials and cram them all in the last 30 mins of our shows. Whenever I do this I feel bad because people really don't like to be sold things well in their car driving, or in the shower, or when being awoken from a slumber, or where ever else you listen to your radio. Reminds me, I will play a commercials right now. This one is on a book drive, good choice to play well blogging I think.

Side note: CD player in studio is killing me! Just open with one push of a button! Not 12!

Another thing in studio I always forget is the fact there are giant windows. I used to do the 6 am - 8 am time slot, so noone was there. I could look like hell, I could adjust my under garments, I could...well you get what I mean. Now that I am 10 30 am - noon, people are actually around the station. Good example, about 2 mins ago I stood up to remove a wedgey I had collected in my travels around the station and I am pretty sure one of the St Clair journalism interns definitely saw me pick it. And it was a girl! God, I am classy.

side note: Cave In, from New Jersey, awesome band!

Something I always forget when I am on air is the telephone in studio. There is a phone sitting right beside me, but the ringer is off so it just has a flashing light. I do not know how many people have called in and I have just not seen the light flashing. I would say 500. I probably have a huge. unknown by me, fanbase with fan club and mailing list and t shirts and yeah I am taking this too far. But if you have tried to call in and I have not answered, don't be offended!

side note: I just screwed up again, announced one song, played another. smooth.

I have 9 mins left in my show, so I hope you enjoyed this LIVE blogging entry at the CJAM studios, I promise it will never happen again.

Playlist # 8

2007-11-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

maritime - be unhappy
the color fred - hate to see you go
land of talk - all my friends*
the ex boyfriends - spanked by lightning*
saves the day - kalidoscope
navy - can you deal with my peel?*
saint alvia cartel - stones on the road*
weakerthans - a new name for everything*
cain and abel - good morning son*
less than jake - mostly memories
mutemath - picture
cave in - beneath water
royal wood - suzanne*
coconut records - slowly
lagwagon - infectious
sydney - sorry stanger*

* = Cancon

Nî hâo CJAM 91.5

2007-11-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

I will start off by apologizing to the Chinese community for butchering the language in the title, but I think you got the jist of it. And why did I put the title of this blog in Chinese? That's because a lot of people are uninformed about ALL of CJAM's programming, and CJAM actually has a large block of ethno-cultural programming.

What exactly is ethnocultural you ask? Well, to be honest I am not 100% exactly sure what it means so lets define it.

*5 minutes later*

Okay, I cannot find a definition on the internet, so let me quickly sum up what I think it is. As far as a CJAM definition, ethnocultural programming is a block of shows that take place on the weekend, that showcase music, news, events and anything you can think of that pertains to a country outside of Canada.

Since CJAM is a campus community radio station, we do have a lot of volunteer programmers who are not students at the University. Ethnocultural programming gets a lot of its programmers from the local community, whether it be Windsor or Detroit. Shows such as Forza Italia (Italian Radio), Chinese Reflections (Chinese Radio), Asian Vibrations, Macedonian Roots and many more specialized programs that run Saturday and Sunday from 10 am - 6 pm.

CJAM's ethnocultural block is much more important that a lot of people give it credit for. Shows, such as Chinese Reflections, do mean a lot to their niche communities. Not only do they bring news, music and events to ethnic communities across Windsor and Detroit, they help new immigrants families (awful term, but I can't think of a better one) ease themselves into the community. This is just another key example of how CJAM is fulfilling their mandate, giving under represented members of the community a voice. But not only does CJAM help the ethnocultural community, the enthocultural community helps CJAM. The programmers of the ethnocultural programs have been known to bring in some of the highest amount of pledges during the pledge drive.

SO you see my friends, CJAM is not just a source of awesome independent music. It can offer you a whole world of possibilities..... *Editors note I am sorry for that lame ending....*

Playlist #8 - Special Post Worthy Edition

2007-11-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

Oh, this is a special edition of the Soundoff College Radio playlist. Why is it special you ask? Well it's special because I had a special guest in the studio today and really only had to pick half the songs for my show; the other half were chosen by my guest. Adam Marz, lead singer of the Windsor rock outfit Solidarity, stopped by my show this morning to talk to me about a CD release party he is going to be apart of this weekend.

On a side note, the music he brought in was really well played, well recorded, well produced etc etc, but wasn't really my cup of tea. The reason I said yes to him when he asked if he could talk about the show wasn't because I am a nice guy, it's because I think it is really important to support local artists. Seeing as I have the means to reach over two million people for an hour and a half every Monday, I see it as almost my duty to help out local acts as much as I can as an ambassador of CJAM because without local acts, where does music grow from?

Anyways, back to the show itself. Adam brought in cds from the three bands playing the show, which is happening at the Chubby Pickle on Saturday (info here). I played two songs from each of Hail the Villian (from Oshawa, Ontario off their "Population: Declining" CD), Solidarity (off of their "Materializer" CD) and finally Ontology (from Windsor, Ontario off of their CD "Shotgun" which is being released that night).

Adam and I got to chat for about an hour about the event, between sets of music, and I think really got the show out there so hopefully it does well this weekend. I also got to play music I wanted to for the last half hour, so check out everything from the Evaporators and down for the usually tunes I play each week.

Here's the goods.

iron and wine - pagan angel and a borrowed car
sigor ros - samskeyti
ontology - shotgun*
ontology - compromise*
burn the 8 track - fear of falling skies*
hail the villian - runaway*
hail the villian - mission control*
band of horses - noones gonna love you
solidarity - human*
solidarity - bittergreen*
the evaporators - tellin youth the truth*
mad cowboys - askin for it*
the ex boyfriends - the only thing I can give you is everything*
specials - pressure drop
locusts have no king - cruelty is king*
mohawk lodge - hearts of lovers*
spoon - sister jack

* = Cancon

OH! And I also got a call in for a request today, tres exciting.

edit: I made a mistake in the blog, and also several times on the air, I wrong stated the band as "Hail the Thief" when the bands name is "Hail the Villian". The editor regrets this mistake and will try and be more careful in the future

and the Jammie goes to...

2007-11-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

Every year I go to the Jammies and every year i lose. Thats actually a lie because I missed a year when I fell down the stairs running to go watch LOST on tv and broke my foot. Either way, I think it's rigged.

Jammies? What are these Jammies you speak of? Well, in about April, every year CJAM holds a recognition party for the volunteer programmers. At this party people socialize, there's free food, door prizes, free drinks (two per person, I can deal), and then the main event. The awarding of the Jammies. Much like a Grammy, a Jammie is given to different programmers in different genres of music or catagories of radio that have excelled that particular year. This is what a Jammie looks like EDITOR'S NOTE* this is not my jammie, as I have stated before I have been robbed on several occasions, I stole this from Aaron Feldman, host of Semi Colon Closed Bracket*

The different Catagories are:
Best Indie Rock
Best Special Interest
Best Electronic
Best Punk/Hard Rock
Best Urban
Best Music Variety
Best Spoken Word
Best Ethno Cultural
Best New Show

Every show is nominated for at least one award every year, and depending on the size of the field one or more awards are handed out. Since the indie rock field is so big they handed out three last year, yes yes robbed again! The awards are given to the show who gets the most votes from listeners. Voting is done online at CJAM.ca, here is an old sample of what a form would look like, HERE.

The Jammies are always a fun time and even though I have not won a Jammie yet -mistakes have been made I assume- I still really enjoy going and it's the highlight of my school year. So, cross your fingers for me this year....

Last One, I Promise [Pledge Drive Finale]

2007-11-06T22:58:00.001-08:00

We did it. With 7 days, around 100 dedicated volunteers, over 40 programs, 168 hours of radio and one hell of a will we raised over $25 000 to keep CJAM on the air for another 365 days.

We will be using this money for some much needed computers as well as other upgrades to keep the station running at its best. I would like to take this time to thank anyone who actually went out of their way to pledge money towards our cost.

So, we reached out goal. What now? Well now is the tricky part. We got the promise from all these people that they would pledge collectively over $25 000. But now we need to make sure they make good on their promise. After the pledge drive, the biggest problem is people backing out and thus our $25 000 bucks could very well turn into $2. But luckily, last year we boasted a 95% rate on collecting on our pledges, so things are looking good and I could no be happier.

Check out the website for a small blurb about the end of the drive here.

Now that the drive is over, we can return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Live from the Drive [part 3]

2007-11-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, this might be confusing so lemme preface. I have been really busy and as the blogging of ethics goes, you really are not supposed to back date a blog. So this blog was written on Thursday October 25th, but is not being posted till tonight.

So consider this a late addition:

So I am here, live at the Pledge Drive and I wanted to give you some insight into what actually happens during the shows for pledge drive. I am on-air as I type on "Semi Colon Closed Bracket", with it's host Aaron "I spoke english good" Feldman. Lemme go over how a pledge drive show is different from a regular program.

1) Content: This is the major difference. In a show like Aaron, there would be around 2 or 3 songs played during about 40 minutes of banter about different types of literary topics, because Aaron does a literature show. During the pledge drive, however, there is zero talk about topics related to the show. There are still 2 or 3 songs, but this is just to keep the host sane. Why you would they be going insane you ask? Well between songs, it's all pledge drive talk. We talk about why we need the money, what we do with it, what we bring to the community, how you can give money and all of this while saying the call in numbers about a billion and a half times. Content on the pledge drive show is not listener friendly, but CJAM reminds the listeners we do this once a year so we can bring you quality programming for the other 51 weeks.

2) Threes a crowd: During the pledge drive you always have to have extra hands in the studio to answers callers that wanna pledge. Now the studio is not exactly huge. If people complain about how small the rooms are in residence, they should try to sit with three people in the studio for long periods of time. It is tiny, but also needed because when the calls come in, it sounds really bad when there is dead air because a host is answering the phone.

3) Drop ins: Now the last two have been negative changes for the pledge drive, but this one is a positive one. CJAM is really a big family when it comes to events like pledge drive, so during a pledge drive show you will get random CJAM hosts drop into studio to chat alittle about the pledge drive. Now, this is good for two reasons. It gives the audience alittle change of pace to hear a new, enthusiastic voice. And it also gives the hosts a break from saying the same stuff over and over again.

So that's all I really have to say during this pledge drive show. I need to get back to Aaron's show as he is raking in the pledge drive dollars. I think we are at about $11 000 bucks, and have like 3 or 4 days to get to our goal of $25 000. Wish us luck.

Playlist #7

2007-11-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

Playlist for Nov 4th, 2007. For interested people, check out Attack in Back, Canadian indie rock, on November 16th at the Phog Lounge.

wax mannequin you and all your friends
sydney when we were safe
wolfnote three bells
built to spill traces
attack in black chimes and church bells
operation ivey bad town
attack in black come what may
armour for sleep car underwater
bend sinister time breaks down
emery rock n rule
youthinasia crossing over
strungout blackhawks over los angeles
strike anywhere instinct
matt pond pa last light
new amsterdams lay on the rails
great lake swimmers to leave it behind
my american heart there are more freightning things
weakerthans sun in an empty room
scout nibblet do you want to be buried with my people

Keep on Truckin' [Pledge Drive part 2.]

2007-10-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

It has been one hell of a morning and i can not wait for this day to be over. What does this have to do with radio you ask? Well the reason I am tired is because i was at the CJAM studios from 2 am until 8 am this morning making sure the airwaves were full of pledge drive goodness.

But with that, I will elaborate a little more on what is going on at the pledge drive. This year's pledge drive is, as stated in part one of this series of posts, drive for hard drives. And so we have set the bar at $25 000 for the station to bring in during this week of pledges. There are a few reasons we have set the bar so high:
1) We raised over $21 000 dollars last year and we do believe we can be even more successful this year
2) With the smoking ban that has happened in the last two years, the bingo industry has taken a hit in Windsor. CJAM has been working with a local bingo hall for years and been quite successful in fundraising but with the decline in bingo has come the decline in funding for us.
3) Since WDET, a local Detroit radio station, has gotten rid of it's music department CJAM has become the only source of independent non commercial music radio for the Windsor/Detroit area. With the flow over of listeners from WDET, we believe out listen support is large enough to garner a goal this high.

I will throw this in quickly right here I guess, if you are interested in pledging youself, you have serveral options.
1) listen to CJAM, at 91.5 fm on the dial or stream online at CJAM.ca, and call into a show and pledge that way
2) Pledge online at CJAM.ca, see homepage for details
3) Come into the station during extended hours and pledge in person, see what your money goes towards

Finally, I will go over what people recieve if they pledge. I know incentives are nothing new to the world of pledge drives. PBS has been giving away those damn tote bags for years. But CJAM actually had cool incentives to give to listeners who pledge money during this week.

1) for $19 or less you get entered into a daily draw for a really nice prize pack, these have ranged from gift certificates to restaurants to CJAM prize packs that include CDs, shirts and more
2) for $20, recieve your choice of coffee mug, toque or tote bag (ours are better than PBS's, psh) OR a CD from our incentives list that can be seen here .
3) for $30 you can get a really awesome ringer t shirt. They can be seen here. I have worn these shirt, I am actually wearing one right now, and they are comfortable and really good quality.
4) for $50 bucks you can recieve a CJAM jersey. It's not like a sports jersey but it's hard to explain, see here.
5) For $75, recieve both the t shirt and jersey
6) For $100, recieve the jersey, the t shirt AND your choice of mug, toque or totebag (WHAT A DEAL!)

So that's a little more of a look into the pledge drive. I will be writing a blog live tonight from Aaron Feldman's radio show, Semi Colon Closed Bracket, and I hope to get that up sometime this weekend.

Playlist #6

2007-10-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

edit: blogging class, disregard this as a post

artist song
rockets red glare - empire state*
cuff the duke - difference between us*
the vandals - when I say you I mean me
goldfinger - nite klub
less than jake - is this thing on
nifty - a sparrow*
movielife - keep never changing
navy - hey drew*
said the whale - plans for the future*
from fiction - terry*
the mohawk lodge - everybodys on fire*
most serene republic - battle hymn of the republic*
murder by death - until morale improves the beatings will continue
citywide vacuum - much too jung*
measured in angles - one less a dozen*
locusts have no king - cruelty is king*
the get up kids - forgive and forget
mustard plug - life is too short
moving picture show - saturday night

cancon - *

Drive for hard drives! Part 1

2007-10-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

Even though when you read this blog you imagine this extremely glamorous radio DJ, rolling to the station in my Cadillac, wearing my $3000 Armani suits, I am a volunteer. Yes, that is right. I do this for the love of the radio broadcast. And the main reason I am a volunteer is because CJAM is a not for profit campus/community radio station. And with being a non for profit station geared towards non commercial radio, we do need a little assistance when it comes to the finances so we can bring you the quality programing CJAM does.

So now I bring you part one of two in what I am calling, CJAM's Drive for hard drives. In part one, I will explain why we do it, and in part two, which might be inthe middle of the drive, I will explain what exaclty goes on.

Why does CJAM need money from the community via the pledge drive? Well I will tell you. The black and white explanation is, it costs money to run a radio station. Just like any other business venture, there are a lot of overhead costs to run a radio station the size of CJAM. We have a lot of high tech equipment, that is constantly in need of repair. We have extremely hard working staff that needs to be paid. We have office supplies and all sorts of other things that are needed in day to day operations. But usually each year we focus on one major upgrade the station needs and target that as our goal for the pledge drive.

With the technological world taking over, computers are a big part of the world of broadcast. Obviously CJAM is not going to have the BEST of the BEST of the BEST but the station does try it hardest to keep up with the always rising industry standards. This years pledge drive is no different as we embark on our drive for hard drives. Computers run almost everything in the station, from on air broadcasting, to the recording studio, to the day to day office work. Over the past years, as most computers do, the computers at CJAM have become obsolete. So in 2007, the CJAM Board of Directors decided it was time for some new computers. And the drive for hard drives was born!

to be continued....

...this is a recording...

2007-10-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

So I would like to wish everyone a happy turkey day and hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I know I did, and I especially enjoyed the extra day of leisure on Monday. But this lead me to a small minor problem. As most of you know, I have a radio program on CJAM which is broadcast mondays from 10 30 am till noon (PLUG! PLUG!). And this is where the wonders of technology take over CJAM.

A lot of people probably don't know that CJAM doubles as a recording facility. Not only do we have the ability to broadcast radio shows, broadcast live bands (within reason of course), but over the past few years we have built up a studio with the capacity to record a full band in a great quality recording. And why is this so important do you ask? Well, as CJAM is a community radio station, it wants to offer unique opportunities to the community. With the facilities up and running, CJAM soon hopes to get live bands in there, get the equipment recording and give bands the opportunity to record in a good quality studio for an affordable price. After a number of bands are recording, the idea of putting out a compilation CD or something along those lines could be in the works. The big picture of the whole thing is that CJAM has the opportunity to bring the community, the music community in particular, closer together and as a organization that is one of the main goals.

Back to the pre-recording. With these studios at our finger tips, CJAM DJs have the ability to record show promotions and pre-record shows so in case for some reason they aren't able to broadcast live, the audience won't miss a beat.

Playlist #5

2007-10-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the tardiness once again, this weeks show was a little different. I was away for Thanksgiving weekend, so I did not do my show live, it was prerecorded. I will talk about this more in my next post. But enjoy, and my recommendation this week would be the Mohawk Lodge from out west who are coming to Windsor in the near future.

Russian Futurists - Paul Simon*
Bad Things to Such Good People - Pedro the Lion
Dear Kate - Dynamite Hack
Intoxikate - The Fullblast*
Roll On - Piebald
Turn - Christie Front Drive
Enjoy Your Day - Alkaline Trio
Freightliner - Hot Water Music
Your New Aesthetic - Jimmy Eat World
Ray - Millencolin
Making Music - Mohawk Lodge*
p.s. I hate you - Eleven Minutes Away*
Tortured Souls - The Next Best Thing *
The night the lights went out in Scotland - Real Mackenzines*
Geraldine - Chuck Ragan
Fear made the world go - The Dears*
(Hospital Vespers) - the Weakerthans*
Full flow angry go round boy - Strippers Union*
Uncorrect proofs - the Weakerthans*
Tiger vaccuum - Germans*
Try to forget - Saint Alvia Cartel *
Summer 2004 - The Turn It Ups*
Cliche Gueverra - Against Me!

Cancon - *

Playlist #4

2007-10-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took so long to get this up, I really want to make sure I get my playlists up the day of, ie. Monday.

world inferno friendship society - thumb cinema
moneen - the passing of america*
bend sinister - tv war*
matt skiba - soul to keep
the details - I asked what we should do. You said "I just… *
the ataris - and we all become like smoke
always outnumbered - today*
dropkick murphys - workers song
thunderah - weighing and wanting*
rival schools - used for glue
keepin 6 - look at what you got*
smoking popes - megan
the slackers - married girl
the rentals - life without a brain
boys night out - relapsing*
motion city soundtrack - even if it kills me
grade - stole bikes they ride faster*
maritime - james

* = Cancon

CDs, CDs, CDs!

2007-10-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

As a lot of music listeners know, Tuesdays mean CD release day at most major record stores. Well CJAM also gets these CDs, and we get all of them! Now when you get over a hundred CDs every week, there is no possible way, unless you have some kind of warehouse, that you can store them all. This is where CJAM's own Chris White comes in. Chris and his review army go through CD after CD and weeds them out. You can read the reviews Chris writes at his blog. There are many reasons why certain CDs don't make it into the CD library at CJAM. Some CDs just are plain terrible, well others might be too mainstream for the station's mandate to be independent of commercial radio. The CDs that do make it through the gauntlet make it into the on air studio, which is a set of CDs that live in the production studio and are easily accessed by the DJs.

To finish off this post, I am going to review a CD. I am going to do this every so often to mix up the pace of this blog.

Artist: Against Me!
Album: New Wave
Label: Sire Records

The boys of Against Me! have come back after their 2005, Searching for a Former Clarity, album with a record that a lot of die hards might see as too soft. On New Wave, Against Me! has toned down their brash vocals and crunching guitars and have turned to a more melody driven watered down punk rock. Now I sound extremely critical and negative with my description but please understand me, I really love this album. I find the songs on New Wave to be easy to listen to, as opposed to older albums which I found I needed to be in a certain mood, as well as New Wave seems to have lyrics that aren't as in your face, smashing the radical ideas of Against Me! into your brain.

Sadly, when a band takes a turn like this there are a lot of people who are going to yell, "sell out!" And if selling out is making a record that is marketable to a large audience, then yes I guess they sound out. Against Me! has made a catchy record, have brought some friends along for the ride (track 6 features a great duet with Canada's own Tegan Quin from Tegan and Sarah) and has become a mainstay in my CD player since the record came out.

Songs to listen to: Bourne on the FM waves of the heart feat. Tegan Quin
Sounds like: Rocket From the Crypt, The Clash

p.s. if you enjoy the album OR not, check out Ben Lee's version of New Wave

Life in "General"

2007-09-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

On a day like today, you can be both really excited to be a part of CJAM and really depressed. Why you ask? Well it is it because today, September 24th, is the one day of the year where CJAM as an organization is picked apart and looked at from all aspects. It is the Annual General Meeting, or the AGM.

Now, I am sort of a nerd. I like the AGM. I get really excited during the day, watching the hands of the clock get closer and closer to 7 o'clock. Why do I like the AGM do you ask? I am not exactly sure. I guess I kind of like the aspect of being apart of something bigger. You get to play company executive a little, with all the serving motions and seconding motions. I also like the fact you get inside inform on upcoming events and really it gives me material to write about in this blog.

But with the good comes the boring. To go along with this exciting stuff that I mention before, there is a whole load of boring stuff. When I say boring, I don't mean unimportant, because in reality all of the goings on at the AGM are important. It's just stuff that kind of is just "going through the motions". You have to review the budget, which is always a treat. But I do have to say we did fly right through that tonight. Then there is always one person who really has done too much research and talks WAY too much. I guess it is good because they utilize the AGM for what its true purpose is, to talk about issues they have that are going on at the station. But to be honest, a lot of us there (maybe I am just talking about myself) are there to get together as a big group, go through some of the upcoming events, do the usual song and dance that is needed to be done, but overall to get free pizza and pop. I am glad they find a bigger purpose for the AGM, but to be honest I do find that a lot of people were talking when some of the volunteers brought up more trivial topics. But I must reiterate again, they ARE using the AGM for its purpose, this is just my opinion.

What did we chat about at this year's AGM. Excellent question. As usually we have staff reports, which is a summary of what each staff member has done in the last year or so. These are usually recaps for a lot of volunteers because a lot of us spend so much time at the station that we've seen a lot of these summaries unfold in front of us. After the staff reports, we went over the finance and the numbers that the station put up over the last year. I would get more in depth into this topic, but I don't think it is entirely appropriate for this type of forum (if you are actually interested I suggest you ask someone at the station and they will assist your inquiry). One of the bigger topics we talked about was th annual pledge drive, which is one of the main events in the CJAM calendar. We briefly touched upon the pledge drive during the meeting, but I don't want to get too into it as it will be its own blog entry in the coming weeks. Let's just say the shirts this year are 100% sweeter.

Another of the big events which we talked about was National Campus Radio Confernce. This is also an event which I will talked about in a later blog entry. Let's just say that the talk at the meeting was incredibly encouraging, and I think this event will do so much for CJAM and the University within the scholastic community.

The last event of the night is usually my favourite but this year was a big let down. the election for the Board of Directors is usually the most exciting moment of the meeting. People nominate others, and it is very edge of your seat. This year not so much. Four seats were open, four people got nominated. Not exciting. But my nomination did get a seat, Go Murad!

So, that's it for another year. The AGM is one of my favourite CJAM events of the year and unfortunately I have to wait another 365 days till the next one.

Playlist #3

2007-09-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here is my playlist for September 24th, 2007

Saves the Day - Always Ten Feet Tall
Lifetime - 25 cent Giraffes
the Locusts Have No King - Anna's smoke*
the Most Serene Republic - In places, empty spaces*
.moneen. - Bleed and Blister*
Manchester Orchestra - Where have you been?
the Paperbacks - Hesitation Marks*
Midway State - Met a Man on Top of the Hill*
Texas is the Reason - Back and to the Left
Bang Lime - Kick the Habit*
the Doers - United and Strong*
Ben Lee - What Would Jay z Do?
Attack in Black - If All I Thought Were True*
the Receiving Ends of Sirens - Swallow People Whole
Built to Spill - Happiness
hothotheat - Outta Heart*
Sea Wolf - You're a Wolf
Blurt - Bedrock Blues*

* - Cancon

Playlist #2

2007-09-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to present the whole reason this blog was created, well half the reason. I present you the debut episode of "Sound Off College Radio". This is the playlist for today's show. You can catch the show Monday mornings from 10:30 am till noon. For those of you who tuned in this morning, I apologize about the state of my voice. I was very ill and lost about 75% of my voice. Anyways, here's the set list:

Locusts have no king - Grave Danger*
the Weakerthans - Plea From A Cat Named Virtue*
the Weakerthans - Virtute the cat Explains her Departure*
Citywide Vacuum - Sweet Kraut*
Ted Leo and the RX - Shake the Sheets
the Russian Futurists - These Seven Notes*
the New Pornographers - All the Old Showstoppers*
Attack in Black - Inches and Ages*
Against Me! - Borne on the FM Air Waves
Arcade Fire - Crown of Love*
Bayside - Blame it on Bad Luck
Cain and Abel - The Son will not Rise*
Christie Front Drive - November
Chuck Ragan - Geraldine
Germans - I am the Teacher*
New Amsterdams - Your Ghost
Locusts Have No King - Goodman on a Strange Horse*

* - Canadian Content

Special Events Cont. [Harvesting the FAM]

2007-09-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is just a small little post to wrap up the Harvesting the FAM festival. The festival itself was absolutely amazing. Everything went off without a hitch. My favourite band of the night was the Locusts Have No King. I was running around all night, up and down from the basement location of the CJAM studios and the CAW atrium, so I got to see the fashion show as well as the artists that had displays. One thing I did miss, however, was the films portion of the festival which I am disappointed about.

What Did Pat Do at the FAM?

Well thats is a good question, and seeing as this blog is about behind the scenes at CJAM I guess I am obligated to explain what exactly I did at CJAM during the FAM. Well myself and Aaron Feldman, who is the DJ for the literary talk show ;) took a four hour shift in the production studio. CJAM at the FAM had a three group set up. One group, called the On Air Studio (which featured such CJAM personalities as Thom and Jon in the Morning as well as music director Chris "Chonky" White) which was basically the front lines for the broadcast. These were the people who made sure the feeds were good to go and always running, as well as greeted the listeners with their lovely voices. The second group was the CJAM Atrium group. These guys had an interesting group, not only were they supposed to be the face of CJAM and give out flyers and stickers, but they were also in charge of recording the acoustic sets going on in the CAW atrium. Finally, the hardest working out of the bunch.....ha ha ha. But seriously the last group was the production studio group. It was our job to record interviews with bands that had just finished their sets, edit the interviews as well as the music coming from the CAW atrium and most of all look handsome well doing it. I think Aaron and I succeeded.

In the end the FAM was fantastic and I would do it every weekend if I wasn't so exhausted

Special Events: vol. 1 [harvesting the fam]

2007-09-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here I am writing to you with great anticipation of tomorrow's event. Harvesting the Fam is taking place tomorrow, all day from 2 pm am to 2 am at the CAW centre on the Univrsity of Windsor campus. Now you ask, what does this have to do with CJAM and this blog? Well let me tell you. CJAM is a proud member of the Windsor arts community and is an active participant in locals arts festivals all over the city. So when the opportunity came to help out this amazing event, run by none other than CJAM DJ Murad Erzinclioglu as well as Benjamin Young Hart. CJAM has become a large part of the festival, broadcasting from the basement stage (the old Thirsty Scholar) at the original Harvesting the FAM and then this year broadcasting from both the basement as well as the Sturgeon Records outdoor stage. That plus the CJAM Atrium stage which hosted acoustic acts in the CAW centre and a buttload of CJAM volunteers who pitched in to try and make the day run as smooth as possible. But I really don't wanna take any credit away from Murad, Ben and all the other volunteers, because without them the event would not have existed.

But back to the actually festival itself:

15 Films - 44 Artists - 34 Music Acts / 1 Day - 12 Hours - 0 Dollars

The festival is also getting a lot of media coverage as well.

Recap after the FAM....

Playlist #1

2007-09-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Along with my blog entries I will also be posting my play list for my shows each week. You can catch Sound Off College Radio mondays 10 am till 12: 30 pm, only on CJAM 91.5.

BAND SONG
the locusts have no king* catching a slow train on a dead mans birthday
the rentals sweetness and tenderness
attack in black* chimes and church bells
weakerthans* virtute the cat explains her departure
stars* today will be better I swear
prarie cat* grumpy forever
measured in angles* the object serves
mad caddies coyote
against me americans abroad
junior senior I like music
the go team flashlight fight
pietasters late night call
what seas, what shores* deplay/attack/fortify
black before red bosa nova #7
minus the bear white mystery
weakerthans* utilities
manic street preachers winterlovers
black tie this time around
hopewell to the slaughter

*indicates canadian content

Dead air: what the hells with that?

2007-09-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick introduction before I get this whole dog and pony show on the road. My name is Pat Craven and for the past two years I have been a disc jockey at CJAM 91.5 University of Windsor campus radio. Over the past two years I think I have witnessed just about everything there is to see when it comes to how a college radio station works. And although I would say 9 out of 10 North Americans are exposed to radio on a weekly basis, a lot of them probably have no idea about half the stuff that goes on. And with that, I present: SOUND OFF: what's the deal with college radio?

For my first entry I am going to talk about dead air and how it affects radio. Wikipedia states "Dead air is a phenomenon whereby a broadcast which normally carries audio or video unintentionally becomes silent or blank (also known as unmodulated carrier). The term is most often used in cases where programme material comes to an unexpected halt, either through operator error or for technical reasons, although it is also used in cases where a broadcaster has 'dried up'."

At CJAM dead air is not your friend, it is actually your arch enemy. Dead air is the equivalent to the black plague for radio hosts. If you encounter it, fix it, or run away before you can be seen my others.

There are a few reasons why the airwaves become dead, some the fault of the dj and some aren't.

1) Song ends and another one is not queued up/ dj is not ready to go on the air. This problem is probably the most common. It probably happens once or twice a show without people realizing it but trust me, the dj is in the studio frantically trying to fix the problem. The only time dead air becomes a problem and listeners are affected is usually when a dj will throw on a cd for the over night shift and does not select repeat on the cd player. This can lead to hours of dead air and a lot of unhappy listeners and board of directors.

2) The other reason why dead air might occur is because of faulty equipment. For example, last year a lot of the in studio microphones were not working and dj didn't know of this problem. So when they thought they were broadcasting out onto the airwaves, they were really just talking to each other in a small enclosed room. This is not a regular occurance, but just another example of how dead air occurs.

Finally, the age old question, how would a dj know there is a dead air problem. Well good question. CJAM is equipped with a dead air alarm which sends off a really annoying high pitched ring when there is dead air over the air waves.

So that should answer your question, what the hells with dead air?

till next entry,

Pat