Newsletter 11-16-09

Hey Everyone,

Thanks to everyone who came out to help celebrate BlowUpRadio.com’s 9th anniversary at Buddie’s Tavern the other week. It was great to see so many people there, and Joshua Van Ness, Christian Beach, Jon Caspi Band, and The Tea & Whiskey, all put on incredible sets!

We’ll be taking off the month of December from the BlowUpRadio.com Free Concert Series, but we’ll be back at Buddie’s Tavern on Saturday January 23rd to kick off a new year of free concerts!

~~~

The next BlowUpRadio.com Guitar Pull will take place this Sunday, November 22nd @ 3pm ET and feature Ross Sandler (from Crewman Number Six), and Pete Jager (from The Extras, Inc.)

All you have to do to hear it is listen in to our webcast at www.BlowUpRadio.com

Don’t forget, you can stream all previous BlowUpRadio.com Guitar Pulls at www.BlowUpRadio.com

~~~

If you missed my recent interview with Nick Prueher of the Found Footage Fest you can now stream from the Interview Archive at www.LazlosDen.com

~~~

Here’s the BlowUpRadio.com programming schedule for this week:

Monday thru Friday at 8pm ET - Lazlo’s Den

Wednesday at 10pm ET - ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ hosted by Tris McCall (returning January 6th!)

Thursday at 10pm ET - ‘Rock N Roll Gas Station’ hosted by Jim Testa

Tues @ 8pm, Wed @ noon & 10pm, Thurs @ 3am & midnight, Fri @ 9am & 3pm - Lazlo’s Den presents New Music

~~~

Download free music from BlowUpRadio.com or LazlosDen.com

The Break Evens - "win if you can…” album

The Break Evens - "Felicia Day Song Parts 1 & 2" song

Kindred Souls - “whatchagonnado” song

Jonathan Andrew - “here’s to the present” song

Jon Dacks - “free to be” album

Jon Caspi, “this town” album

Gary Paul Hermus, "Xanadu From Outer Space" song

Woodfish, "Bamm Diddley" album.

Free music, now at www.BlowUpRadio.com or www.LazlosDen.com

Bands, if you'd like to put up a free download on BlowUpRadio.com or LazlosDen.com, please contact me.

~~~

Pissed Off!

Last Thursday I was lucky enough (courtesy of the Asbury Park Film Initiative) to see a screening of the new movie Pirate Radio. Despite the silliness of the film at times (one of the government workers trying to shut the pirate stations down has a crude last name, said often for a cheap laugh), a terrible groan inducing ending, and the fact the film does not try to be historically accurate, I still really enjoyed this film.

Why?

Because it shows the type of camaraderie amongst DJs that I have always hoped to have…but sadly I don’t think really exists.

When I was at college radio, most of the DJs didn’t hang out in the station or outside the station. Tastes in music tended to run very diverse, and instead of reveling and learning from the diversity, we seemed to use it to alienate one another.

When I graduated college and started working part-time at a commercial station I thought, “now I’ll find that close knit group of fellow DJs.” Sadly, what I found was a lot of people burned out on working in radio (my dream job), something I years later attributed (when I started to get burned out) to the strict formatting guidelines we had to stick to and inability to choose any music for ourselves.

So I started BlowUpRadio.com, hoping to make it a nice little internet radio commune for wayward souls like myself. People who wanted to play good music. I had dreams of being able to buy a big house, create a huge studio and space for live bands to come in and rock out, for people to come and go as they please…yeah, I was young and naďve.

Nine years later and I’m still doing BlowUpRadio.com, and while I may take short breaks from doing stuff, I’ve never gotten burned out on doing this station. Freedom to do what I want is a wonderful thing, even though I’ll always lose money on this, and will never see the dream of my radio commune.

But while my dream will never come to fruition, I have sort of created the camaraderie that I was looking for, and even a bit of the live artists hanging out. I have made some amazing friends over the last nine years, people who I not only admire as people, but as incredibly talented musicians too, and with the BlowUpRadio.com Guitar Pull, I get to hang out with a couple of singer-songwriters each month right here in my home, as they test new songs, play classics, and talk about their craft.

The cliché is that money doesn’t bring happiness, and in this case it’s true. I spent 5 years in commercial radio (getting a paycheck, albeit small) and it was never very fulfilling. The 9 years of BlowUpRadio.com (where I lose money every month on operating costs) have been so fulfilling and fun that I know I am truly a lucky person.

All of you reading this is part of the reason I am so lucky, and I thank you all.

Nine years in, and I still get excited every time I open the mailbox and have a new CD to listen to.

Nine years in, and I look forward to many more.

------------------------------


That's all for this week folks.

Peace,
Lazlo
www.BlowUpRadio.com