This Allure

Archive for the ‘Radio Music’ Category

Every true life rock ‘n’ roll television melodrama has the same scene: the unknown artist/band gives their freshly cut 45rpm single to the local disc jockey. He spins it on his top 40 radio show…and a star is born. This legend has been passed down through the generations of wannabe popstars like an ancient family recipe. The ingredients may differ, but in the end you get the same glorious results: radio play equals fame and fortune.

But does this Top of the Charts fairytale still apply today in the sardonic post new millennium world we call “today”? Can a band in our current music scene walk into a radio station with a CD single in their hot little hands, impress and wow the DJ with their enthusiasm and chutzpa, obtain the magic and golden FM radio spins and then ride the wave of success all the way to Graceland? Well, then, I guess the real question would be, “Do you believe in fairytales?”

Unfortunately, the music industry, like the entire Earth, has become so overpopulated and so oversaturated with artists, music, CDs, and radio stations/shows of all kinds, that the chance of your own personal radio fairytale coming true is probably slim to none. But, don’t give up on your favorite audio media outlet. Radio may not catapult you to instant superstardom but it certainly can help to push you down the path to success.

The following are a few tips that will help you to make your own music fairytale and get your music heard throughout the airwaves:

1.) Get Out Of Major Market The Top 40 Station Mentality—There was a day when getting played on a big city Top 40 radio station was like winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Bands that were chosen for play were handpicked by the voices of the airwaves whose ears were finely tuned to pick out the next new rising star. Today, things are a little different. Radio has become a huge corporation with three major conglomerates owning most of the stations in the United States. Sadly, Disc jockeys are no longer the innovators their predecessors were. Station management hands down a playlist (made exclusively of artists signed to mostly major labels) and the voices you hear on your radio are just that…talking heads animating a script. It’s nearly impossible for an unknown band to break into mainstream large metropolis radio and a waste of your time and money to send packages blindly to a medium that will more than likely reject you again and again.

2.) The Specialty Show Is Your Ticket In—Still determined to get played on that hot radio station with 10 million listeners and a celebrity DJ? Well, there is a backdoor that you may be able to slip through. It’s the specialty show. Many huge stations feature a weekly show structured just to highlight the little guy…to showcase unsigned artists from that station’s area and sometimes beyond. These shows are always worth sending your press package to, as they tend to base their playlist on your music and your credentials on not on the typical corporate artist roster. This is where you just might wow that innovative disc jockey and garner play on some of America’s biggest stations.

3.) College Radio Still Rocks—One area of radio that has stayed unaffected by the huge corporate retooling is the college/university station. Unlike companies/labels deciding what the listening audience thinks is cool or hip, college radio DJs and program directors are still setting their own cutting edges, breaking new artists, and finding the hot fresh stars of tomorrow hiding in their local clubs, coffee houses and garages. It’s always beneficial for unsigned artists to send as many CDs (or email as many MP3s, if the station will accept that medium) to as many college stations as you can find. You will find stations to play you and people will be listening. This could lead to new fans, tour possibilities, and will definitely look fantastic on the radio page of your website or EPK. Whether or not it will actually make you a rockstar, it will sure make you feel like one.

4.) The Unlimited World Of Independent Radio—Back in the early days of radio, indie stations were limited to audio pirates in their basements stealing airwaves from unsuspecting Top 40 giants. Now, thanks to the internet, satellites, cell phones, iPods and cable TV, independent stations outnumber their AM/FM constituents in the thousands and new ones are created every day. Since doing a search of indie radio stations online has been known to cause a brain embolism in some, know that you will probably never be able to solicit them all in one lifetime and just relax and enjoy sending music to whomever you can, as you will probably garner hoards of airplay. Furthermore, your wallet will grow to love you as most of these stations will allow you to submit MP3s online.

It’s true that the legendary story of the unknown band that got one single played on the radio and became superstars within a month is probably as outdated as the 8-Track tape. But that doesn’t mean that the process of artists soliciting music for radio play has become archaic. Radio remains, to this day, one of the best ways for musicians to promote their music and their projects in their area….and now, thanks to terrific technological advancements, nationally and worldwide. The repetition of your single in the ears of even the most jaded radio listener, may lead to: CD and merchandise sales, gigging opportunities in your city and others, visits to your website, posts to your fan club forums, potential press and even maybe industry attention. So, don’t stop sending those CDs, and emailing those MP3s because the next person who hears your song on the radio might just be the one who leads, either directly or indirectly, to your much sought record deal. And who knows? You might just wind up becoming bigger than Elvis.

The Midnight Funk Association was the 12 a.m. one hour segment of the legendary late night Detroit radio DJ Electrifying Mojo, a.k.a Charles Johnson.

 

An entire generation of faithful fans and listeners from the late 70’s through the early 90’s recognize the radio show for shaping the musical tastes of listeners in the Metropolitan Detroit Area, Northern Ohio, and Eastern Ontario Canada.

Mojo broke many artists in the Detroit market including Prince, The J. Giles Band, The B-52’s and turned audiences on to classic legends like Pink Floyd and Peter Frampton, artist previously unheard on radio stations that were labelled as “black”, or “R and B” .

Nightly at 12 a.m., Mojo called to order The Midnight Funk Association, an homage to some of the great funk bands of the day and of all time.  He frequently played original long versions, and entire sides of albums by George Clinton and Parliament / Funkadelic, Prince, Rick James and many other all time great bands and artists, as well as local groups like Ready For the World.

At the top of the show, Mojo opened membership to the MFA, and members new and old were asked to stand up to show solidarity.

* If you were driving you were to flash your headlights.

* If you were at home, you turned on your porch light. 

* If you were in bed listening to the show, you were required to dance on your back.

And every night for years, people did it !

To become a card carrying member of the MFA, listeners wrote in the radio station and would receive their official MFA I.D. card.

Electrifying Mojo, and the Midnight Funk Association was one of the last great radio music shows of our time.  Many fans of the radio show credit Mojo for being fans of music that they would have otherwise never heard of.  He was a huge influence in turning millions of listeners into Prince fans, and many say was responsible for a six show sell out at Cobo Hall in Detroit in the late 80’s.

It is common to speak to fans of the show that will credit him for turning them on to Peter Frampton, The B-52’s, Pink Floyd, and many other artists that were never heard on Detroit’s “R and B” stations, yet he also supported emerging rap artists like Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, Whoodini, L.L. Cool J, and the many styles of music heard of the show fit together semmlessly as if they were mean to be enjoyed together.

The Godfathers and Originators of Detroit House and Techno Music, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, now known and respected around the world as groundbreaking, credit Mojo and the Midnight Funk Association as an early influence in their musical development and he frequently supported and played thier early and history making tracks that launched Detroit techno to the entire world including Inner City’s “Good Life”, Derrick May’s “Strings of Life”, Cybotron’s “Cosmic Cars”, Model 500 “No UFO’s”, “Technicolor”, “R9″ and so many others.

Mojo was known to support and embrace electronic music in it’s early stages and frequently played artists like Africa Bambaataa, Kraftwerk, and New Order as part of his nightly radio show.

Common segments of the legendary radio show included:

* 10:00pm – The Landing of the Mothership. This was the intro to each show with spaceship sound effects and related dialog. Sometimes the music heard during the first hour was indicative of what you’d hear that night; sometimes it would be completely random.

* 11:00pm – Awesome ‘84, ‘85. In the mid eighties, Mojo played an hour of brand new music (hence the year in the title) and a lot of new songs were introduced.

* 11:30pm – Lover’s Lane. A half an hour of “slow jams” for lovers.

* 12:00am – The Midnight Funk Association. Consisted regularly of Parliament-Funkadelic, The Gap Band, Zapp and other funk bands of the era.

From 1:00am to 3:00am (2:00 am on Saturday nights), Mojo’s show was different every night. Sometimes, the MFA would stretch well beyond 1:00am, other times Mojo would introduce segments such as:

* Star Wars – A classic “artist vs. artist” set, where Mojo would alternate selections from two different groups or artists, and the listeners would call in to vote for their favorite.

* Journey – Sometimes a multi-night segment, where Mojo played songs by a single artist or group, spanning their entire career. This usually included a mix of hits and obscure songs by that artist.

* Shout-out – Everyone that called into the station during his show was the recipient of a “shout-out”. He would go on for as long as it took rattling off the first names of every single person who had called in to the show.

* 35-35-35 – Mojo would take suggestions from listeners about their favorite artists and bands. He then would choose the three most popular groups that night and play thirty-five minutes, commercial-free, of each group. This segment often gave airtime to groups that no other radio station in Detroit played.

At other times, Mojo would spend the last 2 hours of his show showcasing live mixes on two turntables, by bringing in local DJs to do the same. One such DJ, Jeff Mills, began his career with Mojo as “The Wizard.” Mojo also would air music by local groups at this time.

In the Metro Detroit Area, The Midnight Funk Association was more than a nightly radio show, it was an event that listeners looked forward to every night for years.

It was common to see cars flashing thier lights at midnight and horns honking on the streets all over town at Midnight.

Mojo crossed color lines and did not adhere to a play list like today’s prepackaged radio stations and while broadcast on stations marketed toward the African-American market, his programming was an inspired blend of the best soul, funk, New Wave, and rock that defied standard radio industry formats and genres.

He believed that good music had no color, and should not be packaged into “Black” stations, and “White” stations, a concept still lost on today’s radio station owners, and program managers.

Electrifying Mojo and his Midnight Funk Association was the last of the great radio shows, and the last show that had any originality, and independent thought outside of a prestructured play list or carefully crafted demographic studies.

By following his love of music and adhering to a standard of just playing what was good,  Mojo accomplished something that radio has been unable to do since.  Capture a cross section of music lovers that encompassed every age, race, and finacial demographic, and create listeners andloyal fans that tuned in simply because they loved the DJ and the music.

Most recently, Mojo is serving as Program Director for a handful of Detroit radio stations – he does not publicize which ones – and he was in negotiations to bring his show to XM satellite radio in 2006, but so far nothing has been heard about it.

Fans from all over still speak of the legendary radio show, as well as, others who have heard about it and what it meant to so many, for so long.

For those of us that were there, The Midnight Funk Association will live in our hearts forever, and we will always be card carrying members.

It was truly one of the last great radio shows of our time.

Music has a therapeutic effect on people after their day work. People enjoy listening to music as it brings to them entertainment programs that can simple leave them mad. There are various types of entertainments. One of the best ways of entertaining yourself is listening to live radio. The radio stations that we get to listen on live radio unites people across a region and infuses entertainment in their lives.

The Internet has developed and made many changes in our culture including personal MySpace pages, individual blogs, the way we trade information as well as the way the public finds and listens to music. One of the forthcoming and most popular formats is Internet Radio. Internet radio stations have been online for more than three years and offer listeners an option to “subscription radio” and commercial radio because of the eclectic music formats and unique opportunities for independent bands.

Now the availableness of live radio with these websites allows people to tune to scintillating radio programs that are broadcast by various radio channels from time to time. The radio jockeys also have a great purpose to play for the entertainment of people. Their enchanting dialogs fascinate the listeners. The radio jockeys are also known to tell becharming stories of happenings and incidents in and around them. Thus people are exhilarated with joy on listening to their marvelous tales. Moreover, the websites support several channels of radio. Thus users find immense ambit to listen to live radio programs on any of these channels.

People all over the world can tune to live online radio programs that are broadcasted by various FM channels. The websites help people to access them from anywhere. Now it becomes possible for people to access radio channel from anywhere simply by opening websites. As these sites also serve the communication purposes, thus people get the chance to communicate with friends while listening to the radio.