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Instrumental Invasion, 6/29/22 June 30, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Video, Video Games.
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The June 29 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the first show recorded after three weeks off. One segment was recorded on May 9, three on the 10th, and two (plus a pickup) on the 11th.

The playlist was created on May 5, but wasn’t annotated until the 9th. The talk break scripts for the first two segments were drafted before recording each of them, with the rest of the script drafted before recording the rest of the segments.

I was inspired to play “Estancia” by Chick Corea after watching Timothy Gondola‘s transcription:

Since the word “estancia” refers to a South American ranch, I paired it with Dave Grusin‘s arrangement of “Git Along, Little Dogies” on Discovered Again!. In turn, I contrasted “dogies” (hard g) with Dogi (soft g) from the Ys video game series.

It took until two days before recording to realize that Pat Metheny‘s “River Quay” was a play (that rhymes) on The Bridge on the River Kwai. Quay can be pronounced “kway” or “key,” but as I said in the show, Pat had “kway” in mind to contrast it with “kwy.” Enough linguistics.

This year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars influenced much of the show, with two songs played on the second night and music featuring four of the headliners. (Read about the first night here.) One of the second night songs was “Soul Ties” by Marcus Anderson:

This was the second week in a row with a version of “Veil of Spring” by Anders Enger Jensen, which preceded the second appearance of “Move Ahead” by Richard Elliot. I first played it last March 17, but it was a single at the time of recording, so back in it went.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

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Instrumental Invasion, 6/22/22 June 23, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Religion.
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The June 22 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third of three shows produced in ten days, making for six shows produced in 23 days. I wanted to allow myself a hiatus of at least two weeks to focus on my girlfriend Kelly’s visit from Connecticut, then attending and documenting Smooth Jazz for Scholars in Connecticut (recaps here and here).

This show was recorded entirely on April 18 with pickups on the 19th, the first show recorded principally in one day since recording the December 15 show on November 1, the same day as annotating and talk break script drafting.

The playlist was created on April 16 with annotations and drafting of the talk break script on the 17th.

Once again, I replayed songs to make up for past mistakes: “Ear Candy” by Pieces of a Dream (January 5) and “360” by Chuck Loeb (April 13).

I had fun with “Spinnin'” by Jessy J from her latest album, Blue. It unintentionally sounded like the Hora if it were done by Les McCann. So, I worked many Jewish cultural references (I was raised Reform Jewish) into my talk break coming out of it, led by the exclamation “L’chaim (to life)!”

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

2020-21 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony June 17, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Education, Internet, Interviews, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Rock, Technology, Travel, Video.
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Other Hall of Fame ceremony recaps: 20122013201420152017, 2018, 2019

Video of the ceremony can be found at the end of this post.

It’s been three years since the last ceremony, but last Saturday, the WCWP Hall of Fame finally added five new inductees to its ranks. Due to delays by the COVID-19 pandemic, there were two sets of inductees:

  • 2020: Alan Seltzer and Christina Kay (announced at Homecoming in 2019)
  • 2021: Joe Manfredi, Jay Mirabile and Mike Chimeri

Yes, it’s true! I’d been dreaming of getting into the Hall of Fame for years and I got the dream fulfilling call last April.

Earlier this year, outgoing director of broadcasting Dan Cox reached out to the five of us for a ceremony date that worked for us. That date was Saturday, June 11. The venue ended up being the former LIU Post campus bookstore, now known as the Alumni and Employer Engagement Building…or it was, and now it’s Alumni Hall.

I reached out to friends and family, hoping they could attend. No matter how many turned out, I’d be happy.

I wore a suit and shirt combo that I picked out on Thursday with a tie that my mother Lisa bought with colors similar to those of LIU.

I may have been one of the inductees, but I still took photos and video when it wasn’t my turn. So, after dressing up, I packed up my DSLR camera, battery pack with a spare battery attached, camcorder, GoPro, and tripods to connect to them and my iPhone, which I would have brought anyway.

Once my sister Lauren arrived at noon, she, our mom, and dad Bill all left for campus. I was worried we’d be late after traffic was diverted away from the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway entrance on Alken Avenue in North Wantagh, but once we entered via Hicksville Road, we made great time, parking next to the Alumni Hall (I’ve settled on that name) at 12:40 (hey, like WGBB!).

Not wanting to unpack my camera yet, I took establishing exterior shots with my phone:

The ceremony began at 1:22:

Hosting this ceremony was Dan Cox’s last act as director of broadcasting, officially retiring on May 31. Pete Bellotti was named his successor on June 6.

The first 2020 inductee was Alan Seltzer, currently host of The Grooveyard on WCWP. He was inducted by Scott Perschke:

The second 2020 inductee was Christina Kay, now of WALK 97.5. She was inducted by Dan Cox:

Before moving on to the 2021 inductees, Dan Cox awarded the inaugural Art Beltrone Founders Award to Dan Casazza:

New director of broadcasting (or station manager, if you will) and 2019 inductee Pete Bellotti inducted two of the three 2021 inductees. First, Joe Manfredi, the station manager of Old Westbury Web Radio (OWWR) (listen here), serving nearby SUNY Old Westbury:

Dan reintroduced Pete to induct Jay Mirabile, longtime host of The Disco and Funk King Show (DFK for short):

Finally, it was my turn. I originally planned on my cousin Chris – C.W. Post Class of 2008 – inducting me, but he came down with COVID earlier in the week. His induction speech was partially complete and he offered to finish it and have Dan Cox read it on his behalf, but I declined and had Dan give his own speech:

Dan, with his time as director of broadcasting at an end, closed the ceremony with poignant, and pointed, remarks:

With the ceremony complete, all that remained were the photo ops:

As I left, Dan had everyone yell “goodbye” to me. I happily waved and walked out…except that I left my camera battery charger in an outlet. I realized my error halfway to Domenico’s of Levittown. I didn’t feel like going back to campus, so Pete returned it to me today. Still, I went ahead and bought new third-party batteries with a charger. The batteries I had were 6 1/2 years old, anyway.

Joining my family at Domenico’s were Wendy, Lori, and Aunt Donna. The lone photo I took there was of a toast:

Cheers!

Thank you to those that gave me congratulations cards and gifts:

Thus ends the recap. I am overwhelmed by all the support I received during and after the ceremony. Congratulations to Alan Seltzer, Christina Kay, Joe Manfredi, Jay Mirabile, and yours truly Mike Chimeri, the 2020 and ’21 classes of the WCWP Hall of Fame.

6/21 UPDATE: The video is now up. Chapters are included if you want to skip ahead or know what to expect. There is occasional coarse language and suggestive dialogue.

Instrumental Invasion, 6/15/22 June 16, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The June 15 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days: April 13 (one segment), 14 (three segments), and 15 (two segments). The second talk break of the third segment was rerecorded on the 15th prior to recording the last two. I wasn’t thinking straight on the 14th as landscapers across the street made their annual debut, working on and off for four hours! After I got the first of my three planned segment recordings in, our landscaping crew made their debut, which took “only” two hours. I recorded the second segment of the day after they left and when the crew across the street was in a lull. I recorded the third in the evening. Naturally, all this occurred on the warmest (and most humid) day of the spring to that point. The Kaotica Eyeball only drowns out so much; the window still needs to be closed. It was drier and less warm on the 15th, so my room didn’t get stiflingly hot. There was a bird chirping in a tree at one point, but I didn’t notice it on playback.

The playlist was created on April 12 after wrapping up last week’s show, with annotations and the talk break script draft on the 13th.

For the second week in a row, a cut from Chet Baker‘s She Was Too Good to Me was played in the first segment followed by a Bob James song, and Fourplay ended the first hour. “Autumn Leaves” was originally played on May 20, 2020, but with less background info and the wrong vibraphonist credit. Next week’s show will have more recurring songs to compensate for misinformation.

Click here to download this week’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:

May 30 boat ride photos June 10, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Aviation, Boating, Personal, Photography, Travel.
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For those that aren’t connected with me on Facebook, I went on a long sightseeing ride on my dad Bill’s boat on Memorial Day afternoon.

My family and I took boat rides often when I was in my teens and early 20s, but I didn’t go on as often in subsequent years and hadn’t gone at all since my mid 20s. It’s been so long that the boat was docked at Al Grovers High & Dry Marina on South Main Street in Freeport rather than behind what was then Ehrhart’s and Ehrhart’s Clam House on Woodcleft Avenue.

Either way, the passengers aboard the boat were me, Bill, my mom Lisa, sister Lauren, aunt Robin, and Robin’s husband Allen. They were visiting from South Florida for a couple of days.

We arrived at Al Grovers just after 4:00 and left the dock within a few minutes.

Before I get to the main boat ride photos, here are all the planespotting ones:

Now, the main event. This first photo was taken just as Dad started the engines:

Left at 4:04, returned at 6:57. That’s nearly a three-hour tour, but with better results than the SS Minnow.

I hope you enjoyed experiencing my boat ride through photos. Tomorrow, I go into the WCWP Hall of Fame. A photo and video recap will be up next Friday.

Instrumental Invasion, 6/8/22 June 9, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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The June 8 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on April 11 (four segments) and 12 (two segments) with pickups recorded on April 13 and May 2.

The playlist was created on April 9, annotated on the 10th, and the talk break script was drafted before recording on the 11th.

Between last week’s show and this one, Pete Bellotti was named WCWP’s new director of broadcasting. In an e-mail on Monday, he informed me and my fellow FM hosts that the current programming lineup will continue through at least Labor Day.

As noted on the air, I played “It’s You or No One” by Chet Baker in the first Wednesday night show back on April 1, 2020. In that show, I misidentified She Was Too Good to Me, the album it’s from, as “…too good for me.” I’ll be replaying “Autumn Leaves” from that album next week to make up for misidentifying the vibraphonist in the eighth show (May 20).

Serendipity struck again this week as the last song I needed to fill out hour two’s first segment had a similar title to the song I played from Darren Rahn‘s Rock The World album. Last week, it was “Midnight Sun” and “Midnight Madness,” and this week, “Infinite Love” and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.” One segment after that, I experimented with one long song taking up the entire segment: “After the Cosmic Rain” on Return to Forever IV’s live album The Mothership Returns. Contrary to what the playlist says, I had the post-song liner picked out before recording the talk break.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 6/1/22 June 2, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.
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The June 1 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third of three shows produced in eleven days. Recording took place from April 4 to 6 in the same 2-3-1 configuration as the May 18 show: two segments on April 4, three on the 5th, and the last segment and pickups on the 6th. An additional pickup was recorded on April 18.

The playlist was created on April 2 after recording the first hour of last week’s show and annotated on the 3rd before recording its second hour. The talk break script was drafted on the 4th before recording the first two segments for this week.

June 1 was the first day after Dan Cox’s retirement as Director of Broadcasting. Long Island University is going to make that position part-time upon hiring his replacement. At Dan’s request, I continue to work on shows even if some of them don’t air, assuming the worst case scenario: where the university terminates WCWP after 57 years on 88.1 FM and 61 years since its carrier current launch. This is the only time I’m acknowledging the station’s uncertainty unless the worst comes true. (6/9 UPDATE: Pete Bellotti became the new director on June 6 and stated that the current FM lineup will continue through at least Labor Day.)

Getting back to this week’s show, in my back-sell of “Vinyl” by Euge Groove, I referenced an (original) Animaniacs segment called “Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation” (from episode 73):

Online pedantry goes back farther than you think.

I’ve since watched the first two seasons of the reboot, which I enjoyed.

This show’s second segment was the hardest to record, compounded by my new habit of zooming in the waveform to see mouth clicks I can edit out. If every song fades out and you’re light on information, the last resort is to do the talk breaks at a slow pace. I recorded the third talk break slow, but there was still too much left, so I had to redo the second. The third segments of each hour required careful editing of their second talk breaks to avoid running over. It was in the last segment that I realized it makes more sense looking for mouth clicks in a talk break after editing out flubs, but I’ve since reverted to the old way.

It marked the second time I paired songs by Wes Montgomery and Earl Klugh, coincidentally recorded the week of the show with the first time. The inclusion of “Midnight Madness” by Skinny Hightower after “Midnight Sun (Extended Version)” by Darren Rahn was serendipity. The first segment of hour two needed a song around 3:45 and I came across “Midnight Madness.” Then, I noticed it had vinyl record crackling just like “Vinyl”; two callbacks in one.

Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below: