Instrumental Invasion, 9/20/24, 2PM (Homecoming Weekend) (Live!) October 4, 2024

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, smooth jazz, Travel, Video.
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Other posts: 9/21 12AM prerecorded show recap, comprehensive Homecoming Weekend recap

The live edition of Instrumental Invasion for WCWP‘s alumni-run Homecoming Weekend programming block aired at 2PM Friday, between Art Beltrone’s interview show and Strictly Jazz, WCWP’s longest-running program, dating back to the pre-FM carrier-current days when it was hosted by John March. The hosts of Strictly Jazz that followed me were Hank Neimark (“NEE-mark”), John LiBretto, and Jon Korkes (“CORE-kiss”) (via Zoom). You’ll see Hank and engineer Jeff Kroll at the end of the video below.

Before I get into how this Instrumental Invasion show was made and share photos taken during the show, let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way…

…along with the aforementioned video.

The playlist for the live Instrumental Invasion was created July 24, long before a rough schedule was announced by Jeff and Pat Kroll, the Homecoming Weekend coordinators. I assumed I would be hosting one live show – intended for music from new releases – and one prerecord – the 60-year musical journey. So, I figured I’d get the presumed prerecord playlist out of the way and would work on the presumed live show playlist as the weekend approached.

The initial schedule was announced on August 12. I’d be live at 2PM, but didn’t see my name in an overnight slot. In a first for Homecoming Weekend, I made the 60-year musical journey the playlist for the live show, tweaking it slightly. I tweaked further on August 23. There would still be one song each between 1964 and ’89, and two songs for 1994 to 2004, but I scrapped the old plan of three songs each from 2009, ’14, and ’19. The 2024 song to close the remained, preceded by a set of three more songs from this year. 2009, ’14, and ’19 were winnowed down to pairs.

Annotations began August 23 after printing out the playlist, continuing on the 25th, 28th, and September 16. As in 2022, I didn’t make a script. I read the annotations, adding a Dancing with the Stars reference during the set with “Tropical Rain” by Jessy J (in that show’s Ray Chew Live house band). Otherwise, I spoke off the cuff. (It’s a shame that 1982 Weather Report video was pulled from YouTube after I watched it.)

I was the first show of the weekend to air from studio 2 at the renovated Abrams Communications Center. Here are photos I took during the first set of hour 2:

As “Beat Street” by David Benoit and Spice Fusion Big Band played, I had Jeff Kroll take a photo of me at the controls, just as he would be moments later.

Hank Neimark is seen phoning Jon Korkes to set him up on Zoom.

My only regret about the show is that my remix of the WCWP Oldtimers Weekend liner was not in Wavecart. The original was in there and played “Machine Gun” by The Commodores at a slower speed. This is “Machine Gun” (excerpted portion at 1:32):

And this is my remixed liner:

(The Homecoming Weekend moniker was adopted once the programming block coincided with then-C.W. Post‘s Homecoming.)

That aside, dragging and dropping liners in was easy, and I enjoyed using the “WCWP Remembers [year]” liners.

Just when I thought this would be the only show I’d have on Homecoming Weekend, Jeff Kroll called me September 3 to say he needed a three-hour prerecord to fill time early Saturday or Sunday morning. You can read about that show here.