Airchecks | MikeChimeri.com

Nine years in radio October 12, 2010

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.
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October 5, 2001, was the day that launched my radio career. I hosted “The Mike Chimeri Show” on WebRadio WCWP (now myWCWP). I didn’t think of recording my shows until a week later, October 12. Here’s how that show sounded.

I’ve come a long way since that second “Mike Chimeri Show,” as you’ll hear when you listen to my last “Evening Jazz” show a few months ago.

Evening Jazz Pics & Video, 7/8/10 July 9, 2010

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio.
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Yesterday, I brought my digital camera up to WCWP so I could take self-timed pictures of myself while hosting “Evening Jazz.”

This was shot while playing “Mt. Airy Road” by George Benson & Earl Klugh:

About to back-sell “Rhapsody” by Dan Siegel and “Mt. Airy Road”:

And the last two are from the top of Hour 2:

It’s hard to get good candid shots, but those are good enough.

For good measure, I also shot almost two minutes of video, mixed later with aircheck audio:

3/2 Evening Jazz aircheck video March 4, 2010

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio.
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For the last few years, I’ve hosted a radio show on C.W. Post’s Homecoming Day on WCWP-FM. I’ve also brought my camcorder along to shoot video that I later mix with the aircheck audio.

Last night, I did the same for “Evening Jazz.” Here’s how that came out:

February Blizzard/Shoveling/WCWP February 14, 2010

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio, Weather.
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As I said in the postponed/unpostponed post, we were hit by a blizzard here on Long Island from late Tuesday night to early Thursday morning.

The most significant snow began falling Wednesday afternoon:

My dad shoveled the driveway just as the snow intensified:

I shoveled as much of the driveway as I could early Wednesday evening. Snow continued to fall:

My parents shoveled the driveway Thursday morning with my sister and I shoveling for an hour in the early afternoon. After I’d finished, I took these pictures:

At around 5PM, it was off to WCWP for Evening Jazz. I shot these pictures as I arrived:

During the second hour, I shot a couple of self-timed pictures by mounting my camera on a mic stand:

Here’s how I sounded.

More snow is expected Monday night into Tuesday. I hope it isn’t much. Honestly, I’m ready for Spring.

Thursday Night Jazz fill-in aircheck October 30, 2009

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Jazz, Media, Personal, Radio.
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Last night, I filled in for Martin Phillips on “Thursday Night Jazz” on 88.1 FM WCWP.

Here is the aircheck of the show.

And here are pictures of me that I took with the 10-second self-timer on my camera:

C.W. Post/WCWP Homecoming 2009 recap October 6, 2009

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Football, Internet, Jazz, Personal, Radio, Sports, Weather.
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Other recaps: 2008, WCWP 50th Anniversary (2011), 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

I arrived on campus for this year’s Homecoming shortly after 2:30. Unlike last year, the weather was cloudy (at least when I arrived), warm, and humid.

After putting all my equipment (and two bottles of soda) down at WCWP, I walked to Hickox Field to soak in the Homecoming atmosphere.

This year, the C.W. Post Pioneers football team played the Shippensburg Red Raiders.

The press box:

The WCWP play-by-play announcers were in the lower right corner.

Here’s a closer look:

The Pioneers won 40-24.

After I got back to WCWP, the rains came, and they were heavy.

There were even a few rumbles of thunder, including a loud crash.

Across from Studio 1, I noticed the print version of Jim Merritt’s Newsday recap of this year’s Long Island Radio & TV Day.

Here I am with fellow alumni Jonathan Focarino, Stephanie Koithan, Jay Mirabile, and Pete Bellotti:

The same people, but with another alumna: M.J.:

Bobby G. and Bernie Bernard:

Bernie was the board operator during Steve and Birdy’s radio show, which led in to mine.

At 6:30, I headed to the Pioneer Room in Hillwood Commons to set up for my show from the WCWP Homecoming Dinner.

Here is the audio aircheck from the show.

The same audio mixed with video from my camcorder:

And here are some vidcaps, starting with me counting down to go on:

Bernie Bernard took this picture of me as “Down the Wire” by Spyro Gyra was playing:

Back to vidcaps as I smirk at my camcorder after bobbing my head in time to “W.C. Handy Hop” by Gerald Albright:

Closing the show…

…and turning the mic off:

Back in Studio 1 at WCWP, Jay Mirabile’s “Disco and Funk King Show” followed me:

Jay and Bernie Bernard:

Jay and WCWP Homecoming Coordinator Alan Seltzer:

Jay and Eli W. Sen:

Then, I joined in:

We conclude this recap with some webcam shots from Studio 1:

See you next year!

Michael Jackson: 1950-2009; covers played on my shows June 26, 2009

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Radio.
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Michael Jackson, a music icon (a term that everyone seems to be using), died Thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 50. In my opinion, he had his problems in other areas, but he was a great musician. He will be missed.

The first songs I remember hearing as a young boy were “Billie Jean” and “Beat It.” Of course, I was able to hear many more after that. Among them, “Bad,” “Black or White,” and the duet with his sister Janet, “Scream.”

Through jazz, I discovered other songs of his. In 1988, David Benoit covered “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” on his “Every Step of the Way” album. In 1989, the late Miles Davis covered “Human Nature” on “You’re Under Arrest.” 19 years later, in 2008, Benoit would also cover “Human Nature” along with “Never Can Say Goodbye.” I also heard “Never Can Say Goodbye” covered by Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour on “A Twist of Motown” in 2003.

A few times in my six years (to date) in radio, I played two Michael Jackson covers and one Jackson 5 cover. Thanks to my overall playlist files in Microsoft Word, I can share the songs and the artists who covered them and what shows I played the songs on:

Miles Davis, “Human Nature” (You’re Under Arrest, 1989):

11/16/01, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
4/26/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
9/27/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
11/15/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
12/31/03, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
11/4/04, The Instrumental Invasion (WGBB)

Chuck Loeb, “Rock With You” (Listen, 1999)

9/27/02, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
1/30/03, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
12/30/04, The Instrumental Invasion (WGBB)
6/17/07, Block 1 (6PM-9PM, 12AM-3AM, 6AM-9AM, 12PM-3PM), MCJN: Mike Chimeri Jazz Net (my Live365 Internet Radio station, May 22 to July 7, 2007)
7/5/07, Block 1, MCJN: Mike Chimeri Jazz Net (Live365 Internet Radio)

Dave Grusin & Lee Ritenour, “Never Can Say Goodbye” (A Twist of Motown, 2003):

2/25/04, The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)
Evergreen Show #5 (pre-recorded 3/3/04), The Mike Chimeri Show (WCWP)

MP3: Airchecks from shows featuring Michael Jackson covers

Outside of radio, I heard “I Want You Back” (the Jackson 5) and “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)” (the Jacksons) covered at previous Smooth Jazz for Scholars concerts. The latter was in 2007 and the former in 2007 and 2009.

Previously unposted WCWP aircheck February 9, 2009

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Music, Personal, Radio.
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Last night, in my boredom, I went to the Musicradio 77 WABC tribute site. On the homepage was an interview with Joe McCoy, the former program director at WCBS-FM. In the interview, he reflected on the former WABC personalities he hired at CBS-FM. Those personalities included Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Bruce Morrow (a.k.a. Cousin Brucie), and Dan Ingram.

On the page housing the interview, there was an aircheck of Dan Ingram filling in for Ron Lundy over a three-day period in January 1991. Reading the interview and listening to the aircheck made me think back to my days at WCWP, and a show I recorded in June 2005. It was an evergreen show with a Classic Top 40 theme. I hadn’t listened to it since a month or so after recording it because I was ashamed of how I sounded. I channeled Ingram and Cousin Brucie at times, but felt I sounded corny and forced.

But I’ll let you, the reader, be the judge. Here’s the aircheck:
Classic Top 40 Evergreen – June 2005

C.W. Post/WCWP Homecoming 2008 recap October 21, 2008

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Interviews, Jazz, Personal, Radio.
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Later recaps: 2009, WCWP 50th Anniversary (2011), 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

Before I begin the recap, here is the aircheck of my alumni radio show…
2008 Alumni Show aircheck audio

…and both parts of my previously discussed interview with Ken Navarro:
Ken Navarro Interview II, Part 1
Ken Navarro Interview II, Part 2
2/3/13 UPDATE: Ken Navarro Interview II-Final Cut

With that out of the way, let’s begin. I arrived on campus at 2:00 on Saturday, a cold (for October), windy day. First, I went to WCWP to put down all my equipment. Then, I walked to Hickox Field to take in the Homecoming atmosphere.

On the field, the C.W. Post Pioneers football team were playing the Millersville Marauders.

WCWP (highlighted in this picture by the black oval) provided the play-by-play:

Bored, and hardly seeing anyone I knew, I walked back to WCWP to prepare for my radio show. It turned out to be a good thing I left when I did, as you’ll find out three pictures down. (By the way, the Pioneers won 55-38, extending their record to 2-5.)

Earlier this year, fellow WCWP alumnus Kevin Jeffreys passed away. This year’s Homecoming and alumni weekend were dedicated to him:

All four news production TVs were tuned to the Studio 1 webcam used exclusively for alumni weekend. Below, you see the football postgame in progress.

The game, and subsequent postgame coverage, ended much sooner than I, and several alumni, thought it would. So, instead of coming on the air at 3:30, I came on at 3:00. Luckily, I found a handful long tracks on the CDs I brought for the original playlist to fill the extra time. Here are some camcorder vidcaps of my show, as seen in the video I linked to at the top of this recap:

Toward the end of the show, I went to the myWCWP website to see what the webcam looked like on the internet stream:

Then, Phil, a current WCWP member, took this picture from one of the news TVs:

Craig Stern, another fellow alum, shot this picture of me at the board:

After the show, it was off to the Pioneer Room on the first floor of Hillwood Commons for the Friends of WCWP Alumni Dinner, where Bernie Bernard hosted her alumni show (Craig Stern is in the first pic):

Here I am with Bernie and Alan Seltzer, who, as the Homecoming Coordinator, is responsible for putting alumni weekend together (updated after Alan’s comment):