Instrumental Invasion, 6/1/22 June 2, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV, Video.add a comment

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):
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:
Instrumental Invasion, 5/25/22 May 26, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Drama, Game Shows, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Radio, TV, Video.add a comment

The May 25 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on April 2 and 3. A pickup was recorded on May 2.
The playlist was created on March 31 and annotated on April 1. The talk break script was drafted before recording the first hour on the 2nd. This was the third time the playlist did not include David Benoit. The other two times were the 40th birthday special last November 17 and the 100th show on March 2.
After finishing last week’s show, it occurred to me that I hadn’t played many live recordings on Instrumental Invasion: ten songs in 111 shows. Five of those were Pat Metheny; one with his Group, two versions of “Better Days Ahead.” This week alone had five live recordings in it, four of them long. Spyro Gyra‘s Access All Areas version of “Heliopolis” was part of Extended Cuts Week on the original The Instrumental Invasion on WGBB. That show aired January 27, 2005, 17 years and four months ago tomorrow (May 27). The phrase “almost live” was part of The Gong Show announcer’s intro spiel: “From Hollywood, almost live, it’s The Gong Show!” (I’d link to video of the intro, but all the videos on YouTube are poor quality.)
I ended my talk-up of “Seventh Heaven” by Jeff Lorber with the line “the seventh heaven is, of course, the best,” an homage to a bit in the Technology Connections video on touch lamps. I’ve clipped the bit here, but the full video is worth watching:
I was going to reference the bit after playing “Tenth Victim” by the Jeff Lorber Fusion last week, but realized that would be in bad taste, even if I added “at least in positive situations.”
Incidentally, the inclusion of “Seventh Heaven” plus “Supernatural” by Brian Simpson made for two songs sharing their name with a WB/CW drama. 7th Heaven was family-oriented while Supernatural was dark fantasy.
As for last night’s show, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
I had Homer Simpson in mind when I used the word “dealies” at the end of the first segment.
Instrumental Invasion, 5/11/22 May 12, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV, Video.add a comment

The May 11 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days: the first hour on March 21, the first segment of the second hour on the 22nd, and the last two on the 23rd. Pickups were recorded on April 22 and May 2, the latter of which incorporated a new liner by WCWP/LIU Post alumnus Travis Demers.
The playlist was created on March 20 with annotations and the talk break script draft on the 21st.
For the second time in three weeks, speed compression was involved. The last talk break was sped up to 98% (except for the pickup) to keep the segment as close to 18 minutes as possible. This was after removing extemporaneous tidbits, which I also had to do for the last talk break of the first hour.
One tidbit I removed was about the music video for “Mornin’” by Al Jarreau, billed only as Jarreau:
In the show’s last talk break, while back-selling “Shandling” by Ken Navarro, I referenced “This is the Theme to Garry’s Show,” the theme song for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show:
My talk-up for the short “Funky Song (SC-55)” by Anders Enger Jensen ended in rhyme: “This is Anders Enger Jensen with ‘Funky Song.’ It isn’t very long.” That was a reference to this moment on Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza:
I swapped out the 1984 and earlier segment for an extra 2017 to present, something I haven’t done since December 29, as four new albums came my way before working on this show.
Guitarist Wayne Bruce’s appearance on “95 North” by Kim Waters allowed me to make up for my oversight last June 23. Coincidentally, tomorrow’s blog post has photos taken on I-95 north in New York and Connecticut. (5/26 UPDATE: Here’s the post.) Kim had the Maryland portion of the interstate highway in mind for “95 North.”
I didn’t mention on-air that May 11 marked 28 years since my first “radio show” with my cousin Chris. He held a Talkboy cassette voice recorder and I held a Panasonic microcassette voice recorder. 11 years after that – May 11, 2005 – The Mike Chimeri Show returned to WebRadio WCWP, six days after ending the original The Instrumental Invasion on WGBB. He’ll be introducing me at the 2020-21 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony exactly one month from last night, on June 11.
Click here to download the May 11, 2022, aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Guest reading at my old elementary school: Year 6 March 4, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Books, Education, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, TV, Video.1 comment so far
Other guest reading posts: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020
I returned to Leo F. Giblyn School in Freeport on Wednesday for Guest Reader Day, what they call National Read Across America Day. It was my sixth appearance as a guest reader (and photographer) and my first time inside Giblyn in exactly two years, a week and a half before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down anything and everything, taking education virtual. I had an opportunity to read virtually last year, a hybrid learning year (half a classroom’s students in person, half online), but I couldn’t get the pass code to log in.
It was so great to be back, and the faculty and students were glad I was back. This was the first year with Amy Lederer as principal, moving up from assistant principal following Amanda Muldowney’s retirement.
After photographing one guest reader, Ms. Lederer had me photograph the Freeport High School students who read to classrooms before I arrived at 11AM. I then mingled with my mother Lisa, a teaching assistant at Giblyn since I was in 4th grade there, and other faculty. Before photographing three more readers, Stephanie Huggard informed me which classrooms I would be reading to and when: 1:00, 1:55, and 3:00. I ended up reading to one more class after the third. The books I read were (teachers in parentheses):
- I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff (Suehanne Sueffront, Wendy Connelly)
- Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss (Meghan Carney)
- No Lie, I Acted Like a Beast! by Nancy Loewen (Emmy Nicholas)
- What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz (Francie Jonza)
Mrs. Connelly prompted me to tell Mrs. Souffront’s class about my WCWP radio show, which led me to promote that night’s 100th Instrumental Invasion, to share that I will be inducted into the WCWP Hall of Fame on June 11 in the Great Hall at LIU Post, and to view my website and YouTube channel. We listened to part of the aircheck from last Wednesday’s show and watched some of the video of my live Homecoming Weekend show in 2019. It was a lot of fun, especially using the large touchscreen monitor to scroll up or push buttons. I felt like a weatherman.
Reading Horton to Mrs. Carney’s class was quite a workout, as I did the voices from the 1970 TV special while reading. My radio show and accomplishments came up again, and we talked about animation and voice-overs. The kids in all classes loved my performances and had many questions that I was happily answered. It was challenging to read the non-Dr. Seuss books cold (site unseen), but still fun. Before I read to Mrs. Nicholas’s class, I stopped in Mrs. Jonza’s room, and we agreed I’d read to her kindergartners when I was finished upstairs. The only class where we didn’t visit my website and listen to last Wednesday’s aircheck was in Mrs. Carney’s. Mrs. Jonza’s students loved the sound of “Feel It Comin’” by Grover Washington, Jr. when I played part of last Wednesday’s full aircheck. (Unedited airchecks for every week of Instrumental Invasion are available for download here.)
As I was talking to Mrs. Carney’s students about myself, Lori Downing came in to read Clovis Keeps His Cool by Katelyn Aronson. Mrs. Downing was a reading teacher at Giblyn until her retirement in 2020. I was pleasantly surprised to learn earlier in the day that she would be a guest reader, but this was the only room I was able to watch her read in.
Thank you, again, to everyone I interacted with on Wednesday. Special thanks to Anita Stevenson. Mrs. Stevenson has been highly supportive me through the years and yesterday was no exception. My photo with her is included in this year’s collage of select photos from the classes I read to:

I don’t want to limit our photo to the collage. Here it is in full:

Thanks again.
Instrumental Invasion, 1/12/22 January 13, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Art, Audio, Comedy, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Philanthropy, Radio, TV, Video.add a comment

NOTE: This post concludes with remarks on the passing of Bob Saget.
The January 12 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from November 23 to 25, 2021. The first segment was recorded on the 23rd, the next three on the 24th, and the last two on the 25th, Thanksgiving. Pickups were recorded on the 25th, 27th, and 28th, with an additional pickup on December 14 to accommodate a shortened final segment. The other five had no wiggle room and remained 18:30 in length.
The playlist was created on November 21 and annotated on the 22nd, followed by the script draft.
I had South America, particularly Brazil, on my mind after watching a documentary on Disney+ called Walt & El Grupo about Walt Disney’s 1941 trip, with a group of studio artists, to South America. Then, I watched the two films inspired by the trip: Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. The combination of watching those and listening to a DAT transfer of an extended of “Life is Like a Samba” by David Benoit, which was on a 7″ EP, are the reason I played the album version of the aforementioned song, “Cabana Carioca” by Spyro Gyra, and Cedar Walton‘s cover of “Aquarela do Brasil,” a.k.a. “Brazil.” And while determining how to pronounce vocalist Jerri Bocchino’s last name, since she sang the “Life is Like…” refrain, I was led to her website where she goes by Jerri Bo Keno. That’s how: “bo keno.”
I continued my tradition of playing a different version of a song I played the week before. Last week, I played the original Nelson Rangell version of “Dancing with Ivy,” and this week, it was the song’s writer Jay Rowe‘s version on his debut album, A Dream I Had.
“Wayman” by Steve Cole, “Still In Love” by Marc Antoine, and “Just Can’t Resist” by Oli Silk were all played for the second time. The first two were singles at the time of recording while the third song, like “Chrome Explosion” last week, was used to fill out the segment.
This was the second week in a row where the first song of the show was from 1979 and by a guitarist, and where the third song was by The Crusaders.
I was unaware of bassist Will Lee‘s Uncle Will nickname until an Instagram post by Bob Saget on October 28. I first used it on the Christmas show a few weeks ago. The reason for this anecdote is the unexpected passing of Bob this past Sunday. I saw a post by him that morning, thinking nothing of it, and was blindsided when I saw this post from actress Khrystyne Haje at the top of my feed around 8PM. I was ready to go to sleep, but couldn’t for about two hours. How could I with shocking news rattling around my brain? How could anyone, especially those that knew him personally?
Bob’s media friends, like Rich Eisen, suggested fans donate to the Scleroderma Research Foundation in his honor. Bob became involved with SRF after the disease took the life of his sister Gay. I made a donation before airtime last night, and I’m happy to report that thousands more have done the same.
As for last night’s show, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 12/15/21 December 16, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Rock, Technology, TV, Video.add a comment

The December 15 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded its entirety at my remote location on November 1, immediately after annotating the playlist and drafting the script. The playlist was created the day before, on Halloween (October 31). It’s the fastest turnaround from creation to completion since the July 14 show, which was created, annotated, and script drafted on June 2, and recorded on the 3rd.
To play it safe, I applied the denoise filter to all talk breaks, except for the pickup I recorded from home which is the first time I noticed how echoey my room is.
Back at home, I was a few days into re-digitizing my DAT and analog cassette recordings of The Mike Chimeri Show on WebRadio WCWP and the original The Instrumental Invasion on WGBB. Those shows were fresh on my mind during recording, as was Full House, a show from my youth, which I was four seasons into on HBO Max. Hence, “you got it, dude!,” and allusions to my early radio shows and its lead-ins: Jay Mirabile (2001-02) and Ryan Grabow (2003). It’s too bad that the stock laugh that The Nanny ran into the ground – as noted in the October 27 post – was used first by Full House starting in season 7. That laugh again:
Torture.
For the second time in the last four weeks, I swapped out the 1984 and earlier segment for an extra 2017 to present. I also opted to list release dates for 2021 releases instead of billing them as “all-2021 segments,” which I’ve overdone. One of the 2021 songs was the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio‘s cover of “Careless Whisper” by George Michael. Bill McClintock did a great mashup that combines the backing track to George’s version with the vocals from “Love Gun” by KISS. Watch:
This was the second week in a row with a song from David Benoit‘s album, Here’s to You, Charlie Brown: Great Years! This time, I cited the accompanying TV special, which was the last Peanuts special on CBS before ABC took over broadcasting rights. What I didn’t mention is rights now belong to Apple TV+ and PBS.
As for the December 15 Instrumental Invasion, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Festival of Games recap December 13, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Aviation, Christmas, History, Internet, Media, Personal, Photography, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.add a comment

Saturday, for the first time in two years and four months, I made the pilgrimage to the Cradle of Aviation Museum along Museum Row in East Garden City. The event was Festival of Games, spun off from the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. The main expo returns next August, but video games were calling for me. So, I bought a ticket to the Festival on November 23.
My plan Saturday was to attend for two to three hours, walking through the vendor hall, free play zones, and ticketed arcade zone. (Patrons were given a ticket with their wristband at the front desk.) If any arcade games caught my eye, I’d play them. Then, I’d go back to the vendor hall and pick up games. I followed that plan to the letter upon my arrival just after 12:30. Here are the photos:
A R.O.B. quintet “dances” to Christmas music. Computer Space is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month (and last month)! Ah, Tetris. As I noted in my recap of the 2019 LI Retro (the expo’s preferred shorthand, rather than LIRGE), I have fond memories of playing the Tetris arcade game at Kutsher’s Hotel and Country Club in March 1995. It was the third of four years in a row of weekend retreats with my fellow congregants of Union Reform Temple. We went to Kutsher’s in ’95 and January ’96, and prior to that, the Nevele Grand Hotel in January ’93 and ’94. Sadly, URT and the two resorts are now defunct. The next arcade machine I played was Street Fighter II. I picked up where the previous players left off, but didn’t realize they were in two-player mode until I had my way as Guile with Dhalsim. After this, one-player mode kicked in and I was summarily defeated by Ryu, despite somehow winning round 2. I am better with the NES port of Donkey Kong Jr. than with the arcade original. “Body blow! Body blow!” Out of privacy, I chose to remove the boy’s face from this photo. I’d heard about Rolling Thunder, but never played it until Saturday. Again, I didn’t get far. After that, I gave Double Dragon a go. Yet again, I didn’t get far, but it was far enough for me. I could not get a handle on Arkanoid, nor am I the best at its spiritual sibling Breakout. I’m great at Alleyway on Game Boy. NFL Blitz isn’t the same off N64. Last but not least, another game I saw in the arcade room at Kutsher’s: NARC.
I didn’t play NARC then (or now), but I videotaped two of my friends playing, per these vidcaps (12/27 UPDATE: I upscaled the vidcaps with Bigjpg):



I left this out of the stacked gallery, but one of the free play TVs was connected to a Famicom Disk System, which ran a festive program:


Back at the vendor hall, I picked up 33 games for various consoles. I don’t remember what I bought from which vendor, but the business cards show they were Geek Guilt, Flashback Gaming, The SemiCollector, and Joega’s Comic Chaos. When greeting one of the vendors, I inadvertently said “hello” like Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons‘ character from The Big Bang Theory (and Iain Armitage‘s from Young Sheldon). Noticing, I repeated and got a laugh. As I edited Saturday’s photos, I noticed I missed a couple of vendors over the course of my shopping spree. Oh, well.
As I shopped, I checked my video game collection Word document to make sure I didn’t buy a game I already had. I didn’t.
While waiting for a ride home, I photographed my haul:

Once I got home, I photographed my pickups by console.
Going chronologically, I picked up 15 NES games:

Five for Sega Master System:

Three on Game Boy:

Two for Super Nintendo:

One for Super Famicom!:

Two for Sega Genesis:

One for Sony PlayStation:

One for Nintendo 64 (N64):

Two for PlayStation 3:


And one for Nintendo Switch:

In writing, the games were:
Nintendo Entertainment System:
- Balloon Fight
- Cobra Triangle
- Fester’s Quest
- Freedom Force
- Gauntlet II
- Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
- Hogan’s Alley
- Kabuki: Quantum Fighter
- The Legend of Zelda
- Mickey Mousecapade
- Rambo
- RoboCop
- Section Z
- StarTropics
- Wrath of the Black Manta
Sega Master System:
Game Boy:
Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom*:
Sega Genesis:
PlayStation:
Nintendo 64:
PlayStation 3:
Xbox 360:
Nintendo Switch:
Thank you to LI Retro for an enjoyable Festival of Games. I’ll see you in August.
Instrumental Invasion, 11/24/21 November 25, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Politics, Radio, TV, Video Games.add a comment

The November 24 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on October 4 and 6. I chose not to record on the 5th due to insomnia the night before. Recording was done on my laptop at my secondary location, but with my spare Audio-Technica AT2020 mic connected to my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 that I used at home before receiving a new mixer for Christmas. The mic stood on a boom for three years under the false hope of conducting an interview with a house guest. Accepting reality, I brought the mic and interface to the other location to use with my laptop. I’d finally achieved a universal sound with the same mic model in both locations. The only problem is I noticed a hum on my talk breaks, which I determined was from the fluorescent lights on the ceiling. Apparently, I had gotten used to the hum and forgot it existed. I know now to turn off the lights before recording.
Pickups were recorded from home on October 8 and 21. Segments were also remixed on the 21st down to 18:30 or close to it.
The playlist was created on October 1 and annotated on the 2nd. The script was drafted before recording on the 4th.
To accommodate all the new music I received, I replaced the 1984 and earlier segment with a third 2017 to present segment.
This was the first show with a new Dan Siegel liner in mind. Segments from the previous four shows featuring his music were retrofitted to include the liner.
In addition to new music by Dan, the show also marked the debut of the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio after his music was sent my way for airplay consideration. I said the title of the song I played “Girly Face,” a la Arnold Schwarzenegger, in reference to his phrase “girlie men.” The phrase was co-opted from the Hans and Franz sketch on Saturday Night Live, in the same manner that “cheese-eatin[g] surrender monkeys” was co-opted from an episode of The Simpsons.
I averted an error when crafting the second segment of hour 1, but missed the one in hour 2’s second segment. Thinking I had 3:50 available rather than 2:50, I selected “Watch Your Step” by Chris Geith. I realized the error during the October 6 recording session, replacing it with “Nocturnal” by Lisa Hilton. You’ll hear Chris’s song next week.
I’ve been meaning to end a show with Gerald Albright‘s cover of “Crazy” for a while, but it never fit. There was finally time for it this week.
Little did I realize that the penultimate song of the night, “Looking Ahead” by Bill Heller, would get the music video treatment the day after I finished recording. Here it is, with all musicians except for the percussionist (Paula Atherton is featured in the thumbnail on flute):
I didn’t mention on the air, but it was my parents’ 44th wedding anniversary.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
8:45 AM UPDATE: I made another mistake that I didn’t notice until listening to the aircheck. When drafting the script, I mistook the first “i” in Dan Feiszli for an “r,” leading me to call him “Dan Ferszli” while back-selling “Full Sail” by Lawson Rollins.
Instrumental Invasion, 10/20/21 October 21, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV, Video, Weather.add a comment

The October 20 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from September 2 to 4: one segment on the 2nd, three on the 3rd, and two on the 4th. Pickups were recorded on the 4th and 5th.
The playlist was created on September 1 with annotations and the script draft on the 2nd.
I referred to live shows in 2016 and ’19, and to New York Comic Con in ’17. I brought up NYCC after bringing up Futurama character Hattie McDoogal after playing “Whatchacallit” by Mike Stern. That was Hattie’s original catchphrase. I like “kajigger” better. I recapped all three events on this blog:
- Lee Ritenour at Blue Note (8/19/16)
- New York Comic Con, Day 1 (10/5/17)
- Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber Fusion at The Iridium (12/19/19)
Let’s face it: if it weren’t for The Weather Channel, I wouldn’t be into instrumentals, or meteorology, for that matter. Many songs on this show were heard during local forecasts, later known as Local on the 8s. TWCClassics.com has compiled video and audio playlists. Audio goes in alphabetical order; “the” is listed under T.
This was the second week in a row where Herbie Hancock led off the show.
“Right On Time” by Richard Elliot was a single at the time of recording, previously heard on March 24.
For the first time since last December 9, the end of the last song – “Top of the Tower” by Jay Rowe – was cut off in automation due to spot breaks running longer than 90 seconds and the first week of new underwriting. 18:40 was a safe segment duration for so long, but no more. The next six shows had to be remixed with 18:30 segments. Some segments stayed at 18:40 and others were in between.
Anyway, click here to download this show’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Audiobooking 7 March 26, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Audio, Audiobooks, Baseball, Books, Comedy, Commentary, Drama, Film, Football, Health, History, Internet, Media, Music, News, Personal, Politics, Radio, Rock, Sports, TV, Video, War, Wrestling.2 comments
Another year of audiobook listening is in the books. I’m still an Audible member and use each month’s credit on a new book, but throughout my membership, there will come a time where I pay $35.88 to buy three extra credits. I listened while exercising, running (or walking) errands, doing household tasks, and at bedtime.
I even listened to one book on YouTube rather than Audible. Find out which one as I list the audiobooks I listened to since last year’s Audiobooking post:
As I crafted this post, adding one book at a time, I had no idea how many books I had listened to: 34, plus three that I returned! That far exceeds the amount of books in earlier posts.
Until next year’s “Audiobooking” post, happy listening.