Instrumental Invasion, 9/29/21 September 30, 2021
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The September 29 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days. The first hour was recorded on August 12, two second hour segments on the 13th, and the last segment on the 14th. It marked the end of an 11-day stretch where I worked on three shows. A pickup was recorded a week before air to acknowledge the passing of percussionist Doc Gibbs, heard at the top of the show on “Marco Polo” by Bob James.
The playlist was created and annotated on August 11 with the script drafted before recording on the 12th and 13th.
Midway through recording, I received a liner from fellow WCWP alum Alan Seltzer, who hosts The Grooveyard on Saturday nights. The liner debuted on this show after, fittingly, “Groove On” by Euge Groove.
“Deep Into It” by Paul Brown was originally heard last October 7. It was Paul’s latest single at the time of recording, as was “Right Around the Corner” by Nick Colionne, which was new to the show.
There is a music video for “Last Train” by Bill Heller, shot in part at Bill’s house and the Huntington LIRR station. Watch:
As for the show, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 9/22/21 September 23, 2021
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The September 22 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the second straight recorded over three days: one segment on August 8, three on the 9th, and two on the 10th.
The playlist was created and annotated on August 7 before the last two segments of last week’s show were recorded. The script was drafted on the 8th before recording this week’s first segment.
This was another show with segments containing songs 8 or more minutes long and only two songs in a segment.
I began the second hour with a Bob Hope catchphrase, “but I wanna tell ya,” and ended it with Edward R. Murrow‘s sign-off, “good night and good luck.” My use of the latter was to extend the last talk break so that I’d hit the post for “Day One” by the Jeff Lorber Fusion. This was the second week in a row where the Fusion closed the show.
As I noted after “Kari” by Bob James and Earl Klugh, the song was sampled on “Bob Ross Goes to Hollywood” by Birocratic:
Click here to download this show’s aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 9/15/21 September 16, 2021
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The September 15 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days. The first hour was recorded on August 5, while the second hour was recorded on the 6th (segment one) and 7th (segments two and three).
The playlist was created on August 4 and annotated on the 5th. The script was drafted before each recording session.
I made a programming mistake in the third segment of hour one, which required careful editing and cutting down on the second talk break. Otherwise, it was the usual instance of segments running short with extra liners and elongated speech to compensate.
With construction in progress at the new neighbors’ house next door, I had to limit some recording to the evenings. Evening sessions are not easy as drowsiness sets in and my nose stuffs up. So, you can tell when I recorded based on the sound of my voice.
My talk-up for “Up All Night” by Kim Waters referenced USA Up All Night, USA Network’s Friday and Saturday night series. When Rhonda Shear was host, she read the title as “USA Up!…All Night.”
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 9/8/21 September 9, 2021
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The September 8 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP, the 75th show overall, was recorded from July 26 to 29, alternating between one and two segments per day at times when construction was not in progress next door.
The playlist was created on July 25 with annotations carrying into the 26th, followed by the script draft.
As noted at the top of the show, I played through two versions Super Mario World over a couple of weeks in July, beating the game and finding the last of the exits on the 24th.
I played the Super Famicom version on an FXPak Pro flash cart…:
…and the North American Super Nintendo version via Nintendo Switch Online:
It was the first time I had completed the game in over 25 years. For more on my experience with Super Mario World and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, check out my post on Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the SNES Library by Pat Contri.
As for the September 8 show, I chose not to acknowledge the 75th show milestone. I’ll save that for the 100th, if we get that far.
I learned last Friday that I had been mispronouncing trumpeter Tyler Mire’s last name while talking up “(It Gets) Better” by Ken Navarro. During the live listening party on Facebook for I Will Still Be Here, Ken pronounced it “meer” while I thought it rhymed with fire. I had submitted this week’s show, wherein I played “Straight Out the Gate,” the morning before. So, it was too late to correct my mistake, the third time I’d played a song with Tyler on trumpet. If I ever play any of those three songs again, rest assured I will use the correct pronunciation.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 9/1/21 September 2, 2021
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The September 1 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded an hour per day on July 22 and 23 amid construction next door.
The playlist was created on July 21 and annotated on the morning of the 22nd. The script was drafted before each recording session. That means the first hour was drafted on the afternoon of the 22nd and the second on the morning of the 23rd.
As usual, some segments ran long, requiring fast delivery or removing sentences, while others ran short, requiring padding, swapping out short liners for longer ones, and extra info. For example, I wasn’t planning on listing all the Hubert Laws albums Chick Corea played on.
I referenced the 1989 film The Wizard while back-selling “The Wizard” by Joyce Cooling. It’s a film I had heard about, but didn’t see until last September on HBO Max. It surely made moviegoers want a Nintendo Entertainment System, Power Glove (Lucas Barton loves it!), and Super Mario Bros. 3, key to the film’s climax. SMB3 was released in North America two months after The Wizard released.
The Power Glove was mentioned in The Gaming Historian‘s video on the U-Force, which creator Norman Caruso posted eight hours before airtime. Watch:
As for my show, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
The stream audio was fine this week, clear as a bell in both channels, but there was a glitch toward the end of the first segment of hour 2. The stream (or automation) froze for about three minutes, resumed, froze again for several more seconds, resumed again, then jumped ahead to the next segment. For the part that didn’t air, I copied from my segment files and applied a multiband compressor filter.
9/3 UPDATE: Ken Navarro hosted a listening party tonight on Facebook for I Will Still Be Here, and I learned I’ve been mispronouncing the last name of trumpeter Tyler Mire. It’s “meer,” as in meerkat. It doesn’t rhyme with fire. Last week’s show and next week’s show, which I submitted yesterday morning, also have that mispronunciation.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/25/21 August 26, 2021
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The August 25 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was again recorded two segments per day, from July 15 to 17.
The playlist was created and annotated on the 15th and, again, the script was drafted as I recorded.
A few segments ran long, which required me to cut out information, such as what I hoped to share about The Goonies, which I watched on Blu-ray back in February.
The rest of the segments were barely short, requiring minimal padding.
I continued my tradition of playing songs that were excerpted for local forecasts/Local on the 8s on The Weather Channel. That included “Mirage” by The Rippingtons, “One Thousand & One Nights” by Shahin & Sepehr, “Go Wes Young Man” by Chris Camozzi, and “Happy Feet” by Steve Oliver. I first heard “The Way to You” by Nelson Rangell on CD 101.9. The point where I ended my talk-up is where the radio edit began.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
For the second week in a row, the left channel audio was barely audible. That means this aircheck is once again mono from the right channel.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/18/21 August 19, 2021
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The August 18 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded two segments per day from July 8 to 10.
The playlist was created on July 7 and annotated on the 8th. This time, I drafted the script as I recorded.
Since the show aired on my father Bill’s birthday, just as March 10 was my mother Lisa’s birthday, I chose to play “Daddy’s Got a New Girl Now” (even though I’m a boy) by Spyro Gyra and David Benoit‘s cover of “Secret Love” since he recorded it with his father Bob. As usual for my dad’s birthday (which he shares with David), we went out for dinner at Sushi Time 560 in Bethpage.
I also made sure to include Road Runner sound effects leading into “Roadrunner” by Boney James. I said “meep meep” myself when talking up the song in my overnight Homecoming Weekend show in 2017 and coming out of Lee Ritenour‘s “Road Runner” last December 2.
“Hipster” by Alexander Zonjic was previously played on January 6. I referred to irony, at the root of hipster culture, in both talk-ups.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
The left channel audio was barely audible, so the aircheck is mono from the right channel. (8/26 UPDATE: The next show had the same problem.)
Instrumental Invasion, 8/11/21 August 12, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sci-Fi, Technology, Video.add a comment
The August 11 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days. The first hour was completed on July 1 with two second hour segments recorded on the 2nd and the last on the 3rd. Pickups were recorded on the 3rd and 4th (in the morning, before intermittent fireworks began).
The playlist was created and annotated, and the script drafted, entirely on June 30.
Since I was eager to play the McCoy Tyner Big Band version of “Fly with the Wind,” I swapped out the 1984 and earlier segment for a second 1985 to ’95 segment.
Some segments ran short, others were a little too long. In the last talk break, I forgot to acknowledge Trevor Neumann in the horn section of “Wayman” by Steve Cole.
I had the talk-up for “I’ll Love You Later” by Jay Rowe in mind ever since he played a solo piano version last year during one of his Facebook Live streams. For the sake of example, here’s his stream from May 25 of this year:
There’s a reason I played “Godzilla” by Nelson Rangell. While I have never seen a Godzilla film, not even the latest, I appreciate the franchise. I owe my appreciation to James Rolfe‘s explanatory 2019 Cinemassacre video, “Godzilla for Beginners”:
His spoiler-free review of Godzilla vs. Kong on March 31 set me up for if I ever watch it:
One more thing: Last Friday, James posted a behind-the-scenes video regarding his recent Angry Video Game Nerd episodes. That included outtakes from Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakdown, the first episode of 2021. The outtakes inspired me to clip them and add “Floaters” from the YouTube audio library, which is heard at the end of Technology Connections videos, to play underneath. For fans of that channel, “Floaters” has become synonymous with “le bloops,” bloopers from a given video. It came out this way, complete with Technology Connections-inspired captions:
As for this week’s show, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 8/4/21 August 5, 2021
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The August 4 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on June 24 and 25. Like last week, I did four segments one day and two the next day. Pickups were recorded on the June 26 and 27.
Continuing my streak of completing all preliminary work in one day, the playlist was created and annotated, and the script was drafted, on June 23.
A few segments ran long, which meant cutting down on my wordy talk breaks.
I was inspired to lead the show with “Devlin'” by David Grisman after seeing this video for the TWC Classics tribute site:
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 7/28/21 July 29, 2021
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The July 28 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on June 17 (four segments) and 18 (two segments).
The playlist was created and annotated, and the script was drafted, on June 16.
Since the early days of the show, I’ve reached out to fellow WCWP alumni to record liners for it. The latest is Alexis Lindsey, known as Lexticy during her time at the station. Her liner debuted in this week’s show:
I recorded liners for her in the days of her show and I was glad to reach out to her for Instrumental Invasion.
It only took a week for me to play Rodney Franklin‘s addictive “Windy City,” which Lex’s liner led into.
Immature as it is, I can’t think of this show, the 69th overall, without an exclamation from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure coming to mind:
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
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