Show notes, Dec. 24, 2011

Thus ends my chances to become the new spokesman for a certain large Pittsburgh hospital system: You’re a Mean One, Mr. Romoff

New music this week:

  • “Smart” by Girl in a Coma from “Exits & All the Rest”
  • “Winter Sun” by AM & Shawn Lee from “Celestial Electric”
  • “Caught in One” by Dum Dum Girls from “Only In Dreams”
  • “Black Sea” by Ilhan Ersahin’s Istanbul Sessions from “Night Rider”
  • “Happy as Can Be” by 11 Acorn Lane from “Swing Thing”
  • “Heroes and Villains” by The Beach Boys from “The SMiLE Sessions”
  • “Cat Skillz” by Beats Antique from “Elektrafone”

Jay’s Pick to Click:

Ring in the old (1971) on New Year’s Eve

Nostalgic for the AMC Gremlin, Spiro Agnew and “The Flip Wilson Show”? Of course you aren’t. Ready or not, WRCT-FM (88.3) will take listeners back to Dec. 31, 1971, this New Year’s Eve, beginning at 9 p.m.

In what has become a dubious New Year’s radio tradition in Pittsburgh dating back nearly 10 years, WRCT’s resident oldies guru, Jay Thurber, will again roll back the clock four decades, beginning at 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 31. The broadcast also will be heard online at www.wrct.org.

WRCT’s time-traveling sports car (well, actually, it’s a Dodge Dart Demon) will rev its slant-six-powered flux capacitor up to 88.3 MPH and head for Carnegie Mellon’s old student union, Skibo Hall, in the era when the station was still at 900 kHz AM.

Thurber, an aspiring elderly crank, will count down the top songs of 1971, interspersed with news reports, commercials and other announcements from the Pittsburgh of December 1971.

Even the audio — in glorious low-fi mono — will sound like 1971. No HD, IBOC or 5.1-channel digital sound here, even though WRCT is based at one of the nation’s leading research universities. (Please don’t tell the National Science Foundation that we’re setting back progress 40 years.)

The “number one song of 1971” will be unveiled at 12 midnight. (Don’t worry — WRCT will tell you exactly when the New Year 1972 … er, 2012 … arrives.)

WRCT: An enema for the body politic

News Release:

“Kiron Skinner, associate professor of social and decision sciences and director of CMU’s Center for International Relations and Politics, has been tapped by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to advise him on matters of national security and foreign policy …

“Skinner also uses her connections in the political world to benefit her students. Recently …  she had Gingrich and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld separately Skype into her classes to answer students’ questions.”

This seemed like such a good idea, that back on Nov. 19, WRCT’s Radio 9 show decided to call Newt Gingrich and Don Rumsfeld and ask some questions, too.

Show notes, Nov. 12, 2011

Hey! Do you like classic television shows?

Then tune into WRCT-TV Retro TV for great episodes of “Statefeld” and “The End Zone!” They’re on weeknights, at least until the lawyers get through with us.

WRCT Retro TV: Statefeld and The End Zone

Only on WRCT Retro TV! (Channel 9.2 in Pittsburgh, cable channel 13.0 in State College.)

– – –

New music this week:

  • Gaby Moreno, “Mess Up a Good Thing” from Illustrated Songs
  • Ambrose Akinmusire, “Confessions” from When the Heart Emerges Glistening
  • Buddy McNeil and the Magic Mirrors, “Maybe, Baby” from Help Me Mama!
  • News, “Ooh La La” from Hot Off the Press

– – –

Jay’s Pick to Click
“Maybe Baby,” Buddy McNeil and the Magic Mirrors

Homecoming^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H kee … key … ca … clo … weekend

Hey! Are you coming to Homecoming Weekend sorry, “Ceilidh Weekend” at CMU? Stop by the WRCT Community Broadcast Center (located in the concrete-reinforced basement of the University Center, between the Dumpsters and dishwashers) and say hello to Jay Thurber during the football game.

While “Radio 9” will be reduced to only a few minutes due to Tartans football coverage, Jay will be manning the controls behind the scenes from 12 to 3 p.m., trying desperately to fool people into thinking that he has any idea what’s going on.

P.S.: The Tartans are going for their all-time 500th win this Saturday as they host the Washington University Bears in CMU’s annual Homecoming … sorry, Ceilidh Weekend game.

Show notes, Sept. 17, 2011

Today we celebrated Carnegie Mellon University’s new campus in Rwanda by debuting this new song by Heath Kit & The Sidetones:

New music this week was from:

 
. . .

Jay’s Pick to Click: “No Regrets” by Gaby Moreno

CMU football pre-emptions

One of the prices of having a show on a college-run radio station is that you have to make sure you do things for the students at the college — whose student activities fees are supporting the radio station!

With that in mind, we get pre-empted from time to time for sports and other events. Fall is especially bad, because the CMU Tartans football team generally plays on Saturday afternoons.

We hope you’ll tune in for CMU football on WRCT, your home of Tartans sports since 1949. And don’t forget that Your Radio Pal, Jay Thurber, does the half-time shows!

Otherwise, here’s the schedule. We’re completely pre-empted on Sept. 24 and Oct. 24, and we’ve got shortened shows on Oct. 1 and 22 and Nov. 5 and 12.

  • Fri., Sept. 16 @ Catholic University, 7 p.m.
  • Sat., Sept. 24 @ Kenyon College, 12 noon
  • Sat., Oct. 1 @ Hiram College, 1 p.m.
  • Sat., Oct. 8, home vs. Ohio Wesleyan University, 6 p.m.
  • Sat., Oct. 22 @ Wittenberg University, 1 p.m.
  • Sat., Oct. 29, home vs. Washington University (CMU HOMECOMING), 12 noon
  • Sat., Nov. 5 @ University of Chicago, 1 p.m. (12 noon CST)
  • Sat., Nov. 12, home vs. Case Western Reserve University, 2 p.m.

A listener writes

Hey Jay,

This is your frequent requester Elliott, bartender down at Hambone’s on Saturday afternoons. I’m just writing to thank you for your radio show for multiple reasons. First off, the “gang” as you like to call are old enough to remember Mad Mike’s radio show and look forward to your show as much as they did Mike’s way back when.

Secondly, as owner and my boss, once said a few weeks ago moments before your show began, “Here we are, the one bright spot I can rely on every week in this sh-t-stain life.” And it’s that quote that’s stuck because frankly, with the CMU Football season in full effect and station shake-ups with new students/DJs, we’d like to know when your radio show airs now.

As a young buck, your show is a reminder of an era of radio I never knew and think it could be once again had Clinton not de-regulated media. I thank you for the constant introductions to new (old) music, the original/politically-jabbing skits and for packing my bar with old men every single Saturday from the hours of noon to 3pm in which Hambone’s goes by 1962 standards and all TVs are turned off so that the radio can be blasted for “Radio 9’s Jay Thurber Show on Double-Your-R-C-T” (no, really, this actually happens every week for your show; I sh-t you not).

Dear Elliott:

It’s very flattering to learn that our little show has made such an impact on your group, but have your customers considered getting help? There are several good mental health professionals available who might be able to offer group discounts.

I keed! I keed!

Yes, Carnegie Mellon football will result in disruptions over the next few weeks, but fear not — we’ve got a full three-hour show coming this Saturday, Sept. 17, and except for football pre-emptions, we’ll be back on the air every Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m., doing whatever the hell it is we do.

Your radio pal,
Jay

Fourth of July Weekend picnic!

We’re pleased to report that our annual Radio 9 Fourth of July Weekend picnic will return this Saturday, after a several year absence due to an unfortunate inability to obtain liability insurance.

Because of outstanding warrants and several as-yet unsettled lawsuits in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties related to our previous Fourth of July picnics, this year’s picnic will be held in Washington County, on the grounds of the South Monessen Volunteer Fire Department, which is near the intersection of County Road 7A and SR 17079, just past the border of Elco and Roscoe.

WRCT-TV’s Roy Molehill has helpfully provided these directions:

If you’re heading there from Dunlevy, go south on Route 88. When you pass the place where the Texaco station used to be, go about two blocks until you see that one gray and white house (not the one with the porch, the other one) and then turn left onto the third alley, which becomes County Road 7A once the pavement ends.

Then you drive about 1 mile, being careful to avoid the coal trucks, which have the right of way and under South Monessen Borough ordinance are not required to stop for oncoming cars.

The fire hall is on the right. You’ll see a small plywood sign that says “No Trespassing,” but go ahead and drive past it. If you get to the sediment pond, you went too far and will have to back up.

The gates will open at 12 and will be locked securely behind you at 12:15. The fireworks start at 2 p.m. More information is available here.