One Guy

One Guy’s Rambling Thoughts…

NIGHT ROCK RETURNS AND

REGION MUSIC FINDS A RADIO HOME

As you will learn elsewhere in this edition of Midwest BEAT, I will be resurrecting my old alma mater, NIGHT ROCK RADIO, beginning next month.

It is admittedly an abbreviated version of the old show we did back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it’s a start. The program will run from 6-7pm on Sunday nights. It will be broadcast each week over the airwaves from my current radio home, X-ROCK/103.9.

The format of the new program will remain true to the old Night Rock show. It will be a fairly balanced mix of national and regional/local artists.

The stuff you will be hearing from will not be the same kind of stuff you hear on other classic rock radio in Chicagoland. We are going to be playing true forgotten classics and really deep albums cuts. You will certainly hear some very familiar artists, but not the same old cuts you hear all the time everywhere else.

For instance, you won’t hear us play Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever,” but you will hear us toss out Nuge cuts like “Snakeskin Cowboys” and “Great White Buffalo.” You’ll hear Spirit, but not stuff like “I’ve Got A Line On You” and “Nature’s Way.” We’ll be spinning Spirit cuts like “Uncle Jack,” “Fresh Garbage” and “1984”.

The same is true of all the well known classic national artists you will hear aired on the Night Rock Radio Hour –– Alice Cooper, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Survivor, Montrose, Styx, Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, Robin Trower, etc. We are out to play the wealth of great music these artists have that sadly never gets heard on radio.

And hopefully, we will also turn our listeners on to some vintage artists you should know, who have gotten left by the wayside over the years. Some of the more obscure artists you will hear us playing are –– Detective, Atomic Rooster, Horslips, Frank Zappa, Budgie, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Captain Beyond, Uriah Heep, The Tubes (pre-MTV era), etc.

Naturally, we will be spending a lot of time playing the great music born right here in the Chicagoland region. We will spin great sonic memories from past local greats like –– The Hounds, Pezband, Off Broadway, The Boyzz, Holland, Trillion, Tantrum and M&R Rush. But we will not neglect the great music made here in recent years either.

Among the regional bands already scribbled on my early playlist drafts are –– Alison’s Mailbox, Emitter, Steepwater Band, Highway, American Motherload, Josh Holmes, Pride Of Lions, Monkey Cocktail, Return of The Dinosaur, Second Childhood, Steve Vansak, Groovatron and others.

In respect to the longtime listeners of X-ROCK and per our agreement with the station’s management, Night Rock Radio Hour will not stray too far off the “classic rock” sound with any of the material we play, including local, so we will not be able to spin local death metal, hardcore, etc. But we are determined to support as many local artists and hometown album projects as we can.

For the first couple of months, the show is going to be pre-recorded while we get things formatted and running smoothly. Later in the year, we plan to rock without a net and go live from the studio each week, the way Night Rock Radio used to be done. This way we can do requests, put callers on the air and live more dangerously.

The show will be co-hosted by myself and Scotty Rosenberg, the Program Director of X-Rock who greased the wheels enough to let me get this show on the air. We will have special in studio guests most weeks as well, giving some local rockers a chance to help us DJ while chatting about their careers and bands.

Our very first show will run COMMERCIAL FREE on March 7 and will be a double length special show (6-8pm) that will focus exclusively on Midwestern artists. We will have some special guests in with us from the old Night Rock days and will talk a bit about those early years, while spinning tunes by the likes of Alice Cooper, Survivor, M&R Rush, Cheap Trick, Roadmaster, Amboy Dukes and some very special local rockers that I have hand picked for this kick off program.

PLEASE JOIN US... at Soprano’s Lounge in Griffith on March 7 for our special listening party from 5-8 p.m. Night Rock Radio is picking up the tab for free pizza and we’ll be tapping a keg of suds for our listener’s during those hours.

Following the broadcast, we will have the Night Rock All-Stars jam out classic rock faves until 11 p.m. There is NO COVER charge for any of this... We just want you there to share the moment with us and get your feedback on the first show. If you can not join us at Soprano’s please tune us in on 103.9 and check us out!

Obviously, it is going to cost us some big $$$ to broker this weekly radio time to bring this show to the region rock fans... so we will need bands, clubs and local businesses to secure some commercial spots.

Bear in mind, that we are only an hour show and I don’t want to cut too deeply into the playing of tunes. That said, a maximum of only 10 minutes of commercial time will be sold during the show each week. The rates are fair and the return on your dollars will surely be strong. As an independently-produced program, all ads for Night Rock Radio Hour, will be sold and generated by us directly and not via the station’s regular sales staff.

If we get the support we need to make this outlet for local music fly, then we have already worked things out where we can expand the show’s length.

Clubs! This is your chance to support the bands and help us get their music on the radio. Stand up and take the challenge and throw your support at this weekly show.

Call our Executive Producer, Lisa Sotiros, to book your commercial time. Catch Lisa at –– (708) 259-6298. Because we do not want to cut too much into our music playing time, only a limited amount of spots will be sold for each show. So call now and get on board!

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