New Feature

Many of may not know this - but I was famous once. My first 2 years of college were spent at the college radio station where I was going to school. The summer after my 2nd year, I decided to move to Jackson Hole, WY to get a "real" job in radio. After sending out several audition tapes to the 3 stations in town, I got a call back from KMTN - The Mountain. The one station I really wanted to work at. In Jackson there were 3 stations, the classical music/news station, the Top 40 station, and then there was "Jackson Hole's Mountain of Music." We played everything else, from Alice in Chains to Widespread Panic. It's where I first heard of Big Head Todd and the Monsters and the Young Dubliners. We even had a weekly punk show and a weekly reggae show. They asked me to host the weekend overnight shift, from 11-6 every weekend. I absolutely loved it and had so much fun.

While on the air at KMTN, I developed some features that made the show "uniquely" mine. So not true - I just played music. The only real crazy thing I did was from 4 to 5 every morning I would play an entire disk. During that hour I would actually fall asleep until just before the disk was done. I stole from KISW the idea of doing "double shots" - two in a row from the same band. My favorite feature was to end every show with Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. It's not even my favorite song - but it fit, and I think people looked forward to hearing it. At around 7 minutes, it gave me plenty of time to clean up my mess for the next guy to come on. The funny thing was his thing was to start every show with the Allman Bros - Mountain Jam. It's a 30 minute wonder off the Eat a Peach album. It was recorded live at Fillmore East in 1971.

All of this nostalgia has a specific purpose - to introduce a new feature. A common thing I hear on the radio these days involves playing two songs head to head, where the listeners phone in and cast a vote for their favorite of the two. In Seattle, 103.7 The Mountain, calls it their "New Music Showdown." This feature takes place every Tuesday. I have decided to give this concept a whirl on the old web log try it out.

I heard our first competitor on the new Mitsubishi Outlander commercial they have been showing lately on TV. Since I wasn't sure who exactly was performing, I did the most logical thing someone of my generation would do - I Googled it. I don't really know a lot about these guys, but their sound is pretty familiar and enticing.

Song #1 - Prototypes "Je ne te connais pas"

Their competitor is in the same genre - French Alternative. They have been around for over 30 years, but they sound pretty relevant compared to offering #1. I bought my first CD while I was living in France. The band is called Telephone.

Song #2 - Téléphone - "Ca c'est vraiment toi"

Let me know what you think - about the feature and the songs. The winner will move on to the next time I do this. And if I don't get any comments - this will be the only time I do this.