Week 9

Topic 1 

    It wasn't that I had to protect anyone, but this instance crossed the line in my opinion. When I was in middle school, probably about 2001 or 2002. I was 11 or 12 years old and it was time for "The Winter Snowball." As I would come to learn playing inappropriate songs at school dances is extremely common...shocking I know. Anyways, along with many other inappropriate songs the one that I distinctly remember playing was Nelly's "It's getting hot in herre." Why here is spelled "herre" is anyone's guess. If you haven't heard this gem of a song then here's a few lyrics for you:

~It's gettin hot in herre (so hot), so take off all your clothes
I am - gettin so hot, I wanna take my clothes off~

~Why you at the bar if you ain't poppin the bottles? (c'mon)
What good is all the fame if you ain't fuckin the models~

~Cause I feel like bustin loose
And I feel like touchin you, uh uh
And can't nobody stop the juice~

   So this was not an appropriate song to be played at 10-12 years olds school dance, but what can you do. Thinking about it now and while I was typing it out it made me feel kind of angry and as I read the lyrics I just keep thinking "this was sooo not okay to play for kids, not okay at all." At the time it made me very uncomfortable; I wanted to dance with a boy that happened to be there, but these songs made it too hard to even bother to ask.  What a great message to send to early puberty stricken awkward kids...

Here's a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeZZr_p6vB8

     I suppose you could just say my favorite genre of music is maybe oldies, 60's & 70's, soft rock, rock, pop, etc. But my favorite music is usually 60's and 70's music, it's just the best! I like other bits here and there like some 90's music and just a random variety of artists and songs. I went through a somewhat punk emo phase in high school as a lot of us did and I still appreciate many of those songs and artists. Some of my favorite artists, groups or whatever you want to call them are: Fitz & the Tantrums, Bread, Michael Jackson, America, Simon & Garfunkel, John Denver, Ann Murray, Vitas, Hall & Oates, Boston, Johnny Cash, Queen, Cheap Trick, Talking Heads, Supertramp, The Clash, Fleetwood Mac, Beck, Imagine Dragons, the Beatles, My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World, and more. There's a lot of good one hit wonders out there too. I know all that we were required to list was 5 of our favorites, but this was one of those rare times where I actually felt like talking about music. 

Fitz & the Tantrums

Me meeting Fitz after concert in 2013 

Tied with Fitz for my favorite band is the 70's group Bread 💓

Topic 2

*From time to time students at the college check out the possibility of launching an LBCC radio station*

    The Idea of LBCC developing their own radio station is a nice idea, but no I do not see it as a feasible option. Who would be the audience? What would their content be? Would they play music? When would they air? etc. But really the only people that would possibly listen would be students and faculty from LBCC, and personally I do not listen to the radio. One less listener. There's also the question of the cost associated with it all. And one last reason I don't think it is a good idea for LBCC to have its own radio station is because radio is dying more and more each day with the release of new and thriving technologies. 

   For content they could do News/Talk and give local and country wide news reports along with some local talk shows. They could interview local business owners or local "stars," from Instagram for example. They could go to special spaces to broadcast possibly, some fun locations like at sporting events, community events, or restaurants. 
They could also do student interviews, if students thought they had a voice and a chance to be heard by their peers and others it might help build up the audience and the likelihood of participation in it. 

    As for funding this project, there are a few ideas I have. They could print out some fliers and also send out emails to students and faculty to inform them of the station and just kind of nudging the idea of giving a donation. There's also advertisers, they could play local businesses commercials or just do a spoken advertisement for their business. If their are local alumni that own businesses in the area maybe they would be keen on the idea. Finally my last idea is if they had enough students willing to try to spread the word about some type of GoFundMe for the project, maybe it could bring in some attention, maybe radio lovers from all over would notice and donate, you never know?