So Many Questions, So Little Time....
Wow, the ole email box has been BURNING with questions and comments lately about PLANET ZEB!, etc., and it's gratifying to hear even after all this time that a fair number of you out there in internet-radio-land are NEW listeners, joining our family of rock-and-pop aficianados from around the world. So I decided to turn the latest blog entry into Q 'n' A time to try to provide answers to questions that have been coming in... that I also thought would be of general interest. So here ya go!
Zebby: Paula Abdul followed by The Clash followed by Genesis... and five minutes later an 8-minute-long Zep track backed with a country-ish crossover from Kentucky Headhunters? I liked it... but isn't that insane?!
Answer: probably, yes, but I prefer to characterize it as "somewhat eclectic within the parameters of enjoying good music from our 80s-ish target time frame," which is what PZ has always been about. And besides, you DID use the words "I liked it," did you not? Your honor, the defense rests and demands a bench verdict. Or at least we pray for jury nullification. :)
Lots of cool old KISS on your station- where'd you get it?!
Answer: pretty much the same place everyone should get it-- I bought the CDs. It's not like KISS is some bizarre goat-herding music band from back Madagascar (laugh); their whole catalog is pretty much available. And I've been CD collecting for a loooong, loooong time (my very first ones were bought back when they were still something stupid like 25 bucks each and only found in the back corner of most music stores, past the LPs!). And I like cool old KISS. And pretty much the rest of KISS, for that matter (Gene, Ace... Paul.... Peter.... if you stumbled across this blog, how about a liner for the station?!). Funny (and quick) thing about discovering them-- they were pretty much all the rage at Southeast Jr. High School in Baton Rouge back in the late 70s when I was there (I think either Destroyer or Love Gun was the "new" album I remember most from 8th-grade homeroom). At that time, I didn't much see the point and didn't really listen to a lot of their stuff. Then, I had an orchestra teacher the next year at Baton Rouge High School who was also part of a fundamentalist "Born Again" denomination. That's fine... that's cool... everyone does what finds them the most inner peace. MY problem with her, though, was that I remember distinctly one class period she didn't have us playing and practicing, but rather assembled us all around and handed out a flyer that said "KISS- Kings In Satan's Service" at the top of it. It was followed by some very inflammatory (no pun intended) anti-KISS propaganda in the weeks before they were scheduled to play the Baton Rouge Centroplex (now the "River Center") on the 1979 Dynasty tour. Well, even at that tender age, I was aware of the significance of the church-state separation thing, PLUS I was kinda pissed that we weren't practicing as a student orchestra SHOULD be. So just to piss HER off, I went out and bought my first KISS album (Alive II) and a t-shirt later that week. My friend Tommy and I bought tickets to the Dynasty show and enjoyed the daylights out of it-- what a gig. I was forevermore thereafter hooked on KISS, and did a lot of "catching up" on their earlier catalogs in the wake of the concert. And I used to play the hell out of them on my personal cassette decks as well as program their better stuff in every rock/pop radio gig I ever had. Many thanks to my fundamentalist orchestra teacher for turning me on to KISS.... I will go to my grave thankful for the opportunity to groove on them. And for a reason to watch "Gene Simmons' Family Jewels," which is endlessly more entertaining than "The Osbournes" was after its first season. Well, except for the bits of GSFJ that I'm pretty sure are shamelessly staged, that is. :)
That love of KISS also turned into an appreciation for the Ibanez Iceman guitar, by the way, since they were giving Paul those mirrored jobbies to use in concert. I loved the sound of 'em. Went on to play a beautiful purple Ibanez bass m'self in a couple of bands before I kinda sobered up and realized that the thunder of the Fender P-bass and the gorgeous trebly rumble of the Rickenbacker 4003 were more my speed after all. But my Iby was sweet, I gotta admit-- strong bass for the price. I still have her, and long ago named her for a radio salesperson I stupidly had a crush on in my last Baton Rouge radio gig. :)
Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter... if you ARE reading this, I'd also love a turquoise or midnight blue Ric 4003 bass. No harm in asking. And I love you guys. :)
Do you have employment applications on your website?
Answer: ohhhh, amigo. If it would do any good, I'd have 'em for places like Trader Joe's or something, but in all honesty, we're definitely a one-man-and-multiple-cat operation around here. PLANET ZEB! is a limited partnership with no employees, so to speak. I do all of the manual work with the playlist changeouts and stuff, and my cats program, find new music, sit on the keyboard while I'm scheduling the rotations, etc. And since the cats are rescues from local animal shelters, that's pretty much the only place I look for new partners or "employees." Until the day Clear Channel wants to buy me out for a gazillion dollars. Or Gene, Paul, Ace and/or Peter, for that matter. You could throw in the Ric as lagniappe.
Where are you from originally?
Answer: proudly, he says, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And he may return there one day once the statute of limitations on ALL of the warrants has expired. :)
PLANET ZEB! started in Charleston, SC in April, 2000. Charleston's very cool, and it reminded me a lot of Baton Rouge during my youth when I was there in the late 90s. You have no idea how heartbroken I was to have to leave Charleston. Or Baton Rouge, for that matter! But according to "The Secret," that nouveau-faux-pop-new age Oprah-show-fodder thing, all I apparently have to do is stand on my front lawn in my underwear at midnight on a full moon and WISH to be back in Baton Rouge or Charleston. Dunno if I have to click red slippers together or something to make it work, since I didn't waste my money on the book OR the movie.
Hey, all you starving kids in Appalachia and Darfur and such-- don't you know all you have to do is DREAM you're Donald Trump? Then you become him. And hopefully soon thereafter, you and Rosie O'Donnell kill each other in a massively bloody knife fight and leave society the hell alone.
Does PLANET ZEB! make a lot of money?
Answer: ha. ha ha. hahaha. hahaha. HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, wait, let me put it this way:
yes, PLANET ZEB! makes a lot of money. For somebody, probably Live365 and, via royalties, the record labels. Sure as hell not for me; that nice sliver of expendable income that COULD go to a new car or fixing the heat exchanger on my HVAC unit or something is thrown into station ops month after month. And while occasionally, really cool and nice people leave small donations via the PayPal links on the PZ homepage, I still cough up the personal dough in droves. This is a labor of love. And I hope you continue to love it as much as I do. :)
The alternative, of course, is that independent internet radio shuts down, and the public is left with the same thing they have on contemporary broadcast radio-- corporate-owned "drone drivel" from market to market that can only play what the RIAA's member-major-labels WANT them to play in order to sell music and push yet another hip-hop-boy-band on an unsuspecting and fearful populace.
'Til next time!
Z
Zebby: Paula Abdul followed by The Clash followed by Genesis... and five minutes later an 8-minute-long Zep track backed with a country-ish crossover from Kentucky Headhunters? I liked it... but isn't that insane?!
Answer: probably, yes, but I prefer to characterize it as "somewhat eclectic within the parameters of enjoying good music from our 80s-ish target time frame," which is what PZ has always been about. And besides, you DID use the words "I liked it," did you not? Your honor, the defense rests and demands a bench verdict. Or at least we pray for jury nullification. :)
Lots of cool old KISS on your station- where'd you get it?!
Answer: pretty much the same place everyone should get it-- I bought the CDs. It's not like KISS is some bizarre goat-herding music band from back Madagascar (laugh); their whole catalog is pretty much available. And I've been CD collecting for a loooong, loooong time (my very first ones were bought back when they were still something stupid like 25 bucks each and only found in the back corner of most music stores, past the LPs!). And I like cool old KISS. And pretty much the rest of KISS, for that matter (Gene, Ace... Paul.... Peter.... if you stumbled across this blog, how about a liner for the station?!). Funny (and quick) thing about discovering them-- they were pretty much all the rage at Southeast Jr. High School in Baton Rouge back in the late 70s when I was there (I think either Destroyer or Love Gun was the "new" album I remember most from 8th-grade homeroom). At that time, I didn't much see the point and didn't really listen to a lot of their stuff. Then, I had an orchestra teacher the next year at Baton Rouge High School who was also part of a fundamentalist "Born Again" denomination. That's fine... that's cool... everyone does what finds them the most inner peace. MY problem with her, though, was that I remember distinctly one class period she didn't have us playing and practicing, but rather assembled us all around and handed out a flyer that said "KISS- Kings In Satan's Service" at the top of it. It was followed by some very inflammatory (no pun intended) anti-KISS propaganda in the weeks before they were scheduled to play the Baton Rouge Centroplex (now the "River Center") on the 1979 Dynasty tour. Well, even at that tender age, I was aware of the significance of the church-state separation thing, PLUS I was kinda pissed that we weren't practicing as a student orchestra SHOULD be. So just to piss HER off, I went out and bought my first KISS album (Alive II) and a t-shirt later that week. My friend Tommy and I bought tickets to the Dynasty show and enjoyed the daylights out of it-- what a gig. I was forevermore thereafter hooked on KISS, and did a lot of "catching up" on their earlier catalogs in the wake of the concert. And I used to play the hell out of them on my personal cassette decks as well as program their better stuff in every rock/pop radio gig I ever had. Many thanks to my fundamentalist orchestra teacher for turning me on to KISS.... I will go to my grave thankful for the opportunity to groove on them. And for a reason to watch "Gene Simmons' Family Jewels," which is endlessly more entertaining than "The Osbournes" was after its first season. Well, except for the bits of GSFJ that I'm pretty sure are shamelessly staged, that is. :)
That love of KISS also turned into an appreciation for the Ibanez Iceman guitar, by the way, since they were giving Paul those mirrored jobbies to use in concert. I loved the sound of 'em. Went on to play a beautiful purple Ibanez bass m'self in a couple of bands before I kinda sobered up and realized that the thunder of the Fender P-bass and the gorgeous trebly rumble of the Rickenbacker 4003 were more my speed after all. But my Iby was sweet, I gotta admit-- strong bass for the price. I still have her, and long ago named her for a radio salesperson I stupidly had a crush on in my last Baton Rouge radio gig. :)
Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter... if you ARE reading this, I'd also love a turquoise or midnight blue Ric 4003 bass. No harm in asking. And I love you guys. :)
Do you have employment applications on your website?
Answer: ohhhh, amigo. If it would do any good, I'd have 'em for places like Trader Joe's or something, but in all honesty, we're definitely a one-man-and-multiple-cat operation around here. PLANET ZEB! is a limited partnership with no employees, so to speak. I do all of the manual work with the playlist changeouts and stuff, and my cats program, find new music, sit on the keyboard while I'm scheduling the rotations, etc. And since the cats are rescues from local animal shelters, that's pretty much the only place I look for new partners or "employees." Until the day Clear Channel wants to buy me out for a gazillion dollars. Or Gene, Paul, Ace and/or Peter, for that matter. You could throw in the Ric as lagniappe.
Where are you from originally?
Answer: proudly, he says, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And he may return there one day once the statute of limitations on ALL of the warrants has expired. :)
PLANET ZEB! started in Charleston, SC in April, 2000. Charleston's very cool, and it reminded me a lot of Baton Rouge during my youth when I was there in the late 90s. You have no idea how heartbroken I was to have to leave Charleston. Or Baton Rouge, for that matter! But according to "The Secret," that nouveau-faux-pop-new age Oprah-show-fodder thing, all I apparently have to do is stand on my front lawn in my underwear at midnight on a full moon and WISH to be back in Baton Rouge or Charleston. Dunno if I have to click red slippers together or something to make it work, since I didn't waste my money on the book OR the movie.
Hey, all you starving kids in Appalachia and Darfur and such-- don't you know all you have to do is DREAM you're Donald Trump? Then you become him. And hopefully soon thereafter, you and Rosie O'Donnell kill each other in a massively bloody knife fight and leave society the hell alone.
Does PLANET ZEB! make a lot of money?
Answer: ha. ha ha. hahaha. hahaha. HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, wait, let me put it this way:
yes, PLANET ZEB! makes a lot of money. For somebody, probably Live365 and, via royalties, the record labels. Sure as hell not for me; that nice sliver of expendable income that COULD go to a new car or fixing the heat exchanger on my HVAC unit or something is thrown into station ops month after month. And while occasionally, really cool and nice people leave small donations via the PayPal links on the PZ homepage, I still cough up the personal dough in droves. This is a labor of love. And I hope you continue to love it as much as I do. :)
The alternative, of course, is that independent internet radio shuts down, and the public is left with the same thing they have on contemporary broadcast radio-- corporate-owned "drone drivel" from market to market that can only play what the RIAA's member-major-labels WANT them to play in order to sell music and push yet another hip-hop-boy-band on an unsuspecting and fearful populace.
'Til next time!
Z
posted by zebby rhoads @ 4:50 PM
3 Comments:
At 8:25 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Love the KISS story- maybe the band was right... God DID give rock and roll to you!
Keep rockin' in any case. I listen to planet zeb every day, usually all day. you make a dreary cubicle a lot less dreary.
At 8:31 AM ,
zebby rhoads said...
HAAAA! I never thought of it that way. Maybe my affection for KISS was inspired by a higher power. :)
Thanks for the nice words about PZ! Glad to hear it's making a better day for ya. And thanks for checking the blog, too-- I try not to ramble TOO much when these ideas overtake me, but it's great to know that it's performing its function of pulling the PZ family together for a little chat from time to time. :)
At 11:15 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Hi there Zeb, love reading your old Southeast and BRHS stories! KISS was my first concert in 7th grade.
Thanks for sharing your station with us!
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