Toastie Radio

The Midnight Funk Association was the 12 a.m. one hour segment of the legendary late night Detroit radio DJ Electrifying Mojo, a.k.a Charles Johnson.

An entire generation of faithful fans and listeners from the late 70's through the early 90's recognize the radio show for shaping the musical tastes of listeners in the Metropolitan Detroit Area, Northern Ohio, and Eastern Ontario Canada.

Mojo broke many artists in the Detroit market including Prince, The J. Giles Band, The B-52's and turned audiences on to classic legends like Pink Floyd and Peter Frampton, artist previously unheard on radio stations that were labelled as "black", or "R and B" .

Nightly at 12 a.m., Mojo called to order The Midnight Funk Association, an homage to some of the great funk bands of the day and of all time.  He frequently played original long versions, and entire sides of albums by George Clinton and Parliament / Funkadelic, Prince, Rick James and many other all time great bands and artists, as well as local groups like Ready For the World.

At the top of the show, Mojo opened membership to the MFA, and members new and old were asked to stand up to show solidarity.

* If you were driving you were to flash your headlights.
* If you were at home, you turned on your porch light. 
* If you were in bed listening to the show, you were required to dance on your back.

And every night for years, people did it !

To become a card carrying member of the MFA, listeners wrote in the radio station and would receive their official MFA I.D. card.

Electrifying Mojo, and the Midnight Funk Association was one of the last great radio music shows of our time.  Many fans of the radio show credit Mojo for being fans of music that they would have otherwise never heard of.  He was a huge influence in turning millions of listeners into Prince fans, and many say was responsible for a six show sell out at Cobo Hall in Detroit in the late 80's.

It is common to speak to fans of the show that will credit him for turning them on to Peter Frampton, The B-52's, Pink Floyd, and many other artists that were never heard on Detroit's "R and B" stations, yet he also supported emerging rap artists like Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, Whoodini, L.L. Cool J, and the many styles of music heard of the show fit together semmlessly as if they were mean to be enjoyed together.

The Godfathers and Originators of Detroit House and Techno Music, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, now known and respected around the world as groundbreaking, credit Mojo and the Midnight Funk Association as an early influence in their musical development and he frequently supported and played thier early and history making tracks that launched Detroit techno to the entire world including Inner City's "Good Life", Derrick May's "Strings of Life", Cybotron's "Cosmic Cars", Model 500 "No UFO's", "Technicolor", "R9" and so many others.

Mojo was known to support and embrace electronic music in it's early stages and frequently played artists like Africa Bambaataa, Kraftwerk, and New Order as part of his nightly radio show.

Common segments of the legendary radio show included:

* 10:00pm - The Landing of the Mothership. This was the intro to each show with spaceship sound effects and related dialog. Sometimes the music heard during the first hour was indicative of what you'd hear that night; sometimes it would be completely random.
* 11:00pm - Awesome '84, '85. In the mid eighties, Mojo played an hour of brand new music (hence the year in the title) and a lot of new songs were introduced.
* 11:30pm - Lover's Lane. A half an hour of "slow jams" for lovers.
* 12:00am - The Midnight Funk Association. Consisted regularly of Parliament-Funkadelic, The Gap Band, Zapp and other funk bands of the era.

From 1:00am to 3:00am (2:00 am on Saturday nights), Mojo's show was different every night. Sometimes, the MFA would stretch well beyond 1:00am, other times Mojo would introduce segments such as:

* Star Wars - A classic "artist vs. artist" set, where Mojo would alternate selections from two different groups or artists, and the listeners would call in to vote for their favorite.
* Journey - Sometimes a multi-night segment, where Mojo played songs by a single artist or group, spanning their entire career. This usually included a mix of hits and obscure songs by that artist.
* Shout-out - Everyone that called into the station during his show was the recipient of a "shout-out". He would go on for as long as it took rattling off the first names of every single person who had called in to the show.
* 35-35-35 - Mojo would take suggestions from listeners about their favorite artists and bands. He then would choose the three most popular groups that night and play thirty-five minutes, commercial-free, of each group. This segment often gave airtime to groups that no other radio station in Detroit played.

At other times, Mojo would spend the last 2 hours of his show showcasing live mixes on two turntables, by bringing in local DJs to do the same. One such DJ, Jeff Mills, began his career with Mojo as "The Wizard." Mojo also would air music by local groups at this time.

In the Metro Detroit Area, The Midnight Funk Association was more than a nightly radio show, it was an event that listeners looked forward to every night for years.
It was common to see cars flashing thier lights at midnight and horns honking on the streets all over town at Midnight.

Mojo crossed color lines and did not adhere to a play list like today's prepackaged radio stations and while broadcast on stations marketed toward the African-American market, his programming was an inspired blend of the best soul, funk, New Wave, and rock that defied standard radio industry formats and genres.

He believed that good music had no color, and should not be packaged into "Black" stations, and "White" stations, a concept still lost on today's radio station owners, and program managers.

Electrifying Mojo and his Midnight Funk Association was the last of the great radio shows, and the last show that had any originality, and independent thought outside of a prestructured play list or carefully crafted demographic studies.

By following his love of music and adhering to a standard of just playing what was good,  Mojo accomplished something that radio has been unable to do since.  Capture a cross section of music lovers that encompassed every age, race, and finacial demographic, and create listeners andloyal fans that tuned in simply because they loved the DJ and the music.

Most recently, Mojo is serving as Program Director for a handful of Detroit radio stations - he does not publicize which ones - and he was in negotiations to bring his show to XM satellite radio in 2006, but so far nothing has been heard about it.

Fans from all over still speak of the legendary radio show, as well as, others who have heard about it and what it meant to so many, for so long.

For those of us that were there, The Midnight Funk Association will live in our hearts forever, and we will always be card carrying members.

It was truly one of the last great radio shows of our time.

Nation’s Largest Book Promoter Reveals Why Radio

      Is The Most Cost-Effective Way To Promote A Book

Planned Television Arts (PTA) www.plannedtvarts.com, the nation’s largest and most prolific book promotions firm, is celebrating the 20th year since it trademarked its Morning Drive Radio Tour. Publishers and authors have promoted thousands of books with the tour, which is conducted by phone in a single morning with a guarantee of 20+ interviews scheduled with radio stations from across the country.  The listenership of a typical tour reaches millions of targeted consumers, with interviews on major local talk shows, network affiliates, NPR, XM/Sirius Satellite, and select syndicated programs. 

“We have conducted more radio tours for books than any other publicity firm in the country,” says Brian Feinblum, PTA’s chief marketing officer. “We do well over 300 annually, so we probably have done five to six thousand over the years.” As a result, PTA has seen how radio impacts the success of a book and an author’s career.

PTA’s radio tour service is unique in that it makes a money-back guarantee. “If we obtain more interviews than promised, we don’t charge anything more, but if for any reason we fall short of a stated guarantee, we pro-rate a refund,” says Brian.

Radio is a very popular means to making an impact for authors and publishers. The strategic reasons behind so many books getting promoted on radio includes include:

Authors don’t have to travel
Authors don’t have to worry about their appearance
Radio publicity costs less than other forms of media
Total number of Americans listening to radio has increased while circulation for print and viewership for television has eroded over the past decade

As part of the radio tour campaign, PTA provides the following services:

Schedule a guaranteed number of radio interviews
Media train an author by phone and email
Write the pitch letter and identify the strongest media angles

In addition to the Morning Drive Radio Tour, PTA also can provide a radio phoner campaign, where the author or publisher can conduct dozens of interviews by phone and schedule them over a number of days or weeks. PTA always customizes its radio outreach to select those stations that have listener demographics that closely match the anticipated readership profile

What helps to make your radio tour go smoothly?

Giving at least 4 weeks advance notice to schedule the tour – and allow for time to capture the best possible stations/shows.
Consider giving away several books over the air per interview.
Speak in 15-30 second sound bytes; don’t give away too much info about your book – but use the interview as a teaser to entice listeners take and action step to find out more; and tie your message to something – a holiday (Valentine’s Day); an honorary day (National Whatever Day), something in the news, something unique or outrageous, something fun, something that relates to famous people (give parenting advice to a celebrity) or something contrary to popular opinion.
Prepare five points that you want to stress in any interview, regardless of what the host asks or the length of an interview.

Authors and publishers typically benefit from doing a radio tour as follows:

The advance schedule of interviews can be sent to major chain book buyers to generate pre-orders
Successful interviews increase sales
Magnifies branding of your name
Allows you to control and define how the public perceives your vision or ideas in your own voice
Positions you to collect higher fees for your services as an expert or speaker
Garners more Web site traffic
Creates a dialogue in the media and public - and stirs a buzz of debate on you or your topic
You actually help people and improve lives with your message
Publicity gives you lucrative credibility and currency in the marketplace

PTA, a full-service book publicity firm, also offers targeted services to promote authors to all areas of news media, including local and national print, television and radio. They have specialized services that include:

·         local road tours

·         online media campaigns: bloggers, Web sites, podcasters, e-blasts, article syndicators

·         television tours from one location

·         best-seller marketing

·         holding press conferences

·         media coaching and consulting

·         press kit development

·         messaging and branding

·         locating literary agents or book distributors

·         college media teleconferences

·         scheduling speaking engagements  

PTA represents all genres, including children’s books, fiction, business, health, self-help, current events, humor, spiritual and other timely, popular subject areas. PTA, which has delivered quality media exposure with impact and integrity for nearly five decades, is headquartered in New York City with satellite offices in Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Albany and Boston.

“As a client, says Brian, you benefit from the respected brand name and extensive resources of Ruder Finn our parent company, but you also receive close, personal attention under a family-owned business atmosphere with PTA. Our team of experienced, talented and creative public relations professionals provide out-of-the-box thinking, and an energetic and aggressive approach, producing the results you deserve and should expect to receive. Over 500 people are employed worldwide at RF-PTA.”

Amongst PTA’s clients over the years, they have promoted hundreds of best-sellers, celebrities and industry leaders. They have worked with unknown, first-time, self-published authors as well as authors published by university presses, Random House, McGaw-Hill, Scholastic, Wiley, Harper-Collins, Simon and Schuster, Warner Books, St. Martin’s Press, Disney Publishing, Tor & Forge, Greenleaf Book Group, and many others. A sample of authors they have promoted include:

General Tommy Franks                                   Lou Dobbs                               Cindy Adams

President Jimmy Carter                                    Vice President Al Gore                        Chicken Soup for the Soul

Robert Kiyosaki                                   Mitch Albom                           John Grisham 

Tom Brokaw                                        Deepak Chopra                                    Dr. Andrew Weil

Intel Co-founder Andy Grove             Peter Lynch                             Michael Eisner                                    

Whoopi Goldberg                                Ben Stiller                                Senator John McCain              

Richard Branson                                  Jim Belushi                              Coach John Wooden

Drew Carey                                         Ken Blanchard                                     Stephen Covey                                  

John Gray                                            Joan Lunden                            Maya Angelou            

Manager Joe Torre                               Peggy Noonan                                     William Bennett

Gary Null                                             Dave Ramsey                          Charles Schwab                      

Caroline Kennedy                                James Canfield                                    Dr. Wayne Dyer                     

Bill O’Reilly                                        Bill Moyers                              Willie Nelson                          

Steve Martin                                        Phil McGraw                            Tony Robbins             

Richard Carlson                                   Meg Cabot                              Suzanne Somers                     

Jackie Collins                                      Anne Rice                                Dean Koontz                                                              

“PTA gladly will evaluate an author’s book or unpublished manuscript and advise on which publicity opportunities should be pursued, especially with regards to radio,” concludes Brian. To submit materials, contact Brian at feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com 

Contact: Brian Feinblum

Planned Television Arts

Chief Marketing Officer

1110 Second Avenue, Third Floor

New York, NY 10022

212-583-2718

Amateur Radio or Ham radio is a hobby that radio control enthusiasts enjoy. It is a hobby and a service that uses radio communication equipment to communicate with other ham radio operators. Ham radio operation is a hobby that requires a license to operate. The first step to indulge in the hobby is to get a good ham radio device. It is better to take the advice and guidance of a person having the knowledge of ham radios whenever you wish to purchase the device. You should also be aware of the technical details and the local laws prevalent in respect of ham operations.

If you want to pursue ham radio operation as a hobby, you first need to get to know all about it. The Internet is a good source of information and will provide you with whatever you want to know. Other sources of information is reading through the books available on the subject or talking to other ham operators who can provide you with the insights on the subject. However, if you have no idea at all about ham operation but find yourself fascinated by it, then you need to learn about some of the technical jargon. Just a fascination or a wish cannot sustain a hobby. If you are indeed serious about ham radio operation as a hobby, you have to spend the time and effort to get to know about it and work towards your goal.

Ham operation is sometimes tiring, in spite of the modern equipment and it may be quite taxing to find communications from other radio operators. However, you are rewarded for your efforts because you can interact with other people, communicate with them and if the occasion calls for, provide emergency or disaster communication to help your community.

The selection of the ham radio equipment will depend greatly on how seriously you take your hobby and how much you are willing to invest in it. Reasonably priced ham radio equipment is available at stores dealing with it. It is advisable to speak to other ham operators, also visit the stores, and physically check out the equipment before buying. Radio equipment that can connect with long distances will cost much more than those that have a less range. The advanced equipment like digital voice transmission will be much more expensive than the simpler Morse code wireless telegraph models.

The next hurdle for a ham radio operator is to obtain a license to operate. Morse code proficiency is no longer needed for the amateur radio operator license exam. It was excluded at the World Radio Communication Conference held at Geneva in 2003. However, the test includes the knowledge of ham etiquette and knowledge of international communication laws. Once you receive the license, you are free to operate your ham radio within the allotted bandwidth. You are also allowed to modify or change the equipment within the specified limits.

Clip is from the classic film titled "Love Finds Andy Hardy" (1939). Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) uses a local Ham Operator to send an urgent message to Canada. All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human ...

This is the venue that symbolizes the festive side of American Dream. This is the venue that is loved not only by all New Yorkers but the whole lot of Americans. And those visit New York find termed it as the most fantastic entertainment venue of the States. The place in the spotlight is the magnificent Radio City Music Hall that is among the premier attritions of New York City.

Nicknamed as the "Showplace of the Nation," the Radio City Music Hall is located at New York City's Rockefeller Center. It is the largest indoor theatre in the world and boosts of state-of-the-art facilities and all required modern amenities. The main auditorium is designed in such a wonderful way that you get a perfect view no matter where your seats are.

The Radio city New York is the landmark in architectural history. Designed wonderfully by architect Edward Durell Stone and interior designer Donald Deskey, this Art Deco style building primarily attracts for its beauty and charm. The moment you see its multiple story illuminated building, you get bewitched by its grandeur. But if its exterior is wonderful, then you will definitely fall in love with the interior. Superb design, awesome decoration, well-planned seating and multi-purpose stage and lighting facilities, Radio City truly deserves to be the most happening venue of America.

It is not for nothing that the Radio City Music Hall was declared a city landmark in 1978. After all, it attracts the biggest artists, blockbuster musical productions and most importantly millions of visitors to the city of New York. The name Radio City is derived from the Radio Corporation of America, one of the first tenants of this complex. They had developed numerous studios and entertainment based venues but attained the stature like that of Radio City Music Hall. From its opening in 1932 till now, this venue has only grown better and better.

The Radio city New York personifies the sumptuousness of American Arts and Culture. It is the temple of all-things-fun in New York. One of the most awaited and grandest events that it hosts annually is the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, a fantastic Christmas show featuring the world-famous dance team known as The Rockettes. Presented here since 1933, this show has become a permanent part of New York's Christmas celebrations. If The Rockettes rock the Radio City Music Hall in Christmas, several other prestigious events also grace this venue. Be it Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards or some other televised shows; Radio City hosts the biggest events of the showbiz world.

Among the regular events of Radio city New York, you are bound to attend the musical concerts it hosts every now and then. Having played host to some of the best names in the business, music breathes life in Radio City Music Hall. Elton John, Beatles, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Heaven and Hell and Luis Miguel and all other names; you can watch many rocking concerts here. It has also hosted boxing events featuring stars like Roy Jones Jr, David Telesco, David Izon, Derrick Jefferson and others. To cut the long story short, the Radio city Music Hall New York steals the show among the host of lavish venues of America. Live shows, movies, concerts, special events and Christmas Spectacular; you can watch it all here in a perfectly fantastic environment.
For more information about Radio City NY Tickets visit:
http://www.ticketluck.com/venues/Radio-City-Music-Hall/index.php

Radio Ga Ga (Live at Wembley 1986) [Queen]

The people can access online radio channels from any place all over the world. As a matter of fact, free live radio is a very convenient way of entertainment. One can easily listen various radio programs easily, including songs, programmes, current news and so on. People can listen to the latest songs by accessing several Websites. Nowadays, these websites are being apprehended by the modern people. There are many websites that allow people to listen radio without any registration. But some sites do not provide facility of listening radio programmes as a guest. If you want to use complete facility, you have to register in the radio station websites. Hardly, it will take few minutes in registering. After registration, one can easily do many tasks like, listening several new songs, create playlist and play various games.

Now, we will share one interesting thing about these live online radio stations. You don't have to pay any charge for such services. An individual can enjoy the regular dose of entertainment by tuning into several radio stations. These online radio websites would also offer you many facilities such as playing games, sending messages, all kinds of songs, listening the several free radio stations and many more.

Previously, radio devices used to operate by catching the radio signals. The radio frequencies used to be very strong at many places but at some places, they were very weak. But these days, with the help of the Internet, the live radio stations work without any interruption. Through these radio stations, one can easily listen the latest news and happening all over the world. These feature is also very useful for those people who frequently travel from one place to another. These live radio stations give the latest news of their native place.

These free live internet radio stations are not just pampering their listeners with exhaustive range of channels, but are making it a cost-effective process as no charge is incurred on the listeners. A person can listen to witty jokes and interesting incidents with the help of online radio stations. These online jokes would offer you full entertainment by enticing you with pleasing stories and funny commentaries. People can also listen live cricket match commentary without any hassles and they can stay updated with the score board.

AOL Radio offers 350+ Music station, Talk, News and Sports. AOL Radio music includes Classical, Comedy, Country, Hip-hop/Rap, Jazz, Kids, Pop, Rock, World /international music and so on. Have you ever came across some appealing music here? Do you want to record streaming music from AOL radio station? Due to the stream audio, we can not save the radio music to our PC directly.

Wondershare Streaming Audio Recorder is brand new application to record AOL radio music. Record AOL radio music in real time and save as MP3, WMA, WAV, AC3, M4A, AAC, OGG, APE, which are compatible with your iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV, Zune, Pocket PC, etc. Record AOL radio music and enjoy AOL radio music offline.

How to record music from AOL radio station ?It is very easy. Step by step instructon on how to record AOL radio music .

1. Free download and install Wondershare Streaming Audio recorder. It has 15 days full function trail for all user.

2. Launch Streaming Audio recorder. And click "Settings" button to set output music format.Before recording music from AOL radio, you can change the output music format as MP3, WMA, WAV, AC3, M4A, AAC, OGG, APE etc. The default format is MP3.

3.Open Online Radio - Free Internet Radio Stations - AOL Music and select a radio channel which you will record.

And then Click "Record" button and start to record AOL radio music.AOL radio is powered by CBS Radio. It provides many popular, Classical, Comedy music here.4.Click "Track info" button to add ID3 tags to your recorded songs.

Add ID3 tags, you can edit ID3 tags as title, artist, album, genre, etc. to make your own music library as you like. Edit Audio effect, you can customize the output audio effect by adjusting the sample rate, bit rate, and sound channel.

5.Click"Browse" button to check the recorded AOL radio music.

6.Record AOL radio muisc and enjoy anywhere and anytime.

Download the streaming music recorder: http://www.download-streaming-video.com/streaming-audio-recoder/#137