Rez Radio is On The Air (May 2, 2011)

Milestone reached - a Note from the station Manager, John Fox

Pala's community station, Rez Radio 91.3 reached a milestone today (4/26), just two and a half months into its existence.  While there is still much to be done, today was the first day we've had eight consecutive hours of programming completely free of our usual automated music.  This is the proportion of local and network programming that I'd hoped to reach as a daily minimum for considering Rez Radio to be involved and responsive to community needs in its broadcast schedule.   Not that there's anything wrong with our automated music which I am actually quite proud of and I hope everyone is enjoying.  But it always has been and always will be a "placeholder" for anything else with more substance that might be available to Pala's community radio station.

Today at 10 we aired "Native America Calling" from the Native Voice 1 network with host Harlan McKosato who took calls related to providing our kids with opportunities to appreciate music and try out musical instruments.  Rez Radio carries this show live so that Pala residents can be part of the show by calling Harlan at his studio in Albuquerque.   At 11, we debuted "Good Food", a weekly one hour program from KCRW in Santa Monica, dealing with cuisine, culture through food and other food topics.  At noon, Pala's first and oldest local show, Pala Today, with news, sports, weather, community calendar and features aired.  At 12:30 we debuted another interview show from KCRW, "The Treatment" with Elvis Mitchell commenting on the entertainment industry with guest Joel McRae from "The Soup".  At 1pm, Mark Gleason hosted his weekly three hour "Groovy Trip" through the 70's with music, well-researched trivia and reminiscences relevant to the music.  At 4, Scott Stone did his live two-hour weekly music show featuring more contemporary popular music until 6pm.  That's eight consecutive hours folks . nine total today if you include our daily midnight feature, "The Old Time Radio Hour" of network comedy, drama and variety from the 1930's through 1950's.  Last night featured "The Great Gildersleve" and "Pat Novak for Hire" starring Jack Webb just prior to his days with "Dragnet".   More than eight or nine hours a day would be even better and we still haven't reached the eight hour level every day of the week.  But we will . and more.  Another reggae show and one featuring R&B and jazz music . both locally produced and hosted . are set to debut in the next week or so.  There are still numerous local cultural and community shows in the planning stages that are mostly just waiting for the right volunteers to step up.  We still encourage and welcome volunteer show proposals from anyone who's interested.  We're also close to needing some behind-the-scenes volunteer help as well.

Our recent experiment with a live sports broadcast from the Pala softball fields went fairly well and we've gotten good feedback about it, so we will be doing more of that for both home and away games.  Likewise, when events and public forums of particular importance to Pala happen, we will do our best to provide live coverage whenever and wherever they happen.  As for our regularly scheduled local and network programming, it will continue to be the programming policy of Rez Radio to schedule shows as much as possible in the manner of "strip formatting".  This means that either the same show or individual shows with a similar theme or interest to listeners will appear in the same time slot each day . the theory being that people listen to the radio by habit rather than by appointment.  To help accomplish this, talk and news shows will be clustered primarily in the 10a to 2p block (currently just until 1p).  Locally hosted music will air from 2 to midnight with all shows after 8p and on weekends pre-recorded due to staffing limitations.  Lighter musical genres will be scheduled in the first half of this block and the same principles of strip programming will apply.  For example, if several volunteers all want to do reggae shows, the preferred scheduling for those shows will be on separate days but all at approximately the same time of day.

Rez Radio's automated mix of rock, country, reggae, soul, oldies and blues songs will continue in all non-hosted hours and most weekend hours.  Note that all automated hours include hourly public service announcements and the soon-to-be-expanded "Cupa Word of the Day" feature.

We are continuing to refine and tune our emergency communications procedures and equipment to deal with efficiently relaying any necessary information in a timely and accurate manner during any local, regional or national emergency.   Suggestions towards this end are always welcome.

Rez Radio's complete program schedule is available in our daily e-newsletter and an MS Outlook calendar . both available by free subscription . and online at http://www.palatribe.com/pala-radio .  That's also where you'll find the link to listen to our live stream. [editor's note: SDN is not licensed to link directly to the stream, so click the palatribe/pala-radio link above to see it.] Free smart phone apps are available that will accept your adding this address to their list of stations.  We recommend "Stream Furious" for Android phones and "F-Stream" for i-Phones.  We will soon upgrade the streaming equipment to eliminate the frequent outages we've experienced recently, especially on the weekends.  We're also looking for anyone with smart phone app writing experience to volunteer to create a dedicated app just for Rez Radio.

We welcome any and all comments, critiques, questions and suggestions.  Please email 91.3@palatribe.com .  Thanks to the Pala Band of Mission Indians for their support and direction in the creation of Rez Radio 91.3 and to Rez Radio volunteers who are all doing a great job producing their shows, molding the personality of the station and taking away from the experience the joy of creating a connection with listeners.

It's all happening!

Current Programming Lineup as of 4/21/11

M-F 10a - "Native America Calling" - live national call-in talk with host Harlan McKosato - 60 min - live 

M-F 12noon - "Pala Today" - local news, sports, business, weather and features with host KopaJohn - 30 min - live

Every night at midnight - "The Old Time Radio Hour" featuring network radio drama, comedy and variety from the 1930's through 50's:   Mon - "The Great Gildersleve" and "Pat Novak for Hire", Tues - "Gunsmoke" and "the Aldrich Family", Wed - "Fibber McGee and Molly" and "Red Skelton", Thurs - "Dragnet" and "Jack Benny", Fri - "the Life of Riley" and "Suspense", Sat - "Tales of the Texas Raners" and "Abbott & Costello", Sun - "My Favorite Husband" and "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" - 60 min - recorded (a looooooong time ago)

Mon 12:30p - "Left, Right and Center" - politics, policy and pop culture with Matt Miller, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley and Robert Scheer - 30 min - recorded - from KCRW, Santa Monica

Tues 11a - "Good Food" - host Evan Kleiman looks at cultures through their food customs, unusual restaurants, the politics of food and the people involved - 60 min - recorded - from KCRW, Santa Monica

Tues 12:30p - "The Treatment" - host Elvis Mitchell interviews movers and shakers from the world of movies, popular art and entertainment - 30 min - recorded - from KCRW, Santa Monica

Tues 1p - "Mark's Groovy Trip" - Top 40 `70's music and trivia with Mark Gleason - 3 hours - live

Tues 4p - Scott Stone - Rez Radio music - 2 hours - live

Wed 12:30p - "Galaxy Moonbeam Nite Site" with Smitty, Mike and Ian talking about the history of media and communications (repeats Friday at 11:30p) - 30 min - recorded

Wed 4p - "Heaven Bound Gospel Music" - locally produced inspirational music with hosts Rev. Dennis Trujillo and Rev. Ken Johnson - 30 min - recorded

Wed 7p - "Rez Dub Reggae" - hosted by Elijah Duro - 60 min - recorded

Thurs 12:30p - "Pala Nation" - hosted by Kilma Lattin, call-in and opinion on headlines, current affairs and other topics of interest - 30 min - live

Thurs 10p - "VarioRadio" - alternative rock and modern synth - 2 hours - recorded  (starting 3/24)

Fri 11a -"Talking Drum" - native music from various pow wows and other recordings produced by KSWO (repeats Saturday 7:30a) - 30 min - recorded

Fri 11:30a - "Meet the People" - host Kell Hetherington looks at current native political and business topics (repeats Sat 7a) - 30 min - recorded

Sat 8a - "Earthsongs" - an hour of native music from Koahnic Broadcasting, Alaska - 60 min - recorded

Sat 9a and Sun 3p - "Classic Country Saloon" - country music and related artist trivia from the 1930's to 1970's hosted by Scott Stone - 30 min - recorded

Most other hours - REZ RADIO 91.3 music mix of rock, country, pop, oldies, soul, reggae and native music.

Listen to REZ RADIO 91.3 and follow our newsletter (at right) for scheduling of special one-time-only programs. 

Email us at 91.3@palatribe.com to subscribe to our programming calendar and have updates delivered to you automatically.

Be a Rez Radio volunteer / hero!  

Volunteer airshifts and other positions at the station are available.  Right now, Rez Radio very much needs clerical and audio production help ... call for details.  Claim your own hour or two per week playing your favorite music or just host our usual REZ RADIO 91.3 music mix.  Talk about hobbies, current affairs, or whatever you like.  Amaze your friends and neighbors!  We welcome whatever you have to offer that will enrich life here in Pala.  Your show might even lead to a new career.  For those who believe in our mission here on the Rez but don't want to be on the air, we have need for production assistants, an Internet and I/T specialist and funding development specialist.  Contact John at 760 742 4200 or jfox@palatribe.com