Digital Crossroads back in action

17 03 2009

I had to run a repeat show last week… So finishing this was a relief.
CLICK HERE to download or stream Digital Crossroads, produced live by Radioactive Gavin in the studio at Boise Community Radio, and carried by affiliates Radio Free Moscow and Media Island Olympia.

This week’s show features stories on rural broadband, the criminal Bush administration, and the future of the music industry. Relevant links:

  • Megan Tady’s video work on the digital divide for Internet for Everyone
  • John Eggerton’s article on adding broadband to the Universal Service Fund
  • Eric Alterman’s article on the Bush Justice Department’s secret evildoings
  • Michael Arrington’s lunch conversation with anonymous record executive
  • Geeky details of the new webcasting royalty settlements
  • Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins testified before Congress about radio royalties




Mariners bring back Junior

7 03 2009

The Seattle Mariners are bringing Ken Griffey, Jr. back.

Last time I was at a Mariners game, we sat up close in box seats. We could see how sweaty Jason Giambi was even while standing still, right around when he gave up juicing. Thanks for the memories, Eric!

With Eric Pils along M's 1st base line

With Eric Pils along M's 1st base line

It would be sweet if Griffey played two more seasons and hit enough home runs to move up on the all-time list. I want to go and sit out in foul territory behind 3rd base and watch him play left field. I need to ask my Mom to check the freezer for my collector’s item Junior chocolate bar from back in the nineties. I wonder what that thing’s worth nowadays.





Playlist- Touch the Sky

16 02 2009

Touch the Sky with Radioactive Gavin now airs Sundays only, from 10am-Noon MST on Boise Community Radio. Our new program schedule will be posted on the Radio Boise website soon. Here’s the playlist for the 2/15 show.

Always On A Sunday – Frank Anderson, Tommy McCook    1964
Ranglin On Bond Street – Tommy McCook    1969
Cold Weather – Lee “Scratch” Perry    1973
Ras Menilik Congo (Harp)    – Augustus Pablo
Lights Went Out – Alice Russell    2008
Percy On The One – Clutchy Hopkins    2008
Darling Corey – Charlie Louvin, Andrew Bird     2009
Tape Eater – tobacco    2008
Strategy Of Tension – Filastine    2008
Solko – Dosh        2008
Before You Know I’m Gone – Electricwest    2008
Wonder No More – Andy & Joey    1965
Bu-Seki – DJ Krush & Toshinori Kondo    1999
Africa – Jazz Jamaica    1993
Shocking Dub – Linton Kwesi Johnson    1980
Go To Work – Polka Dot Dot Dot    2008
Antiquity – Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson    2009
Bugle Call Outdoors – Sound Effects
— Monopoly Money segment —
— clip from Cultural Baggage —
— music: Monopoly Money – Take (2008) —
byrdshot and bye – dimlite
S.O.S.    – Cosiner    2004
So So Tough    – Nominal I    2007
Para Ti – Mongo Santamaría    1999
Back Doorbell – Daedelus    2003
Ride Your Donkey – The Tennors    1968
Five Hundred An Ounce – Reefer        2008
Wanna Get High? – Naoto Yamazaki    2007
—Funny Austin segment—
— clip from Tracey Ashley —
—music: Pelican – Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada (2008) —
Guiding Resolution    – Poets Of Rhythm    2001
Dejame Dormir – Aether    2008
Pivot – Kris Doty    2007
Dead Beat – Lake    2008
(2 songs live in Bozeman, MT)    Josh Martinez    2008
Leisure Suite – Feist    2004
If You Were Alone – Roger O’Donnell    2008

You can CLICK HERE to listen online or download the show.





DTV updates on Digital Crossroads

10 02 2009

On Monday February 9, Digital Crossroads featured an interview with Reclaim the Media executive director Jonathan Lawson.

Listen to the entire 30-minute show, hosted by Radio Active Gavin, by clicking HERE. The show airs live at 9pm MST on Boise Community Radio, which is streaming at RadioBoise.org 24 hours a day.

Reclaim the Media has started a grassroots public assistance phone line in Seattle to provide answers to folks with DTV problems. SeattleDTV.com is such a unique project, Lawson says local TV stations are actually referring folks to them.

Also on the show, the Internet radio royalties debate enters its final week for negotiation. Plus, Congressmen in the House and Senate have re-introduced bills to begin charging AM and FM stations a new performance royalty. It would only amount to $1000 annually for small community radio stations like Boise Community Radio or Free Radio Moscow, but half of that money will go straight to the record companies. The broadcasting lobby is calling it a bailout for the record industry.





Touch The Sky February 1

1 02 2009

The first hour of the Touch the Sky radio show on Boise Community Radio today consists of a full re-broadcast of the latest episode of Quiet Please, produced by Travis Owens. Quiet Please airs Saturday nights at 11pm on RadioBoise.org and this one is so brilliant and effective I decided to showcase Travis’ efforts for a few more ears. Audio of his show will be available here on the Radioactive Gavin blog in the future.

The second hour of the show features the Monopoly Money segment, featuring music by Take. Today’s segment is focused on the NORML contest and the “news” (as revealed by the idiots at News of the World) that Gold Medalist Michael Phelps likes to take bong hits. He has more Gold Medals than there are intelligent people who could be bothered by this. Super Bowl viewers and NFL fans have likely heard Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver and punt returner Santonio Holmes smokes herb too. What do you think?

NORML, the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, is hosting a video competition. Vote by Sunday night February 8th for your favorite 3 videos. I voted for my friend Robert Kam’s video “20 Millionth Marijuana Arrest” as well as Read the rest of this entry »





DC- Gordon Fuller: Visionary

19 01 2009

The new Digital Crossroads debuted Monday on RadioBoise.org at 7:30pm.

Radioactive Gavin and Gordon Fuller

Radioactive Gavin and Gordon Fuller

Gordon Fuller advocates for people with disabilities as VP of global business development for Disability Relations Group, representing government agencies, non-profits & corporations. He serves on the Idaho State Independent Living Council – working on disability policy and legislative issues as the Chairman of the State Outreach Committee. He’s working on Idaho’s Disability History Month – every October – and he’s Executive Producer for the Disability Media Initiative or DMI, connecting America with disabled perspectives through social networking. A proud supporter of the Internet for Everyone campaign, Gordon and I talk about his projects, his experience with bias and oblivious reporters, and what the Obama/Biden administration could mean for representation of disabled persons.

To download or stream the entire show, CLICK HERE.

Gordon Fuller supports Internet for Everyone

Gordon Fuller supports Internet for Everyone

Music on the show by Ooah, Ernest Gonzales, and The Tasteful Nudes. Digital Crossroads airs on Boise Community Radio and Radio Free Moscow.





Sundays on RadioBoise.org

18 01 2009

David Barsamian’s Alternative Radio airs at 9am, followed by my music show Touch the Sky from 10am to Noon. The 12 o’clock hour features Gourmets with Chef Robert and then Listen Up NW! produced by the Northwest Community Radio Network. At 1pm, check out DJ Gia hosting the indie spotlight show Go Northwest Young Man. From 2-4pm, DJs Kathy O and Stephanie bring you Amalgamated Coup, mixing metal, country, noise, global, dance, hip hop, kitsch and freak folk.

Kathy O from Neurolux rockin' wax

Kathy O from Neurolux rockin' wax

Sundays from 4-6pm a team of community radio volunteers take turns hosting New, Indie, Local, On Tour which mixes and matches songs in these categories with guest DJs and live performances. Recent guests have included Universal bass player Matt and the entire crew from Smooth Old-Fashioned High.

60% of Smooth Old Fashioned High

60% of Smooth Old Fashioned High

Eric from Finn Riggins will be on with hosts Amanda and Tim on January 25th. Future guests include Kris Doty and some guy from Built to Spill.

Boise Community Radio doesn’t stop there! At 6pm Pete Adams brings you two hours on his Blue Highway. 8pm Sunday is Noise Cave with Dustin. When they bother to show up at the studio, That Guy and Lady Kramps bring you The Bout- Treasure Valley Roller Girls radio Sunday nights from 9-11pm. And then our man Maury K from Minnesota cranks it up for Hard and/or Heavy. He’s been on the DL but we expect him back any week now…

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, RadioBoise.org is the place to be on Sundays.





Smooth Old-Fashioned High on air

17 01 2009

All five guys from Smooth Old-Fashioned High played live on Boise Community Radio Sunday January 11th. They were guest DJs and performed a few acoustic songs for us. From the left: Eric Ingersol, singer Pat Crozier, back side of Nick McDowell, part of Evan Reed’s shaved head, and Russ Lodge spacing out on the drums…

smootholdfashioned

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Gordon Fuller

16 01 2009

I did a tough yet inspiring interview with Gordon Fuller of the Idaho State Independent Living Council and the Disability Media Initiative, which will air on the next Digital Crossroads, debuting Monday 730pm MST on the stream at RadioBoise.org you know!

Driving Gordon crazy?

Driving Gordon crazy?

We were fortunate enough to get time and a quiet place at the Boise Center on The Grove for recording a long interview. Gordon reminds me of me, he can talk about his passion for changing the powerful media institutions all day. I have some editing to do for the show! More on what he was doing in town, and what is happening with the Idaho Legislature budget cuts on the next Digital Crossroads! Tune in to Boise Community Radio and Radio Free Moscow.





Digital Crossroads- Wake Up America

14 01 2009

In an unusual live Wednesday morning broadcast, I finally produced the 2nd episode of Digital Crossroads of the year. I’ve been reading and highlighting and writing about Gaza. This show is about thinking critically before you trust what you read in the news.

Funeral at UN school struck by Israel

Funeral at UN school struck by Israel

Below you can click to listen to the 30-minute show as it aired on Boise Community Radio and Radio Free Moscow. If you make it all the way through the show, please check out the additional 10 minutes I did live this morning on RadioBoise.org covering Obama’s support from the “defense lobby” as well as reports inside Gaza. Hear from Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian human rights activist, and from Sameh Habeb, a Palestinian photographer. More links and photos after the jump.

To download or stream the show, click here- Gaza: Wake Up America (mp3)

Check out an additional 10 minutes here- DC 2009 B-Side (mp3)

In a story published Jan. 9th by Alternet from New America Media, Shane Bauer covers “What You’d Know About Israel if you Watched Al Jazeera TV.”

He writes, the 350 reporters who descended on Israel when the conflict began are stuck at the border between Israel and Gaza. Instead of giving their viewers up-close pictorial evidence of what is occurring in Gaza, television networks have been restricted to showing their viewers plumes of smoke as they rise in the distance.

“There is nowhere safe in Gaza,” an enraged John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza told Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros in front of the Al Shifa hospital Thursday. Those words came after the Israeli Defense Forces bombed a UN school that was being used as a refuge. Later in the day, a second UN school was struck by the Israelis, killing at least 40. Ging insisted, “Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized and they have the right to be because there is no safe haven… This violence needs to stop now. Neither side can wait for the other to stop first.”

Meanwhile the world’s only live coverage of the tragedy is kept away from American eyes. While Al Jazeera English competes with CNN and BBC as one of the largest networks in the world, no major American cable provider has been willing to carry the channel since it launched in 2006. But Al Jazeera is finding its way around the problem. Today, Americans can download Livestation, a free program that wil let viewers watch Al Jazeera English and other international networks.

Here’s a timeline looking back at news you likely haven’t seen if you have depended on US network TV and corporate newspapers over the past 2 weeks…

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First Day of Teaching

12 01 2009

Today was my first day as a substitute teacher with Boise Public Schools. I was lucky to land a gig teaching high school English at Frank Church High. Not only that, but I was teaching New Journalism! As you can see on the board I decided to play along after the front office printed me a name tag reading, “Mr. Gavin.”

still smiling by 3rd period

still smiling by 3rd period

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Letter to Hillary Clinton

12 01 2009

I received an email from Bill Clinton today asking for money to fund Democratic Party politics. This was not good timing on their part, though I didn’t give any money to Democrats over the two-year-long campaign either.

Here is the letter I wrote back. I will post any response I receive, but I’m not holding my breath.

Read the rest of this entry »