Archive for the ‘Radio’ Category
Anthony and Novena both come from KCRW’s after-midnight roster, where they had the opportunity to experiment and bring adventurous listeners into the KCRW fold. They’ve deftly dj-ed hours of programming and served up consistently astonishing sets following the simple rule, “Play what you love.” We love these two, and we’re thrilled to watch them thrive as Morning Becomes Eclectic’s new hosts.
It is with great and deep sadness that we report Art Bell passed away last Thursday night/Friday morning, peacefully in his sleep, most likely due to complications from his long diagnosed C.O.P.D. It seems appropriate that he died on Friday the 13th, being the King of paranormal radio for many decades, as he championed the exploration into the unknown, strange worlds of the afterlife, and High Strangeness of every kind. Art had a fascination with the afterlife, and it’s heartwarming to know he peacefully slipped into the next world and now knows the answers he sought for so long.
Art pioneered paranormal radio with his creation in the 1990’s of the weekly show Dreamland, which eventually spread to his nightly show, Coast To Coast AM. His style, topics, and guests all brought in a new wave of listeners to late night talk radio. He always strived for quality in the production and content phases of his show. He also allowed for the spontaneity of the unknown by always taking calls from unscreened Open Lines, which brought a certain sense of intimacy to the program. He led the way for numerous others to not be afraid of exploring the paranormal on main stream radio.
The early days of Art’s nightly program was centered around the politics of the day. At a certain point he got tired of the same old political talk and deemed paranormal the direction he wanted to take. After decades of paranormal radio, after his final retirement, Art drifted back to speaking his mind on politics, on his very popular Facebook page. He also selected recent producer of his show, Heather Wade, to take over the reins of his paranormal search on the air. Months before he died, Art expressed that he felt the show he created was being competently hosted by Heather and was proud of her to carry on the tradition. He felt his legacy is in good hands.
Art was an avid HAM radio operator and enjoyed communicating both professionally and on the HAM bands. He had one of the best sounding HAM stations on the air, and was frequently talking to others in the middle of the night on weekends. He went by the call-sign of W6OBB. He is now referred to as a ‘silent-key’ by the amateur radio community.
He lived his life to the fullest and made an impact on everyone he knew, while he reinvented talk radio into the cultural phenomenon now known as Paranormal Talk. Art Bell brought wonder, curiosity, and fascination to us, and the landscape of late night radio was never the same. He was a National Treasure, and left his mark on this world that will always be timeless, as he was.
Host of Midnight In The Desert, Heather Wade, said, “His friendship was a true honor, and to have been mentored by him is a treasure beyond description. I will do what he wanted and carry on Midnight In The Desert in the way he taught me. His loss cuts deep as I recall the countless moments of advice, laughter, excitement, guidance, and priceless wisdom. Being friends with Art Bell meant there was never a dull moment, and it is impossible to convey how much I miss him now.”
His fans will be forever grateful for the incredible ride Art gave them, and he will always be remembered and sadly missed. God Speed Art Bell!
The voice of pirate radio in the mid-’90s and a native Angeleno, Raul Campos has come from the underground to represent the eclectic airwaves of KCRW.
From his menagerie of influences, Raul dreamed of becoming a radio broadcaster. His youthful affection for music began with the 8-track and vinyl collection of his Mexican parents and six older siblings. Their musical influences ran the gamut of genres and styles. Before even developing the ability to speak, Raul would regularly babble tunes from the radio using his own made up words. By age eight, Raul was avidly playing the likes of the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer and the Beatles, sprinkled with the rancheras, cumbias and mariachi music of his parents.
His assorted collection expanded as tapes became the format of choice and Raul began to experiment with cutting and “mixing” tapes on a boombox. At the age of 14, he finally put the needle to the record and stepped behind the decks as a DJ. Specializing in house parties, college mayhem, nightclubs and underground events, Raul quickly developed a reputation across Los Angeles.
Laying his urban planning career aside, Raul followed his dream into the world of radio. He established a residency on Power 106FM’s longest running after hours mix show Power Tools, along with Richard Vission and Swedish Egil, cutting his teeth banging out mega-mixes.
But it was in a basement in Santa Monica that Raul would find a home for his motley musical influences at public radio station KCRW 89.9FM. Under the attentive and personal mentorship of renowned Music Director Nic Harcourt, Raul quickly worked his way from volunteer to production and on-air stints.
Embracing KCRW’s devotion to diversity, Raul secured a weekly show, formerly called Nocturna, on weeknights, from 10 PM to midnight. After many years of the night shift, he moved to weekends from 3pm to 6pm in August 2013.
Campos still loves to rock the club and has been billed along with some of the world’s biggest talents, including deadmau5, Kaskade, Moby, Armin Van Buuren, Louie Vega, Paul Van Dyk, and Mark Farina, to name a few. He’s also opened for some of music’s greatest artists, from Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Stevie Wonder and Cafe Tacuba, to Booka Shade, Groove Armada and Lionel Richie. You can catch him in the mix all over town.
Raul also continues his work behind the scenes as a remixer, putting his special spin on tracks by Femi Kuti, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Aterciopelados, and Jill Scott. He has also hosted the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) in New York for the last six years, spinning at Central Park and introducing some of the biggest names in the genre to crowds of thousands in Brooklyn and beyond.
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“Looking ahead to my seventies (which start all too soon) I feel that it is time for me to begin a new phase of life,” Siegel, 69, said in a statement. “Over the next few months, I hope to figure out what that will be.”
The decision leaves NPR with a crucial microphone to fill. Siegel has been a host of the organization’s flagship evening broadcast “All Things Considered” since 1987. He is now the broadcast’s senior host, a familiar voice for generations of radio listeners.
“Finding his successor will not be easy,” NPR said in a press release. “We will conduct a national search — looking inside NPR and across the media landscape — for the next voice of All Things Considered.”
Siegel’s co-hosts are Audie Cornish, Kelly McEvers and Ari Shapiro. The broadcast rounds out NPR’s programming day, providing detailed coverage of the day’s news for stations across the country.
Siegel is on away on assignment this week, so he won’t speak about his decision on the air right away.
But he said in a statement that he has been considering the move for some time.
“This is a decision long in the making and not an easy one,” he said. “I’ve had the greatest job I can think of, working with the finest colleagues anyone could ask for, for as long a stretch as I could imagine.”
Siegel joined NPR in 1976 as a newscaster, then went on to open the organization’s London bureau three years later.
In the mid-1980s he oversaw “All Things Considered” and its A.M. counterpart “Morning Edition.” He was the vice president of news in 1987 when he decided “to give up his big office for the chance to anchor All Things Considered,” according to the Encyclopedia of Radio.
The broadcast always had multiple co-hosts, but Siegel became its most consistent voice, instantly recognized by public radio fans.
On Tuesday NPR’s head of news Michael Oreskes praised Siegel as “one of journalism’s best.”