The Biggest Little City

Or so they say...
The rental car agency, in a fit of strange humor rented me a white 2007 Mustang instead of the Grand Prix I requested. The auto fits in better in this weirdly country city. Althought the antennas and hardware do not fit at all well in the goddamned gas-guzzling 2-door muscle machine... Anyway, the presets on the car radio were all to country stations or static except one. 105.7 KOZZ.

A station that any other day of the week, any other hour of they day would have bored me to tears was at that hour of the day running the Doctor Demento show. the man is a modern day Count Saint Germain seeming to live forever. His program has been running for more than 4 decades now, having spawned compilation albums, and even the careers of various novelty artists.

About 100 stations carry his program, I dont know what onces since he refusees to post them on his site mysteriously... The fine Doctor beggan his career not all that far from here on 106.7 KPPC back in 1970 while working Los Angeles. [KPPC is known as KROQ these days]

I stopped by a small guitar shop on 6th Street and head about some local color and the fine manufacture of a through-neck guitar. There is no community radio station in Reno, there are two NPR outlets KUNR and KKTO but both are talk heavy. A few miles away in Truckee, CA a repeater on 105.1 called K286AN-FM brings the eclectic KVMR tantalizingly close to Reno.
But these people want to change that, and good luck to them.

I wandered away from the casinos.. or I thought I did I keep finding more. they damn things are everywhere. There are slot machines in the damn grocery store. But in this wandering I found a nice eclectic music shop; The Antique Rocker on 454 Washington Street. They had a great collection of steel guitars, random LPs, and discount mandolins. behind the counter mixed in with the guitar strings was a random mutoscope disc... just sitting there. Well worth a visit.

River City Radio

I got into Sacramento late last night and scanned the band pretty quick. There was oddly a large number of religious talk programs. I cant account for it with the stations licensed to the area and can only assume it's from translators operating illegally over power. Despite this flood of RF there are some great stations in this city.

The Capital Public Radio Network is available in Sacramento on KXJS 88.7 and KXJZ 88.9 making for a nice strong clear City signal but is simulcast and translated all the way to Stockton and even Reno. They run a really tight play list in their traditional jazz blocks but their acid jazz program is perhaps the best in the nation. I have always been partial to the funk show Friday nights on WXPN but this show is wilder, funkier and cooler. With cuts from Garaj Majal, Charlie Hunter, and Tower of Power; this show is rock solid.

Up the dial is 89.5 KVMR. Alice MacAllister used to be MD here. Not sure if she still is. If there is a taste-maker for eclectic community stations, they are it. In fact the MD from KVMR and KWMR, Kay Clements used to do an Americana radio show together at KPFA. Regardless The mix here is unbeatable" a comedy music show, a Hawaiian show, Blues, jazz, Americana, folk, native American, they have everything.

KDVS is hard to get on the east side of the city but who hangs out in Citris Heights? In a reaction to the well-funded CPR network and the music-variety monolith of KVMR the U. of California, Davis branch radio station went the urban route. It's mostly Reggae, Rap, and R&B. It really fills in the dial with options. They also get bonus points for helping KDRT-LP get going in Davis. Note thsi is the same KDVS that put out that 34 track comp. "Cool as Folk." All live in studio recordings, all artwork made by the hands of actual 3rd graders. Here is a quote that explains everything you need to know about KDVS:

"...In the fall of 1986, the KDVS staff posed nude for the center photo of the program guide. The news hit the Associated Press wire and the station attracted national coverage. A stamp disclaiming that the opinions expressed in the guide were not necessarily those of the UC Regents was mandated by the administration before distribution."

This is my kind of city. The roads are laid out in a grid, letters one way, numbers the other. They've preserved a portion of the city, beside downtown as "Old Sacramento" and left it looking like a old west movie set. I spent much of the day around R-10 sitting in a $800 chair waiting. But the chair was comfortable and I didn't have to buy it no matter how long I sat.

I bought a book impulsively at a small bookstore called Beer's Books. They have a big Maine Coon cat wandering around the store greeting people and I like to see that in book stores.

Radio in River City began in 1921. KVQ-AM signed on at the odd frequency of 883AM. That same staiton is on air to this day. They've has a couple license modifications since then and are currently known as 1530 KFBK-AM. They had the radio dial all to themselves for 16 years. 1210 KROY-AM opened its doors an they were it's only competitor for another 8 years. In 1945 the dial began to populate and more resemble the varied beast it is today.It was only about thirty years after that Brooks Records and Antiques opened it's doors. I killed an hour today talking to Brooksie. He was so knowledgeable about music, about Sacramento, about restoring radios and turntables and actually happened to know the secret of life. If you're in town visit his store and ask him.

Sacramento has a long a rich history in both music and radio. Jazz organist Jimmy Smith, the rock band Cake, The Deftones, Machine Head, and dozens of others are Sacramento locals. More here. And a great essay here on some Sacramento radio history here.