Austin: Are You Prepared To Rock? Spare the Rock Joins KUTX!

Mar 13

As some of you know, I’ve had a monumentally rough week, saying goodbye to a friend who I’ve known since the 10th grade, and with whom I lived for a little over four years.  So I am utterly delighted to have some good news:

As we approach our tenth anniversary (this August!) and our 500th show (April 4), I am beyond thrilled to announce that we have a new flagship station, 98.9 KUTX – The Austin Music Experience.  We’ll launch on Mothers Day, May 10, and will air Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m.

KUTX is a relatively new station, having launched just over two years ago, but its seeds were planted as far back as 1925, when the first station with the call letters KUT launched in Austin.  (The station disappeared from 1927 to 1958, when it relaunched.)  KUT is Austin’s home for National Public Radio and had eclectic music programming for decades.

When the 98.9 frequency became available a few years ago, KUT acquired it and KUTX waKUTX_FM_LUs born at the start of 2013.

The new station has what, if you were prone to understatement, you’d call a pretty big signal, as you can see on the map.  Basically, it blankets Austin and much of the surrounding areas.  The station’s playlist is eclectic and diverse, and there just couldn’t be a better fit for us.  It sounds like Austin.

What will change?  Not much.  We’ll identify KUTX as our flagship station during the show.  It’ll still be made available, for free, to any stations that want to air it.  We’ll record it in our same little studio, though we’ll also get to do in-studios at KUTX’s Studio 1A when schedules permit.  (And they get some amazing acts there that we hope to “borrow.”)  Hopefully we’ll get some musical ideas from the hosts there.

We’ve had some initial discussions about doing events with the station, and I definitely have big hopes to do some amazing stuff for the families of Austin beyond what we’re already doing.

But that’ll all come.  For now, I’m obsessing about what to play for those first few shows, as we introduce ourselves to Austin.

I’m just so excited.  I hope you are too.

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Show 496: 2015-03-07 Playlist & Stream

Mar 04

1st set
They Might Be Giants – It’s Spare the Rock
ID
They Might Be Giants – Triops Has Three Eyes
Suz Slezak – Leather Winged Bat (new)
ID
Salim Nourallah – Be Here Now
Lori Henriques – Free Ride Everyday (new)
ID
Miles Davis – Venus de Milo
[WJFF/KCMJ: The Short Films – Bird and Butterfly]

2nd set
Poco Drom – Mrs. Spider (new)
ID/prep to Rock
TMBG – Don’t Spare the Rock!
ID
The Not-Its! – Great to be a Kid
Rhythm Child – Everybody is the One
Love & Rockets – No New Tale to Tell
Joe McDermott – Everybody Plays Air Guitar
ID

3rd set
Ben Tatar & the Tatar-Tots – The Grape Jam
Chicago – Wake Up Sunshine
ID
The Bunny Clogs – Jumpy the Spider (new)
Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips – My My My
ID
Flans Dial-A-Song ID
They Might Be Giants – Particle Man (live in Australia)
They Might Be Giants – Spare the Rock

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