The Underground Press
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October 20, 2000
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Behind Internet Radio
written by MISFIT
IT'S HARD
to find a Black Crowes song on the radio. Even when the band
releases a new album there is no guarantee that it will be played. What's a
fan to do? If you're Jason Davis and a webmaster known as Skitzo, you take
matters into your own hands and launch an Internet radio station devoted to
Black Crowes music.
Virtue and Vice Internet Radio began earlier this year with little fanfare,
but today it is the official station of the Black Crowes. Not bad for two
guys who live 1,300 miles apart, who have never met or spoken on the phone,
and who only correspond through e-mail. Yet right from the start their
partnership made sense. All the station needed was someone to run it and a
DJ, and that's just what happened. Skitzo took care of the technology and
Jason supplied the voice.
His professional style and easy-going manner are no accident. Jason has
worked in radio for ten years and was fortunate to get his start in Atlanta
at the same time as the Crowes. Today he works for WPBZ 103.1 in West Palm
Beach, FL.
Skitzo-the name dates back to 1990 when he ran a computer bulletin board and
his handle was Psychotic Addiction BBS-lives in Chillicothe, IL, a small
town outside of Peoria and works as a Manager of Information Systems for the
largest oncology practice in Illinois. The radio station is just a part of
an entire website, also called Virtue and Vice, that is devoted to
everything Black Crowes.
Listen to a description of Skitzo's home office and you'll see that the
stations' success has not been accidental. The basement that serves as the
home base for Virtue and Vice is a mini-electronics store filled with
five-yes, five-computers, two printers, a scanner, a digital camera, digital
camcorder, and every piece of software necessary to run his website. And
when he gets tired of staring at a computer he just watches his home theater
system, where he often plays live Crowes shows.
The fact that Virtue and Vice Internet Radio is an underground effort by two
devoted fans would probably be reason enough for the Black Crowes to
designate it as their official radio station, but Skitzo and Jason both say
the band thought it was "cool" as well. So Black Moonshine hooked up with
them in a series of e-interviews to talk about what it has been like to be
part of the only radio station lucky enough to broadcast the Black Crowes 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
What day was the Virtue & Vice station launched?
Jason: Hmmm... sounds like a question for Skitzo. My memory is a bit cloudy
on
anything over a month ago.
Skitzo: Friday, November 12, 1999 at 10:00AM CST
How much work had been put into the station prior to it's launch date? What
was your inspiration?
Skitzo: I had been working on the concept since before I launched the Virtue
and Vice web site on August 19, 1999. The inspiration came from listening to
a few other Internet radio stations while I was working on the design of the
site. At the time I happened to take notice of some of the posts on the
message boards lamenting the lack of airplay for the Crowes on the radio.
That's kind of when the idea hit me. Around the same time, Jason emailed me
about the site and we started talking.
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The voice of Black Crowes Internet Radio: Jason Davis
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Jason: I had dozens of live Crowes concerts, but didn't know much on the
technical side of things. [Skitzo] had the technical knowledge, but didn't
want to be the announcer. I'm not sure if he had many shows at that point or
not, so I ripped a bunch of shows and some voice stuff to MP3, burned it to
CD and sent it to him.
Skitzo: From there it was a matter of getting the technical glitches out,
like adjusting the bitrate to accommodate all sorts of modem connections
while trying to maintain some sort of decent sound quality, and getting it
to link properly within the web page.
Describe the events of that first day? Were they good, bad, or uneventful?
Jason: You know how when a new radio station starts up they change from one
type of music to another? Well (as a joke) Skitzo had looped Limp Bizkit's
"Nookie" over and over the day or so prior to the launch of the Crowes
radio. He told me the approximate time it was to switch over-so I excitedly
logged on and listened. It was tough with my shitty connection speed, but I
got to hear the first seconds; a proud moment for this Crowes fanatic.
Skitzo: Well, after listening to "Nookie" 8000 times, I couldn't wait for
10:00AM to roll around. All I had to do was load the playlist that I had
pre-configured, reconnect the server, and hit play. If you are one of the
few who listened to the opening moments, it wasn't quite that smooth. I
accidentally removed the playlist instead of opening it, so there was about
30 seconds to a minute of the Crowes, then silence, and then the whole thing
started again. I was REALLY PISSED, because I had Jason cut a special voice
over for the beginning of the station and here I was playing it twice
because I pressed the wrong button. After that, things were great.
When and why did you move the station to live365.com and what has the
response been?
Skitzo: Actually the station started out on Shoutcast, but we were playing a
dangerous game with my bandwidth. When you connected to the station in the
early months, you were connecting directly to my server. We could only have
10 listeners at a time with the bandwidth that I had.
We switched to
Live365.com in late December and now we can relay our broadcast to one of
their servers. So not only can we now have up to 365 listeners at a time,
but I'm only sending one feed through on my bandwidth.
How many hours of music do you have ready to broadcast?
Jason: Uh... (scratches head) A lot? I guess? I've got a nice collection
here at home and I'm sure Skitzo does too. So whenever things need
freshening up we collaborate and I'll upload a show or an interview or some
more vocal intros.
Skitzo: Let's see...right now there's 47 hours, 13 minutes, and 37 seconds
of music, interviews, and Jason on the playlist. We've got a bunch more
shows to add, but neither of us have had the time. Anyone can view the
playlist at http://www.blackcrowes.org/playlist.htm.
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"If these trends continue..."Skitzo educates Homer Simpson about Internet Radio
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Who turned you on to the Black Crowes and how many shows have you seen?
Skitzo: Back in '90, the radio station in the town where I lived had a new
music hour every week. They played "Jealous Again." Since I was in my "buy
every CD ever manufactured" stage, the next day I bought SYMM and kept
playing it over and over. "Twice As Hard" was my favorite track for a long
time. I bought SHAMC the day it came out and kept it in my CD player for a
long, long time. I kind of got off the Crowes for a while when "Amorica"
and "Three Snakes..." came out, as I had other things going on in my life
and didn't listen to much music anymore. When BYS came out, I was drawn back
in and rediscovered all the old CDs I had neglected. I've only been to 2
shows. The Mountain View, CA show on 8/22 would have been my third (I
happened to be in Mountain View on business) and the Deer Creek, Indiana
show on 9/29 would have been my 4th. With my job and my life it's very hard
for me to get away for a road trip since they don't come to Peoria. I have
to go to Chicago or St. Louis or Indianapolis. Luckily, since my
step-daughter, lilSkitzo, has gotten into the Crowes, she's persuaded me to
start attending shows again and get back into Amorica a lot more. Her
passion is contagious.
Jason: Living in Atlanta in 1990-I got to discover the Crowes right as the
first album was released by hearing an interview with the band on Atlanta's
96 rock radio station. I immediately picked up the album and so began the
frenzy. I've seen 15 shows. Sadly, the year 2000 is the first year since
1991 that I haven't seen the band at least once.
How many shows do each of you own? Which are your favorite and why?
Skitzo: I have around 35 or 40 shows right now. I've got a bunch of
favorites, but the ones that stick out right now are 6/3/93, also known as
"High In Houston," 4/4/99 in Atlanta, Georgia, and "Songs of The Flesh,"
which was recorded during the 1995 tour. "High In Houston" is just a
classic, plain and simple, and should be in every trader's collection;
4/04/99 has a cool vibe to it and "My Morning Song" just kicks ass, and I
love the "Black Moon Jam > Black Moon Creeping" in "Songs of the Flesh."
Jason: Oh, not as many as a lot of Crowes traders. I'd say several dozen. My
favorites? Well any Crowes live collection would be incomplete without
12/15/96 (Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas). That was a special show. There are
several soundboard recordings from the July '97 Further Fest dates that are
also must-have. Man, do I love soundboard Crowes shows. I can close my eyes
and I'm right there on stage. Another personal favorite is 8/22/94 because I
was in attendance. It was the Darkhorse Tavern in Atlanta. It's just this
tiny little basement where maybe 200 sweaty people were crammed in to
witness this impromptu show. I waited in line all afternoon and it only cost
a dollar to get in. The guys were basically rehearsing the material from
"Amorica" for the road and we were the lucky few who got to see one of the
first public performances of some of those songs. I was standing about three
feet away from the band while they rocked. It is to this day my most
cherished show. Truly mind-blowing. By the way-there was a professional
video camera on a tripod at the back, right by the door. I've still yet to
see a copy of that anywhere. If anyone can get it to me, I'd love you
forever.
How did you choose the music that would be broadcast?
Skitzo: Basically, we decided we needed to listen to all the shows to see if
they were good enough to broadcast. By good enough, I mean the sound quality
on the original recording had to be high enough to offset the poor quality
of the transmission. With the first few discs we actually ripped, encoded,
and broadcast them as a test to check the sound quality. After that, we
could tell just by listening to the show whether or not it was good enough.
There's probably only a small handful of shows I have that don't meet our
standards.
Who scripts the breaks between broadcasts with Jason? Are they done
impromptu?
Skitzo: Jason assures me they are done off the top of his head, but I only
get the finished product. I've always been able to tell a scripted spot from
an impromptu, and I think Jason does a great job. When I first asked him to
do the voice work, I just basically told him the concept and, being the
consummate professional he is, he ran with it. The first time I listened to
the voice spots, I was amazed. They were incredible. That's the first time I
thought the station sounded "professional."
Jason: Nah, there's no script. I've been an announcer in radio for a little
over ten years now-so I'm used to blabbing on and on about nothing off the
top of my head. It's just like when I'm on the radio... I compose my
thoughts on what I'm going to say just before I say it... and then let it
roll.
Describe how a typical show is done. How many hours do you tape and then
broadcast? Is there a schedule for when new shows are added and the content
is changed?
Skitzo: Basically the playlist is the same as when we started, but it just
keeps getting bigger and bigger. We use the original playlist and keep
adding shows as we get them. Because the playlist is over two days long,
there's not a huge need to re-arrange it. Chances are you won't be hearing
the same thing over and over anyway. We add new shows whenever we get them.
Jason uploads new ones to me and I rip and encode trades I receive.
Jason: It's done in pieces really. Skitzo lets me know which shows we have
running and which ones need spoken intros. I record and upload them and he
takes care of the rotation of things. I also try and record a little Crowes
news brief every so often when there is news to report (Sven's departure,
the Crowes/Page cancellations, the new album, etc.)
What keeps you motivated to devote so much time to Virtue and Vice Internet
Radio knowing it has a smaller audience compared to commercial radio?
Skitzo: I just think it's cool, that's all. When I like something, I'm
devoted to it. When I see more and more listeners each week, that motivates
me to try and make it sound better, to spend time re-ripping shows in a
higher MP3 format, and to make it unique and enjoyable for the listeners.
Jason: Actually, it's not much time to devote-but it's all done out of a
love and devotion for the music of the Black Crowes. As I've said before,
I'm just happy to be involved.
Are there any shows out there that you wish you could broadcast tomorrow?
Jason: Yes-the one show I'd love to air more than any other would be the
premiere broadcast for this new album they're currently working on with
(producer) Don Was. Come on guys, give Eddie Webb and Dan Neer a rest. Have
a FAN (like me... well ok... not like me... ME) host the album world
premiere broadcast. I'll bet I'm the biggest Crowes fan in broadcasting-so
I'd definitely get the job done nicely. Angelus Entertainment, you reading
this? Have your people call SFX or whoever is going to do it and pencil me
in. Thank you. I'm serious! Boa knows how to get in touch with me.
Skitzo: Quite honestly, there's not one that sticks in my mind. But my
dream, like Jason's, is to host the world premiere of the new album on
Virtue And Vice Black Crowes Internet Radio. They can still do the usual
radio outlets, but come here first. Can you imagine the press they would get
by premiering their new album on their own website's radio station? The only
other things I'd like to broadcast are already in the works, so I can't let
the cat out of the bag just yet. Also, at one time I had a bunch of stuff
from the Taller fan club days-Steve Sings, etc. I lost that in a server
crash, and would like to get it back. I also lost the coolest version of "A
Conspiracy" that was done, well, a cappella so to speak, by a rabid,
anonymous fan. I need to get that one back on as well.
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