EchoBooming in Birmingham

White contacts and suits will be present!

Or so the rumor goes…

I *just* found out yesterday that Virgos Merlot is playing a 10 year reunion show at WorkPlay Friday night.

MUST find babysitter!

PS Brett will not be on vocal duties (some guy named Chase that supposedly sounds incredible) but the rest of the lineup is back (and will be playing double duty with Red Halo that night) AND they’re working on a 3 song EP!

That was DrWife’s Gmail status today, 4 days after we found out that we lost our baby. She was 11 1/2 weeks pregnant with our second child.

Other ways nerds/chronic planners/worriers deal with/question/grieve a miscarriage:

1. “Rock Paper Scissors for who’s gametes were at fault?”
2. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that 30 minute pregnancy yoga workout
3. “Dammit, I wanted a Gemini baby!”
4. “That due date was perfect, I wouldn’t have to deliver in the Winter (yuck), I would have just enough time after your birthday to prepare another birthday party, and it was right around the same time as Joby’s birthday”
5. “Maybe we had sex a few too many times around my ovulation and the sperm got damaged cause there were so many of them fighting for the egg”

Don’t think we’re not hurt from this because of my statements above. We are, but we have no control over it (despite all that DrWife did/does/will do to change that). Lack of control brings an inner peace to me in times like these. A peace that allows me to let go, forgive, forget, move on….. try again…

Hit the jump for details
(more…)

Turns out nearly every single democrat who changed their vote on the FISA bill earlier this month did so after being paid by the TELCO industry…

You remember hearing about the FISA bill? It’s the one that give the TELCOs immunity from civil lawsuits brought by people who get spied upon by them in the name of the “Global War on Terror”.

Looks like my Congressman fell victim to the dollar too… Here’s the email I just sent:

Congressman Davis,

I was upset with the way you voted on the FISA bill in June, but I figured you were doing your best to move some legislation through to avoid a deadlock in house.

However, I was shocked and thoroughly disappointed with you as a person to learn that between your no vote in March to your yes vote in June you accepted $5000 from PACs associated with Telecommunications companies.

Had I known that $5000 would have kept your vote a no, I would have sent it to you myself. Five thousand dollars is a pittance to pay for preservation of privacy for the citizens of this country.

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin – 1755

SPOTLIGHT: Telco PACs Gave $8K to Dems Who Changed Their Vote on FISA Bill

Telecom Amnesty Flip-Floppers Got More Telecom Dollars via WIRED

Even a washed up football coach:
http://cgi.ebay.com/UAB_COACH_WATSON_BROWN_ViewItem

I knew something was up this morning when Beaner and Ken were preempted by nothing but mostly good, deep cuts of music.

Then I got in and my Google News Alert for WRAX was sitting in my inbox:

Alternative to sign off at 100.5 FM
Sports-talk station WJOX replaces The X starting today
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
BOB CARLTON
News staff writer

Birmingham radio listeners can expect a major lineup change today.

Alternative rock station The X at 100.5 (WRAX-FM), once one of the most popular stations in town, will go off the air this afternoon to make room for sports talk station WJOX, which already airs on the AM 690 frequency.

Staff members at The X were told they no longer had jobs at a Tuesday afternoon meeting with Dale Daniels, the general manager for both stations.

“The X is no more,” Mark Lindsey, that station’s former music director, said following the meeting. “He (Daniels) said that he’s sorry and he appreciates everything that we did.”

Daniels declined to comment on any changes Tuesday.

Both stations are owned by Citadel Broadcasting. For the time being, it is expected Citadel will broadcast WJOX on both the AM 690 and FM 100.5 frequencies.

During its heyday as 107.7 The X, the 100,000-watt WRAX was one of top stations in Birmingham and the highest-rated alternative rock station in the country.

But ratings gradually started to slide over the past few years, and last spring, the station changed frequencies from 107.7 to the less powerful 100.5 signal.

“It was a very influential station, not only locally, but nationally, for years,” radio consultant Mark St. John said. “I don’t think it was ever able to recover from that move because the signal wasn’t as good, among other things.”

Scott Register, who hosted the popular Sunday-morning show “Reg’s Coffee House” for almost 10 years on The X, informed his listeners in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon that the station is going off the air.

“The powers that be decided sports talk was the answer, and with one swift move, The X is no more in Birmingham,” Register wrote. “A station that was once known as one of the top tastemakers in the country has met its Waterloo.”

Register will continue to host a one-hour syndicated version of his show.

As more listeners turn to satellite radio to get their music, the demise of alternative stations such as The X is part of a growing trend, said Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores.

“I’ve got Sirius and XM, so I’m a big fan (of satellite radio),” VanCleave said. “It’s one of the big reasons I haven’t listened to them (The X) in a while.”

E-mail: bcarlton@bhamnews.com

I don’t know, maybe no one listened any more because the music you played (for the most part) sucked.

I actually think that the worst part of all of this is the lack of concert promotion for the Birmingham area that will result from no alt station.

Luckily there are several groups in the area that are working to put their own radio station on the air:

Fried Green Radio and
Radio Revolution Birmingham are the only two I can think of off the top of my head right now.