ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997 TAG: 9704040024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
It might be Mark Gallier recording his songs in his basement, playing all the instruments himself, singing all the harmonies on his multitrack recorder. Or it might be Spackle, the all-girl trio from Blacksburg with their "blammo" CD. Or Dum Dum out of Richmond. Or the Blues Boogas from Martinsville.
They've all been plugging away, writing and recording tunes, even producing costly CDs, hoping to get heard by somebody.
And now, thanks to a sympathetic disc jockey, that somebody can be you. Casey Jones, of Roanoke's WROV-FM, is giving local artists like these a spin on "The Homegrown Show" every Sunday night at 11. And guess what? It's catching on.
Too much music for one hour
The station's famous "Out of Control Room" is decidedly relaxed on Sunday night. Jones is thumbing through a stack of CDs. "There's a lot more talented bands from this area than you'd expect," says Jones, pointing to a few of their CDs. "And, I mean excellent bands."
"It's great, man," he adds. "I'm so thrilled. We've gotten a great response out of it." From musicians, friends and relatives, and a lot of just listeners."
During the hour-long show, he gets a request for a band called Mother Fungus. Problem is, Jones already has too much local music to play. The request will have to wait until next week.
He figures he's received about 30 tapes and 40 CDs since the show was conceived a few months ago. (It debuted March 16.) Solo acts, blues, pop and rock. There are groups from all across the state.
Jones gets a lot of calls, mostly from people excited to hear some good local musicians. Jones' strategy is to push a single song by each artist he's chosen, play it a few times over the weeks and get his listeners familiar with it. "It's just like with the big acts," he says. "You have to be able to recognize the songs."
Beyond expectations
WROV program manager Buzz Casey believes "The Homegrown Show" is a sort of civic duty. "First of all, we have to play Zeppelin and Pink Floyd," he says of the station's regular programming. "That's the expectation. There are things we like to do beyond what we do every day on the radio, whether it's charity events or exposing local music. The thing that hurts local music is the lack of exposure. We feel there is a scene here, and we'd like to get it on the radio."
Buzz says there are two things he hopes to accomplish with "The Homegrown Show." "We want to make sure people know where these bands are playing." He'd also like to put on some local music showcases. "I'll tell you, since we've started the show we've had clubs call us up and say, 'We want in. We want to do something like that.' It's taking off."
And in the out-of-control-room...
... Jones answers the phone. "ROV."
"Hey, man," says a disembodied voice from the late-night ether. "You got anything by that band ... uh ... hell, what's their name ... uh, Lazy Bones?"
"Yeah, man," says Jones. "I'm hoping to play some of that next week."
"Cool, man," says the voice. ``'Cause a friend of mine played me the tape and it's ... I don't know ... I liked it."
"All right, man," says Jones. "I'll see what I can do."
"All right."
When the guy hangs up, Casey rocks back in his chair and laughs, "He's probably in the band."
OFF THE CLOCK -spotlights Southwest Virginians having a good time away from work. If you have tips to pass along to Chris Henson about new restaurants, local bands or shows of interest, call the Extra section at 981-3353 or e-mail offthclock@aol.com
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB