KSCL.fm undergoing redesign [again]

Hey all,

We are so close to being finished with finals. I'll be done after one more project and I can't flippin' wait.

I've been working very hard on one project, for Web Design. I decided to take the kscl.fm site on, incorporating the history section in along the way. I'd love some feedback.

KSCL.fm redesign


So, here are my current notes:
-I wanted to go with a homepage that incorporated the blog and schedule in a smaller format.
-Our big push is toward interactivity (blogging, podcasting, internet streaming, & twitter?)
-Our history section is huge and needs an upgrade. I've only just started on it, but I'm going to add more stuff in the coming weeks. Currently the sidebar navigation doesn't work in Internet Explorer.
-I'm playing around with adding a sub navigation for the "News" section. In there, I'd post links to our various interviews & media.

Okay, I'll be updating this beast more over the coming weeks, but the brute of the work is done. D-O-N-E. Done!

Get excited about upcoming episodes from Nadine and me!

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BOTB/BIG Event Pictures Up, Send Me More Links!

-trudeau

Here are the links (video & pics) from BOTB, and the BIG Event at Centenary College this past Saturday. Let me know if you have any pictures and I'll link them here.

For anyone who missed the event, the winners were The Peekers, The Situation, and Missoni Lanza. Congratulations to all the bands that played. We all grabbed exposure!

Pics:
Robert Trudeau



Schleuss


Centenary



Articles:
Shreveport Times Article on the BIG Event
Shreveport Times on Battle of the Bands
Trudeau on Peekers
Centenary on Battle of the Bands
& More Centenary BOTB Coverage

Sponsors:
Shreve Audio
PieWorks
Courtyard Coffee
Replays Gameware
Disc Daddy, Inc.
Plato's Closet
Third Eye Tattoo
George's Grill
C.C. Hardman, Co.

[Updated links from Centenary News Dept.(apr3/08 3:27p)]

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Schleuss Live Blogging the 5th Annual Battle of the Bands

Ladies and Gentlemen and the Transgendered,

I'll be live-mini-blogging the 5th Annual KSCL Battle of the Bands courtesy my twitter account. You can subscribe via text-message to my blogs if you prefer.

We're shooting for the shell, but I'll be monitoring the weather conditions. The shell should dry up before the event, but if we move, it will be to Kilpatrick Auditorium in the Smith Building. See you there!

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If it Rains, BOTB to be in Kilpatrick Audiorium, Smith Building

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow for Battle of the Bands, but if it does it will be inevitable. We can't control the weather.

However, we at KSCL are littered with backup plans. That's why if the weather is bad tomorrow, we'll be hosting the 5th Annual Battle of the Bands in Kilpatrick Auditorium (campus map). Please update any and everyone you know. Or pray that it doesn't rain. ;)

It's still going to be rockin', so come out and support KSCL and local music. At KSCL, we look at the reverse of everything. So that "40% Chance of Tstms" really means 60% chance of beautiful weather. You can't expect anything different in this town, or this state.

Is someone watching out for us? Note the break in major storms over the entire state of Louisiana. (things move left to right) Happy dreams!

[Update: added new image (mar29/08 12:17a)]
phot creds to National Weather Service

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Live from NYC: The Dead of Night (Nancy Brown), the White Papers, Barton Carroll @ Knitting Factory [Podcast]

I'm excited to bring this to you. Another podcast episode. This one here is a project that Vanessa Boyd and I are working on.

Backstory on Vanessa:
Vanessa graduated from Centenary College in 1999, working on a French degree. She was KSCL's co-Program Director and a DJ. Now, she's a musician and regular artist living in NYC.

She and I started with the idea of Shreveport/Louisiana bands heading to New York. Vanessa would interview them, record live show bits, and get audience reaction. Well, not many artists from Shreveport make it to New York everyday. So, it morphed into bands from our Top 100 of 2007. Well, then we hit some more problems with no bands touring and a hard time getting into shows, the interview, the recording, etc. You can imagine the legal issues here. But the promotion for the artist would be phenomenal. KSCL would promote these artists via blog, podcast, and broadcast.

So, that's what we're doing here. Vanessa traveled to the Knitting Factory on February 24th and created a show from that experience. She met The Dead of Night (Nancy Brown), the White Papers, and Barton Carroll. It'll also be in our podcast (see links on right). The episode clocks in at 8'37".

Click here to download this episode.

I'm so excited this has finally taken off. She attended a Bodies of Water show on Saturday, so that's a up-and-coming show there. Special thanks to Brandon Davis for arranging the band interviews.

You can also hear the show live on 91.3FM this Friday and Monday, along with next Friday at noon. Stay tuned, we're working with some truly talented artists.

If your band would like to work with us on this project, contact me (jschleus@centenary.edu). We'll work something out!

more info on Vanessa Boyd at v2k.name and vanessaboyd.com

[Updated: switched wording on The Dead of Night / Nancy Brown (3/25/08 8:54p)]

photo creds to the white papers myspace

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Battle of the Bands: What you, the entertained, could win

After scouring the countryside in search of booty for our Battle of the Bands raffle I found several helpful businesses and individuals ready and willing to provide.

Here are most of the prizes you could expect to win... if you buy a ticket.


- Two Pipes Emporium Tee-shirts w/Zig-Zag Man logo
- $15 gift certificate- Disc Daddy
Tee-shirt from Disc Daddy as well
- $10 gift certificate- Replays Gameware
- $10 gift certificate- Courtyard Coffee
- $25 gift certificate- Plato's Closet clothing store
- $20 x 2 gift certificates- Third Eye Tattoo (formerly Modern Primitives)
Numerous product prizes from Third Eye also
- Dinner for two (2) w/ beverages & desserts- George's Grill
- $25 gift certificate- PieWorks Pizza
- $50 gift certificate- C. C. Hardman Co. (Art Supply store)

In addition to these prizes KSCL will be entering some winnable vinyl albums and CD albums of hit records from 2007 with grab-bag prizes of free CD's.

Raffle Tickets are $1.

Image cred to Google

Schleuss Travels to College Station in Ruston, KLPI 89.1 FM [Road Trip]

Today I ventured to Ruston Louisiana, home of the Frothy Monkey and KLPI 89.1 FM, Louisiana Tech's College Station. I met general manager Blake Hosli and he gave me the grand tour. KLPI's setup is a bit more advanced and larger than what KSCL has. It's nice to see an alternative setup. In this business students really only have time to see their station, rarely anyone else's.

I found many similarities with Centenary's campus. As radio stations, we both have a lot of the same problems and achievements. KLPI is looking into internet streaming, as are we. They're struggling with finances, like us. And our staff numbers are about the same.

When I was the Music Director and talked to promoters, I heard one quote that's still with me today. "College Radio is the bastard child of the college." Ha! I don't know whether that makes me proud or peeved. I must say, however, that college radio struggles with the same issues, but mainly being understood by the "adults" in the administration. KSCL is extremely fortunate to have people like Michael Laffey, Kathy Fell, and Jerry France. I hope others are as fortunate.

I was a little lame-in-the-head today and didn't bring my camera. So, I stole one of their orientation pics.

KLPI was the product of a thesis paper in 1966. It grew at a slow pace, garnering more and more attention, much like KSCL. A lot of people don't know that KLPI helped the students at Centenary understand the rules and requirements of the FCC, back in KSCL's early stages. Currently, KLPI is listed as broadcasting with 4000 watts, but Blake tells me the physics department complained interference problems. So, the station operates at a lower frequency. The antenna sits atop Wyly Tower. "The tallest building in Ruston," John Ramsey tells me.

I found inspiration in my trip, hopefully bringing more things to KSCL's future. I hope the KLPI returns the visit to us. We will most certainly welcome them!

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KSCL Battle of the Bands Lineup Now Official

Just got done with the emails and such. Here's the list of performers (in order):

- 6 Pack Deep
- The Dark Pop Project
- And, Wellington
- The Situation
- The Peekers
- Chris James
- Missoni Lanza
- Midwest Caravan

The event will start at 1:00pm on March 29th. It'll be the Shell in the center of Centenary's campus. Rain location is Kilpatrick Auditorium in the Smith Building.

The winning band will win $300. Second and third will receive $150 and $50 respectively.

Raffle prizes are awesome. Sponsors include Strawn's, Pipe's Emporium, George's Grill, Third Eye Tattoo (formerly Modern Primitive), and more. I'll post more info about raffle tickets when I have the information at hand. I'll also post a link to our event poster.

Get excited! It's one of the biggest events in Shreveport's up-and-coming.



[Updated: added Facebook Event (3:40p 3/21/08)]

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Find Shows, Find Music, Find Life: Browsing for Bands Playing Near You

Alright, so I don't go to a lot of shows in Shreveport. Of course there's the Actor's Cafe and Big D's (every once and awhile). The problem with Shreveport music is the law. There's very little to do if you're not 21.

So, many of us travel to Dallas, NOLA, and Austin to see good bands. But it's impossible finding shows unless you MySpace stalk your favorite artists. And that takes time. You can't do that if you're a full-time student with a full-time job.

But I have some tips and websites. I've found them through other blogs and our lovely radio promoters in the big cities.

Tourfilter.com: Let the Internet Find the Shows
Enter tourfilter.com. This is what my life was missing, for the past five years! Tourfilter, now three years old, scours the internet for shows and artists. It organizes all the shows based in different metro areas (like Dallas, New Orleans, Austin, etc.). Punch in your favorite artists and Tourfilter will email you whenever they're coming to town (or near town, as in our case). Shreveport isn't there yet, but at the rate they're expanding, expect smaller metros soon!

Pollstar.com: What's Shreveport's Schedule Look Like?
While it's been around for many years, pollstar.com still keeps up with current trends. I hate all the adverts, though. Regardless, Pollstar gives you the ability to search based on artists, venues, concerts, cities, and more. It's not very indie-friendly, lacking several shows with upcoming artists. Yet the site offers enough to give you the information you need in most situations.

MySpace.com: Popular Social Site Does City Scheduling Too
MySpace's music site offers even more show listings for a given zip code. It works by collecting venue information from each artist site. The user only needs to type in their zip. And zing! All the posted shows appear. The problem here is that you get a lot of junk and listings for sketchy shows. A few months ago I talked to a band that played in a guy's trailer in Bossier. The band was a little freaked out. I don't even know if there was a door price.

Hope that helps! Do you know any other ways to find shows?
Of course local shows (that are sent to us) are posted in our booth news.

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Easter Break @ Centenary & Updates

Battle of the Bands is coming up. Make sure to sign your band up at ksclbotb@gmail.com. Also, I've posted the pictures from our Birthday/Benefit show on my flickr account.

Centenary's cleaning up the shell for Easter Services this Sunday. The Centenary Choir will sing and I'm betting Betsy will do some sort of service. It's down in the calendar to start at 6am this Sunday, March 23rd. Today, the Shell's got Maroon and Taupe colors.

On another note, thanks to everyone who came to Actor's Cafe this past Friday! It was a blast and a good turnout. The money from the door will be split between KSCL and the bands. We're working on building up our summer budget, so we can continue to run through the summer. It would be nice to get some major traction in this area. Next year, for sure, we'll be getting a different cut from student fees. I've posted pictures from this weekend on my flickr account.

The media heads are considering some more options to strengthen the paper, yearbook, literary arts magazine, and film society. Grants for a media computer lab and getting on-campus housing paid for are in the works. Stay tuned! Even though it's break, we'll be posting some podcasts and DJ shows will continue!

photo creds to me

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Porcelain Arms Interview [KSCL Exclusive]

Nadine Kaskas, our News Director, interviewed Shreveport band Porcelain Arms on January 9th. The interview was in promotion of their Feb 2nd show at Harlequin Alley.

Porcelain Arms includes Ryan Veuthey, Will Hughes, Brian Fuge, Donnie Baham, Josh Holmes, and Larry Wright.

The interview is here (and in our podcast) and clocks in at 10'45".

The interview was recorded by Jon Schleuss and produced by Steven Turner.

photo creds to Mark Flentge

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KSCL Update: Internal Musings

I wanted to push this information to the outside. For those keeping up, I spoke to the Student Government last Tuesday to give updates on the Station. In the first part I ran through what's happened since I took charge and what we're planning for the future. The simple answer to both these topics is pure growth. KSCL has grown so much. I'm very proud to be a part of KSCL, especially when KSCL's history is leading it into a very exciting future.

In "part deux" I transition into the spending of student fees for media and other organizations. I believe that KSCL deserves a larger "slice" of that pie. When around $115,000 comes in every semester from student fees, it only seems right to reward the growing organizations with more money; cutting money from the stagnant. The senate was very receptive and I am extremely hopeful for the future. There's more on the conglomerate's site. So, this is where we are now: a hopeful future, but a very poor summer.

Phase 3 is Schleuss writing for grants, kicking underwriting into gear, and finding someplace to live (hopefully on campus!). Stay tuned!

here's the google presentation

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KSCL Manager Speaks Out

The following is an edited version of an article in Feb 29th's Conglomerate, Centenary College's student-run newspaper. The original is available on their website.

KSCL 91.3 FM, Centenary's radio station, has seen tremendous growth in the past year. Late last summer, we launched a blog and podcast. We've cleaned up our program schedule and posted this online as a Google Calendar. We've produced several interviews and posted them online. We've dramatically increased our education in broadcasting content and presentation. I'm extremely excited to be part of our growth. I'm happy to have influenced it.

While KSCL has become one of the "hippest" radio stations in northwest Louisiana, we have run into many brick walls. One problem has been the lack of support we receive on campus. Student media are often quickly forgotten on campus. SGA* forgets we exist. First-year students barely know anything about us. We're not on the priority list of many areas at Centenary. For the radio station, students pass up opportunities out of apathy or lack of interest, or both. Any student can apply to have a radio show. Any student can check out equipment to record interviews or present their research. We have an international reach with our website and a large physical reach with our FM transmitter. Still, students pass up these opportunities. While this is disheartening, we have other issues.

The largest problem that KSCL faces is a financial one. KSCL received the same amount of money from SGA as it did three years ago, before the upgrade. The upgrade expanded our listener base to the highest number in over 30 years. That's student-run media reaching a potential half-million people. Imagine the possibilities. Yet, receiving the same nominal budget isn't catching us up to our growth.

Running off the same budget has created many internal problems. For instance, we haven't been paying our staff reasonable wages. Our music director regularly clocks forty hours a week reviewing CDs, updating charts, reporting to record companies and promoters, and informing DJs of updates and news. Is it right for us to only pay the music director for eight hours a week (at minimum wage)? KSCL cannot afford to pay the music director more than eight hours a week, even though it's a raise from previous years. We've had to make serious cutbacks, all at the expense of our listeners and our college.

Another example is our ability to stream over the Internet. The chips have fallen into place. The financial resources have not.

After spending a year with these problems hanging over my head, I'm done. I cannot see how the station can grow if the college, and namely student fees, aren't "tuned into ninety-one-point-three." If policies are not amended, expect my resignation. There is no point in running a student radio station for the college if our student-fee percentage isn't allowed to grow when we grow. It is impossible to ask so much of the station's staff while giving so little in return.

The fiscally responsible move for KSCL is to shut down in May and reopen in the fall as school resumes. Shutting down KSCL will hurt the radio station's reputation in the community. This is Centenary's reputation, too. Shutting down the station could also grab the eyes of the FCC, which could mean fines to the college. However, it seems impossible to run the station if there's no hope from the school for the future. I vowed to never close the station, but I see little alternative.

The one alternative I do see is a commitment from SGA to reorganize student fees and distribute them fairly, justifying every penny. This is the only assurance I need to run the station throughout the summer. I understand SGA cannot do anything 'serious' to the student fees this semester, but there is next year. Commitments for the future can be made.

I propose that SGA review student allocations to Homecoming, CAB, the Media Committee, and all other areas receiving student fees. I propose that SGA pay media heads fair wages, as opposed to the sixty-seven cents an hour I currently receive. Student Fees should be justified! As a student, I put blind faith into the hands of SGA to promote this campus and encourage growth at our college.

I'm extremely hopeful for the future. I've put countless hours into KSCL making the best possible radio station for the students, college, and Louisiana. I now leave the future up to my fellow students.

*SGA is the Student Government Assocation on Campus. SGA regulates the majority of student activity fees totally about $115,000 a semester.

I enjoy your feedback, send responses to jschleus@centenary.edu or comment below.

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KSCL 91.3 FM Exclusive Interview with Dr. Barbara Forrest

We recorded an extensive interview with Dr. Barbara Forrest the day after she came to Centenary to present a lecture detailing the political and religious aims of the intelligent design movement.

In the interview, she explains evolutionary theory, creationism, and how creationism led to intelligent design. She details the intelligent design movement's theories and strategies.

We also got her to comment on the interesting questions she received from the community after the lecture on Thursday.

Here's the interview.

http://www.centenary.edu/life/kscl/podcast/drforrest.mp3

A Solar Powered Centenary

photo by riosgerman
It's a great 100th Anniversary for Centenary in Shreveport, and that doesn't stop with renewed environmental efforts. For the 2008-9 year, the college should be working with the city of Shreveport and Pratt industries on the city-wide recycling program (stay tuned for more on this). But this spring, the main concern is to get solar panels on top of the library.

The Centenary Environmental Association (CEA), the college's environmental organization, is promoting an event called "Chains for Change." The organization plans to 'chain' President Kenneth Schwab, Head of Residence Life Kevin Wagner, and two professors to a tree on Earth Day (April 22). However, there is a cost: $300 for each person.

Members of the CEA will be hanging out at lunchtime to collect student, faculty, and staff contributions. Individuals can also stop by the offices of the 'tree huggers' to donate in person. There can't be anything better than slipping a $20 bill in Kevin's bucket, right in front of him.

For more information and to get involved (whether student or not) contact Jeanne Hamming at jhamming@centenary.edu.

The event is not limited to just Centenary. Anyone wishing to donate and support getting renewable energy in Highland should contact Jeane Hamming or us at the radio station. We can be reached at 318-869-5296.

Offices:
Kevin Wagner: bottom floor, Student Life Office
President Kenneth Schwab: top floor, Hamilton Hall
Jeanne Hamming: Jackson 313
Scott Chirhart: Mickle 208

A Cross for the First Time in 31+ Years

Well fans,

I have good news. Last night (now Tuesday night) our faculty adviser informed the staff about Arbitron's latest statistics. Arbitron is a radio marketing research firm that calculates the number of listeners each station has. Well, for the first time in KSCL's 31+ years of being, I am happy to report that we have a cross by our call letters. The cross signifies that we now have more that 1% of regular listeners in our area. This would equate to a minimum of 3,000 or so regular listeners. It is quite an exciting event, something that wouldn't have been possible without the help of Kathy Fell, Michael Laffey, Chris Brown, Sara Hebert, and many many others.

One of my favorite things about our station is the sheer number of individuals who have affected KSCL in some way over the many years. I am extremely proud to lead the station during such a grand time.

Stay tuned!

Jon Schleuss
General Manager
318.869.5296

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