On the Neon Beat this week: To my listeners who pick up the show on KCXL, 1140 am and 102.9 FM in Kansas City, Missouri.The Neon Beat has been taken off the station. At least the main weekend airing of the shows on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. The reason, as I understand it is this. KCXL, along with a lot of other radio stations in the country are struggling to keep solvent, in particular, the privately owned stations. The push over the edge, I’m told, was yet another huge royalty bill from one of the music licensing cartels. ie: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. The pressure has increased exponentially on radio, television, and internet providers to pay more and more for the “all clear” to play the artists and songwriters who are represented by these licensers. The station has gone full time talk. For now, I note the Neon Beat is being used as “fill” programming in the early morning hours overnights.
I’d like to express my gratitude to Pete Schartel and Jonnie Santoli (owners and operators of KCXL) for believing in the show and giving the Neon Beat the local exposure for as long as they could. Hopefully things will turn around. Big thanks to programmer David Brewer for his enthusiasm for the show and his friendship. David was one of many who came up with some good ideas for fine tuning this thing and plugging it in wherever he could. I’ve made some great friends thru this family.
Meantime, I will continue to find ways to get The Neon Beat on the air. George Woods, of Radio George and I will be pushing to syndicate the show for distribution. Which was always my intention. DON’T FORGET: The Neon Beat still streams 24/7 on Radio George. Go to:
http://www.radiogeorge.com/neonbeat/
And as my friend Joe Dimino of Neon Jazz says: “Enjoy the music my friends!”
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