Author: chiefengineer

…And Trinity celebrates WRTC as one of its 200 Years, 200 Stories. Originally published in the Trinity Reporter last year, The Enduring Voice of Trinity College was written in honor of WRTC’s 75th anniversary.

The Trinity College Bicentennial page.

WRTC will participate in the college’s Alumni Bicentennial Celebration and Reunion Weekend, June 8-11, with a special remote broadcast and studio tours for visiting alumni on June 9, 5-8 p.m.

Are you a WRTC/Trinity alumnus? Would you like to talk on the air about your WRTC memories? We’d love to have you. Please contact General Manager Chris Cowles for more information.

On Oct. 19, WRTC hosted the New Haven-based experimental improvisatory duo, Tongue Depressor, to play in the unique and resonant Crypt Chapel downstairs in the Trinity College Chapel.

You can enjoy the concert yourself with this video. They played the small pipe organ there as well as double bass and bag pipes. Entirely acoustic, their music resonated and reverberated in the enclosed stone space in a wonderful and satisfying way.

Almost everyone who donated to our recent fundraising-marathon and requested them should have received their premiums by now.

Thank you so much for your donation!

If you’ve had any issues receiving your premium(s), please e-mail our general manager as shown on our contact page.

If you’d still like to donate and (perhaps choose to) receive a hat or T-shirt, it’s not too late. Use the “donate” button below and fill out the form on our secure on-line donation page.

No matter if he was playing solo acoustic or with line-ups as diverse as the Grateful Dead, Old & In The Way, Legion of Mary or his long-running Jerry Garcia Band, many times there were old timey spirituals in the sets Jerry Garcia performed.

The May 2 edition of Greasy Tracks celebrated that oft-overlooked spiritual side of Garcia by featuring interviews with members of  The Garcia Project as well as their recent release, Spirit: A Loving Tribute To Jerry Garcia And The Spiritual Songs He Performed.

Click here to listen to an archive of the show, while a playlist is here.

Guitarist Mik Bondy and vocalist Kat Walkerson of The Garcia Project provided insight on the recording of the 12-track album. There was an interview with Maria Muldaur who produced the project and contributed harmony vocals on most tracks and lead vocals on a version of Charles Johnson’s “Sisters And Brothers.” This was a familiar track for Muldaur who included it on her 1978 release Southern Winds. She toured and recorded with Garcia during the 1970s.

A number of individuals who played with Garcia were involved in the sessions, including drummer Buzz Buchanan and vocalist Jacklyn LaBranch.

In addition to tracks from Spirit, there were live 1970s nuggets from the Jerry Garcia Band.

The April 25 edition of Greasy Tracks featured an in-depth overview of the Tulsa Sound, best portrayed by the likes of JJ Cale and Leon Russell.

Included was an interview with bassist/vocalist Casey Van Beek who discussed the legendary style of music associated with Tulsa, Okla., as well as the just-released Heaven Forever by his group Casey Van Beek and the Tulsa Groove.

Click here to listen to an archive of the show, while a playlist is here.

Musician, songwriter and producer Adam Schlesinger, who died at the age of 52 on March 31 of complications from the coronavirus, was honored in a special program on the April 6 edition of The Devo Rock Show.

Schlesinger was a founding member of both Ivy and Fountains of Wayne and worked in theater, television and film as a musician and producer. He appeared on WRTC a number of times in the past.

Born in New York City, he grew up in Montclair, N.J., and graduated from Williams College where he met future bandmate Chris Collingwood who he later co-founded the power-pop band Fountains Of Wayne in 1995.

Schlesinger’s first band, Ivy, formed in 1994 in New York City with Andy Chase and Domique Durand. Ivy’s first single, “Get Enough” (Seed Records), was named single of the week by Melody Maker in 1994.

Chase would later help him compose the theme song to the 1996 film That Thing You Do, starring Tom Hanks and Liv Tyler.

Fountains Of Wayne released their debut single “Radiation Vibe” in 1996 and it became an alternative rock hit. Their biggest hit, “Stacey’s Mom,” came in 2003 following the release of the album Welcome Interstate Managers. 

In an interview included in the program — recorded by Devo on the day the single was released — Schlesinger revealed that the characters in the song were made up. The secret to the song’s success is described as being the result of the video which includes Rachel Hunter wearing only a towel. 

In another interview recorded prior to the release of their album Sky Full Of Holes, which will also be included in the program, Schlesinger describes how he gets the ideas for songs and some of his production techniques.

In addition to Fountains of Wayne and Ivy, Schlesinger was part of the bands Tinted Windows — which featured James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins and Taylor Hanson — and Fever High. He wrote songs and produced music for the television program Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and wrote music for the Tony Awards.

He won a Grammy Award in 2009 for best comedy album — A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! — and was a producer for bands such as Fastball, They Might Be Giants, Verve Pipe and The Monkees.