Dennis Newhall has been the organizer and curator of the Sacramento Rock and Radio Museum since 2000. The museum, which houses a wealth of local concert memorabilia, only opens for the public on Second Saturdays. It's located at 911 20th Street, next door to what used to be a hot local band venue called the Oasis Ballroom. Dennis himself played a role in the local music and radio scene, working for radio stations KZAP, KSFM and KROY. The museum showcases his vast collection of concert posters and donated memorabilia of mainly the 1960s through 1980s, but also includes later artifacts. On Saturday night, May 11, Dennis and I did a video interview for SacTV.com about the museum and how it ha

When I recently went through a box of old cassettes I was amazed to find so much music I had forgotten about. One of the songs I found was called "Strange New World" by Plastic Violents from 1992. David Conley, who hosted the local radio show "The Sound of Sacramento" on KWOD was the lead singer. It was like finding a nugget from the past that still sounds futuristic. David was talking about the project on Facebook, which gave me the idea to check my old library of cassettes. It turns out I have one of the last cassettes by Plastic Violets ever made. It made me wonder about not just how many other lost tunes I have on cassette, but all the other lost tunes that everyone else has on cassett

It is always exciting when a new media organization starts up and provides readers and listeners with news you are truly interested in and entertainment to lighten your day. The new Sac Pride Media Group led by Tyler Edwards will launch the first ever live LGBTQ weekly radio show, “Sac Pride Live” on local Talk 650 KSTE Radio as well as worldwide on iHeartRadio, by app on your Smartphone or online at www.iheart.com/live/Talk-650-KSTE-229. The first show will air live Saturday, April 27 after the River Cats game between 10:00 PM and 12 midnight. On-air hosts for Sacramento’s newest source for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer community, will be realtor Tyler Edwards and we

Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) President William Burg invited me to give a presentation for SOCA about local radio history on March 9. The presentation was held at Mdtown Village Cafe and lasted over an hour. I captured a lot of it on video for SacTV.com. It was fun because afterward I hung around Midtown for Second Saturday and visited several artistic galleries. The presentation covered almost the entire evolution of radio, mixing national and local history. One of the themes was that Sacramento radio has contributed to national history many times. Another theme is that radio started with the telephone and that's what's replacing radio as mobile phones are steadily becoming the m

As I watched the latest online trailers of soon-to-come-out movies, I dropped into the flow of sequencing from the first trailer onto four or five more. “The online set up for 'trailer-watching' has been given some thought,” I thought. I was able to click ahead to the next coming attraction, if the current trailer was becoming a drag. I can usually make such a decision in no more than 10 to 12 seconds. That happened on the third trailer. I won't say what kind of movie it was because you'll know my bias and form some kind of opinion as to why I don't like a particular kind of motion picture. What I'm writing about in this space is much more important than what kind of movies I like, altho

Sacramento has a short list of public radio stations that actually do something for the community, such as helping local independent artists. While public radio can be found in every city, not every city has public radio stations that offer diverse programming or a chance for local artists to shine. This past week I decided to visit a few public radio stations in town. On Thursday, January 17, I was interviewed by Pablo Baxter at Sac State's student run station KSSU (1580 AM). Then on Saturday I went to Access Sacramento's station 88.7 The Voice where Mike Lidskin hosts a freeform music show every Saturday from 4 to 6 pm called Twirl Radio. I also interviewed Mike before the show for my lo

Kicking off a series of SacTV.com videos about the history of Sacramento intersections is "Watt & El Camino," which is an introduction to stories about this legendary intersection. It's hard to believe that this intersection is nothing like what it was in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s when Tower Records and Tower Books were the key hangouts on this block. Even though the bowling alley, Country Club Lanes, still thrives and survives as a busy family fun entertainment center, much of the block has gone through a major facelift. There used to be a hair salon where my friend Dotti worked, next door to Tower Books, which is now a health food grocery store called Fresh & Easy. The Goodwill Donation

Last week the legendary Sacramento freeform station KZAP returned to the airwaves. Instead of its long remembered 98.5 dial position the freeform staton came back to life at 90.3 KDVS, the UC Davis college station. The event lasted over two days from November 8-10, featuring KZAP jocks from the 60s and 70s, when the station offered a wide eclectic mix where almost anything was possible. SacTV.com was there to get clips and interviews of the historic presentation. One of the program directors at KDVS, Michael Taber, explained in a SacTV.com interview how letting a famous station of the past return on the college station is unique and special to KDVS history.  KDVS has a vast library of mus

I have to abandon certain journalistic principles and tell this story in the first person since I am THE source. When I was young, kids made fun of me because my name "Cosper" resembled a popular cartoon character called "Casper the Friendly Ghost." Luckily, the cartoon eventually died and not many people have given me grief about it the past few decades. Yet recently I was confronted with a completely different ghost story, which triggered the ghost of Casper in my mind. SacTV.com is my library of local video interviews in which I continue to learn about regional leaders and what they do for the community. I recently interviewed Jeff Kean, who is the Executive Director of the Woodland Op

Technology has moved indie music forward, but it's still a big puzzle how to make indie music relevant to an online audience. Then again, if you let the music tell the story, much of the mystery is solved. I believe that music with lyrical value that adds insight to people's lives can make indie music more popular. I also believe that combining regional imagery with unique regional music creates timeless local videos. That's why over the past several months I've been producing "drive videos" and "river videos" for SacTV.com. While the drive videos highlight Sacramento's streets and highways, the river videos highlight scenes of the American River. Both types of scenery work well with loca

A common assumption that's really just a myth is that the past, present and future have nothing to do with each other. Many people might assume that Sacramento's local history is all about things that are never coming back. Yet, an event called Retro-Union on Labor Day weekend was like time travel to the past and future. The event was held at Harlows on Saturday, September 1 and attracted hundreds of people who still cherish the alternative dance music of the 80s and 90s. The futuristic part of the evening was performed by Gotham Chorus with Harrison Price, unleashing an innovative light show and new layers of electronic sound, captured on video by SacTV.com. One of the show's highlig

The local indie music scene is at least more than a rumor. At one time in the nineties the indie scene seemed much more high profile because the focus of the scene was on bands that were getting signed out of Sacramento to major labels. By the end of the decade the list was pretty extensive of local acts who signed deals, although only a few acts were able to go far in the music biz. These days not many people are hanging on the edge of their seats waiting to find out which local acts might be getting signed. There are more rumors about new apps that will help you track down indie artists and night clubs than indie artists themselves. That's because there are now more bands than fans, tha

Sacramento may not have a diverse mix of radio stations, but it sure has a diverse mix of gas stations. Today on August 13, 2012 you can find a fifty cent spread on gas prices around town. It's kind of like a flea market or an auction where you pick the best price, if you take the time to do the research. If you don't want to do any research, then you might not mind paying a premium - even if the gas is regular unleaded instead of premium. That means if you buy 10 gallons of gas, the difference between the high and low prices in town can make a difference of five bucks. That money could actually go to a few extra drinks, but if you'd rather let a gas station drink your cash, believe me, no

Sacramento is a city with amazing business potential. If location still means anything, as the internet world continues to eclipse the old brick n' mortar world, Sacramento's location on Planet Earth is pretty amazing, situated between two internationally known tourist destinations - San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. When you consider SacTown is also not far from some of the most beatuiful beaches and mountain scenery, as well as prime agriculture in the nation, one has to wonder why isn't Sacramento doing better as an indie market? It's still the capital of the biggest state, but why isn't it more the capital of anything else involving the concept of capital markets? Lately the word "capital

In recent years I have become attracted to digital animation, starting with the Pixar film Cars. It had been the first movie I had seen in a long time that wasn't based on a predictable plot or script. It gave me hope for the movie industry, although not so much for Hollywood since Pixar Studios is outside of that limited aquarium, based in the Bay Area. What I like about Pixar is they actually have changed the world by raising the bar on digital animation, in addition to expanding subject matter to more humanistic themes instead of just the same old "shoot em up" and romance formulas. For awhile it seemed blockbuster films were like a broken record stuck on mundane formulas funded by Wall

Sacramento's most incredible natural resource is the American River. Sacramento's most incredible untapped resource is local music. If you put the two together you get "River City music videos," which is a new feature you'll find on SacTV.com. It's a new series of local music videos set to local music. It's a way to promote the beauty of Sacramento to the rest of the world and another way to promote local artists to Sacramento, and maybe even the rest of the world.  I spent most of Saturday (June 30)  thinking up the idea and most of Sunday (July 1) making videos of the idea for SacTV. On Saturday I produced a video of the American River with my own music just to get the idea rolling. It'

Arden Way always strikes me as a snapshot of not just Sacramento, but American pop culture. Since I was a kid I've thought of it as the most familiar street in Sacramento. Sometimes I cruise down Arden Way just to take a trip down memory lane. It almost becomes a ghost story thinking of how so much of my life was spent on that street, yet so much of what used to be there is no more.  My first media experience happened on Arden Way when I was in the first grade in 1968. I got to be on a local TV show called "Captain Delta" on KOVR Channel 13, which at the time was the ABC affiliate, whereas now it's CBS. Back then I didn't know networks could flip stations because I was too young to unders

Believe it or not, at one time creativity was a requirement among top stations during radio's heyday. These days creativity is shunned by corporate radio executives, who pride themselves on tight predictable playlists in between as many commercials as possible, keeping personality to a minimum.  Back when radio was much more popular than it is now, creativity was also the key to popularity. It was, in fact, why people listened. They used to call it  "theater of the mind" and it brought the community together. Then came national consultants, who used limited research to trim playlists and eventually laid off as many talented personalities as possible, turning the once powerful medium of ra

How much local music do you hear on your car radio? One way to check is turn on the radio and start counting local songs. Perhaps on Sunday night you'll hear regional rock on 98 Rock's "Local Licks" or local r&b on "Home Grown Soul Show" on V101.1. You'll also hear local music once in awhile on public radio such as Capital Public Radio, Access Sacramento, KDVS and KVMR. But that's about it. The rest of the dial is dedicated to either national hits or some form of one sided corp-friendly talk radio that mostly ignores Sacramento and focuses on what's best for big biz, which less than 30% of the population works for. The lack of local music on the radio, of course, has nothing to do with sh

Building archives of local music scene history for SacTV.com has generated a whole new world of adventure. It helps that I happened to take a lot of video footage at local shows in the late 90s. I mostly concentrated on bands that I thought made some kind of mark in the local scene and had positioned themselves as permanent fixtures based on well-crafted songs that rivaled national hits. Two bands that always showed up on my radar have been Ninety  Nine Tales and Tattooed Love Dogs. Both bands were part of local internet history, frequently featured on Sacramento Music Scene, which became the area's first 24 hour internet radio station in 1999. By 2000 the station was called SacLIve and bo