You’ve just gotten out of class, you’re driving home and you hear “…I ain’t never met a girl like you…” playing on the radio. That’s a song by Kast One, a local artist featured exclusively on Rev 89, Mike Atencio, station manager for Rev 89 said.
Local artists have always been considered at Rev 89, he said, since roughly 2002, but it wasn’t until the last two months that a new system was developed to give them more air play.
This system involves some work from Chris Garcia “Primetime,” junior, mass communications major and operations manager at Rev 89. Garcia screens incoming phone calls from local artists and sets up times when he can sit down with them and listen to their music, Atencio said.
A lot of the artists seem cool about making an appointment versus just coming in and dropping off their stuff, others give us attitude, he said.
But this system seems to be working better, because they get to sit down with Garcia and he listens to it then and there and it’s always better to meet in person because we can talk to the artist, Atencio said.
They ask that the artists’ only bring in three of their best songs. From there, Garcia listens to their tracks with them and tells them what he thinks. If Garcia likes what he hears, they play it; if not then he will give them advice on how to improve their work to get airplay, he said.
Garcia decides if the track will reach a variety of people, they will play it during the day. Others get played during the specialty hours, like during The Movement, which is on Thursday nights from 10 p.m. until midnight and has a rougher, more hip-hop underground sound. However, all of the tracks must be clean enough to play on the air, Atencio said.
Some of the local artists featured to date are Mic, Kast One and Black Pegasus. They have been featured on the P-town countdown, a top five countdown on Rev 89 generated by listeners’ votes. People have also called in asking where they can get the songs played by those artists and if they have CD’s out, Atencio said.
Mic has a song on Rev 89 called “Flawless Skies.” He is 21 years old, is originally from Florida but now lives in Pueblo. He has a CD out called “Open Mic.”
Kast One has a song called “Girl like you” on Rev. He is originally from New Mexico but now lives in Pueblo. Check out his myspace page at www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacekastonecom.
Black Pegasus has two songs played on Rev 89. One is called “Caliente” and the other one is called “Can’t Stay Around.” He is from Colorado Springs and just released a new album called “The Black Mexican” which is in stores now. He is going on tour and has a concert scheduled in Colorado Springs on Friday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. at the Black Sheep. Check him out on myspace at www.myspace.com/blackpegasus.
