Friday Night Party With Flynnville Train!

Last Friday night I got a chance to go see some old friends.

My wife was at a father/daughter dance and my mother-in-law was watching our new baby, so I had a free night to go and see Flynnville Train! They are a group of local guys that were signed to Toby Keith's Record Label Showdog Records!

I met the band through another artist friend of mine. He was a singer, but needed a band, so he would hire these guys without the singer. It worked out really well. Since Flynnville Train might be new to you, let me introduce you to the guys!

First I will start with Tommy. I have known Tommy for almost 10 years now. He lays down the beat that the guys follow. He is one of the most amazing drummers I have ever met! Plus he always keeps me in the loop with info about what the band is doing!








Next up is guitarist Brent Flynn. One of the brothers that started the band. Brent is a lefty that totally controls his guitar. You would be amazed at what he can do. They have been in the studio before for an acoustic set, and he broke into some Spanish guitar. He is truly amazing! On top of rocking out on his guitar, Brent also backs up his brother with harmony vocals.

The other brother in the band handles the lead vocals! This is Brian can lay down the vocals with the best of them! Plus as you can see, he has been known to pick up the washboard from time to time!

That leave Mr. Tim Beeler. Rockin' the big ol' Bass Guitar. Tim has even been known to step up to the mic with some harmony vocals. Plus you should see when Brent and Tim get going on some of the instrumentals that they come up with!

So there you have met the band. Just a group of some good guys! They really know how to put on a good show. Anyway, on Friday night, they played at a place called Bygones in Muncie. The show was sold out, but luckily, Tommy hooked me up with some tickets to give to my listener! Tommy had told me to get there early. I showed up at around 7:30. The show wasn't suppose to start until 9! Still I was just lucky to find a seat with some listeners! Thanks Mike! This place was packed, and everyone had a ball. So much so, they are back this Friday night with another sold-out show!

I really do wish the guys the best of luck. I think that 2009 will be huge for them. They have a new single called "Turn Left" that they debuted at the Daytona 500. Yes it is a racing song! Really cool, plus some projects in the works that I can't talk about yet. Could be huge! So good luck guys.

This weekend is a biggie for our family. My son is getting baptized on Sunday. Look for a new post the beginning of the week with pics!

~Livin' my Big Life in Headphones!

A Station Tour...

Well, a lot of people have never been to a radio station before. It is not a glamorous as some would think. Usually it is kinda messy. We love the fact that most people can't see us work. But I thought I would take a few pics and give you the "nickel" tour. So here we go...

This is the front of our building. Also included in the picture is a photo of my news man's hot rod...this thing has no muffler and is louder that a 747 taking off. Anyway, our station houses 4 radio stations. We have two AM stations with an oldies/adult standards format. We have a "Classic Hits" station, and of course we have 99.3 WCJC, Today's best country. That is my station.

Lets take a walk into the lobby!

As you walk in you see the front counter. People who win prizes get about this far, and then we stop them. You can see Ed, our afternoon host, poppin' up like a gopher. He also is responsible for writing most of the copy for all our commercials, and he also is a sports nut. He does play-by-play for all the sports we cover. Ed has been in radio for 30 plus years. He has worked from Indiana to Wisconsin and all place between!

Now lets take a look at the studio, where all the magic happens!

About as big as a large closet, this is the WCJC studio. All the papers on the glass are important things that we are suppose to talk about. Sportscast coming up, How to get a ball game on the internet, and more are all up there. The cases on the floor, and on the counter are all full of CD's. Although most of the music is stored on the hard drive of one of the computers there. We still spin some CD's. Now I know what you are thinking, I should have a throne...well, this is the best we could do...

Here is a closer look at my controls!

The computer on the left is the on-air computer. It plays all the commercials, jingles, and my bed music. The computer on the right is my Production computer. I can play music off this computer, and also surf the web. I get a lot of the things I talk about in the morning from the internet. Plus we use it to pull up radar for weather, or check up to the minute sports scores. In the middle are all my live read commercials. All the sliders and buttons control the music and mics...It is pretty easy once you learn it!

So where do we make all the commercials??

This is the "Prod" room. Production is done here. We record commercials here. There are more pieces of equipment here. Yes that is a reel-to-reel machine. There are CD players, mini-disc recorders, a cassette deck, and even a turntable. We still use most of these everyday to make commercials. But most is now in a computer!

Here are some more pictures of all the equipment it takes to put our 4 stations on the air.

And I couldn't do my job it I didn't get paid for it, so here is the sales office. These are the guys that sell the commercials so I can get a pay check! Thanks guys!

And when I am not doing production, or on the air, I get stowed away with the other jocks in our cubicles in the very back of the building. Here is a shot of those wonderful cubies...mine is the one all the way at the end!

So now you have seen a quick tour of our radio stations. Like a said, not glamorous, but we get the job done. Thanks for stopping by, and come back often. Next time I will tell you about the great weekend I had checking out on of the hottest bands out there!

Talk to ya soon!!

Enjoying my "Life in Headphones"

Welcome To Big John's Big Life

Welcome to the new home of My Big Life. There are previous posts on my Myspace page here...

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=70679877

Also, there are about to be many more posts and changes to Big John's "Big Life" blog. So thanks for checking it out.

More to come soon!