Estoy Nueces

Mark is safely home and happy from such a good trip. The new album is awesome. It won't be out officially until July, but I have a copy and it is great. Great, I tell you.

Just got back from taking Willie to the vet and he is happy and healthy and his little eye is fine. The doctor was appalled that I put neosporin in his eye, but listened to what I'd heard about it and said that if it didn't get red or irritated, it must have been fine. Willie ways a whopping 14 pounds 9 ounces now. Big ball of fur.

I went to accordion night last night and it was fun. There were applause and ovation when I walked in like I was a celebrity or something. I played a little bit, mainly on the two-chord Jambalaya. That one's fun. I ate some nachos and visited with Bob, who I enjoy so much, and his daughter Liz. Finally broke down and drank a beer, too, and then left early to get home to see Mark. I wanted to go by the grocery, but I was broke so I put that off another day.

I had an interesting exchange of emails yesterday at work. In fact, I think I will put them in here for posterity. First, I get an email that obviously is from a close fan of an artist. We know when we get an email fawning over an artist and criticizing us for not playing this artist that it is from a family member or friend. This was no different. The artist he is talking about is a great new up-and-comer, but his time hasn't come yet for our station.

The first email:

I love listening to K*** online, but I only have one small criticism. I have yet to hear any of your DJ's play cuts from the ew CD by **Bob Smith**, "____________". It is such a fine album, and here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area the Ranch (95.9 FM) plays 3 cuts from that CD. One of those, "_______" is currently their top requested song. I feel like K*** is really missing the boat by not playing at least one cut from that CD. Any thoughts on the matter?

I usually ignore emails like this. There is no sense in explaining our music selection process because then they always seem to come back with, "Oh, yeah? Well you should..."

So I don't respond and then I get this:

I'm **Bob Smith**"'s dad. I've been trying to figure out why K*** isn't playing one or two cuts from my son's new CD, "_______". I'm guessing you folks don't consider his music of sufficient quality to merit playing time, but as I told you in an earlier email today, The Ranch 95.9 has received more requests for "____" than any other song on their playlist. That alone should merit stronger consideration by K***. How about a bribe. I'm sending you several photos that I took from you "galleries". I chose the ones that looked the worst and fixed them. If I were to continue doing that for you FREE of charge, would that be enough of a bribe to get you to add "____" to your playlist? If you like the idea, please contact me. If not, at least I tried. Thanks.

Okay, he's insulting our music choices and now he is insulting the pictures on our webpage. He doesn't include the pictures so the next email says "I can't send these through your website, so if you are interested, email me back." Then he figures out my email and he sends me said pictures. I can't really tell what he's done to improve the "worst" pictures.

So I respond:

> You and **Bob**'s mom are really only hurting his cause by sending bribes
> and complaints. **Bob** and I have talked about his music, we are friends
> and he knows why he isn't on K*** yet. We ARE exposing him to our
> audience with an on-air interview and he is playing our upcoming music
> series. I promote his gigs when I know about them and they are relevant
> to our audience. **Bob** is not on the level of C0ry M0rrow, J@ck Ingr@m,
> P@t Green, Bruce R0bison, R@dney F0ster... And he knows that. We are not
> in the business of breaking new artists or educating our audience. **Bob**
> is on track and when he does get an add on K*** he will know that he has
> achieved something very special. Check the ratings on the Ranch and
> maybe you can see that their audience, while devoted, is very very
> small. KVET has an enormous listenership and only a very small portion
> of them are fans of the Texas music. We have to walk a fine line of what
> Texas music we expose along with the classic country. We are VERY VERY
> different from the Ranch and the Range and the stations in Victoria,
> Bryan, Nacogdoches, etc.
>
> I really appreciate your enthusiasm for your son. I love **Bob**. But,
> please, take a step back and let **Bob** develop as an artist without a
> stage father.
>

So he writes back and sort of backs down. Says he does graphic work for Tommy A and is "very" involved in Texas music, blah blah blah. Then he sends yet another email asking me not to mention this to **Bob**. Hell, I expect to see **Bob** tonight and I am going to let him know his Dad is hurting his career.

It is raining this morning and it is very pleasant and quiet. I wish it would poor through the afternoon and I would have a night off from the cafe. Not going to happen, I know. Never does.