SUNDAY, CONFERENCE 2/17/08
The final day of the Millennium Music Conference had arrived. I anticipated that things would be slow on Sunday, as most of the attending bands and musicians had already performed by now, and only conference registrants and performers scheduled to showcase this day would still be around. I was pleasantly surprised, though, to find things still relatively busy during the trade show. Only one performer played at the open mic stage; Reading’s Valerie Nicole, making the most of her opportunity to be seen and heard by as many new faces as possible. It worked; as her visibility and accessibility made her clearly one of the names I will remember from this year’s conference.
More panels and seminars took place this day as well, including one that I was a panelist for. “Radio: Terrestrial, Internet & Beyond” was a discussion of how radio can still play a role in exposing independent musicians to new fans. I represented my Sunday evening local music program on Q94, “The Backyard Rocker.” The other panelists included Michael Anthony Smith, the longtime host of “Open Mic,” which airs Sunday evenings from 10 PM to midnight on WRVV, 97.3 “The River” in Hershey; and John Kerecz, the operator of Old Schoolhouse Radio (www.oshradio.com), a Harrisburg-based internet radio station. We each discussed our respective stations and programs, and presented policies and guidelines for musicians who wanted to submit materials to the shows. We also reminded musicians that while radio airplay is helpful in exposing new fans to their music, that it should be just one part of an overall marketing strategy that should also utilize the internet, print publications, word of mouth and other marketing tools.
Shortly after this seminar concluded, the conference portion of the weekend began to wind down, as various trade show vendors began to load up their gear and depart from the Radisson. For live music fans, though, there was still plenty of action left in the live performance part of the conference, as four different Harrisburg area venues were presenting showcases this afternoon and night.
Trinidad & Tobago artist Coreysan samples with an electronic instrument during the Trade Show.
Reading-based singer/songwriter Valerie Nicole was popular with local radio music show interviewers. Here Valerie is the subject of a tug-a-war between Yours Truly and “Crazy” John Kerecz of Old Schoolhouse Radio to see who gets to interview her first. I won; you can hear my interview with Valerie on the March 16 edition of Q94’s “Backyard Rocker.”
