Coming Zune

There’s something so American about competition, that it doesn’t seem absurd for Microsoft, the largest company of its kind in history, to be an underdog in a scrap with Apple.
The digital music niche is all but owned by iTunes and the iPod. Microsoft has been a feeble player in this game. Their alternative [...]

A Whale of A Good Time for Local Music Fans

Plans for the biggest gathering of area bands in recent memory are coalescing nicely, says “Rock The Whale” organizer Steve Smith.
“It’s like this frantic slow pace of making sure everything’s in order, “ Smith reports on preparations for the all-day August 5 show at the Whaleback Ski Area in Enfield, “but the word on the [...]

This Gadget Pushes All My Buttons

The holy grail of tech nuts everywhere – the all-in-one device – got a bit closer this week.    RadioIO (pronounced “radio eye oh”) is one of the earliest Internet radio services, and currently sports an eclectic array of niche channels, everything from an all-Grateful Dead station to “Rock,” whose generic moniker might shock boomers unprepared [...]

Boundary-Hopping Twiddle Lands at Salt Hill

For all their youth, Twiddle has assimilated a lot of music.  Though they’ll be entertaining bar patrons at Lebanon’s Salt Hill Pub tomorrow night, it will be two years before any of them can order a drink.
But the four-piece band, based in Hubbardton, Vermont, is musically wise beyond their years.
Twiddle draws from a stylistic palette [...]

Local Rhythms – Radio Bob

Born in 1956, the year Elvis Presley went nationwide; Bob Rivers’ life has spanned the arc of rock-era radio.  Legend has it that, barely a teenager, he built a 5-watt transmitter in his basement.  In his twenties, he worked at just about every station in the Northeast, ending up a huge success at WAAF-FM in [...]

Local Rhythms – Look Up, America – It’s Our Birthday

I love the Fourth of July more than any other holiday. It’s not
religious like Christmas, vague like Thanksgiving (thankful for what –
everything? Be specific) or the ephemeral day of convenience Memorial
Day became when we began to lose sight of its’ original intent.
No, Indpendence Day celebrates something everyone agrees about – it’s
great to be an [...]

Giving Back at Whaleback

It’s been on Steve Smith’s mind for a long time – an outdoor concert,
featuring some of the area’s best bands, free from noise ordinances
and time constraints. On August 5, it will happen, when “Rock the
Whale” becomes a reality.
“I have this dream,” says the Rock 93.9/101.7 Program Director, “of
people driving by on Interstate 89 [...]