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Entry
One Hundred Forty-Nine.
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| EDIT/ADDENDUM, 2017-06-03: As much as I enjoyed meeting Sanchez almost seven years ago, and as cool as he was at the time, he unfortunately appears to have significantly changed over time. Yesterday, after sufficent abuse from Sanchez on Facebook, I finally unfriended and blocked him there. I will have nothing further to do with him. Sanchez has made it very clear, on multiple occasions, that his days at KTOW came with a variety of negative experiences, and now his significant resentment about those days appears to be spilling over to the way he treats KTOW fans. This saddens me greatly, but I will not put up with it. It is worth noting that due to my experience organizing and promoting PROG51, the yearly, Tulsa-based KTOW/Mohawk Music/Beat Club fan gathering, Sanchez claims that I have presented myself as an "expert" on KTOW, despite the fact that I don't remember every song that was ever played there. I have never called myself an "expert" on KTOW by any means. I'm just a massive fan of the classic KTOW progressive era, I always will be, and I take pride in presenting an annual event at which fans of Tulsa's classic alternative scene can come together, for free, and discuss our lives and memories. I wish Sanchez well. |
Plenty of you have heard me yammer on about the "good old days" of KTOW, the best radio station that Tulsa ever had.
If not, here's the deal: In 1988, as I was really getting into the legitimately alternative ("progressive," as it was called) music of the time, I found out about a radio station called KTOW - AM 1340. I immediately became a faithful listener, and followed them as they expanded to FM 102.3.
It was amazing. They played music that couldn't be found on pop radio stations, because back then, "alternative" really meant something. You could tune into KTOW and hear music by artists like Depeche Mode (my personal favourite, of course), the Cure, the Smiths, Book of Love, Public Image Ltd, Nine Inch Nails, Die Warzau, the Pursuit of Happiness, Too Much Joy, etc., etc.
It was independent radio, with DJs who were genuinely passionate about the music they played. They were given massive amounts of freedom to play what they wished. There was even a weekly late-night call-in talk show which took people's calls live on the air - something that would be unthinkable on FM radio these days.
SANCHEZ!!!
One
of my favourite programs on KTOW occurred on the weekends: "The
Party Train," hosted by DJ Sanchez and someone else (I forget who,
unfortunately). Sanchez was a renowned club DJ who performed at
SRO, and later on became one of the most well-known DJs from the early
days of Ikon. (What I didn't realize, back in the KTOW days, was
that Sanchez was also the production manager for KTOW.)
"The Party Train" was awesome. It was absolutely the greatest "dance music" program I ever heard on Oklahoma radio.
They were playing club music that most people - even electronic music fans in the area - didn't know about. They showcased now-classic house tunes like Maurice's "This Is Acid" and Coldcut's "People Hold On" (featuring vocals by Lisa Stansfield). They played sample-laden classics like the Seven Minutes of Madness Mix of Eric B + Rakim's "Paid in Full." They played some cheesy, campy club tracks like Bronski Beat + Eartha Kitt's "Cha Cha Heels."
They even played REALLY odd stuff like Boris Badenough's "Hey Rocky" - a house track full of Bullwinkle clips - and a weird little track called "Sounds from the Pink Sandbox" - a song by Emilio Pasquez crafted almost entirely out of samples from the old "Batman" TV show.
"Party Train" wasn't just about being a "dance track" show. It was about digging into the crates and providing a mixture of great dance music and a few incredibly obscure songs that even I couldn't track down.
[That's right - even with the incredible Mohawk Music at my disposal, I couldn't find "Hey Rocky" or "Sounds from the Pink Sandbox." I finally had to purchase the records via mail order years later. I wasn't even able to get an original 12" of the Pasquez track until 3-4 years ago!]
Needless to say, I LOVED "The Party Train." I looked forward to listening to it every weekend; I would take notes of which hot house/club songs I really loved, and then I do what I could to try to buy them for my own arsenal. (As a mobile/school dance/wedding DJ, though, I didn't get many opportunities to play them at the time.
THE
END OF THE AWESOMENESS.
Unfortunately, KTOW's progressive era came to an end in the spring of
1991. One morning, while heading from my TU dormitory to pick
up some doughnuts at Ann's Bakery, I turned on the radio and heard Vanilla
Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" on KTOW. I thought it might have
been a joke; it wasn't. The format had changed to "urban
contemporary," and the KTOW I knew and loved was no more.
Tulsa never had anything quite like KTOW ever again. Some may say that the Edge of Insanity (aka "The EOI") programming on FM 91.3/92.1 was similar. It was somewhat similar... but KTOW was always far superior. I was actually one of the DJs on the air during the first year of "The Edge of Insanity," and I would never say that it was better than what KTOW offered.
There will never be another KTOW... and that's a real shame.
THE
MAGIC OF FACEBOOK.
Well, for
those of you who don't know, I love Facebook.
I started using it in 2009, and I love posting there when I can.
It's been really useful for finding past colleagues, high school and
college friends, and even meeting a few people in the entertainment
industry.
Well, in early 2010, I found the "I used to listen to KTOW" group on Facebook. I joined it and immediately found a slew of other fans.
Soon after that, I was able to send a message to Sanchez and add him to my Facebook friends! The best part was that he was (and still is) SUPERcool. We talked a lot about KTOW, about his current work in California, and about the music that we both loved back in the day. He even helped me identify one particular super-rare remix of Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance" that I hadn't been able to track down for over 20 years! (I immediately hunted down the 12" single, ordered it online, and had it flown over from overseas.)
The record arrived
on April 15th, 2010.
As you can see, I was somewhat happy about it.
SRO25.
Later in the year, I found out about a special benefit event called
SRO25. It was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the opening
of club SRO in Tulsa, featuring a performance by industrial music legends
Nitzer Ebb. Furthermore, one of the featured DJs at the event
was none other than Sanchez.
I was fortunate enough to attend both nights of the incredible SRO25 event (Friday, November 26th, and Saturday, November 27th). It was quite possibly the most incredible "party" I've ever attended. I got to meet lots of other alternative music fans from back in the day and make a few new friends. I also got to meet Sanchez, hang out and chat with him for a bit, and even hear him DJ in person - something that I never would have thought I'd have the opportunity to do after his departure from Oklahoma.
Just like online, Sanchez was extremely humble and very personable. I was able to obtain his autograph, but in all of the craziness, I forgot to get my picture taken with him.
So... that's how I got to meet one of the coolest DJs I'd ever known.
I also got to meet another couple of gentlemen of interest at SRO25... stay tuned for the next "Chronicles" chapter!
Badger
(Original photo of Sanchez above taken in 2011 by Mark Berkelhammer, used with Sanchez' permission.)