I am not sure how many of you have heard of this, but the local radio station in the Twin Cities, KTCZ, does an annual CD issue with all proceeds going to local charities. The CD's are only available through the local Target stores, and are made up of one of a kind performances at the radio's studio, or when the artists have consented to recording during a sound check before a concert, etc.; but, the performances are almost all unique to the CD. You can hear them occasionally on the radio station itself, but will never be able to buy or download elsewhere.

Well, today was the release day for this year's 20th Anniversary issue, which was a double cd for the first time. I expected a lot of folks would be wanting this so I headed over to Target at 5:30, figuring to sit in my car for a while and read the paper. Well, the line was already at least 60 people long, so I joined in and am glad I did, as the line doubled in size within the next twenty minutes. At 7:30, the store security folks came out and gave tickets for either one or two copies (limit was two) and those with tickets had until 9:00 to buy their copies, after which they were available on a first come first serve.

For the last 15 minutes before the doors opened, it was fun watching the people just arriving expecting to be able to waltz right in and buy the CD, and seeing their sad offers of $50 for an extra ticket. The CD sold for $29.95. Only problem is it is limited to about 35k copies, due to licensing. More than that and they would be required to pay royalties and such and they would no longer be able to give everything to charity. That is also why some of the really great studio performances they can play on the radio (like Brandi Carlisle's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") can't go on the cd, because the song writer or record company won't give the rights to the song gratis.

Anyways, I am starting to get feeling back in my feet, after 2 1/2 hours standing on cold concrete (temps of low 20's with 12 degree windchill) and I have my two copies of the cd. Is there anything similar to this in other parts of the country with local radio? It is a great way to raise money for local charities. The estimate was $1 million being raised today, and it is expected the CD will be sold out across the state within the first hour.

DC101 in DC does stuff like that once a year as well. I think WMMR in Philly did as well

You can purchase some of them on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=cities+97+sampler&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=1098825881&ref=pd_sl_9i13m44zp8_e

More information the CDs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_97_Sampler

Good stuff.

DC101, where the Greaseman used to live....!

Don't they play Stern now?

Greasman is still on DC101, Stern used to be - it was the station he got popular on, its now "Elliot in the Morning" which isn't nearly as good.

I always thought he got kicked off the air the first time for calling Air Florida and asking if the 14th street bridge would be a permanent stop....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Howard_Stern_Show#1981:_DC101

On June 29, Stern was fired from DC101 radio after being suspended for criticizing his station management and two other radio stations. Stern's lawyer alleged the following: It's our view that the real reason they've [fired Stern] is they would like to get new DC-101 deejays 'GreaseMan' and 'Adam Smasher' on the air as soon as possible, and hope the audience forgets about Howard, and that's a perfectly rational business judgment.

Another notable moment from DC101 was when Stern did a bit where he pretended to call Air Florida to ask if the 14th Street Bridge would be a "permanent stop", in reference to the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 one day earlier which killed 78 people. Stern later stated that he was ridiculing the airline for allowing such an error to occur.[3]