{"id":2077,"date":"2008-04-15T18:19:37","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T23:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smaggi.us-east-1.derr.space\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2009-05-01T22:31:27","modified_gmt":"2009-05-02T03:31:27","slug":"1993-wmag-kmag-10-presses-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/2008\/04\/15\/1993-wmag-kmag-10-presses-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"1993: WMAG (KMAG 1.0) presses forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in March 1993, I had landed that indefinite job with\u00a0CCG<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. Its future was vague yet at least there was enough money to cover the essentials, debts and some luxuries, namely new music. By April 1993, my stream\u2019s precursor picked up momentum and turned into\u00a0Picayune<\/em>\u2019s companion piece, the WMAG mix tapes. Its patterns (or rules) were already formalized a couple months earlier during my 10 weeks of unemployment but I had just set the bar too high for my mere collection of 400 CDs. Thus, financially paralyzing it until I got off the dole.<\/p>\n

Making mix tapes wasn\u2019t an entirely new thing for me. Just the other evening while talking to Helen on the phone, she mentioned the infamous one I made 20 Summers ago. Despite its very hurtful title Helen remains fond of it. I do admit the playlist is a time capsule reflecting the extremely memorable Summer of 1988 in Milwaukee. Too bad it only took me a few more years to hone my instinct and budget for making more well-thought-out ones. Oh, I still made some sporadically after 1988, I just never made any I wanted to share nor was there a need until 1992. The credit to take the plunge really goes to a guy from Philadelphia named Andy.<\/p>\n

While the whole GDW-Dana debacle consumed me for the remainder of 1992, I created \u201cThe Dana Tape\u201d (or WMAG 0, it didn\u2019t have a name), a dopey outpouring of sadness which amplified the emotional pain I was trying to ride out. (Not all grief is negative in my opinion.) The song choices definitely reflected the anguished mood I was constantly in; Sarah McLachlan, Smithereens, Kate Bush. One evening, Andy needed a ride across town and during the drive this tape was playing. He stated how much he liked it which puzzled me but he wanted a copy. Andy wasn\u2019t the iroic type so I just let him have that incarnation.<\/p>\n

Inspired by Andy\u2019s compliments, WXRT,\u00a0120 Minutes<\/em>\u00a0and a cassette player in Grandma\u2019s car [my\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0wheels], I pushed forward on refining what would become WMAG 1, 2 and XMAS 1992 to accompany issues of\u00a0Picayune<\/em>\u00a0for Helen, Paul and Jose. To make the tapes distinctive, I designed\u00a0jackets<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for them which obviously said they were my handiwork (Tiny Toons<\/em> characters). As the new release season of 1993 began, I declared an unwritten mission statement of WMAG being a platform to promote new material for me and my friends. The CCG gig came through in time since I had run out of new releases by WMAG 4.<\/p>\n

WMAG was at its peak throughout 1993. By then I managed to crank them out monthly and I found a good place in Peoria to score new releases during my lunch hour. By the time I neared the completion of WMAG 10 I had designed a whole new look for 11-20. Only Helen\u2019s opinion was ever communicated to me to influence the series\u2019 direction; she still hates \u201cCaligula\u201d by the Dickies. Her input was easier to receive too. Until I left for Austin in 1994, I practically visited her and Paul every four to six weeks in Chicago to escape the tedium of Central IL. Other recipients included Sheila, the Bryants and Doc. If I forgot someone, sorry.<\/p>\n

When I moved to Texas, I changed the name from WMAG to KMAG as per the tradition of radio station call letters West of the Mississippi River. Making more of these became much easier. The UT area was awash in used CD stores. They\u2019re all gone now thanks to the ridiculous rents on the Drag and the \u201cbuying\u201d habits of contemporary college students. The lack of money became a hindrance when underemployment returned in my life but it was replaced by numerous other distractions after I landed reliable income through Apple. By the time I was hired by PowerComputing, KMAG was indefinitely suspended or plagued with false starts until returning in its 2.0 incarnation as a stream around 2002. The contents of those 20+ cassettes were vital in building the initial playlist though.<\/p>\n

Now what was over 500 songs has evolved into 6800 and growing. Eventually, I hope to gain the means to share the stream with my friends more easily but the bandwidth speeds in the United States are pretty pathetic compared to our Japanese, Korean and European counterparts. The one thing Internet access can\u2019t recreate are the awesome memories I have listening to these tapes on many road trips in the Nineties:<\/p>\n