Davisville, Jan. 6, 2025: Checking in with Weitzel and Dunning, half a year after they exited the Enterprise

This week on Davisville we hear from Wendy Weitzel and Bob Dunning (in photo at the new KDRT studio), colleagues who exited the Davis Enterprise in mid-2024 and recreated their work on Substack. We talk about their readership and fast success, which has held up during the intervening months and has roots in their skills as local journalists with deep knowledge of Davis.

We also get an update from Brian Bolz, a Davis tech entrepreneur who helped them get started on Substack last summer. Although no longer active in their ventures, he also looked into starting a local news project he called Local Press. He has put it aside to focus on his other work, but “I still feel there is an opportunity for a sustainable business model to succeed at the local level (in addition to solo publications like Bob and Wendy’s),” he wrote in an email. “Should a trusted, credible package be offered, I think paid subscribers would show up for it.”

Today we get an update on Dunning and Weitzel's parts of the ongoing change in Davis media.

The Russ Tolman Goodtime Hour – Jan. 2, 2025

Happy New Year — and happy new time for The Russ Tolman Goodtime Hour! Listen up Thursday at 9 p.m. Pacific for tunes from the vast array of artists Russ has shared the stage with, including Gang of Four, REM, Lyle Lovett, and more — all here on KDRT 95.7 fm | KDRT.org.

(Stream it thenceforth via the web or your favorite podcast app!)

In the Key of Folk, Jan. 1, 2025

Here we are, in 2025, looking forward to a blank slate in the year ahead, so join us in welcoming the year with In the Key of Folk! One way to celebrate the close of the old year was with a New Year's Eve contra dance in Sacramento, so today I'll keep the mood on with some of my favorite contra dance bands, along with some tunes by David Mallett, who the folk world lost last week, something from the subject of the movie, A Complete Unknown, and a favorite soothing song of retrospection from Mary Chapin Carpenter. Hear from the Syncopaths, Genticorum and others, along with fantastic live tracks from Wild Asparagus at The Guiding Star Grange. Put your dancing shoes on: only on KDRT 95.7 fm | KDRT.org!

Jazz After Dark, Dec. 31, 2024

For New Year's Eve, tonight's show includes:

  • Artie Shaw & His Orchestra, Begin the Beguine
  • Benny Goodman, Let's Dance
  • Jerry Gray, The Anvil Chorus
  • Ella Fitzgerald, Night and Day
  • Arnett Cobb, Ray Bryant, Party Time
  • Duke Ellington, Satin Doll
  • Erroll Garner, How Could You Do A Thing Like That To Me
  • Mel Tormé, Let's Face the Music and Dance
  • Peggy Lee, Fever
  • Machito with Cannonball Adderley, Congo Mulence
  • Helen Humes, Bill Bailey
  • Louis Prima & Keely Smith, All Night Long
  • Ben Webster & Johnny Hodges, Waiting on The Champagne
  • Winifred Atwell, Slaughter On 10th Ave
  • Sidney Bechet, I Get a Kick Out of You
  • Duke Ellington, Rhapsody in Blue
  • Pete Fountain, Marching 'Round the Mountain
  • Guy Lombardo, Auld Lang Syne

Jazz After Dark, Dec. 24, 2024

Seasonal and holiday jazz and more tonight: 

  • Ella Fitzgerald, Holiday In Harlem (feat. Chick Webb and His Orchestra)
  • Louis Armstrong, Cool Yule (feat. The Commanders)
  • Ella Fitzgerald, Good Morning Blues
  • Ramsey Lewis Trio, Merry Christmas Baby
  • Ramsey Lewis Trio, Christmas Blues
  • Sonny Rollins, God Bless The Child (Jim Hall guitar)
  • Jimmy Smith, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
  • Vince Guaraldi Trio, Greensleeves
  • Don Ellis, 8 Nicole
  • Art Pepper, Winter Moon
  • Toshiko Akiyoshi, Winter Wonderland
  • Birelli Lagrene, Acoustic Moments
  • Jimmy Smith, Silent Night jazzed

Davisville, Dec. 23, 2024: A long-ago play and the empathetic power of teaching ‘or maybe’

The December holidays are the weekend of the year, when normal routines loosen up. Today’s Davisville arrives in that spirit — no civic issues today. Instead I reconnect with a friend I hadn’t talked with in decades, Teresa Ozoa. She and I were two of the 13 cast members in our high school’s production of 12 Angry Jurors, a play where most of the 12 believe the accused is guilty, and one juror strongly dissents. Onstage, we were putting on a show. Offstage, many of us were facing big changes and trying to figure out where we were headed.

Teresa became a teacher, lawyer, and then teacher again. In the first half of today's show she talks about teaching empathy and how she adapted Google’s genius hour for her high school students; in the second half we remember the play, including the pre-rehearsal exercise when we all went to dinner in character -- a dozen teenagers, acting out conflict.

You’ll hear some background noises in this recording, plus an inquisitive cat. The music at the end comes from "Universal Mind Decoder," later part of the song "Change is Now," by the Byrds. I annoyed friends in high school by talking up the band as much as I did. I still love their music.