​We wrap up our Inside The Gates Radio DJ profiles with a view into live Sunday and Looney’s Tunes.  I would like to sincerely thank everyone at Smoke Signals, particularly Barbara Schneider, as they have graciously published each ITG Radio D. J. article for the last 6 months. 
 
As co-founder and music director of Big Canoe’s community radio station, I vividly remember the very first live show broadcast some five years ago in October of 2018.  250 + live shows later, Looney’s Tunes has become a tradition for a great family of listeners who gather each Sunday evening, sharing exceptional music and the stories that accompany them.  And those listeners, many right here in the Canoe, are joined each show by many from all over the U.S. with occasional International participants.  Ah, the remarkable beauty of streaming internet radio!
 
A typical Looney’s Tunes show involves some of the best of the best each week from our exquisitely curated library (currently home to roughly 6,000 tracks). It also includes four traditional segments…Then & Later, Battle of the Bands, Sing Along and Cover Me Up.  There are many constant and satisfying achievements realized by our D.J. team, not the least of which is sharing music that means so much to us.   Or could it be the personal touch of interface with our avid, thankful, and most loyal listeners?   We are united with friends and family each show through the treasure of exceptional music and truthfully, that is the ultimate in station achievement.  Live shows on Inside The Gates Radio are full entertainment events…no charge.
 
Let’s do a bit deeper dive into Big Canoe’s community radio station…
With endorsement from Big Canoe POA staff and POA Board back in 2018, Inside The Gates Radio has been broadcasting the greatest music of our lifetimes, 24/7 all from inside the gates of Big Canoe.  Our first studio was located in the POA Lodge, but now call the lower level of the current Real Estate building in the village core our home.  From just 2 or 3 live shows a week in the beginning…we now have 7 Big Canoe volunteer resident D.J.’s and when everyone is home…live shows broadcasting each day.   Our live shows are true difference makers, but what significantly adds to, and matters is what plays as soon as any live show ends…easily the finest mix of music one can find anywhere.  We welcome all challengers…
 
Many professional organizations tout success by the virtues of ‘good people’.   Inside The Gates Radio cannot…because we have only great people.  You’ve met them all in previous articles here, but our team, Dinnis Keefe, Shiraz Alikhan, Jeff Weigl, Dale Hood, Delaine Faris, Jimmy Latham and myself make this station so incredibly special.  Our individual passion for music…the preparation and thought that goes into each live show makes for an ultimate entertainment opportunity.  We also shoutout our webmaster, Mike (IPod) Podsedly for a website most befitting our great station and Debbie Weigl, our Facebook administrator who keeps us socially participating for those involved with such activity.  An exceptional team could only produce something equally exceptional… and that is…Inside The Gates Radio…
 
When one starts a radio station, that starting point is ‘0’ listeners.  We lived that!  We have experienced excellent growth each year since.  This year has seen some of our best.  A very cool thing about who listens is the number of folks that communicate with us each show…radio doesn’t get much more personal.  Our bandwidth truly can support so very much more…so come join us.
 
Music is a part of everyone’s life…one of the finest indulgences available.  It’s been known to give one’s brain a workout boost along with increasing overall health.  We here at the station know of its unifying power as it serves to connect us with cultures and people in a most positive way.  Inside The Gates Radio music is one that inspires moods, movement and best of all…memories.  Our station is inspired by the exceptional place we call home.  We now have the capability to perform remote live broadcasts, something we look forward to performing regularly around the Big Canoe community.
 
There are many ways to connect to the station.  Our website contains all instructions available simply by hitting the ‘FAQ’ button on the home page.  Additionally, the ‘More+’ button shares a drop-down menu with links to replay of each of the D.J.’s last few live shows and many of Special Artist shows via SoundCloud, all of which you can play at your leisure, again at no cost to our listeners.  We also have 3 ITG Radio created music videos available on the ‘Slides’ button. 
 
On behalf of our team here at Inside The Gates Radio, we invite you to join us and revel in what is the most personally curated, diverse mix of music imaginable.  If you have any questions or comments, please email us at [email protected].  We are so confident you’ll love our station…we offer a money back guarantee.  That would only work if we charged anything to begin with.  Give us a try…you won’t regret it!
 
Inside The Gates Radio…From the woods, water and wonders…of beautiful Big Canoe…

Dale Hood Beautiful Noise Thursday @ 6pm
Another well received, Thursday edition of Beautiful Noise this past Labor Day weekend as we celebrated the hard working men and women that keep this great country moving forward.
Opening the show with Huey Lewis and the News with “Working for a Living” set the tone for the evening.
 We kept it rocking with Loverboy and “Working for the Weekend“ and did not forget our Country artist fans with songs such as “Work Hard, Play Harder” by Gretchen Wilson and “Shiftwork”by Kenny Chestney.
We celebrated working professions as well, Lawyers, Teachers, Operators, Preachers, Musicians, Postmen, and even Pirates!
 
Even a musical tidbit was shared with my audience, that being,
one Marvin Gaye at the young age of 22 while attempting to make his mark in the music industry played drums on the #1 Motown smash by the Marvelettes
 
Thanks and Keep Rocking
Dale (All Good In The) Hood
 
Jeff Weigl Beats Working Friday @ 4pm
The song Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin was the first song by the band allowed to be a US single.It became their biggest hit, going to #4. Many of their other popular songs, like Stairway to Heaven were never released as singles.
The band War got the idea for the song Why Can’t We Be Friends when they were traveling in Japan in the early '70s. War drummer Harold Brown said: "We're all connected by language, and by our food, and by our culture.You find out we're more alike inside than we are on the outside. We started realizing that’s what is really important. You travel all over the world, you can't speak a lot of their language. But one thing they do know, they know your body language, and how you may react.”

The song Mad World by Tears for Fears is about a depressed young person who feels out of place in this world. He sees life as being empty and looks for ways to escape the pain. The line in the song, "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" suggests thoughts of suicide, but according to Roland Orzabal who wrote the lyrics, it relates to the psychologist Arthur Janov's idea that our most dramatic dreams release the most tension. So, the guy in the song isn't necessarily looking to die - he wakes up from morbid, lucid dreams feeling better.
 
The song Ghost Riders in the Sky was originally written and recorded by Stan Jones in 1948. Jones was a forest ranger who wrote songs on the side.  Artists like Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Johnny Cash and The Outlaws, all recorded it, and it became a cowboy standard.
 
Dinnis Keefe Song Sense Saturday @ 6:30pm
Any of you regular listeners to SongSense might have noticed that I take particular interest in the season of Summer. Me, personally, I enjoy the soaking heat of the US South. But, if I surrender to the reality of where I live and where Inside The Gates Radio resides, I would have to say that Georgia Fall and Spring rule. 
 
Georgia Summer: Hot, humidity like the equator, cicadas singing praises to this soup of sauna 24-hours a day. 
 
Georgia Winter: Averages forty-something degrees, humidity same as summer, no frostbite here, but a bone-soaking cold that just never seems to leave without chemical intervention.
 
Georgia Spring: Heh. Now the secret is out. THIS is why people move here. The mid-southern United States can have travel-photo Springs (Not going to try to describe in this limited space). And that, of course, calls up... 
 
Georgia Fall,: A photo-negative of glorious Spring, complete with leaves turning from eye-soothing greens to nerve-and-mood stimulating reds, yellows, oranges, all soaking in mild temps. What's not to like?
 
I started SongSense this week with what I consider one of the most joyous songs of Fall: Earth, Wind & Fire's "September." To wit:
 
"Do you remember
The 21st night of September?
Love was changin' the minds of pretenders
While chasin' the clouds away
Our hearts were ringin'
In the key that our souls were singin'
As we danced in the night, remember
How the stars stole the night away, oh, yeah..."
 
'Nuf said.
​
Craig Looney Looney’s Tunes Sunday @ 6:30pm
After spending 20 hours in the car Friday through Sunday, Looney's Tunes Live Show #194 kicked off with an enthusiastic gang of Looney's Tuners that created a great vibe from our opening track...Tinsley Ellis and his Don't Know Beans song from the album, Ice Cream In Hell.  It was quite the ride from there out.
We had some fun with a bit of a twist on the Then And Later Segment as we followed a song (not a band or an artist) through time and with different covers.  Starting with Carol King's Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow from 1971 followed shortly thereafter by Dave Mason's version from 1978.  To cap it off, we then dove head first into Joe Walsh's version of the same song from his 1992 album, Songs For A Dying Planet.  Very cool to hear three separate interpretations of the same song in a period over 3 decades.
 
I enjoy all the comments from our faithful listeners during the show, but it is really something when I hear from some of those same listeners who weren't able to listen that evening, telling me how much they missed it.  Had a few Sunday night and I assured them it was all right, as I know they'll be back.  One even asked if he could vote in the Battle Of The Bands Segment without being on board.  I reminded him that since we have no rules...he was more than welcome to participate.  So...he did!  BTW...Pink Floyd nipped Led Zeppelin...
 
I think perhaps the largest song reaction of the show came during and just after the Sing Along Song...Del Shannon's, Runaway from 1961.  I was informed of more than a few folks also getting to their feet to dance while they sang.  How special is that?
 
Once again, my three closing tracks for the evening were quite popular.  Steely Dan's The Royal Scam, Dancing Girl by Dion with Mark Knopfler and a closing track from The Allman Brothers Band, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed made for a most sublime end to a most satisfying Looney's Tunes.
 
Thanks to all for tuning in...catch you next Sunday at 6:30...
The LooneyMan

​Please feel free to add any comments for your DJ's below.

You can visit our increasing content website and now our new Facebook page to learn more about this most unique station.  Our new FB page can be found in search mode for you Facebookers by simply typing in Inside The Gates Radio.  Click the button to 'Follow'.  A brand new way to interactively enjoy Inside The Gates Radio.
You'll also see our Live Programming schedules...

Thursday's, 6:00...Dale 'All Good In The' Hood's, Beautiful Noise (He'll be off this coming Thursday)
Friday's, 4:00....Jeff Weigl's, Beats Working...The Happy Hour for the weekend
Saturday's, 6:30...Dinnis Keefe's, SongSense....compelling entertainment
Sunday's, 6:30...Craig Looney's, Looney's Tunes
Monday's, 6:30...Shiraz Alikhan's, San Francisco Nights...He missed last week and is back tomorrow with all this pent-up musical energy ready to go

"​No Sing Along For Me"
BY MIKE PODSEDLY
 
I enjoy the great music of my generation that is played nonstop on Inside The Gates Radio. I experience the emotion and memory produced by the music that has been documented in earlier articles. One thing that is missing is my ability to sing along in a pleasant voice that the music deserves. I elicit groans and pleas to stop when in the company of others. This condition has been consistent throughout my life and has led me to be a closet car and shower singer.
I can trace this lack of ability to sing to an event that occurred back in the fifth grade. My class was to perform a choral presentation at a school function. We had a tiered platform, robes and the works. After the music was selected it became imperative to rehearse for the upcoming show. I had memorized the words and was ready to go. After a few practice sessions I was pulled aside and directed to pantomime instead of singing. This evaluation was to plant the idea that singing was something I should avoid at all costs. This feeling has persisted into my senior years.
While helping launch ITG Radio I began to listen to music more often. I heard many different vocal styles that I had not paid attention to before. I wondered why my voice did not come close to being within this rather wide range of recorded musicians.
So, I put on my research hat to determine the cause of my seemingly outlier of a singing voice. I first came upon a test for being tone deaf on musical-u.com. I put on my best noise cancelling headphones and began the test. It was divided into three sections, all comparing two tones. First was responding whether the tones were the same or different, second consisted if the sequence of tones went up or down and lastly if the tones were higher or lower. I was surprised by my score of 83% correct. I could eliminate being tone deaf as a reason for my poor singing voice.
On the musical-u website they offer training to improve your musical ability. They state that there are two aspects to singing in tune, voice control and hearing the notes. Voice control is about 20% of what it takes to sing while the ability to hear the note you should sing compared to note you are singing makes up the other 80%. As in most activities, the brain must be trained to recognize pitch and tuning.
I found another article that supported the assessment that that pitch accuracy is primary cause of bad singing. There is an interview with Sean Hutchins, while he was at BRAMS (International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research), studying the neuroscience of music. “Hutchins says that even though nearly all of us are equipped with the biological hardware to produce a wide range of notes, bad singing is rampant. ‘Singing is a complex expression,’ he explains. ‘The majority of people, around 60 percent, have a difficult time’ with it. (Discover Magazine, Can't Sing? Blame Your Brain, James Dziezynski, June 22, 2014). The problem was not the perception of a note but the ability to reproduce the sound with their voices. Hutchins’ conclusion: “Our brains have the ability to signal the voice to produce the correct note, but have mapped out the wrong output to match a perceived note. ‘Our brains are quite good at perception, which is why so many of us enjoy listening to music without being great musicians,’ he says. But those same brains give our vocal cords faulty instructions.”
There are many articles debating whether musicality is an innate or acquired skill. Aside from those rare individuals who are born with perfect pitch, I believe it is a skill that requires both an aptitude and practice. People born with physical assets such as height, speed, stamina, etc. are drawn to sports activities if they wish to exploit their advantages. The same holds true for people that test well may focus on academics. I have heard comments from musicians about the need to practice regularly or they see deterioration in their skill level in a relatively short time. This complaint is often repeated by participants in sports such as golf, tennis and many others. After several interruptions to my golf game, I would remark that it felt like I was starting over when I got back to the course.
It appears that for me to improve my singing voice it would take a vigorous and sustained effort to train my brain to match the notes in my head to those coming from my vocal cords. Given my age and a myriad of other interests, this will not happen for me. I will proudly continue in the company of the 60% of the population that are considered “bad singers”. I will continue to experience the music on Inside The Gates Radio library, the greatest music of our lifetime!
Please visit our website insidethegatesradio.com for information about connecting options, download apps, live show schedules and station news.  Send us an email to [email protected] to express your questions, comments or suggestions.