My debut on the radio

Awhile back, I was in SL minding my own business when I got a message from a resident I didn't know previously. Her name was Serenity Questi, and she had something to say to me that many musicians wait a lifetime to hear.

As it turns out, Serenity was renting some space in the SL parcel that Kat and I own, and she'd been listening to the Podcast of my music that I'd put on the parcel's media stream. As she listened, her boyfriend happened to hear the tunes as well, and enjoyed a couple of my tunes. That's always nice to hear, but there was something a little more significant about it in this case; her boyfriend was John Maycumber, a DJ who has a couple of different shows at stations in the northeast Florida area. One show was called String Theory, broadcast on Jacksonville's NPR affiliate 89.9 WCJT-FM.

String Theory is described as being a show for "modern acoustic alternative", which is about the best genre-based description of my acoustic musical style that I've ever heard. So, on his request, we put together a CD of the songs he'd indicated would be good for the show, and sent it off. After a semi-excruciating waiting period, we were told that John had indeed selected a song for inclusion on his show, and we waited anxiously for Friday night to come around. I had a live show in SL from 7-8, and immediately afterwards jumped over to iTunes and started listening to the station. Kat and I sat through the first couple of songs in the set; we've been listening to the show quite a bit and really enjoy the format regardless of my personal interest in being played. And then, at roughly 8:07PM, a very recognizable strum of a D chord came through the speakers. It was the beginning of my song "Falling Down".

While my music has been played dozens and dozens of times on Internet stations like Indie Spectrum and SL Live Radio, that moment on Friday night was the first time a song that I've composed (and played and sang on) was broadcast on terrestrial radio, over the airwaves. To say it was exhilarating is putting it mildly; Kat and I were pretty ecstatic, and sat here transfixed while my song played through. A short while later, John back announced what had been played, and again, hearing my name and song title on an NPR station was an incredible moment.

Below is a short snippet of the show from last night, including my complete song -- I couldn't help but record it for the history books, or the Zak Archives, or whatever you want to call it. We're well aware that this is only one play on one station that's not in the country's biggest market, but it's a start, and an exciting one at that.

LISTEN NOW! ZAK CLAXTON'S "FALLING DOWN" BROADCAST ON WJCT-FM!