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Local musicians given airtime on Pala Rez Radio

Even before Chris Carmichael began producing the Jack's Tracks local music show out of his Morro Hills home the sound of a dog barking was a usual occurrence on the Pala Rez Radio show.

Carmichael is the producer of Jack's Tracks, but his dog Jack is the official host.

"You'll hear him during each show. He barks," Carmichael said.

The Carmichael family acquired the rescue dog eight years ago, and the show is named after Jack. The stars of the show, which airs Sunday afternoons from 4-7 p.m., are the local musicians whose songs are featured.

"We give them a venue, a chance to display their talent," Carmichael said.

"Hopefully we're getting them some exposure they are not getting on a lot of stations," John Fox, station manager of Pala Rez Radio, said.

Carmichael is originally from Dodge City, Kansas, and began his radio career in 1978 with KGNO-AM 1370 in Dodge City, Kansas. The Navy brought Carmichael to San Diego as a Navy journalist.

"I had limited time on air," he said.

Those radio broadcasts were primarily from the Tokyo area. Carmichael also participated in electronic news gathering, took photographs and wrote for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

"My photojournalism came into play," he said.

Carmichael joined the Navy in 1980 but was not assigned to a ship until September 1981. After basic training, he went to photojournalism school at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, which is an Army base but which was where the Defense Information School for all armed services branches was located at the time. Carmichael was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, for 3 1/2 years before being transferred to San Diego.

In addition to his deployments to the Far East, Carmichael served in Operation Desert Storm. He was discharged from the Navy in 1992.

"There was a military drawdown, and I was offered a chance to go to school and I did," he said.

That change halted Carmichael's radio career.

"Radio, as much fun as I had with it, was not going to be my career," Carmichael said. "The pay wasn't good."

He worked as a technical writer following his discharge. Carmichael's full-time job is now as a software programmer in a consultant capacity. He works out of his home in that position.

"I like that a lot," he said.

Carmichael moved to Morro Hills in 1993.

"I've been here most of my time in San Diego," he said.

Jack's Tracks began on the Alpine-based radio station KRLY, which is at 107.9 on the FM dial and is also called The Mountain. "I was just getting back into radio and I was fortunate that this low-powered FM station offered me a shot," Carmichael said.

Chris Torrick and David Manzi own and operate KRLY-FM 107.9.

"I just read about it on Facebook," Carmichael said. "Then the station was doing contemporary radio."

KRLY-FM aired Carmichael's show for approximately one year, although he was a volunteer.

"They liked what I did, and I liked being there in Alpine," he said.

A format change to country music ended Carmichael's tenure at KRLY-FM. Fox has been the station manager at Pala Rez Radio since that station went on the air in February 2011.

"I knew John," Carmichael said.

Fox was still a Fallbrook High School student when he began his radio career with KMLO-AM 1000, a radio station in Vista. After his 1974 high school graduation, Fox moved to San Diego to attend San Diego State University and obtained a college job with KFMB, whose call letters were shared by the Channel 8 television station and the 760 AM and 100.7 FM, known as B-100, radio stations. Fox was at KFMB for 16 years including as a disc jockey on B-100.

Next, Fox took a position with the morning show on KEZY-AM 1240 in Los Angeles and was the network director of Catholic Radio Network. Before leaving radio for eight years, Fox had part-time jobs at KFWB-AM 980 in Los Angeles, KOLA-FM 99.9 in Redlands and KCBQ-AM 1170 in San Diego.

Pala Rez Radio, which is at 91.3 on the FM dial, is a 100-watt station with some reception in Rainbow Heights and eastern Fallbrook and clear reception on the reservation. The Pala tribe had limited information about the October 2007 fires and subsequently opted to launch a reservation radio station to provide emergency information. The 24-hour radio station has an automated music mix but also features local talk and news, Native American culture, classic radio shows and remote broadcasts.

"Without that Pala station that entire community would not have news and information," Carmichael said. "It's a wonderful thing to have, and it's so fortunate the Pala tribe has stepped up."

FM transmission is line-of-sight, but listeners may also enjoy Pala Rez Radio shows through the internet.

"We're fortunate that the Pala station is heard literally around the world," Carmichael said.

During 1998 and 1999, Carmichael covered radio for the North County Times and wrote a story on Fox, who at the time was with the Los Angeles market.

"That speaks highly of John's skills," Carmichael said.

That was the first encounter between Carmichael and Fox but not their last.

"We kept in touch over the years," Carmichael said.

Following the format change of KRLY-FM Carmichael offered his local music show to Fox for Pala Rez Radio.

"I said I'm looking for another station," Carmichael said.

Fox offered Carmichael a three-hour slot Sunday afternoons.

"It's been successful," Carmichael said.

"San Diego County has a pretty good local music scene," Fox said.

Pala Rez Radio currently uses the call letters KPRI-FM. The original KPRI-FM in San Diego was at 106.5, and San Diego has also had a KPRI-FM at 102.1 which added local music to nationally famous artists.

"They were always pretty good about playing local artists," Fox said.

During the 106.1 era, KPRI-FM played album-oriented rock as did KGB-FM, which is at 101.5.

"KGB-FM made a big thing out of the homegrown album," Fox said.

Fallbrook once had a local radio station at 107.1 KMLO-FM.

"Being locally owned they seemed to have an interest playing local music when they could," Fox said. "We're carrying on that tradition a little bit with Jack's Tracks."

Jack's Tracks isn't the only local music played on Pala Rez Radio.

"We've got a couple of them. Eric has his bird song show, so actual local Native music is played there," Fox said.

Eric Ortega is the assistant station manager and has also been with Pala Rez Radio since 2011. Carmichael also has Native American musicians on Jack's Tracks.

"I like to focus on Native American singers," he said.

He includes Tracy Lee Nelson of the La Jolla Indian Reservation and Blaine Mazzetti of the Rincon reservation.

Joel Rafael, who lives in Valley Center, has a folk music show on Pala Rez Radio which includes local artists. Rafael has also been featured on Jack's Tracks.

"We play a lot of Joel Rafael," Carmichael said. "He plays with such a multitude of artists, national artists, and it's a wonderful experience to have him."

The local music on Jack's Tracks is not limited to any specific genre.

"We have such a talented group of musicians who can answer any call, any flavor of music," Carmichael said.

While Jack's Tracks includes nationally prominent local musicians such as Morro Hills resident Jason Mraz, the late blues singer Candye Kayne and former San Diego Padres player and coach Tim Flannery, there is no fame threshold to have music played on Jack's Tracks. The musicians who work with Carmichael provide biographical information as well as music.

"We do more than play the music. We want to talk about them," Carmichael said.

Normally the musicians go through Carmichael, although Fox has also been involved.

"I actually sought one of them when I heard them," Fox said.

Carmichael strives for original songs.

"We don't do covers," he said. "If you're a cover band, we don't do that. We want original music."

That doesn't preclude a style influenced by better-known bands.

"It's kind of fun listening and comparing them," Fox said.

When Carmichael was with KRLY-FM, the local musicians were from throughout San Diego County rather than only from East County or Alpine. Jack's Tracks still includes local artists from throughout the county, and Temecula musicians now qualify as local.

"I've got a couple of Temecula artists in there," Carmichael said.

Normally Carmichael records his shows in the Pala Rez Radio studio, he said.

"I go out there when I can every other Friday and do two shows," he said.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Fox has been the only staff member at the studio since March 17. Carmichael sees some disadvantages from producing his show at home.

"In the radio studio I can do more mixing," he said.

Being relatively confined at home hasn't hampered Carmichael, however. During Operation Desert Storm, he was stationed on the U.S.S. Midway. The radio station was in a "void," or a space on the side of the ship.

Carmichael has volunteer status at Pala Rez Radio, and he was also unpaid for his KRLY-FM show.

"I'm fortunate to be able to spend three hours a week on the radio," he said. "It's been very good. It's been a lot of fun. People have reached out."

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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