“I still can’t believe I’ve made it this far and I’m in the finals!” said Heisler. “I owe a ton of thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for me and help put me into the Top 15. I’ve already got some great ideas of how I’m going to win over those passionate Pac-10 fans!”

A senior majoring in Journalism, Heisler was chosen in early February as a Top 25 finalist in which applicants submitted their best video impressions of Vitale. After the top 25 were selected by a panel of judges, the contestants were narrowed down to 15 through online voting by fans and viewers.

The remaining 15 were divided into groups of three, and each group will be flown to one the following men’s basketball conference tournaments to compete for the $10,000 grand prize: the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, Big XII in Kansas City, Missouri, Big East in New York City, SEC in Nashville, Tennessee and the Pac-10 in Los Angeles.

The Brooklyn, New York native Vitale (70), has been a college basketball analyst since 1979 with ESPN and was known for his loud, vociferous excitement and enthusiasm for all things college basketball.

“I think one of the ways I’ve stayed in this thing for so long is that I’ve tried to capture Vitale’s vocal exuberance without completely imitating him word-for-word,” said Heisler. “ I want to make my impression creative, original, and definitely fun!”

“This is just such a thrill to even be considered for the Top 25!” said Heisler. “I grew up admiring Dick Vitale as a young aspiring sportscaster and even had an opportunity to interview him years ago on my radio show. To even be in this position for this contest is unbelievable!”

The rules dictated that the impersonation would be no longer than 30 seconds and would be submitted via the ESPN.com contest page by February 2nd at midnight.

Fans can go to the contest’s home page online and vote for who they believe has the best impression of Vitale. The ultimate winner will be chosen through a combination of online voting and a panel of “qualified independent judges selected by the sponsor.” Fans can vote up to once a day.

To vote: visit http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/sunkist/2009/

With the plethora of lo-fi/chillwave bands out there, it’s hard to tell which are legit and which are just riding this genre wave. Toro y Moi may be hyped, but he is excellent at what he does. This is the perfect mix of lo-fi, dance, psych, and r&b. It’s an aural soundgasm. It’s smooth and it’s sexy. It’s top 5 of 2010 already. RIYL: Daft Punk, Washed Out, Neon Indian

Toro y Moi links:

myspace/blog/ iTunes

By Adam Jennison

SONG RATINGS

T1: **** (2:44)

T2: **** (3:05)

T3: ****! (3:04)

T4: *** (2:14)

T5: ** (2:51)

T6: *** (3:44)

T7: ** (2:52)

T8: ****!! (2:28)

T9: ****! (3:25)

T10: *** (3:36)

T11: ** (3:03)

Thursday, Janaury 28, 2010, The Bishop

The Bishop was buzzing with chatter and anticipation Thursday night as young music fans gathered in the venue for an evening of music.  WIUX presented a great all-Midwest lineup with Osteoferocious (Muncie/Bloomington, IN), Prayer Breakfast (Bloomington, IN), and Cast Spells (Chicago, IL).

CLICK THE PIC to see ALL THE PHOTOS from the show ON FLICKR

The show was excellent and as a real treat for fans of the former Cinemat venue, the projector screen was set up during the show so that bands could play to the backdrop of a video of their choice.  Osteoferocious (myspace/facebook/band’s blog) took the stage first, with Seinfield onscreen. Being a big Rodeo Ruby Love fan, I never imagined what it would be like to see their tall, gangly, bashful bells player in another band.  Well, this Thursday I experienced Erik Fox in all his glory dominating the drums and vocals along with guitarist/vocalist Aaron Bragg in the new Indiana punk duo, Osteoferocious.  Armed with their new 7’’ vinyl release O.F., Osteoferocious took the stage in (incoincidental) matching outfits and warmed up the crowd just right.  They played songs from the album as well as a cover by the Ramones and had part of the crowd moving along for most of the set.  Osteoferocious recently signed to new Bloomington-based label, Flannelgraph Records (twitter), and I am excited to see where their music takes them this year.  The band is currently touring the Midwest in support of the O.F. release.

Next, the lovely supergroup Prayer Breakfast (myspace) graced the stage and promptly headed into their usual set, playing songs from their 2008 release Small American.  I was surprised to see them work the crowd favorite “Soon Enough” into their set early (third) as opposed to closing with it, but the set still flowed wonderfully.  What I always enjoy about Prayer Breakfast is how chill the band members are on stage.  They just rip through their songs (usually with some minimal but entertaining banter from Mike Dixon in between), and are completely in the zone while playing.  Each of the five members is off doing their own thing, sometimes not even looking at one another, and the sound just comes together in a wonderful, musical jam.  I hope that a new album is in the works for this band.  They are great musicians who each offer a little something for a great collaborative sound.

Finishing out the night was Cast Spells (myspace/bandcamp) which consisted of Dave Davison playing solo as opposed to with his (ever-changing) band.  He warmed up the set by entertaining the crowd with an Auto-Tune version of “Every Place is A House”  a song from his other band, Maps&Atlases, via an iPhone application, before jumping into “Pioneer Scalps”.  He played all of the songs from 2009’s Bright Works and Baton EP (iTunes/bandcamp) on label Sargent House, as well as some extras like “Three Years Old”, a Maps&Atlases leftover track, and a few fun new tunes inspired by interesting sites and stories acquired on the road.  These songs had crazy titles and themes like “Knife Crazy” and “Tire Kingdom” and had the crowd laughing along, but still enjoying the beautiful tunes.  The set took a small and intimate shift, as Davison switched to an older, worn-out guitar and played a new favorite of mine, “Letters”, before continuing with the set and closing with the extended intro version of “Potted Plants”.  Cast Spells is headed out for a European tour in late February with another Davison project, Hey!Tonal.  Let’s cross our fingers that a new album is in the works (there are already hints that the new Maps&Atlases album is in its final stages!).

Review written by Nicole O’Neal who also writes at her site, HipsterSpinster and also SoundInBloom

Pictures by Anthony Bozanich

Girl Talk’s Greg Gillis casually walked into the station wearing his “performance suit”, as he described it, of a simple white v-neck t-shirt under a red hooded sweatshirt, with blue fitted sweatpants, paired nicely with perfectly worn-in retro Nike High Top Dunks. He was representing his hometown with a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap and keeping warm with a black and gold Air Jordan jacket. Gillis mentioned his efforts to further integrate sweatpants into his wardrobe because of their comfort and style, but explained how they did not work well with (ahem) boners. As he sat down in the WIUX station he complemented the studio’s headphones, citing on how he used the same kind and seemed completely at ease with himself and everyone around him. His friendly and patient attitude was refreshing as he smiled and spoke to everyone in the room, despite his brief amount of time allotted as he was scheduled to perform shortly after his interview at WIUX.

Special Events Director Katie McKenna, with assistance from Program Director Greg Palys, sat down with Gillis for an insightful interview with one of the most interesting DJ’s. As he went into elaborate detail answering each question, his enthusiasm and delight could easily be noticed and he did not leave any question unanswered. With a degree in Biomedical Engineering, he said his long term goals do not revolve around being a DJ, but for now it allowed him to make a sufficient living. He went on to discuss some of his favorite and least favorite artists and his anticipation for the release of Beyonce’s latest CD that he wanted to use in his mixes. Following the interview, Gillis went on to light up the stage at Indiana University’s Dunn Meadow playing for upwards of a thousand people, and giving everyone a special night to remember! To hear the full interview visit www.wiux.org.

Post by Meliz Andiroglu

Flick describes himself as an idealist, which has led him to enjoy independent and underrepresented music. Disagreements with how mainstream record labels operate has only strengthened his ties with independent music. Given his ideals and values, getting involved with WIUX only seemed “natural”, Flick says. Airing from 7-8pm on Tuesdays, Flick co-DJs a radio show with his long-time friend Nicole O’Neal. Flick and O’Neal try to keep their format flexible and eclectic, while still keeping a smooth, steady, and appropriate flow of music.

Outside of his academic obligations and WIUX commitments, Flick currently runs a blog titled Puddlegum (puddlegum.net) which he cofounded in 1997. Things started to accelerate for Puddlegum In 2007, over a decade after the website’s genesis. The blog has landed over a dozen stories on the front page of Digg, and has been written about in Rolling Stone, TUAW, VH1’s Best Weekend Ever, Stereogum, and hundreds of blogs. Flick’s most successful article was as story on Radiohead’s In Rainbows album. Beliefs of a cryptic code surrounded the release of the release of In Rainbows, so like many others before him, Flick attempted to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Flick had noticed a shockingly simple relationship between Radiohead’s In Rainbows and OK Computer albums. The cryptic connections were: the two albums were released 10 years apart, both of the albums had 10 tracks, many of the songs from both albums referred to the Roman numeral X, along with those correlations, OK Computer’s working code consisted of only zeros and ones. Flick put his theory in writing and released his famous “Binary Theory” article. Within a day its popularity grew immensely as it skyrocketed to the fourth most read story about In Rainbows on the internet. Shortly after the release of the article, Radiohead front man, Thom Yorke, confirmed Flick’s “Binary Theory”. Flick has undoubtedly made an impact in the world of music, and WIUX is fortunate to be represented by the voice and the reputation of such an educated and musically minded individual.

The competition began with over 260 radio stations from across the nation in August. Through September the nominees were narrowed to fifty, and then again to twenty five. The top five stations will be named on October 26th, and voting will continue throughout November until the announcement of the winner November 18th on MTV.

This is not the first time WIUX has been singled out as a stand-out college station. In October and November of 2008, and then again all throughout the summer of 2009, WIUX was chosen as a staff pick by iTunes. Listenership skyrocketed online after the announcement, and WIUX was streamed in multiple countries across six continents, as well as a huge majority of the states.

Vote for WIUX for the College Radio Woodie at http://radiowoodie.ratemyprofessors.com/. Voting is unlimited, so click away and help WIUX chug towards well-deserved recognition

WIUX broadcasts live 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 99.1 FM and wiux.org.

Review by Emily Farra