News And Information About KZION LDS Radio
Beginning today johnhesch.com will become the main source of information for both KZION Radio and John Hesch. I started to move KZION radio blog posts over to johnhesch.com but it would be way too much work and take up too much time. So I will leave the KZION blog up for archival purposes but all future news and information will be found here.
From this point on nothing new will be posted here. Nothing more to see…move along.
Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband has a new video playing on CMT. You can view it here. The video is for the single “Dream Big”.
The band has an album soon to be released on Capital Records, so be looking for that.
Shadow Mountain Music Group released LDS Superhits of the ‘80s May 24. It is a collection of the greatest LDS songs of the 1980s from some of the bestselling LDS artists of all time.
This 18-song collection features well-known artists such as Michael McLean, Kenneth Cope, Julie de Azevedo, Afterglow, and many more. Rediscover old classics such as “His Hands” and “I Heard Him Come.”
In a time of an extensive and rapidly growing LDS entertainment community, this album celebrates the young days of LDS music and the trail-blazing artists who paved the way. Relive these enduring songs and see why they have touched the hearts of Latter-day Saints for so many years and still many years to come.
Tracks include:
Media Contact: Krista Q. Maurer
Director of Publicity and Media Relations
Shadow Mountain Music Group
Phone: 801.517.3371
kmaurer AT shadowmountain DOT com
Lauri Carrigan has been voted Best Individual Artist in the 2005 Best of State competition. Though relatively new to the music scene, with her first Album release in October of 2004, Carrigan joins long-time favorites such as Julie de Azevedo, Kenneth Cope and Jessie Clark on the list of Best of State Individual Artists.
Carrigan was given the award after being evaluated on three categories: overall quality and excellence, innovation and creativity, contribution to the community.
Currently, Carrigan is writing and composing music for her second album, scheduled to be released within a year. Though she is working hard on her music her family and maintaining a proper balance in life are her top priorities.
“Writing good music,” Lauri Carrigan stated as she described what fun is. “Not just good music, but really good music, music that makes you go mmm! The best fun is when one of my songs touches someone that needed a touch that day, or watching my children’s soccer games and yelling like a crazy woman. I feel as if I am in such a good place in my life right now, musically, mentally, personally, spiritually, it is all coming together.
For more information about upcoming concerts or the release of her new album please visit www.lauricarrigan.com or email Lauri at lauri AT lauricarrigan DOT com
All times are MDT.
To air June 5, 2005
4:00 AM and 4:00 PM Elijah & The Widow with Roger Hoffman – What Can They Have To Say?
12:00 AM and 12:00 PM Typing with Page Pearson, Court Gardner, Josh Wall – Teach Me
8:00 AM and 8:00 PM The Swings with EFY – Reaching
David & Goliath with Julie de Azevedo – Amazing Things (Sounds of Sunday)
To air June 12, 2005
4:00 AM and 4:00 PM President McKay/Volcano with Mormon Tabernacle Choir – I Need Thee Every Hour
12:00 AM and 12:00 PM Lunar Eclipse with Rene Davis – Hold On, The Light Will Come
8:00 AM and 8:00 PM Follow Me with Collette Dewey Reader – Walk in His Ways
Choose Ye This Day with Jenny Frogley – Anchor of My Soul (Sounds of Sunday)
To air June 19, 2005
12:00 AM and 12:00 PM Hide and Seek with Dean Kaelin – My Dad
4:00 AM and 4:00 PM A Father’s Prayer with Roger Hoffman – In the Hollow of Thy Hand
8:00 AM and 8:00 PM Families Are Forever with Mackenzie Wright Romriell – Daddy’s Arms
The Fatherhood of God with Mormon Tab Choir – O My Father (The Sounds of Sunday)
To air June 26, 2005
12:00 AM and 12:00 PM Miracle Of Independence with Noteworthy – God Of Our Fathers
4:00 AM and 4:00 PM Star Spangled Banner with Mormon Tabernacle Choir – Star Spangled Banner
8:00 AM and 8:00 PM Mayflower Compact with Valley Forge Military Academy – God of Our Fathers
Declaration/Independence with Lee Greenwood – God Bless the U.S.A. (Sounds of Sunday)
The MP3 stream has become fairly unreliable with several failures throughout the day. There is not much I can do right now as the stream is provided free of charge from a guy in Hong Kong. Listening to KZION using the MP3 stream is not tremendously popular but there are enough people using it to justify a more reliable connection.
I’ll get one set up in the next 30 days or so.
On Mother’s Day I debuted a segment called The Sounds of Sunday by Carl Watkins. Carl puts together a nice little one hour Sunday show with music and a story by Glenn Rawson. I think it’s a nice addition to KZION’s own Sounds of Sunday and so beginning tomorrow, Carl’s show will become a regular segment on KZION.
The Sounds of Sunday by Carl Watkins will air Sunday mornings at 3:00 AM MDT and again at 10:00 AM MDT. I will also broadcast The Glenn Rawson Stories as follows:
May 22, 2005
4:00 AM and 4:00 PM MDT - Off The Tracks with Don Sterling – When Your Heart Says No
12:00 AM and 12:00 PM MDT - The Curb with Becca Rammell – When All Is Said And Done
8:00 AM and 8:00 PM MDT - Old Faithful with Michael McLean – You’ve Always Been There
Daniel with David Brooks – Firm in the Faith is included in the Sounds of Sunday.
May 29, 2005 (US Memorial Day)
4:00 AM and 4:00 PM MDT - Sammie – Gift Of God with Alabama – Angels Among Us
12:00 AM and 12:00 PM MDT - Max and Joyce with Afterglow – Each Life That Touches Us
8:00 AM and 8:00 PM MDT - The Divine Smile with Alison Aiken – Would I Know You?
Beloved Mother with Michael Webb – Home At Last will be included in the Sounds of Sunday
Just a quick note to let you know that KZION is now back online. Due to Internet connectivity issues KZION has been offline for the past seven days. This is the first time in almost five years that KZION has experienced this long of absence from broadcasting.
KZION has been offline since Thursday morning due to Internet connectivity issues at the studio. According to Qwest it could be until the 19th of May before service will be restored. This will be the longest period of time in almost five years that KZION has been offline.
As you can imagine it is creating an enormous amount of stress for me but I just have to try and get through it.
Now is a good time to let you know that I have been investigating several offers from companies who would like to either purchase KZION or buy into KZION. I met with one company a few months ago who is interested in purchasing KZION and then hiring me to run the station full time. I met with another investor last month but no agreement could be reached. I am in SLC today and Saturday to meet with a couple of investors which may provide me an opportunity to quit my job and run KZION full time.
KZION is valued in the six figures and so having a company buy KZION and then hire me to manage it is very interesting to me. Giving up total ownership though is scary for me to imagine. What happens if the new company decides a couple years down the road that they don’t need me anymore and I get fired? Sure I received a nice check but I lose something very dear to me. Retaining part ownership and receiving a salary to manage KZION is also interesting to me. I keep majority ownership and create my own destiny. I lose the big check which would really come in handy right now. I would love to become debt free.
It’s very difficult to know what to do. I love KZION and my dream is to be able to work KZION for a living. I truly enjoy doing this kind of work and I can live anywhere and still run KZION from my home. I think KZION can become a profitable business where enough advertising revenue can be generated to support a couple full time employees yet not turn the station into one big radio ad.
It has been nice providing KZION as ad free but without advertising dollars there is no opportunity for me to ever make a living from KZION. At the same time, KZION has become so large that I am almost unable to run it in my spare time. Something has to give.
With lots of discussion with my wife and lots of prayer, hopefully I will make the right decision that will be best for me, my new partners, and my listeners.
I will keep you updated.
Radio Station
Total tracks played – 10,457
Unique tracks played – 2,295
Total performances – 1,546,570
Average listeners – (Per song) 148
Peak listener count – 305
ATH (Aggregated tuning hours) – 105,948 hours
Total requested songs – 2,701
Top playing songs
1. Aaron Edson – That Girl In Your Hands – 85 spots – 12,592 performances
2. Jenny Phillips – When We Meet Again – 72 spots – 9,894 performances
3. Jericho Road – You Melt The Madness – 70 spots – 9,673 performances
4. Jeff Goodrich – Oh Lord, My Redeemer Featuring Brett Raymond – 60 spots – 9,199 performances
5. Julie de Azevedo – Home – 58 spots – 8,883 performances
6. McCoslyn and Paye – Day By Day By Day – 65 spots – 8,874 performances
7. Mindy Gledhill – Small Enough With Dustin Gledhill – 59 spots – 8,662 performances
8. Brigham Young University Musical Groups – This is the Christ – 55 spots – 8,135 performances
9. Alan Birdsall – A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief – 58 spots – 7,904 performances
10. Nathan Bayles – The Thing You Love – 51 spots – 7,904 performances
Top requested songs
1. Aaron Edson – Here Waiting – 74 requests
2. Q – Fall – 67 requests
3, Living Legends – Go My Son – 55 requests
4. Ellis Hadlock – Garden of Dreams – 33 requests
5. Q – At The Raceway – 33 requests
6. Sarah Sizemore and James M Bailey – Hold On – 29 requests
7. Cherie Call – Prayers In A Car – 24 requests
8. John McVey – Distracted – 24 requests
9. Julie Hill & Hazel Sally – The Way You Love Me – 23 requests
10. Kevin Kiner – The Lord’s Wind – 23 requests
Website
Unique visitors – 19,155
Page views – 786,737
Kim, don’t read this. Today KZION broke an all-time record with 306 simultaneous listeners. The third server I just added yesterday filled to capacity. That’s the good news. The bad news is I received an email from my server saying, “While processing the log files for user *********, the cpu has been maxed out for more then a 6 hour period.” I don’t know what that means but it can’t be good. I’ve noticed with the additional listeners the webserver has been acting up. I’m afraid I’m going to have to upgrade the webserver soon.
This morning I noticed that all of the servers were full so I decided to go ahead and add another 20 listeners. That makes 60 new slots in the past week.
There have been an increase in new member sign-ups but very few elect to sign up for a paid membership rather then a free one. I partially blame that on my inability to write persuasive copy. My pages are dull and do not make paid memberships attractive.
The new website will be better but one of my weaknesses is definitely writing persuasive ad copy and following up with new members. This reminds me I have been working on a new mindmap for building and retaining my subscriber base. I’ll share it later on my personal blog.
Sunday had a record 297 listeners connected to KZION. All the servers except the high speed members server were full for a few hours. I’ll keep an eye on it this week and see if I need to add additional capacity.
KZION had a record 288 simultaneous listeners today. Twelve of the twenty new slots that I added yesterday were used up today.
Paula wrote me to say that KZION is now heard in the Council Bluffs, Iowa Family History Center from open to close. Sometimes it’s really hard for me to comprehend the reach of KZION.
I just got a great idea. I’m going to record a shout out to play on KZION directed to all the patrons of the FHC in Council Bluffs. 
I added another 20 listener capacity to my streaming server today. This is in addition to the 20 I added last week, but Sunday the servers filled up and again today they were full. In fact today KZION hit an all-time record with 274 simultaneous listeners.
I have increased KZION’s capacity by 20 listeners. I’m sure you have noticed the KZION broadcast server reaches its limit by 10 AM most days and stays full until late afternoon. Yesterday I added the 20 listeners and today 10 of those additional lines were used.
I’m predicting that by next week the additional 20 lines will be filled to capacity.
I receive a few emails each month asking why a particular artist is not on KZION. The most recent email comes from Lisa and she asks,
I was just wondering why none of Chris Rice’s music is played on KZION. I really like his music and he get very little airtime on any Mainstream Christian stations. I doubt he is LDS but he is Christian and his music is great.
It’s a good question and I’m sure a lot of people wonder the same thing. Here is my response.
Thank you for inquiring about Chris Rice’s music. KZION only plays music that has been submitted by the artist or their recording company so if your favorite artist is not represented, it’s because they have not submitted their music.Also, KZION only plays music by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even if music is submitted, if the artist is not LDS it will not play on KZION.
There is a great assortment of music from the Christian community and there are also a great assortment of Christian radio stations both on and off the Internet. There are virtually no LDS radio stations on the Internet except KZION and BYU Radio. As far as I know there are no LDS radio stations outside of the Internet. There are plenty of LDS Sunday shows up and down Utah and Idaho, but they broadcast one day a week and usually end by 2 PM.
KZION will always be “All LDS…All the time”
First chair violinist for the National Symphony Orchestra, Jenny Oaks Baker, will release The Jenny Oaks Baker Collection, with Salt Lake City’s Shadow Mountain Music Group April 19.
Baker, one of America’s most accomplished classical violinists, combines years of performing experience with 16 new arrangements of traditional hymns for a serenely transcendent result.
Baker began playing the violin at age four, and made her solo debut in 1983 when she was only eight years old. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Baker went on to receive a master of Music degree from the renowned Julliard School in New York City.
In April 1999, Baker debuted at Carnegie Hall as a featured soloist in the Easter Festival Concert. She was a guest soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Utah Symphony, the Orchestra at Temple Square, and the internationally acclaimed Mormon Tabernacle Choir in national television and radio broadcasts. Baker was also a guest artist in “An Evening of Celebration” with President Gordon B. Hinckley, a musical program for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints viewed around the world.
Baker’s experience in performing transfers to the recording studio as evident in her five best-selling albums. Her debut, On Wings of Song was released in 1998, followed by Songs My Mother Taught Me, Where Love Is, American Tapestry, and The Light Divine in 2003.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Dallin H. and the late June Oaks Baker now lives in Northern Virginia with her husband Matthew and their three daughters—Laura June, Hannah Jean and Sarah Noelle.
For more information, please visit www.jennyoaksbaker.com
Inspirational Music Icon, Kenneth Cope, Releases Enhanced Edition of My Servant Joseph
Thousands were turned away when Kenneth Cope took his album My Servant Joseph on tour in 1994. It was the first event of its kind and popularity was immediate. In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith, Cope has released an enhanced, digitally re-mastered edition of this best-selling album.
My Servant Joseph, the 200th Anniversary Edition, in stores now, includes six new songs demonstrating Cope’s songwriting prowess and contemplative nature as he reflects on the life of Joseph Smith Jr.
Few musicians have impacted a culture or genre as acutely and intensely as has this composer, producer, performer, songwriter, and singer. Cope consistently sets the standard for excellence in inspirational LDS music.
In addition to his seven albums, Cope ventured into the world of film scoring, by writing and producing an original score for Joseph Smith, the Seer, an interactive CD-ROM that explores and examines the life of the prophet. Currently, Cope is collaborating with author Susan Easton Black and artist Liz Lemon Swindle on a multimedia presentation to chronicle the life of Christ, titled Son of Man.
Recognizing Cope’s achievements, the Faith Centered Music Association (FCMA) has awarded him numerous PEARL Awards over the years including Male Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Album of the Year. Stories from Eden’s Garden garnered Cope an Indie nomination for Contemporary Christian Album of the Year from the Association for Independent Music and in 2003, Cope received the Best of State Award for Male Vocalist of the Year.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth throughout 2005 with a combination of performances, media presentations, documentaries, and a new film exploring the process through which Joseph was prepared, tutored, and refined to fulfill his prophetic calling.
For more information about Kenneth or Joseph Smith please visit www.kennethcope.com and www.lds.org.
