PHIP - So What's Next?

We could use some clear blue skies and crystal clear waters, right now.

While the dust has yet to settle over the firing of Bill Brehm, the question arises, “What's Next”?

From what I've seen, nobody is happy with what happened with Bill. Nobody.

Here's a man, voted in by thousands and thousands of club members and their clubs, and only a half a year after he's fired by the PHIP Board of Directors.

Bill had been voted in on the platform of bringing PHIP into the modern era. He campaigned for many new additions and agendas that would bring forward thinking, positive changes to an antiquated system. From day one he was completely ignored. “The Old Guard”, were exactly that, The Old Guard and they had no time or interest to hear the young whippersnapper's ideas and suggestions. They had their old way of doing things and it didn't matter what he, or the constituents who voted him in had to say. They were going to proceed as if nothing ever happened.

Teaching the old dogs new tricks wasn't in their agenda.

As I said earlier, no one is happy. The votes, opinions, and desires of members and their clubs, mean nothing to the Oligarchs high on top of the hill.

So, what's next? One of the things that Bill Brehm had wanted to do was to be more focused on the Trop Rock, Coastal Americana, Island Americana genre. Jerry Diaz has pointed out that the by-laws of PHIP state clearly that the main focus of PHIP is to be a Jimmy Buffett Fan Club.

When the organization started it was on a very different playing field than it is now. There were a handful of Jimmy Buffett cover bands back then, and several inspired songwriters. That was about it. Trop Rock didn't exist, for the most part, so it wasn't something that PHIP took into consideration.

Today it's a very different story. Not only has the culture itself advanced in leaps and bounds, but Trop Rock has germinated and gone from a few dedicated artists and songwriters, who's inspiration to others helped turn it into almost a movement. Myself, I kind of stumbled into it by chance, being a Nashville published songwriter. I believe Tom and Coley did as well? Donnie Brewer was a studio engineer/producer... the stories of how so many entered the genre could be written as a book with 300 chapters!  Hell, on Facebook there's a page called “Make Trop Rock a Recognized Genre".

It's only my opinion, but at the end of the day, from what I've seen, PHIP's by-laws need to be reviewed and updated. Jerry Diaz pointed out in his two posts that he'd like to start an organization that would be focused on the promotion of Trop artists. I think that's a fabulous idea! We get great exposure from the Trop radio stations, such as Bone Island Radio, Tiki Man Rado, and Radio Trop Rock. Having something additional that would promote Trop Artists is a fabulous idea, both inside the genre, but more importantly outside the genre.... (We need new fans!) 

I think if the by-laws of PHIP can be changed, it could be a fabulous foundation for Jerry's idea to take hold! For one, it already has a very, very supportive audience already connected. It would give Jerry a lot less work to do. Not as good an idea, but workable would be having Jerry's idea be a satellite organization of a revised PHIP.

Those still on the Board of Directors of PHIP, need to move on, for the sake of the organization, because as things stand now, they are holding back everything the fans and clubs want and voted for.

BRING BILLY BREHM BACK! 

If the by-laws can't be changed and PHIP can't update themselves, the torpedo the Board of Directors shot this week, could very well do a 180 and be heading right back at themselves. That's not good for anyone.

PHIP Needs to change. There is no question of “Do they need to change?”. They need to change.

We could use some clear blue skies and crystal clear waters, right now.

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"Time Traveler - The Oddities and Adventures of a Key West Bartender". Follow Mark Straight's continuing journey and friendships from current Key West, back to historical Key West and elsewhere!

 Order paperback or download here! Paperback comes with a free download!

 27 Five-Star ratings!

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“This Is Key West Calling" an MOTM week event!

What is “This is Key West Calling” anyway? “This Is Key West Calling” is an MOTM week event, focusing on live radio with live music performances and interviews with Trop Rock artists.

The event itself will run on MOTM week, Sunday, November 4^th, 2018 from 11 am to 4 pm at Sunset Tiki here in Key West. The main purpose of this is to encourage the growth of the Trop Rock music genre. That is the goal first and foremost. Having a lot of fun is the modus-oparendi of making it happen!!!

How will this be done? To start with, we currently have six Trop Rock radio stations working together, broadcasting the event on each of their stations, live simultaneously. Additionally, Digital Publishing will be running a live video stream! To our knowledge, there have never been six radio stations working together on the same broadcast. Because of this, we will have several press releases throughout the year prior to the event.

The idea came about, interestingly enough, through of all things, the beer industry! In 1980 there were about 200 breweries in the United States. Today there are over 6000, the vast majority of which came about in the last ten years. As a beer enthusiast for over four decades and a bar owner, I saw that the new micro-brew/craft was approaching their industry in both A ) doing something they were completely unconscious of and B ) doing a marketing strategy that was entirely revolutionary.

What was happening was the reps from say three different breweries, let's call them 1, 2, and 3, would meet at a bar and start talking about their favorite beers. Then, by happenstance and the typical atmosphere in bars in general, they would start talking beer with the other patrons of the bar. Next thing you know, the rep from brewery 1 is telling the patrons what a fabulous beer brewery 3 has, while brewery 2 rep is telling someone else what a great beer brewery 1 has. This wasn't by design. This was just the enthusiasm and passion they had for the product itself. This wasn't Bud and Miller beating themselves over the head. This was an industry working together and what it did was raise the industry as a whole. The consumer loved the product and the attitude. The result has been remarkable!

With that in mind, the event “This Is Key West Calling” a similar approach, is being taken. In this case, it's Trop Rock radio stations all working together in the spirit of growth of the Trop Rock genre.

We currently have six Trop Rock stations on board who will be carrying the event live, along with the live video feed from Digital Publishing! The Shore Radio will also have a video feed, possibly tied in with Digital Publishing. Stations that can't be there will broadcast the feed live! In addition, there will be several other stations/shows that will be associate endorsers who cannot broadcast the event live, however, they will be backing “This Is Key West Calling” with interviews leading up to the event, as well as re-broadcasting interviews and performances in the weeks and months following the event.

Thus far, the format has not entirely been settled on. We would like to have known Trop Rock musical acts and possibly up and comings. However, the latter has yet to be decided, as we hope to have interviews as well. At this point, we haven't reached out to the Trop Rock musical artist community. Having said that, it's a marvelous opportunity for any artist to play!  They would be broadcast on not one, but six stations live! Plus, interviews leading up to the event, and subsequent re-broadcasts on both the six stations carrying the event and the associate endorsing stations, not forgetting the Digital Publishing video! It's a marvelous opportunity!

The stations on board at this time are Tiki Man Radio, Radio Trop Rock, 104.9 The X, The Shore, The Tiki Pod Radio, and Beach Bar Radio.

Associate Endorsing stations/shows are Island Time Radio, Songwriters Island, and Beachfront Radio!

The choice of stations has been easy. The thing about Trop Rock is that the entire attitude promotes good tidings and a positive outlook on life, which all of the above do exceptionally well! If I have missed a station that fits into this category, please let me know! We'd be happy to have them aboard!

Mind you, we don't want a station who plays poorly recorded material, or gives the genre a black eye from time to time. However, as I say, any station who falls into the true Trop Rock ethics, quality music, and a beach attitude, we'd love to have them join us!

Time and Location:

“This Is Key West Calling” will be held at the stunning Sunset Tiki Bar at The Galleon Resort 619 Front St. The event will be held on Sunday, November 4^th, 2018 from 11 am – 4 pm.

The first press release for “This Is Key West Calling” is expected in early April. Updates will be posted on Facebook as well as here.

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Thank you for reading my blog! 

Please check out my book "Time Traveler - The Oddities and Adventures of a Key West Bartender". Follow Mark Straight's continuing journies and friendships from current Key West, back to historical Key West and elsewhere!

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What people are saying about Time Traveler:

Like a Personal Guided Tour of Key West Given by a Local Who Knows His Stuff!

By Renn Ho'Aloha Loren March 22, 2018

Key West Chris Rehm is the epitome of the town which he so obviously loves and knows so well.
Rehm is also a published songwriter and singer of songs.

On any given day or evening he can be seen somewhere around Key West performing with his partner singer-songwriter Dani Hoy in their band The Shanty Hounds, in addition to being an author and a bar owner. Moreover, his knowledge and love of his tropical island village are significant highlights of this highly entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking book.

As a friend, I am doubly surprised to feel that I am reading the work of a classic author and not someone I know so well. However, that is Chris's talent.

The characters are alluring and well-developed -- one gets to feel like Mark Straight, Glades, and Blackheart are friends that one has known for years.

The descriptions and informative narrative asides paint such vividly detailed and enlightening pictures that one is transported to the many street scenes, clubs, and sights of Key West past and present. There is a strong sense of the effects of the passage of time and readers will wistfully imagine the lives of the hamlet's previous inhabitants while being curious as to where the protagonist will end up next. Where does it all lead? Who is this Arthur character and why does he know so much about time travel? How will Mark manage his temporally-challenged relationship with Glades? Rehm even draws Hemmingway into the story in such a way that one can feel the man's presence.

As educational as it is entertaining, Time Traveler is a compelling read for anyone who is curious about,plus, has a love for or a history with Key West.

Pick up a copy and then try to put it down!  

 https://www.amazon.com/Time-Traveler-Oddities-Adventures-Bartender/dp/154977770X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510587586&sr=1-3&keywords=time+traveler&dpID=51-oZioDBAL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

What Is Trop Rock Music? - Part III

What Is Trop Rock Music – Part III 

What is Trop Rock today?  A lot will call it escapism. The idea behind this is suggesting that listening to this type of music is a get away from living in say, Peoria, and imagining they are in say, Key West, or perhaps Sanibel Island. Sure, this would be escapism. For that particular analogy, it’s spot on.

However, let’s look at it from another angle. I’ll start off with myself and my girlfriend, Dani Hoy. We live in Key West. There’s also Scott Kirby, who lives here as well. Captain Josh, Howard Livingston, and Ray West, live up the Keys a ways in Summerland, Cudjoe, and Big Pine Keys. I can’t even begin to count how many Trop musicians live on the SW coast of Florida from Naples to St. Pete, not forgetting those on the east coast of Florida, and a few in the center of the state as well. Additionally, there are those in Hawaii too!! The point being, there’s a market for what we’re doing here in the tropics for players and fans alike, we’re not escaping anything. This is our lifestyle. We live here and so do a lot of fans of the genre. 

So, while escapism may pertain to some, it’s definitely not something that’s across the board. Therefore, in my view it isn’t an accurate overall definition of the genre.

What the music does do is emulate the tropics feeling. How it accomplishes that today is a multifaceted fascination that is worthy of investigation!

In the last two blogs I mentioned the Country music rooted side of Trop. Some use the great name of Gulf and Western for this style. Think of players such as Kenny Chesney, Steven Youngblood, Tom Shepherd, Todd Sparks, or Zac Brown. These are just a few of many who are deeply rooted in the Country side of Trop.

Here’s the great Thom Shepherd doing his song “Sand In Her Shoes”, which the video was recorded in Key West, for those who might be curious. Thom, along with his wife Coley, a highly respected songwriter in her own right, is deeply involved with Country music, with having written several number one hits He is an excellent example of how an artist can wear more than one hat at a time. Thom’s main hat is Country, but he has the option of being a Trop artist at the same time.

There are a lot of Trop musicians who fall on the outskirts of Country music and the outskirts of Rock. These would be the singer/songwriters, those troubadours with a very serious gift for weaving the best stories and amazing word structure, to music. With their roots in both Rock and Country, they wear both hats, as well as the Trop Rock hat. A few great examples of these artists would be Scott Kirby, Kelly McGuire, and the late Hugo Duarte. 

Here’s an incredible song by Scott Kirby “The Last Flying Boat” from his album “A Night on the Beach”.

Okay, so now let’s take a look at something entirely different. Many Trop performers don’t focus at all on the Country side of the genre. Many performers will anchor themselves on the English speaking Caribbean islands music. This of course, is nothing at all like the Gulf and Western Country influenced music I was just talking about. 

As Americans we often tag it all together, when in fact it’s quite individual. Reggae for instance, is rooted in Jamaica. The steel drums are from Trinidad. The Bahamas don’t have Reggae, or steel drums.

Here’s an example of Bahamian music with Ronnie Buttler doing his famous song “Who Put the Pepper in the Vaseline” which quite a few Trop artists have covered.

The beat to the music is Junkanoo, which is nothing like Jamaica’s Reggae and likewise, we don’t hear any steel drums either because they don’t use them in Bahamian music.   

All are utilized in Trop Music, often together, which in their native countries would be scowled on. Myself, I always feel that it’s good to know the history of any music you play. However, the English speaking Caribbean has a large influence on Trop Rock music.

Let’s look at Hawaii, while we’re at it. Hawaii is often emulated in Trop Rock as well. Back at the beginning of this series in the first blog I mentioned Martin Denny. More currently many know Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, better known as Bruddah Iz, who did the beautiful version of Over The Rainbow on the ukulele. That song struck into the hearts of so many. Additionally, Bruddah Iz was considered a national hero of the Hawaiian Islands, long, long before the song became a hit.

 

 Bruddah Iz passed away at 38 years old, nearly twenty years ago in 1997. He was Hawaii’s greatest promoter for all things that were naturally Hawaiian, especially its music!

Today you will find Hawaiian Ricky Hanna quite easily in Trop Rock, as well as Renn Loren, a native Hawaiian who has spent years on both the North American continent, as well as Scandinavia.

Here’s a piece by Renn Loren  

Okay, so now let’s toss a real monkey wrench into the mix. I know I’m not the only one who’s heard the phrase “New Orleans is the northernmost city in the Caribbean”!

Well, when one considers that much of the African/American culture, as well as French decedents, came there from Haiti, it seems to fit in quite well actually, especially their music, which is derived from Haiti, by way of Africa.  

Here are The Neville Brothers doing “Yellow Moon”.

The Caribbean roots in “Yellow Moon” are beyond apparent.

So again we come back to the original question at hand:  What is today’s Trop Rock?

Through the last three blogs we’ve seen it having roots in Hawaiian music, which itself had roots in South American jazz via Martin Denny,  Jimmy Buffett bringing it to light, Country music, all sorts of Caribbean music, both English and Spanish, again more contemporary Hawaiian music.

In his book that he co-wrote, The Story of English, television news anchor Robert MacNeil states that languages which stop growing are destined to die. Latin, which was set in stone, literally, was used as a prime example.

The same is true with music. If one looks at the musical pieces that were done by Strauss, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, or Beethoven, then compare them to pieces by Ravel, Stravinsky, Varese, or Zappa, music has indeed changed and evolved and Classical music continues to thrive.

Trop Rock music must continue to grow if it is to survive in the long run. The man credited in starting the genre, Jimmy Buffett, just turned sixty nine. The majority of his fans are naturally in his age group known as the Baby Boomers. 

Several years back Country star Alan Jackson did a duet with Buffett “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere”. Jackson is 57 at the tail end of that generation. Zac Brown also did a duet with Buffett, “Knee Deep”. Zac is thirty seven. The Zac Brown Band brings a whole new generation to the table. The quest here for Trop Rock is that The Zac Brown Band’s fans are right at Trop Rock’s table, they just don’t realize it. Likewise with Kenny Chesney. He’s a little older than Zac Brown at 47, but he has droves of fans that have no idea they are Trop Rock fans!

Going back, don’t forget that a musician isn’t locked into one category. When you stop and think about it, a Western Swing musician could easily be classified under Country, Jazz, and Rock!  So we can wear many hats in Trop as well. 

Obviously we must include Rock in all of this!  Back when Jimmy Buffett released his first album from his Keys period, he was a Rock artist. Back then, there was what was known as "Progressive Rock" and that included everyone from James Taylor to Black Sabbath. Some bands from that era, such as The Eagles, or Buffett, today might be lumped into the Country genre. A great deal of today's Trop Rock music has it's basis in the border regions where Rock and Country converge.

So what is Trop Rock?

Potentially pretty progressive music actually, depending on the artist’s vision for a horizon! Any music that feels like palm trees, beaches, warm ocean breezes, sailboats, cocktails in the tropics, where the feel falls under the 30^th Parallel North and above the 30^th Parallel South in the Western Hemisphere, although those lines are subject to change at the drop of a hat and flex slightly. It’s a style of music that can be constructed on virtually any genre of music being used as a foundation. 

As time goes on, we'll see how it progresses and evolves! It should be a fun ride!

What Is Trop Rock Music? Part 1

What is Trop Rock Music? Part 1



What exactly is Trop Rock music anyway? There are a large contingent of people that say it's Country music that has a beach theme. Of those folks, many call it Gulf and Western, referring to The Gulf of Mexico and C&W music. You've got to love it, it's very creative!

No one would be stupid enough to argue the point that the style of Country mixed with the tropic atmosphere, is a very large segment of the music genre.  That however, is cutting the genre short of what it actually is.

I recall back when I was a kid my parents used to have records by Martin Denny. Martin Denny was a musician/composer from New York and Los Angeles who ventured down South America way for 3 1/2 years, then headed to Hawaii, where he developed a style of music called "Exotica".

Exotica incorporated rhythms that Mr. Denny picked up in South America, with mainland America and Hawaiian music combined, not forgetting the exotic bird calls that shortly thereafter found it's way into his music.

Exotica is a musician's style of music in that one has to be an accomplished musician in order to play it. A lot of Jazz is incorporated into it. For the listener, it's quite easy and relaxing to listen to.



Many consider this under the umbrella of Trop Rock today, even though it predates Trop Rock's by decades, having first started in the early 1950's. This is without a doubt, Trop music however.

In the same periods, there was a type of music my parents didn't have, but I heard on the radio and loved. It was related to what Martin Denny was doing in Hawaii, albeit this was from Rio De Janeiro. Now keep in mind that Martin Denny picked up a lot on the rhythms of Rio, Santiago, and Buenos Aires. The music I fell in love with was Bossa Nova, and the composer was Antonio Carlos Jobim.

For me, this music painted a very vivid picture of Rio de Janeiro. Not too far from the equator, this was certainly about as Trop as it got! For me, Jobim painted a warm summer evening, with a light breeze, full moon and stars, on a restaurant patio overlooking Ipanema beach.

Picture that scene while listening to this piece by Jobim ( say Joe Beem)



Many folks credit Jimmy Buffett with starting what we know today as Trop Rock. Buffett moved to Key West and did what any songwriter would do; write about where he was and the things he saw going on there. Here he was, living on a tropical island that was loaded with idiosyncrasies, crazy characters and goings on, drug smuggling, shit hole bars with tuns of salty personality and personalities, authors, a very rich history of pirates, the Navy, shrimpers, wreckers, fishermen, a crazy fire chief,... the list goes on and on, but he had all of this and more to draw from. Here he was, a great story teller and with subjects such as the aforementioned, it was an oasis to choose from, being bombarded with crazy on goings every day for inspiration.

It must be said that he didn't visit, then leave. Buffett lived here 24/7/365 and became part of the island. When writing about the island there's a vast difference between being part of it day to day, versus stopping by for a week, then going back to Kalamazoo and writing a song about it. Michael McCloud is the same as Buffett in this regard, when it comes to writing songs about Key West. Both McCloud and Buffett wrote from a local perspective. That alone gives them a very sincere credibility that is never matched by someone writing about it from afar.

Here' a very, very rare recording of Buffett. He was on his way back to Key West from Nashville after recording his first album that was written in Key West "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean". His friend and co musician and co writer on some songs, Steve Goodman, landed a gig in the then bohemian section of Miami, Coconut Grove, at a little place called "Bubba's". A wonderful friend of mine, Dave, used to do sound for Bubba's, as well as other coffee houses in Coconut Grove and South Miami. Dave was, and is an audiophile of the first degree. He would record all the gigs he did sound for on his reel to reel from the sound board!

Steve Goodman's gig at Bubba's was no exception. You won't here it on this track, but earlier in the recording when Steve brings on Buffett and introduces him, there's but a polite applause. The Pink Crustacean album was still months from being released and at this point in time, no one knew who Buffett was. They did about five songs together that night, plus a lot of back and forth colorful banter. I edited the recording so you can hear this excellent example of Goodman-Buffett live doing a song they had just recorded up in Nashville, "Cuban Crime of Passion". I say excellent example, not because it's played to perfection, but rather because Dave captured the whole feel of the event and song so well on his reel to reel!

The recording this is from is said to be Buffett's oldest live recording, being around late 1972.



More to come in Part 2!


Support the blog! Check out The Shanty Hounds (Dani Hoy and Myself, Key West Chris Rehm, along with our pal Bobby DeVito, doing a holiday song we all co-wrote and performed on "Happy Merry Christmas From Key West"! It's only ninety-nine cents!!! That's right! $ .99!!!! Download it today! Makes a great holiday gift too!

Available at CD Baby! Sound clip available at the link!

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TROP ROCK AWARDS IDEAS

My friend Chris Uhland is in the hospital. He stayed with us on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning I was on the computer when he said "Something really weird is happening. I have blood in my urine". Making a long story short, he's now in Baptist Hospital in Miami having had a 7lb. cancer tumor removed, as well as his kidney and spleen. They say he had the tumor for about seven years. A pound a year growth I gather?

Some of you may recall the live video feed of the TRMA awards at MOTM that was to take place, but was canceled for unknown reasons, which I mentioned in my last blog? Well, that was Chris "thedigidude" Uhland on the video side of the show, with the A1A Media Group.

One of the things I saw very early on in getting to know Chris, was that he always puts business first. Harry Teaford, of Radio A1A, is the other half of the A1A Media Group.

As the story was told to me, when Harry approached Chris about starting the A1A Media Group, like anything else he does, Chris did some research into this "Trop Rock music" to see what kind of potential it had and frankly, if it was worth his time.

One of Chris' other jobs is with the Keys television station WEYW. WEYW is connected business wise with WPBT up in Miami. In doing research into Trop Rock, Chris was able to access all of the media stats available, via both WEYW and WPBT. In his research, Chris found that according to all the media stats, Trop Rock has over two million fans. Over Two Million fans! After finding this out, Chris felt the A1A Media Group was justified and on solid ground with both Harry Teaford, and the potential growth for video media in this group.

Please keep Chris in your prayers. The energy he gets from prayers, good thoughts, vibes... etc, keeps him going. He's a very energetic guy. Watching him work is like watching the Energizer Bunny in the commercials! He doesn't stop! He's got several months ahead of him, so please don't forget him. He's a great guy, in addition to being a fantastic asset to the genre.



(Chris "thedigidude" Uhland (R) on the set)

With the stage set, first and foremost I would like to say that I'm happy to be a member of the Trop Rock Music Association! The group started off as a fan club for the group Latitude and was then called The Margarita Mafia and was overseen by Latitude's co-head Tom Becker.

The Margarita Mafia started giving awards at MOTM for various accomplishments within the Trop Rock genre. I always thought this was a great idea having a club voting and giving out awards. It keeps everyone in the club active within the club as well. Obviously, it comes as no surprise that a fan club of a band vote members of the band winners of the clubs awards. It would actually be a surprise if they didn't vote them in. A few years ago they changed their name to The Trop Rock Music Association and rightfully so, continued their club awards.

As I say, I'm all for clubs having their own awards. I belong to The Trop Rock Music Association (TRMA), as well as The Southernmost Coconut Castaways and The Key West Parrothead Club. Membership for each is only $20.00 and for myself, it's money well spent. The Trop Rock Music Association is the only one of the three that has awards.

As I write this, The TRMA show 340 members on their website, while their Facebook page has at this writing, 1,225 members. It should be noted that it may be that not all members of TRMA are signed to their website, as well as a number of people who like a Facebook page are not members of a given club.

Lets go back to my friend Chris "thedigidude" Uhland. His research into seeing if Trop Rock would be worthwhile for him to invest his time into, utilizing the media information available through stations WEYW and WPBT's sources, showed him that there are over two million fans in Trop Rock.

Just to underline this, back in August when Dani Hoy and I played at the Sandbox, Danny Lynn of Tiki Island Radio drove down from Tennessee to interview us before the show. Another station, AMI Radio, was going to air our performance live. As it turned out, the weather wasn't looking too good for an out door event and AMI Radio elected to pass. With that, Danny and I talked and decided to go with a spontaneous Tiki Island Radio broadcast of the concert. There was no promotion, as this was right off the cuff. Additionally, the rain held off. We played for a total of four hours, with a break to see the sunset.

When everything was all said and done, the broadcast brought in 28,365 average listeners over the entire show. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but 28,365 was the average.  Keeping in mind that there are between fifteen and twenty Trop Rock stations broadcasting world wide, and Tiki Island Radio had absolutely no promotion for this spontaneous event, I think that easily underlines the figure of "over two million" that Chris' media sources gave. For that night Tiki Island Radio had 28,365 average listeners, while the rest of the Trop stations had their listeners as well, and no doubt, the  vast majority of Trop fans doing something entirely different on a Saturday evening. So yes, the media figure of "over two million" comes across as accurate in my book and perhaps a bit conservative at that.

With all of this in mind, now lets go back to the TRMA. They show 340 members on their website and 1,225 fans on their Facebook page. I don't know how many members the club actually has. As I said before, someone who signs up, may very well not join their website and Facebook fans might not all be members. Some people have said they have around 600 paid members, others say over 800. Bear in mind, one has to be a member in order to cast a vote in the Trop Rock Music Awards. For this, I'm going to give the TRMA the benefit of doubling the highest number of members of the estimates that I've been given (800), which brings the total number of voting members to 1,600.

For the sake of easy numbers, lets call the media's call on the amount of Trop Rock fans of "over two million", to just plain 2,000,000.


The bottom line here is that 1,600 people voting on behalf of 2,000,000 equals .08%

Yes, that's not a typo, you read that right, .08%

Having said that, if the TRMA does have 1,600 members, at $20 per membership, that's $32,000.00. I have no problem with that whatsoever. Some may argue it, but as I've stated earlier, that's the going rate to join any club and they have expenses, just like anyone else.

Here's where I differ on it. However first I will state again, that fundamentally I support what they are doing. Their intentions are spot on and from the heart.

One of the things that myself, TRMA, and many others are trying to do is to make Trop Rock a recognized genre. At the moment, the artists, clubs, organizations, and radio stations within the Trop world see ourselves as our own genre, but those in the industry do not. They'll just label it as Rock or Country.

Should Trop Rock become recognized, it's a boost for all involved. Our fan base will at minimum, double and more likely, triple. Country star Kenny Chesney, who does a LOT of music that could also be categorized as Trop, has over 6,500,000 fans on his FB page. There really is a lot of potential here.

For a moment lets just pretend that Trop Rock did become a recognized genre. BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, all put us in our own category. You go on iHeart Radio, or Pandora and search Trop Rock and up come choices like Sunny Jim, Dani Hoy, Pup Morse, Jimi Pappis, Barefoot Reggie Starrett, John Friday, Chris Bellamy, Loren Davidson, Renn Loren, B-Man and Miss Behavin', hell, even me, Key West Chris, and the list goes on and on.

What happens with news, such as a new recognized genre, is attention and that attention comes from the media. This is the type of thing that the media would be all over as well! Believe me, that's where our exposure to new fans is at it's hight. Everyone in the media, the music industry, and the fans are all over it.

With the "everyone" that I mentioned, did you notice the first listed was the media? Yes, of course there will be Rolling Stone, the media television shows, and everything else that goes along with all the hoopla that would be happening.... including reporters who report along the same lines as say, the great Mike Wallace.

A reporter like that would have a field day with Trop Rock, regarding the awards, and subsequently the entire genre that was just created. Here's an organization that started out as a band fan club, run by the heads of the band, who won virtually all the awards throughout the history of the organization, then finally, the Trop Rock Music Awards encompass a total of maybe .08% of the entire fan base.

In short, as soon as the genre starts, it's down the tubes from the way an investigative reporter writes. It would make Volkswagen look like the Arch Angel Gabrielle in comparison to Trop Rock. Right or wrong, they will tear us to ribbons. We would qualify as confetti in New York's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I couldn't say how the TRMA is set up on paper legally, and if it's set up properly, all is well and good. If not, it has the potential of blowing up like a gasoline storage facility hit by a cruise missile.

Again, I think that the intent of the TRMA is very sincere and they put a lot of blood,sweat, and tears (this year particularly) into it. For their efforts both past and present, they should be commended!

On the flip side, unfortunately, it's very vulnerable.

A couple of years ago, Beachfront Radio had a contest where listeners wrote in and voted via e-mail. If memory serves me correctly, they had around 14,000 votes. If those figures are correct, Beachfront is at .7%, up from .08%. Additionally, the voters at Beachfront Radio didn't have to join a club, or pay dues.

Trop Rock has grown quite a bit in the last two years as well. Case in point the 28K+ listeners we had with Tiki Island Radio on a live broadcast one evening from The Sandbox (Thank you Pablo, Diana, Sheryl, Rick, Debbie, and Danny!), was twice the size of the replies that Beachfront Radio received, I believe over a two week period.

Obviously, in my opinion, it's clear things should change from the status quo.  I don't think the TRMA should be a by product of a fan club for anyone. Additionally, it's my view that anyone who is a fan of Trop Rock Music, should be able to cast a vote and shouldn't be required to join a club to do so, or pay a fee. This was the thing I liked best about Beachfront Radio's contest a couple of years back.

As it stands right now, the TRMA is a fan club, who self-appointed themselves as the delegation to award those in the genre and in doing so, changed their name from The Margarita Mafia to the very official sounding Trop Rock Music Association. Again, this is a self-appointed group.

I think other options could prove more democratic and farther reaching. One idea could be having all the Trop Radio Stations pool together contests from their own listeners. One of the coolest things about this crazy genre, is that each station plays different artists from one another! The results could be fascinating!



Thanks again for reading! Tell everyone what you think and we can pool ideas! I made a Facebook page to do so. Here's the link:


https://www.facebook.com/groups/TropRockAwardsIdeas/

Sorry, but the bottom line is .08% of Trop Rock fans voting for 99.92% of the fans just doesn't cut it.



All The Best From Key West

Key West Chris Rehm

Update, Day Two

EPILOG: 

After over 133,000 views on this blog, an epilog is unprecedented. However, after yesterday's release of this blog, so many have offered information and experiences via messages to me, or posts, that an epilog is only appropriate. After yesterday's feedback, I can only imagine today, tomorrow, and the next few days will be similar.

One question that popped up was with the TRMA was:

1) Does one have to be a member to be nominated?

The answer to this was no. Only members can nominate those for awards though. However, if say Jerome Howard were nominated, he could only get an award if he joins TRMA, and pays the entrance fee to do so.

Opinion: This is obscene, plain and simple. If true, this puts the organization into serious question regarding integrity. Frankly, calling it by it's true definition, this would be extortion. It sounds like something the Mafia would do.

2) A former TRMA winner suggested that the figure I came up with of .08% was being generous. The Media figure of over 2M Trop Rock fans is set in stone. My figure of 1,600 votes  within TRMA would therefore be the number in question. As I mentioned above in the piece, I've heard TRMA numbers as low as 600, which would equate to .03% of the media figure of 2M. It doesn't really make a difference in the end however, as .08% and .03% are light years below even 1%.

3) Many are in question regarding TRMA's legal incorporation. Most are suggesting that it is not set up as a legal entity at all, and that it's basically a group of people who have a private club, with no legal incorporation whatsoever. I have no information on this one way, or another. This is however, the general consensus of what I'm seeing from others.