Los Angeles Music Festival®?
January 2023
For years, I assumed that my efforts to create an innovative and impactful Los Angeles Music Festival® would eventually succeed in one way or another. The festival had a pioneering start and continuing new media innovations, incarnations and soul. Early collaborators included House of Blues, The Troubadour, Whiskey A Go Go, The Roxy, Billboard Live, Knitting Factory, Coconut Teazer, Viper Room, Dragonfly and Jack’s Sugar Shack. Tower Records’ publishing & electronic marketing maven Mike Farrace and modern satellite broadcasting trailblazer Stanley S. Hubbard bought sponsorships. In the early years I had positive meetings with the late Rick Van Santen of Goldenvoice, Ernest Dillihay, then of the LA City Departure of Cultural Affairs and Karen Schmidt at the Music Center. Everything seemed possible.
So I kept it going year after year. I fought hard for the federal trademark and won (it was recently renewed for another 10 years). In retrospect the cease and desist letter sent to Verizon, care of William Barr, was epic chutzpah. It’s what I understood to be the path. Live it, be it, learn, improve and never give up. Plus it was fun and supported music and artists. I reached out to concert promoters, mayors, city councilors, county supervisors, governors, civil servants, performing arts centers, music schools, nonprofits, agents, music superstars and celebrities. Over the years I encountered Angelenos who encouraged me, told me what I needed to hear and/or just welcomed me into their space. I sure appreciate it with special thanks to the Interview Factory for their sonic contributions and friendship.
I was never able to secure financial backing. That should have been the end of Los Angeles Music Festival® many years ago. But I didn’t want to give up. To date, my efforts to elicit interest in a public benefit Los Angeles Music Festival® by and/or among elected officials, LA concert promoters or performing arts organizations have not been successful. The FBI is working on the local elected officials. Live Nation and AEG have passed. Can Rachel Moore, Chad Smith, Gustavo Dudamel, Frank Gehry, Yo-Yo Ma, Randy Phillips, Bill Silva, Andrew Hewitt, Irving Azoff, LA County, Hollywood Bowl and/or other stakeholders envision a rewarding, productive and sustainable Los Angeles Music Festival®? Seems a no brainer to me. The assets developed over 27 years include the website, music channel with 8000+ songs, thoughtfully curated social media accounts, USPTO trademark, 13 domain registrations and the good will of artists, listeners and followers.
Performing arts organizations and their allies seem the best prospective stakeholder/beneficiaries for a public benefit Los Angeles Music Festival®, especially the Music Center, Grand Park, The Grand LA and Colburn School. In the final phase of my solo effort I focused on supporting and amplifying the messages of key performing arts stakeholders. I’m certain we added value and made a difference in support of Los Angeles music and arts stakeholders.
With this blog and an upcoming visit to LA to celebrate Jerry Moss’s contributions to music and the Music Center, I’m making a final push to get the Los Angeles Music Festival® opportunity in front of people who could do something with it. I never thought I could do it by myself, but in my mind the possibility was always real and a culmination of vision, technology and purpose. It was expensive.
I’ve done all I can with the best of intentions to create an opportunity. Fortunately and by necessity, I’m having a rewarding career in news, communications and media services. Many opportunities and successful endeavors in NYC, Albuquerque, Washington DC and Los Angeles. I didn’t become a concert promoter, agent, arts administrator, politician, lawyer nor music scholar. I loved being a broadcast journalist and now a communicator. That’s how I’ve made a living and sustained Los Angeles Music Festival®.
Underlying it all is the music. What I really love is listening to and playing music on the radio. So I’ll keep doing that. Playing freeform music on the radio may be a relatively unheralded form of artistic expression, but it’s glorious. Here’s a shout out to my fellow public, college and internet radio DJ brothers and sisters, especially the DJs past and present (and music director Matthew Finch) at KUNM Radio. Being a DJ doesn’t pay bills for most of us. But it’s fun, people enjoy it and it supports music and artists. There are thousands of people in countries around the world listening to the VisionBroadcast Los Angeles Music Festival® channel on Live365, TuneIn, RadioGarden, RadioNet, VisionBroadcast.live and LosAngelesMusicFestival.org.
Would still love to find a home for Los Angeles Music Festival®. Please say hello.
