This page is a chronological catalog of
the last years news stories from WCSL and the industry in general, cataloged from
latest to oldest. This page can get a bit long, so if your machine runs
out of memory and you get an "X" instead of a picture, simply hit the "refresh"
button on your browser. Click on photos to enlarge them to high resolution
when available.
7/29/10 Rockin' Your Stage Sound pre-order available at Borders
and Amazon
Rob Gainey's Rockin' Your Stage Sound is now
available as a pre-order from Amazon and Borders. The book features
photo contributions from WCSL and commentary and instruction by WCSL's Paul
Doty, as well as a virtual who's who of the professional music industry.
Available in Borders and music stores everywhere Oct. 10th.
7/26/10 YOSO ELEMENTS will release tomorrow across America
Elements,
the long awaited 2 CD debut of rock super group Yoso debuts across America
July 27th with it's related world tour to follow. Once again joined by
WCSL's CEO Paul Doty as tour manager and FOH engineer, Yoso, made of members
from both YES & Toto, will cross the US this summer then head to Europe in
late summer/fall. WCSL to provide production on select dates in 2010.
You can follow Yoso on their Facebook page, website at yosohq.com and
MySpace.
6/12/10 New Slim CD with WCSL single enters mastering stage
The
new Slim Man CD "Thousand Miles Away" entered the mastering stage today in
the capable hands of Grammy Award Winner Charlie Pilzer. The new album
will feature "Now and Forever", a live single recorded by WCSL's Paul Doty.
The album is set for a July release.
After taking a few months off to allow show
host Paul Doty to tour, The AudPod returns next week with all new shows and
an all new format. "Keeping up with a weekly show this year was going to be
next to impossible" stated Paul this week. Many options were discussed from
retiring the show after 140 episodes to changing the format of the program.
WCSL has opted to "post when able" rather than put the podcast on the shelf
entirely. KRVR's Roman Guzman has come on board in a greater support
roll as reoccurring guest host and co-host to help produce shows. Other
options for the new format being considered this month is a change in the
AudPod bumper music. "The last thing anyone wanted to see is the AudPod go
away simply because of Paul's busy schedule." commented Roman last week
during a studio session at WCSL's production studio. "I'm happy to support
any way I can to help keep the ball rolling. I think the new format idea is
a great one." Log on to The AudPod's home
page to see the current schedule of new shows.
4/16/10 Friend of WCSL and of the arts, Andre DeLorenzo
passes
Long
time WCSL friend Andre DeLorenzo passed away last night following apparent
heart problems. Andre was a life long supporter of the arts and a good
friend of WCSL CEO Paul Doty & family. Paul worked along side Andre
numerous times over the last decade while working on productions in the
Atlanta Georgia area. Andre promoted the arts with a passion and was a
guest of WCSL's podcast "The AudPod" on a number of occasions. All of
us that knew Andre have lost a member of our community and family.
Click here to listen to
Andre on The AudPod. Check the AudPod
home page for other episodes with Andre.
4/13/10 WCSL clients Bloodgood named 2010 inductee's into the Christian
Music Hall Of Fame
We
are honored to announce that WCSL friends and clients Bloodgood have been
named as 2010 Christian Music Hall of Fame inductees.
“We believe these artists are most deserving to be recognized for their
outstanding contributions to not only Christian music, but for their
ministries as well,” states Andy Woolard, Director of Operations for the
Christian Music Hall of Fame. “We are excited to pay tribute to the great
careers these artists have had and those who continue to encourage others
with their music and ministries.”
The inducted artists will be formally recognized during
the 3rd annual Visionary Awards show to be held in the Dallas, Tx area on
November 6, 2010. The Visionary Awards are an annual event highlighting the
top talent in a variety of genres of Christian music.
WCSL's Paul Doty has served as FOH engineer for the group
through 8 albums from the release of Bloodgood's landmark second album
"Detonation". For more information visit
Bloodgood's website or go to the
JF Hidout News Report.
4/4/10 WCSL CEO & CFO attend Fountain Of Truth production
This
past Easter, WCSL CEO & CFO Paul & Leslie Doty paid a surprise visit to
clients Fountain Of Truth in Fontana California to take in their Easter
production. Fountain Of Truth features a WCSL engineered and installed
7 cluster line array hang as well as extensive lighting and video. "It
was great to see one of our installations in the hands of creative
individuals." Commented Paul on Monday. "FOT's extensive lighting and
sound rival many theater installations. To see everything in action
was defiantly rewarding." The in-house sound, video, and lighting crew
was unaware of WCSL's presence until the crew received a standing ovation at
the end of the performance, and the staff turned around to acknowledge them.
"We didn't want to let anyone know we were there until the end. we
just wanted to enjoy the congregation enjoying the performance. And
enjoy they did." FOT also features an extensive seismic bracing system
engineered by WCSL due to the regions proneness to continual earthquakes.
Coincidently, the system was tested as a 7.2 earthquake happened south of
Southern California and rolled through the area that very afternoon while
the Doty's were still in the area.. As expected, the hang structure
performed exactly to spec.
4/2/10 wcsl.org April 1st Edition views up 7X over last year
WCSL's annual April 1st Edition drew more
than 7X the hits over last years one day edition. WCSL's Leslie Doty
attributes the growth mostly to social networking sights like Facebook.
The April fools front page featuring, well, basically, nonsense, has become
a staple at wcsl.org. The company website has continually walked on
the weird side for the past five years. Dating back to 2005, the site
has poked fun at all corners of the industry and ourselves, from
manufactures, to employees, to running gags spread over numerous years, like
the fictitious and infamous "Neptune Finalizer", an evil piece of audio gear
capable of everything from rearranging the DNA of a human, to literally
swallowing entire states. Anything is fair game on April 1st.
The page is gone now, but lives in the wcsl.org archives to be seen for
years to come. You can access all the April 1st editions of wcsl.org
by visiting our humor page by clicking here.
4/1/10 White Throne Returns!
Back
in the day when WCSL was touring with two of Christian Metal's biggest
heavyweights, Bloodgood and Barren Cross, a media mainstay of the day was
White Throne Magazine. The 80's era may be long gone but we are very
happy to see White Throne back, modernized, and in the digital online world.
Your invited to visit the White Throne Metal Reviews blog at
http://whitethronereviews.blogspot.com/ Welcome back guys! You've
been missed.
3/31/10 WCSL Bad Religion tour rolls through Southern California
Bad
Religion's 30th anniversary tour rolls through Southern California this week
with multiple dates all featuring WCSL projection. The iconic group
sought an addition to it's tour to commemorate 30 years of in your face
punk. The solution is a trip down memory lane, or in the case of BR,
it's more like a four lane freeway, with visuals from the past 30 years
featured as part of the stage show. WCSL's Wes White serves as the
tours live switcher and video op.
3/15/10 Yoso to play Frankfurt Music Festival March 24
WCSL's Paul Doty will travel to Germany next
week with Yoso to serve as tour manager and FOH at the 2010 Frankfurt Music
Festival. This years festival will feature performances by Simply Red,
Alicia Keys, The Scorpions, and Whitney Houston. "Think of the Messe
Frankfurt as NAMM on steroids." said Paul on Monday. There are over
200 performances at the festival this year. We are honored to have
been asked to showcase at this prestigious event. Watch for photos and
video from the Messe here at wcsl.org as well as on our wcsl Facebook page,
and the YOSO fan page on Facebook.
3/15/10 WCSL joins Bad Religion World Tour Celebrating 30 years
WCSL
will be on the road with punk rock legends Bad Religion helping the group
celebrate 30 years in the industry. The 2010 World Tours kicks off
with an unprecedented relentless barrage of dates in Southern California's
House Of Blues, back to back, every night, March 17-April 17. WCSL is
supplying video projection during the shows that will feature a trip through
30 years of band history. After the stellar kick off month in SoCal
the tour takes to the world with dates in Germany, Amsterdam, Milan, and
Rome. More dates and countries to be added for the remainder of 2010.
The group will also be recording a live album that it will offer to it's
hard core fans as a free download of the tour. WCSL will post photos
from the tour on it's site as well on the WCSL Facebook page.
Click here to go to the official
Bad Religion 30 Year Website.
3/11/10 wcsl.org's April 1st website to return Thursday
April 1st
Back by popular demand, wcsl.org will once again embrace the weird side of
the entertainment industry as we celebrate April Fools day for at least 24 hours.
Two years ago we took a break from the online April 1st edition and
did a special April 1st episode of the AudPod. While we continue to
this day to receive fan emails on the AudPod Bafoonary, Many emails
came in the weeks that followed April 1st chastising us for skipping that
year online. So,once again, we're back with all the idiocracy you've
come to expect from years past. New to wcsl.org in the last two years?
Have no idea what were talking about? Click the following links to see
the April 1st editions from years past.
Click here for 2005,
2006, 2007,
2008 (audio),
2009.
3/11/10 Yoso website goes live
WCSL clients Yoso have launched their new
website at http://www.yosohq.com .
The site will be expanding over the next few weeks to include an online
store. The launch comes just before the release of the bands debut
self titled album. Watch for Yoso on tour in 2010 with WCSL production
and staff.
2/3/10 WCSL to add near 100,000 watts to inventory in 2010
While
many companies regroup and downsize in a struggling economy, WCSL see's
opportunity and expands. New for 2010 is a larger Northern California
facility for the company and a major expansion on it's power amp inventory.
WCSL recently took order of 60,000 watts of the new Crown Xti series
6000watt power amps to drive its inventory of JBL Vertec speakers.
"We've been using our existing inventory of Crest amps from the various MLA3
rigs to power over the last year, and that's been fine." commented
WCSL CEO Paul Doty last week. "However, with multiple stages,
festivals, and events happening simultaneously on the 2010 calendar, it
became clear it was time to expand." The Crown amplification package
was chosen on performance, dependability, and price, in that order.
The company also noted a substantial savings potential in the fact that the
amps are "smart amps" with built in processing. "This also makes our
set ups faster" noted Paul. The company built one prototype rack
earlier in the year and also plans to add to this inventory before the start
of the summer season.
1/29/10 WCSL launches Facebook page
The
first phase of the new wcsl.org renovation went into effect this week with
the launching of it's interactive Facebook page. "This year will bring
a new look to the website and more interactivity" stated WCSL webmaster and
CEO Paul Doty. "In 2010 we move into a much more web 2.0 existence.
We've opened up the Facebook page for clients, fans, and employees to
interact. The main site at wcsl.org will simplify greatly this year
with an estimated 90% size reduction. Show photos and the like will
migrate to the Facebook site so people can be more interactive with the
company. Employees will now be able to help keep the content current,
even those without web development skills." So pop over to WCSL on
Facebook and don't just enjoy WCSL on the web, be part of it. Search
"West Coast Sound & Light" on Facebook
and become a fan!
12/4/09 Acoustic Christmas packs Modesto Centre Plaza
The Modesto Bee
B92.9FM does a great community service every year in presenting its
annual all-ages Acoustic Christmas show. Tonight's sell-out concert
included everyone from young children to grandmothers, with a healthy
helping of teens. Who says you have to be over 21 to see top acts? I was
only able to attend part of the show because of another holiday
engagement but I was happy I got to see my favorite act - Ingrid
Michaelson - perform her lovely hit "What I Am." She turned it into a
contest trying to see if she could get the audience to clap in certain
parts and then stop when she cut them off. The audience had mixed
results. She sounded great throughout her set, showing off a beautiful,
sweet voice. Also showing off superior vocal skills was the next act -
Coldplay-soundalike Mat Kearney. His song "Breathe In, Breathe Out" was
so arresting it was hard to believe the sounds were coming from only him
and one other musician. Sorry in advance to Third Eye Blind fans but I
was less than impressed with that group, which was the headliner. Lead
singer Stephen Jenkins just doesn't have even close to as good a voice
as the other two. He sounded strained during a few of the songs.
Unfortunately, I missed the two opening groups - Green River Ordinance
and A Fine Frenzy.
- Bee arts writer Lisa Millegan
12/3/09 WCSL & Third Eye Blind ring in holiday season for Modesto
Stephan
Jenkins from Third Eye Blind headlines B92.9FM's annual Acoustic Christmas
tonight at The Modesto Centre Plaza. The event has become an annual
tradition to start the holiday season for WCSL and Modesto. The hugely
popular show is an annual sell out.
12/2/09 WCSL phone lines back
operational ahead of schedule
The
transition from WCSL's old long time home to it's new digs is almost
complete. "You can imagine the size of such an endeavor to move a
large company with it's equipment inventory and offices to a new location"
commented CEO Paul Doty Wednesday. "We're almost completely back up
and running after just a few short days. The staff was incredible on
the changeover and really stepped up to the plate to get the job
done...while prepping for three event days this week! Telephone and
internet was only down for two days, an incredible feat for AT&T to have us
back up so fast as well!"
11/26/09 WCSL at 1019 N Emerald, an end of an era
On this Thanksgiving day 2009 we are
thankful for the facility that has served us well over the past decade.
Through these doors we've loaded trucks for thousands of event days and
hundreds of clients, but now it's time to say goodbye. Last night we
closed the last business day at 1019 N Emerald Ave. at the Northern
California Corporate office of West Coast Sound & Light, bringing an end to
an era in our companies history. This little building in Modesto
watched WCSL go from a small local sound & light provider to an
international touring and installation company, but now expansion demands we
abandon our friend that has served us for all these years. Next week
WCSL opens it's doors in a larger facility with five times the office space.
Now we take a few days before the hard work of reopening begins, and we take
time to pause with our families, and look back on the last quarter century
of WCSL, and thank God for the gift he has so richly blessed us with, the
ability and the means to make a living practicing a craft that we all love.
On this day we're also thankful for all the faithful clients who have stood
by us for all these years as we've made our best attempt to live up to our
promise....."Faith Comes By Hearing"
11/20/09 BREAKING NEWS: Crew Fatality in Miley Cyrus Tour Bus
Crash
WCSL
has learned that one of four tours busses on the current Miley Cyrus Tour
has crashed and one crew member, the driver, has been killed. Our
thoughts and prayers go out to our brothers and sisters on the road.
Click here to see breaking local news coverage.
11/9/09 A Birthday weekend at WCSL
Both
Matt Cross and Drew Fischer enjoyed birthdays Sunday. We wish both
warm birthday wishes from the entire WCSL family.
11/9/09 This weeks AudPod guest interviewed on Coast To Coast AM
This
weeks AudPod guest James Tappy Wright recently made an appearance on
George Noory's Coast To Coast AM. You can catch Tappy on Coast To
Coast by clicking on
this
link to the Coast To Coast website, and of course you can hear Tappy
& Paul on WCSL's own AudPod by clicking
here.
11/2/09 CNN's iReport website now part of CNN mainstream
CNN
has announced that it's iReport website has now become integrated into it's
main CNN site. This means that WCSL's weekly AudPod podcast available
on iReport is now accessible directly from CNN. You can listen to this
weeks AudPod on CNN by
clicking here, or check out last months Skynyrd crash survivors episodes
by clicking here.
Paul's CNN bio can be found
here, and you may see a list of available CNN AudPod episodes by
clicking here.
10/29/09 WCSL returns from successful Mexico leg of YOSO TOUR 2009
It's
being billed as "The magic of YES with the voice of TOTO. Add the
fidelity of West Coast Sound & Light and you have a super-group combination
to die for! So says tour manager and front of house engineer Paul
Doty. "This group is a dream come true, both for the fans, and for
us." "It is such an honor to be working with a group of musicians on
this level". Said Paul upon retuning from the first leg of the bands
tour, a "shake down" tour in Mexico before the release of the bands upcoming
album "YOSO". For those not "in the know", YOSO (A combination of both
bands YES & TOTO) hit the road this year with WCSL production and tour
management, bringing it's unique style of commercial prog rock to arenas to
the delight of both YES and TOTO fans. Watch for the release of the
new album and US tours to follow in 2010. Click
here to see photos from the Mexico leg of the tour.
10/16/09 WCSL currently on YES/TOTO (YOSO) tour in South America
WCSL
staff leaves for South America this weekend with Super group YOSO, a hybrid
band made up of key members of both YES and TOTO. The 2009 tour is a
warm up for extensive touring in 2010. Tour Manager and YOSO FOH
engineer Paul Doty reveled Friday that the band will be doing 6 Toto hits
and 6 YES hits, along with 4 brand new original songs to be released on
YOSO's forth coming album, out by Christmas. Group co-lead vocalist
Bobby Kimball from Toto chats with WCSL staff at a recent lunch in LA.
10/16/09 WCSL to move into new facility December 1st
WCSL
is only a month away from starting it's move into a larger facility in it's
Northern California shop. The new facility offers the company 5 times
the office space over it's current property. The new building also has
greatly expanded facilities for client meetings with an expanded boardroom
and numerous offices for WCSL's expanding departments. Parking
improves as well with over 10 times the available asphalt. The high
security facility is located only blocks from WCSL's current location.
10/9/09 Headsets CD release party at Laserium a sell out
WCSL is proud and honored to to involved not only with classic
Laserium in Hollywood but to serve as sole production provider for The
Headsets project with legendary performers from the bands YES, Circa, & Asia
and radio legend Jim Ladd. The Headsets album release produced a
standing room only audience in Hollywood and tomorrow debuts live on stage.
WCSL's Paul Doty will serve as sound engineer for the event as the band is
augmented by state of the art lasers, lighting and of course, sound.
Click the photo at left to see a video featuring footage from the CD release party and small cuts
of the tracks from the album Headsets II: Sides. If your in the LA
area, we'll see you Saturday night as the stars come out in Hollywood for
the live premier of Headsets II: Sides.
10/1/09 WCSL releases "Lynyrd Skynyrd" podcast
A podcast on The AudPod with in depth
interviews of survivors from the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash.
Click here to listen.
9/10/09 Reality Ventura enjoys First Sunday with new WCSL sound,
light, video
9/7/09 After 20 years, one of WCSL's favorite clients on the come
back trail
9/7/09 WCSL CEO Paul Doty lends expertise to upcoming book
Breaking
The Sound Barrier, Taking Control Of Your Stage, will hit stores by
Christmas 2009 and features over 100 tips by professional musicians and
engineers working in the concert industry. WCSL's Paul Doty was asked
to participate in the project and was honored to contribute. Watch
wcsl.org for details on how you can get your copy. For more details
visit the books website by clicking here,
or find out what other engineers and musicians have graced the pages of BTSB
by clicking here.
Breaking The Sound Barrier, available in stores, Christmas 2009.
8/31/09 California wildfires threaten WCSL Southern California in
Montrose
California fires bared down on WCSL Montrose
this weekend as staff stood by for evacuation. The fires as of Sunday
are still burning dangerously close to WCSL-LA in Montrose, and are
reportedly only 5 percent contained. "We had a scary time Friday" said
Director Of Southern California Operations Tim Nesbitt. "You couldn't
see across the street and it was raining ash most of the morning." By
Friday night things seemed more under control near the populated areas of
Montrose, but the situation continues to be monitored.
8/13/09 Dave Carroll (United Breaks Guitars) drops WCSL an email
update
In July Canadian Country Artist Dave Carroll
became an overnight You Tube sensation when he released his video
"United Breaks Guitars". Since the release he's been swamped with
requests for interviews as the video mustered nearly 5 million hits since.
He's currently working on a follow up video and sends us pix of behind the
scenes footage of the shoot. we hope to have Dave on The AudPod soon,
WCSL's weekly podcast. Stay tuned. You can see Dave's original
video on our humor page.
8/13/09 Farewell. Les Paul has died
American
Jazz guitarist and inventor Les Paul has died at age 94. He is
credited for massive inventions in our industry including overdubbing, delay
effects, phasing, multi-track recording and of course, the iconic Les Paul
Gibson guitar.