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.

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.

The redesign of wcsl.org continues this week with beta testing of various web 2.0 scripts. One such script can now be found on wcsl.org's humor page. This week we're testing scripts for "Share" button integration with Facebook. In the future wcsl.org you will be able to share pages, news stories, pictures, and photo galleries with your friends and on facebook with the click of a button. wcsl.org will continue to transition this year into a more interactive web experience.

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!

YOSO has announced it's drummer for 2010 will be Jody Cortez (Cinderella, David Crosby, others). It's 2010 World Tour has also been announced starting with a return to Mexico in February. Jody has also worked in the past with members of Toto, so the integration into a band made of former Toto and YES members was a natural choice. "We have some unfinished business with Mexico City" quipped tour manager and FOH engineer Paul Doty on Monday. "Our public Mexico City show had to be postponed due to problems with the venue. The date was rescheduled this year, allowing us to also return to Puebla, the site of YOSO's live DVD to be released later this year." Reportedly also in the works are South America dates, European date, and US dates. YOSO carries WCSL personnel overseas and WCSL production in the US.

A live DVD is currently being produced from the Puebla Arena date on the 2009 YOSO World Tour. The DVD is scheduled for release in 2010 following the bands debut album. YOSO, a supergroup made up of former Toto & YES members will continue the support of the new release on tour in 2010 with WCSL production, engineers, and tour management. "It's an honor and a privilege to have been chosen as a production provider for this level of talent" commented band FOH engineer and tour manager Paul Doty Friday. "Being recognized as a high fidelity company and engineer(s) absolutely speaks volumes. We could not be more excited about the future of this band and this relationship." Click here to see videos from the upcoming DVD.

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

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.

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!"

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"

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.

Both Matt Cross and Drew Fischer enjoyed birthdays Sunday. We wish both warm birthday wishes from the entire WCSL family.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A podcast on The AudPod with in depth interviews of survivors from the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. Click here to listen.

Last week WCSL truck rolled in the first installment of sound production for the legendary Laserium at Hollywood & Vine in Hollywood California. The two companies have partnered to bring state of the art sight and sound to patrons visiting this historic city. This week more WCSL gear is set to be installed and yet more over the following two weeks. "Were ramping up the production value" said CEO Paul Doty on Monday before leaving with another truck load of ear candy to aid in the sensory overload. The companies joint effort includes bring live bands to the Laserium experience for the first time.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

CNN is reporting today that Alexis Cohen's body was found on a street in the town of Seaside Heights early Saturday. Cohen appeared in auditions of the television show in 2008 and 2009. An autopsy indicated that she had suffered head trauma and multiple injuries, including to her abdomen and chest. Daniel Bark was arrested Sunday evening and is being held in lieu of $35,000 bail. Bark, of Toms River, New Jersey, is charged with reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. No other details are available at this time.

WCSL's weekly podcast The AudPod can now be heard in Germany on podhunt.de. The German site distributes podcasts much like it's American counterpart sites like podcast alley. Our advice to our listeners, unless you speak German, you may want to stick with iTunes. None the less, Die AudPod in Deutsch? Ja, das ist gut!

Congratulations to wcsl.org as it zips past it's 110,000th unique visitor this morning. Web traffic is on the rise with the advent of many new wcsl.org programs like it's weekly podcast The AudPod and it's new Facebook page driving new visitors to the site. WCSL wishes to thank all our dot org surf heads out there for making wcsl.org a joy to maintain.

7/13/09 Toto's Bobby Kimball and Heart's Howard Leese open Rockin' Steak House

WCSL friend and Toto vocalist Bobby Kimball opened this week The Rockin' Steak House in Agoura California with partner and long time Heart guitarist Howard Leese. WCSL's Tim Nesbitt and wife Margrett were in attendance as many industry folks and musicians helped the steak house rock at it's grand opening Saturday night. We wish Bobby the best of luck with the new venture and are confident in it's success, considering Bobby's track record with ventures of excellence. Rock On! ....and pass the meat!

Former WCSL partner Chris Gray & wife have launched a new website to promote their successful cabinet company Grayline. Chris & Paul separated companies in 1995 to better grow both with available resources. Chris's company has continued to grow through the years and we're happy to offer our highest endorsement and encourage all to check out their latest endeavor at http://grayline.mysite.com

We break with tradition this year after 23 years of celebrating the 4th of July with the city of Turlock at Stan State University. For the first time in as many years, the college has had to suspend it's traditional celebration due to economy woes. Instead WCSL is proud to part of the opening of the new Craneway Pavilion in Richmond California as we provide audio for Disney's High School Musical.

This past weekend Paul & Leslie's daughter Ashley took 3rd place at the International Make Up Artist Trade show in LA. Ashley started her career 10 years earlier at the very show working as a spot op for West Coast Sound & Light. Inspired by the people she met in the industry, she set out to become a Make Up Artist. The annual contest pits 8 of the worlds top graduating students against each other in a blind test judged by top makeup artists in Hollywood and from around the world. Congratulations Ashley!

Janita has recorded a Slim Man penned track that will be available on her upcoming album in the fall of 2009. Of course, wcsl.org surfers don't have to wait until winter right? Of course not. You can download the track by clicking here. You can also visit Janita's site by clicking here, or visit Slim man's site by clicking here.

We are sorry to announce this weekend the passing of Smooth Jazz artist and former NBA player Wayman Tisdale at age 44. Wayman lost his battle Friday to cancer. WCSL enjoyed a number of shows with Tisdale over the years, always a popular performer. He will be missed.

This week WCSL staff matt Cross, Tim Nesbitt, & Paul Doty are live on the floor at WFX Long Beach. Paul & Tim will be podcasting live from the expo every day during the week. Tune in to the live podcasts on the AudPod page at www.wcsl.org/audpod

We are saddened to report the passing of long time Willie Nelson road manager Randall "Poodie" Locke who did this week of an apparent heart attack. WCSL staff worked directly with Poodie on all Willie Nelson shows, he will be missed. "Poodie was a unique character in an industry of unique characters" WCSL CEO Paul Doty said on Friday. See a tribute page at http://stillisstillmoving.com/

The 68-year-old, famous for the "Wall of Sound" recording technique, faces between 18 years and life in prison with his conviction of second degree murder of 40-year-old Ms Clarkson, who was shot in the mouth at Spector's home in Los Angeles. Spector was remanded in custody until sentencing on May 29.

This morning saw the return of WCSL's infamous April 1st edition of wcsl.org as we once again rolled out the bafoonary that folks have come to expect and enjoy every April 1. And enjoy they did as the site which usually gets about 100 hits a day received 100 hits in just it's first hour this morning. Did you forget? Did you miss it? As usual, we have not only this years April Fools page archived, but all April Fools editions going back to 2005. Click here to visit our humor page to see them all, and special thanks to our loyal fans who make it worth the effort every year.

Back by popular demand, wcsl.org will once again embrace the weird side of the entertainment industry as we celebrate April Fools day for 24 hours or so. Last year 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 the year online. So, this year 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. This years episode will go up Tuesday night and remain up until Thursday morning. Click here for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 (audio)

WCSL greatly expanded it's inventory of new frequency compliant RF mics for the 2009 touring and festival season. "This expansion is one of the largest in our companies history" stated engineer Wes White as he assembled numerous racks of new wireless systems last week in the Northern California shop. "WCSL's wireless inventory has always been second to none, and this expansion underlines the companies commitment to state of the art technology."

wcsl.org's spring 2009 facelift was completed this week giving the entire site a new look and greater functionality and content. The renovation included many new pages (listed previously below), a new drop down menu navigation system, a new road case theme complete with WCSL logo icon for bookmarking in your browser, a new black, white and gray color scheme, and a new matching web element bar on the home page for the weather and updated counter.

Spring is officially here and it's time to ready everything for the busy summer season at West Coast Sound & Light. This week crew members prepared road cases with swank new WCSL logos so everything will look it's best when we roll out of a truck at a show near you.

This weeks expansion on wcsl.org continues as many new pages have been added and many old pages have been updated. Among the new pages the site now features sections for video, backline, corporate and convention services, home integration, and a download page. Other pages getting a facelift include the live events page, and the human resources page. The third phase will soon conclude featuring a new look to the web elements (weather, time, etc.) on the home page. Stay tuned!

3/17/09 Adam Carolla hits pay dirt, or sometimes circumstances feed the future

3/14/09 WCSL debuts in Church Production magazine Online this month as series kicks off on The AudPod

This past week kicked off a multi-part "how-to" series of podcasts produced jointly between Church Production magazine and
West Coast Sound & Light. The shows are co-hosted by WCSL's Paul Doty and Church Production editor Mark Johnson. The episodes may be downloaded for free by going to www.wcsl.org/audpod or by seeing the article in Church Production Online by clicking here. The series will air every week leading up to WFX in Long Beach in May.

If your reading this, you're on the site, and if you're on the site you can't help but to notice that wcsl.org has received a bit of a facelift this week. The site improvements and upgrades are three fold. first, a new color and background theme permeate the site. Secondly a new navigation system has been implemented utilizing drop down menus to simplify your browsing experience. Lastly new pages are being added over the next few weeks to cover WCSL expanding areas of expertise. Also watch our front page over the next few weeks as it is refined even further with the new color scheme working into the many elements on it. All pages that are currently under construction should be completed by the end of next week. We thank our beta testers for their comments and suggestions. You guys know who you are.