TWIS on TWIT

April 1st, 2010

Dear TWIS Minions,

This Week in Science is making a few changes.

After 10 years of broadcasting live just about every Tuesday morning from KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis, CA, TWIS is making a move.

As of 8:00 pm PT on Monday, April 12th, 2010, TWIS will broadcast live on Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech Network.

It only seems natural that the TWI’s join forces as many people have been confused by the separate worlds of TWIS and TWIT for years anyway.

So, from April 12th onward TWIS will be live in video format on TWIT every Monday night at 8pm PT.

TWIS will continue to exist on KDVS, but as a pre-recorded show only.

You will also be able to continue to subscribe to and download TWIS as an audio rss feed without making any changes. We are keeping the feed address the same.

We think that the new format and platform will work together to make TWIS better than ever, and we’ll keep bringing you quality science infotainment.

Thanks for listening. We look forward to seeing you at live.twit.tv on Monday nights.

It’s all in your head,
–kirsten and Justin

Dust Off That Synthesizer!

March 2nd, 2010

Bring out the Moog, and prepare your Theremin!

Or, maybe it’s a banjo and some cowbell… hell, I don’t care.

I’m just looking for original science-y music for the This Week in Science 2010 Compilation Album.

The guidelines are that it needs to be about science or inspired by science AND YOU MUST BE ABLE TO GRANT ME LICENSE TO USE IT.

I don’t want something by Blackalicious unless you are in Blackalicious. That said, if you are a friend ofBlackalicious, tell them to get in touch with me.

Why am I making a science-y music album? Well, I’ve made an album for our home radio station’s annual fundraiser each year for the past four years, and I’d like to go for a fifth.

Our station, KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis, is a non-commercial, free-form radio station that gets more than half of its budget from its annual fundraiser. We set aside a portion of the limited cd pressing for use as premium gifts for people who donate to KDVS during our show. The remainder of the cds are sold later in the year in order to recoup our production costs. TWIS makes no money from these albums.

What we need, however, are super cool science-y songs donated for use on the album. Without songs, there is no album.

As a musician what do you get in return? Well, in addition to being on the album, you will be played during TWIS repeatedly during the year, linked to from the TWIS website, and get the warm-fuzzies from helping to support free-form, non-commercial radio and science all in one go.

How can you submit a song? Email me (kirsten at thisweekinscience dot com) with an mp3 or a link to an mp3 of your song(s). Please, put TWIS Compilation in the subject.

If your song is chosen for the album, I’ll be in touch to ask for a higher bit-rate, uncompressed .aif or .wav file and your John Hancock on a basic licensing and use agreement. We like to take care of a lot of the post-production when we master the album, so the less compressed / produced on the final version the better.

Any questions, just email me at the address above.

Oh, and the fundraiser is mid-April, so I’ll need songs asap! Submission deadline is March 15th.

KDVS Annual Fundraiser On Now

April 21st, 2009

Hey everyone…

Every year, KDVS, the radio station that This Week in Science calls home has a fundraising drive. It’s that time of year again.

For the week, volunteers will be at the station answering phones, taking donations, and generally working their butts off to support the station. The goal is to raise $60,000.

That’s a small sum compared to so many other things in this world. It’s significantly less than most households in the San Francisco Bay Area make in a year.

In return for support, those who donate will receive gifts that have been specially chosen by people who work at the station. The music directors have put together amazing music packages, djs have crafted their own t-shirts and cds. Hundreds of hours of love and dedication have already gone into making this week something special with no expectation of gain in return other than to keep the station thriving.

That’s what is so special about KDVS. It is non-commercial, independent, free-form radio, and the people who work at the station truly love to be there.

So, show your support for the concept of KDVS, for the home of TWIS, for a station that continues to put science on the radio… donate.

Any amount is great, but we hope that people will be able to give $25 as students or $40 as community members.

TWIS is offering a limited number of the 2009 Science Music Compilation CDs as our special gift to people who donate at the student or community level in support of our show.

You can donate online here.

Oh, and PS… It’s tax-deductible.