Classic Rock, Classic Country: As per usual, Willie Nelson will play two nights at The Backyard for both locals avoiding SXSW and tourists willing to skip one night of showcases to see Austin's most enduring music legend. Willie's shows are tentatively scheduled for 3/14 and 3/15, and will go on sale sometime in February. In another move designed to access some tourist dollars, Direct Events has announced a relatively intimate show with Van Morrison at the Austin Music Hall on Tuesday, March 11. Van the Man apparently hasn't heard about the looming recession, as tickets are priced from $102 to a whopping $257. ...

For the third time in two years, community based public radio station KOOP 91.7 fm has suffered a studio fire that has put a halt to programming. ...

While you were sleeping, 2,000 South Africans were trapped in a gold mine. So Sooner isn't just a clever name? Prepare yourself. Minnesota Public Radio comes up with a nifty set of questions to see which candidate you'd likely vote for. Blind advocacy groups are protesting hybrids, arguing that they are too quiet. Last pictures of the life of Princess Diana were posted online yesterday. Clean, but disturbing. Beaten, but not broken. UT fans......

It’s down to the final five! No, not The Sound And The Jury Contest, but the Public Radio Talent Quest. Presented by PRX and cpb, the quest started in April with thousands of applicants, all with high hopes of hosting their own show on public radio (along with some cash booty). Now it’s down to the last five and voting ends on September 23rd at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern). Why should you care? There’s an Austinite......

As most of us know, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is making it harder and harder for Internet radio producers to finance their stations. Retroactive royalty fees and increased future fees are forcing webcasters into a corner: the fees increase both per-listener and per-song rates, and are based on audience size, increasing as listeners do. This proposed scheme would put public radio stations that stream their broadcasts and web-based radio programming at a great disadvantage......

This Thursday, May 17th at 7pm, Austin fixture Owen Egerton will be celebrating the release of How Best to Avoid Dying, his brand new collection of short stories, at BookPeople. The book is also the latest release for local publisher Dalton Publishing. They're offering a free peep of the book's first story, "Spelling," here. While the book itself is worthy of celebration, so too is its author. Egerton is one of Austin's renaissance men.......

One of our favorite radio shows around is Morning Becomes Eclectic, the weekday program produced by Santa Monica public radio station KCRW. Affable Englishman Nic Harcourt, host of MBE and music director at KCRW, has helmed the program since 1998, introducing his listeners to some of the best new bands around the world while playing a range of genres that encompasses progressive pop, world beat, indie rock, jazz, African, reggae, classical and more. You......

Seattle's public radio station, KEXP 90.3, has long been a bellwether of up-and-coming bands in the national indie-rock scene. This year, Austin groups took not one, but two spots in their Top 90.3 albums of 2006. Nestled in the top 20, our own beloved electronica exhibitionists Ghostland Observatory's Paparazzi Lightning took #16, while brooding psych-rockers The Black Angels' Passover took #6. Not only is this titillating news for the bands, outplacing indie legends like Yo......

It's a mad, mad workd out there, folks. And here's the proof... SFist commenters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest......

Call us elitist or snooty or even boring, but we admit it - we love National Public Radio (NPR) and their local affiliate KUT (90.5). And yo, it’s not just for intellects anymore. Where else can you hear the refined likes of Terry Gross juxtaposed with the crassness of the Beastie Boys? Yep. You guessed it – NPR, baby. Today’s esteemed guests on Terry Gross’s highly regarded interview format talk show “Fresh Air” were none......

If you've spent any time in Los Angeles or on the internet for that matter, chances are you are probably familiar with public radio station KCRW and particularly the shows “Morning Becomes Eclectic” and “Weekend Becomes Eclectic.” Undoubtedly two of the best radio shows anywhere. What makes these shows so outrageously great is Nic Harcourt, who hosts the shows and also works as KCRW’s music director. Harcourt has an uncanny ability to go through......

We love our Sunday morning ritual of waking up slowly, putting on our big fluffy bathrobe, grabbing a cup of strong black java, and settling into our favorite chair to listen to the KUT (90.5) lineup beginning at 9:00 with "This American Life", followed by "Selected Shorts" at 10:00 and then - if our dogs aren't absolutely insisting that we get our lazy asses up and take them out to do their "business" -......

Film and public radio fans rejoice; legendary Director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, Nashville, Short Cuts) will open the SXSW Film Festival this March with the North American premiere of his new film “A Prairie Home Companion,” the feature-length adaptation of the wildly popular public radio presentation from original American voice Garrison Keillor. The premiere is a boon for the fest, which has establishied itself as one of the country’s premiere film festivals. The film, penned......

Have you heard of Before the Break with Laurie Gallardo? Well, if you care about local bands, labels, venues, et al, you will want to check out her segments on KUT. From Laurie’s mission statement of sorts for her program: Before the Break will consist of short pieces that feature a local band or musician, an independent music label, a local venue that hosts music performances, or any individual or organization that has strong......

Don’t freak out on Sunday morning, folks. You did not drink so much on Saturday night or stand too close to the speakers that you are now permanently deaf. And, no, the Bush administration did not ransack the public radio stations across the country in search of Communist hippies to hang from the gallows. KUT is making tower and transmitter upgrades this Sunday and, therefore, will have some dead air. From the KUT e-newsletter:......

Someday soon conservative boneheads may make National Public Radio a thing of the past, but for now we have our NPR and our Terry Gross, the journalist/whiz interviewer behind Fresh Air. The culturally elite among you will be happy to know you can have a smart and sassy night out on the town seeing Ms. Gross live at the Paramount Theater. She'll be here on September 8th. Tickets are on sale now.......

The Austinist grew up with Sesame Street. We could even say we survived on it, and there are still VHS tapes of old recorded episodes in our parents’ house. So when we heard about the proposed budget cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, we were more than a little appalled. Fortunately, public broadcasting won a reprieve yesterday as the House voted (284-140) to restore the $100 million cut to the $400 million budget.......