Interviewing celebrities, breaking national stories, blogging daily, and offering candid commentary on pop culture is just a small sample of what he does. Ralphie Aversa is the relentless, tireless, non-stop-always-go host and executive producer of “The Ralphie Radio Show.”
Check out his links above, and his blog below - and thanks for swinging through!
Ryan Leander, one half of the team behind "AHugFromTaylorSwift.com" checks in to "The Ralphie Radio Show" after he and Michael Wekall accomplished their mission and received a hug from Taylor Swift. The singer surprised the boys in Auburn, Alabama. Leander notes that video of the experience will be posted soon here.
It started with a random idea hatched during class to score attention for YouTube videos. It’s safe to say that 22 year-old friends Ryan Leander and Michael Wekall have accomplished that, and by the time their mission is complete, YouTube hits might not be the only thing they have to show for their work. Leander and Wekall created AHugFromTaylorSwift.com. The goal is just that – be hugged by singer Taylor Swift. Yes, Swift knows of the website, and is offering challenges to the students via her own YouTube account. After completing the first task of helping senior citizens across the street, the duo will premiere a video that incorporates the number 13 in to good deeds. Leander told me on “The Ralphie Radio Show” that they’ll upload the clip on April 13. Yes, 13 is Taylor’s lucky number.
“We never saw it getting this big,” remarked Leander, who called in to “The RRS” from Alabama. Wekall is a student at Auburn University, while Ryan takes on-line courses. “It’s definitely hard to concentrate with school and this going on and just like a whole other separate life that you have to keep going.” --- Download the interview
--- Leander said that they keep in touch with a middle man who works with Taylor Swift, although he would not reveal the man’s identity or job title. It was this person that discovered Leander and Wekall on-line and alerted Swift. Apparently the songstress was flattered, and now the story is gaining national attention. Although their mission is now transforming in to a feel-good tale, Leander admits they were a little afraid of coming off as creepy.
“That was one of our major fears because I’m sure she gets a lot of that stuff,” said Leander. “We’re just two average guys, just wanting to have fun.”
But when will the fun come to a head, with a hug from Taylor? Leander has no idea.
“Your guess is as good as ours,” he replied. “Hopefully there won’t be too many (challenges), we’re both trying to graduate and get some jobs.”
In this day and age, that task might even be harder than scoring a hug from Grammy-award winning superstar. The students will surely find out soon enough.
He’s 15 years old – already traveling the country with an entourage, performing at sold out venues, shutting down shopping malls, and singing for the President of the United States. Yet, you can’t blame Justin Bieber for finding it a bit weird that people actually care about his dating life.
“A little bit,” the pint-sized singer responded when I asked him if he thought it was strange that people asked him about his personal life at his age. “I mean, I’m young. I mean, I’m dating but I’m not dating anyone specific, yunno what I mean? Just like, being a kid.”
Refreshing to hear that despite all of the hoopla, and record sales, and commitments – Bieber can still focus on just that – living the life of a 15 year-old. When I spoke with him, a crew from the New York Times trailed him for an upcoming feature. Also rolling with Justin – two reps from Island Def Jam Music Group, two managers, band mates, and dancers.
You can’t blame any of the aforementioned for surrounding Bieber – the teenager became the hottest ticket in pop music faster than you can say “Bieber Fever.” Things don’t look to ease up anytime soon – 2010 will bring a new LP in My World Part 2 along with a headlining tour. Usher’s protégé revealed on The RRS that there will be an opening act for the trek, but would not announce who. --- Download the mp3
--- Any star that rises as quickly as Bieber in this day and age is bound to have some controversy following – and that came courtesy of a scheduled mall performance that went awry. Matter of fact, Justin never showed up. But, on November 20, a thousand screaming tweens did storm in to the Roosevelt Mall on Long Island – and a false spotting of the teen sensation sent the crowd in to a frenzy. Paramedics took one girl away on a stretcher and police arrested IDJMG’s senior vice president for sales.
A few weeks later, Bieber played for an estimated 20,000 people outside at the Citadel Outlet Mall in Los Angeles. Although the event went off relatively smooth, there were a few reported instances of near-trampling as fans waited impatiently for the artist to arrive. All of this begs the question – have we seen the last of Justin Bieber mall appearances?
“I dunno, as long as we have enough security I think we’ll be fine,” he said. “I just don’t want little girls to get hurt… I just love to be able to perform for my fans in general.”
Just because Martin Johnson tweets, doesn’t mean the Boys Like Girls front man thinks the micro-blogging service is doing anyone any good.
“I think Twitter is really stupid,” said Johnson during an interview on The Ralphie Radio Show. I chatted with the lead singer and guitarist Paul DiGiovanni before another stop on BLG’s headlining fall trek with Cobra Starship. “I think it’s ruining America’s youth.” Quickly I retorted that Johnson himself owns an account, with over 35,000 “followers.”
“You have to do a Twitter if you’re in a band… keep people updated,” explained Johnson. “Dude, people don’t talk to each other anymore. You go to a show, and kids, like, are texting each other… it’s scary man.” --- Download the mp3
--- I asked Johnson if he’s apprehensive to send out updates, or is even tempted to cancel his account all together. He began to answer before cutting himself off, admitting that he can become “preachy” and “annoying” about the subject. DiGiovanni then chimed in.
“It’s just another way for people to communicate with each other and contact each other,” said the guitarist. “I don’t think it’s gonna be bad.”
Social networking and it’s affect on our country wasn’t the only subject spoken about during the interview. Of course, the guys talked about the latest single from Love Drunk, “Two Is Better Than One”, featuring Taylor Swift.
“It felt, when we made (“Two Is Better Than One”), like it was something special,” revealed Johnson. “The song was fully produced and we were like, ‘It’s missing something so bad,’ and we had been friends with Taylor for a couple years. John (Keefe) actually played on Fearless. So we called her up and asked her to do it, and as soon as we got her voice on there it was just like, ‘Oh man, this is something special.’”
From the outset, Justin Bieber seems like your typical 15 year-old. He doodles on his own photos, cracks jokes with band mates, and will at times refuse to listen to anyone older than him. Getting ready to walk on stage at The Mall at Steamtown, he hops on his record label rep’s back, only to crash his head in to a door sill. Leaving the mall, in an attempt to retrieve his fallen hat, his ankle is stepped on by a fan, but of course, he tries not to let on to his staff, which laughs at him as he hobbles around, that its bothering him.
But a quick look at what the Canadian-born heart throb accomplished this past year, and “typical” will quickly become the furthest adjective from your mind.
Bieber performed last Thursday exclusively for 97 BHT listeners inside The Mall at Steamtown. Usher signed the teenage crooner to a deal after watching some of his YouTube videos – the most famous being Bieber’s cover of Chris Brown’s “With You”. But Usher wasn’t the only A-lister trying to court the 15 year-old.
“Well, what happened was, it was in Las Vegas. And it was Justin Timberlake in the red corner, it was Usher in the blue corner, and I’m pretty sure it was a technical knockout,” joked Bieber before he performed for almost 1,200 people inside the mall. I asked if Usher offered that much more than Timberlake, to which Bieber replied, “No, uhm… it was a technical knockout.” ---
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Now with the upcoming release of his debut LP, My World, Bieber sports an enthusiastic fan base throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as two hits charted in the Top 30. Just a few weeks ago he popped up on NBC’s “The Today Show”, and who could forget his cameo at the MTV Video Music Awards? Yes, the 15 year-old had the daunting task of introducing Taylor Swift’s performance, immediately after KanYe West interrupted the starlet’s acceptance speech on stage. Bieber witnessed the fiasco from the stage, and then went on to offer impromptu kudos to Swift on-air, before introducing her.
“I don’t think as a new artist, or anybody, really goes off topic of like, what they’re supposed to say on the teleprompter,” Bieber noted. “I kinda took a risk… having to introduce Taylor Swift on top of that was kinda scary, but I mean, she’s amazing. She’s a really nice girl so, I was honored to be able to introduce her.”
Bieber was also honored to take part in Kidd Kraddick In The Morning’s “Band Camp.” For a week straight, the singer joined the morning show to help a group of kids form a band. Bieber notes that he enjoyed the experience, but in typical 15 year-old fashion, did have one complaint. “The only crappy part was I had to wake up at like 5 in the morning, every single day,” Bieber said. He uses his iPhone as an alarm – and also as a way to connect with his fans. The same day he performed at the mall, uStream, a web site that allows for live web video chatting, sent Bieber an iPhone application that allows him to stream live video to the web site.
“I just got it today,” Bieber said, still kinda taken aback that uStream would send him the app before it makes it available to the general public. “But like, it’s cool that I can uStream from my phone.”
Bieber will then send the uStream link out to his Twitter followers, all 300,000 plus.
“I don’t know why (I have that many followers),” he joked. “I’m not that cool.”
Taylor Swift teams up with T-Pain for the track "Thug Story" that happened to be a big hit at the CMT Music Awards. Here's some behind the scenes footage of the song coming together.
Maybe Taylor Swift should as well? Joe is now dating actress Camilla Belle. Did he upgrade or downgrade? Apparently the new couple met on the set of the "Lovebug" music video. More useless details here.
Siding with her - but I think only because I don't mind anyone making the squeaky-clean Jonas Brothers look not-so-clean... and I have a crush on Taylor...
But of course, in the end all parties involved are not even 20 years old yet - so does it really matter?
catch this in the weekender on wednesday... On Sunday night, Amy Winehouse reaffirmed her position as an artist that can perform, inspire, and revolutionize what we know as contemporary music. The British singer won 5 of the 6 Grammy awards the Academy nominated her for, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for the track that may define Wino’s career – Rehab.
Due to problems with renewing her Visa, as well as the ongoing rehab stint, Winehouse performed and accepted one of the five awards via satellite in London’s Riverside Studios.
Here on WYOU, we watched the Amy Winehouse that America fell in love with over the summer. The Amy Winehouse with swagger and confidence. The one that appeared to scoff at you while belting out the memorable, authentic, “No, No, No!” when they asked her to go to rehab.
The intervention of her father, Mitch, led her to a different response when they proposed another stint in rehab last month, just after video surfaced of the bee-hived singer as a blond, smoking what appeared to be a crack pipe.
“I’m useless to you anyway now, I just took about six valium,” slurred Winehouse in the grainy footage.
With a Grammy debut that ended with five pieces of hardware and one brilliant performance, it’s doubtful that people will regard Winehouse in such a dreadful light for the time being.
Now the blogs and vlogs have new material – like her reaction on live TV to winning Record of the Year. Overcome with shock, Winehouse embraced band members and her parents, thanking them while also offering up her second shout-out of the night to locked-up husband Blake Fielder-Civil .
“For my Blake incarcerated, and for London! This is for London!” Winehouse emotionally proclaimed.
This success may be for her home city, but by all means, you can’t deny the British vocalist’s All-American comeback story.
DON’T WORRY – OTHER ARTISTS WON TOO
- Prior to the show’s start, Kanye West already coroneted himself a Grammy winner. Yet, for the third time, the Album of the Year Grammy escaped him, awarded to jazz musician Herbie Hancock.
Despite this, West still stole and extended the spotlight. While accepting his Grammy for Best Rap Album, producers began to play the “wrap-up” music right before the Chicago-rapper entered into a tribute to his mother. West politely asked the Academy to kill the music, and they obliged.
Kanye also paid homage to his late mother, Dr. Donda West, earlier in the night with his performance of Hey Mama. West won four Grammys.
- Vince Gill earned himself a little street-cred Sunday night. After receiving the Best Country Album Grammy from Beatle-legend Ringo Starr, Gill offered up the following on stage:
“I just got an award given to me by a Beatle,” gleamed Gill. “Have you had that happen yet Kanye?”
West smiled it off. After all, no egos would be injured in the production of this awards show.
- Reading’s Taylor Swift appeared in her first Grammy’s, presenting an award and losing Best New Artist to Winehouse.
