 it's your Fort Worth. I'm Mayor Betsy Price. I hope you're ready because today's show is going to be a little bit funky. Fort Worth is a city built on cowboys and cultures. It's a unique blend in our city that gives it a distinct characteristic. It's what we're known for and it's a part of who we are. Some call it Fort Worth special appeal, but a growing number of us call it keeping Fort Worth funky. Keep Fort Worth funky is the local group supporting local music and businesses. Supporting local business just as important to the city's economy. It's also part of maintaining our special character. Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. But while we welcome new businesses and residents, we have to figure out how we maintain that critical community identity. We have special guests with us here in the studio today to talk about just that. With me today is James Zammett, the godfather of Keep Fort Worth Monkey. Welcome James. Thank you. And James is joined by John Rodey, better known as the Southside Pirate. Thank you both for coming and in a minute, John, I'm going to have to ask you where the Southside Pirate came from. Very good. I'm going to ask you a few questions, but I'm going to start with John. Where did the Southside Pirate come from? Well, Mayor, the Southside Pirate came from an idea that spawned from an opportunity for local non-profit organizations to operate radio stations in a climate that's otherwise monopolized by corporations. And the Obama administration in 2010 came up with the Community Radio Act. This past November, we successfully applied for such an FM channel for Fort Worth. These low-power FM stations would cover the entire city of Fort Worth. I think what makes the Southside Pirate probably even more different and funky is that we only play music from Fort Worth. Love that. You cannot imagine and everyone should just take a moment and listen to the station online if they so choose and just see how well all this diversity works together. You wouldn't believe it's all coming from Funky Town because the artists themselves, the musicians, give us their music. This has turned out to be quite a grassroots thing because we have a booty box on the Southside at Avoka Coffee where the musicians put their music in. Sally and I founded the non-profit organization, deal with the FCC and other government agencies, and we stream at 24-7. And people listen to it. We've had listeners in 12 states who listen to Fort Worth music exclusively. That's really cool. So if I could write music, I could submit my own music, correct? Yes, you could. Or if I could play. I certainly can't sing, so I'm not even going to go there. We might be able to find something for you to do. Yeah, they might be debatable. And James, tell me about your part in Keep Fort Worth, Funky. Well, my wife and I, we've been in Fort Worth for going on 10 years now. We grew up in Arlington, but we just fell in love with the Fort Worth scene that was coming up and the music scene and everything. So we thought of a way that we can maybe be a part of it, get involved with it and help nourish that, you know, enrich it. You know, get all the information and have an avenue for people to find out more about what's going on in their city. So, or people outside of the city to find out when they come to Fort Worth what's going on and things like that. And you focus a fair amount on the music scene, too. A lot on the music scene, yeah. We like music. And I know you remember the night riders, the bike group. Or you ride with them, son? I've ridden, yeah. I don't have a lot of time to ride, but as much as I can, yeah. My wife is with the bicycle beddies, and so we're, yeah, we're big bike riders, so I take my kid around a lot. And the bicycle beddies tend to show up in their costumes and ride, which is really fun. All right, you have to tell us and tell our viewers what North Texas Beard Alliance is. It's a group of a bunch of hairy guys that got together and they do, they actually do a lot of fundraising events. They hang out at Rar Brewery a lot. They're a lot of drinkers and they grow their hair out. So it's a fun group. They do a lot of good stuff for the city. They bring us a lot of character. They do, they do. Yeah, we've done an event with them. We had a beard competition where some of the wilder-haired guys judged the competition, so it's been fun. So it's not just No Shave November. My sons all grew beards and told me it was No Shave November. Yeah, that's every month for these guys. I love it. It's part of, if Austin is weird, it's part of what makes Fort Worth funky, huh? Right, right. That's cool. Tell me what the biggest struggle is that local bands and local musicians face in Fort Worth, or indeed in Tarrant County. I think it's exposure, really. That's why the South Side Pirate is an important part of this, because once they're on the radio, then, just like KXT, they do play local stations, but the pirate's exclusively local, so it'll be very important once they're on the radio to get the local music scene up and go on full steam. You know, I think to get exposure is a huge for a band, and in certain markets that I've lived in, in certain places I've lived in, the only place you could go see them would be in a bar, or a saloon, or a honky-tonk. Fort Worth has got... And what's wrong with that? Nothing's wrong with that. However, not everybody goes to them. And so we have Friday on the Green. Right. We have a big events planned for the spring. We have Busker-friendly streets, where the essence of Fort Worth's artistic community can rise to the top. That's what I would probably say is why this climate, you know, you've got the right temperature, you've got the right humidity, you've got public acceptance, and so to give them more exposure, we're certainly not lacking music venues. That's true. So to bring about, you know, I've told people this at other presentations I've given. I said, Fort Worth, with the vibrant, and it truly is, uber-vibrant, you could be another Nashville within a half a decade. We have fine recording studios, we have world-class writers, songwriters who travel all over the world from Fort Worth. And I think that helps me, because we run the pirate, and it's all Fort Worth music. So, you know, that's what I would say. It's not too big and it's not too small. Its critical mass is reached in that artistic algorithm, if you will, you know? And if somebody wants to find Funky Town, Fort Worth's Funky Side, what's the best place? Is it Friday on the Green to start for a starting place for them? If you've got your family, we've got this new development downtown that is breathtaking. Absolutely. Panther Island Pavilion is a great venue for lots of stuff going on. So we're very excited about Panther Island. Southside has lots of family-friendly things going on. It really is exploding across the city. More than it started a lot in the Southside, the very artistic, creative funk, so to speak. And it seems to be expanding because Panther Island is certainly right at the edge of downtown. Plaza will have some events, and I hope that it's growing. It is growing, and people are very hungry for it. Their appetite is high for this. We talk about an idea we have on our slate at the pirate to do a dog show called the Southminster Dog Show. People like their beer, they like their bicycles, but they love their dogs. They do love their dogs, and so do I. We're really trying to get some support, maybe from Purina or someone like that, to chime in with some support money so that we can take over the Southside because that's where we live, that's where we play. And I think if all the districts in Fort Worth had as much pride about their area as the Southside did, it would really be something. We're very excited about the Southminster Dog Show. I think that's one of the beauties of Fort Worth. Each neighborhood, each area has its own distinct personality, and some of our other older areas that have declined a little bit are really beginning to find themselves. And I think Fort Worth Funky and the Southside Pirate go a long way towards helping those neighborhoods say, here's an example that's really working, here's what they've done. And so I would suggest that people come to some of your events, kind of see what's going on and maybe take those ideas back to their own neighborhood. Yeah, we would encourage that. We'd like friendly competition between the sides. It just encourages more creativity. So yeah, absolutely. And we're sort of much luckier than most districts in the Southside. We have the real estate developers and the merchants, independent mom and pop merchants like Avoka and all the development that's going on at Shipping and Receiving as what was less than a year ago an area that you wouldn't be so comfortable in now has people walking around. Yeah, a lot of locally owned businesses. And I think we have some questions coming up in our mailbag segment that'll get us to that. Well, you guys are a great example for helping us move Fort Worth forward but maintaining our personality. We just appreciate you coming and talking to us. And I think you have one of your t-shirts. I have one for you, Mayor. You can wear this to the city council. We all have them if you're so inclined. This is the Southside Pirate. It's 100% local Fort Worth music. We're hoping with everybody's help will be on the FM by the end of this year. But you can listen 24-7 using the Pirate app, the iPirate for your Apple people. And you can listen on our website at SouthsidePirate.com. Perfect. SouthsidePirate.com. James, you have some Fort Worth funky things. This is one of our new logos since we love riding bikes. We support bike groups and stuff. All right. It's a handle-borne mustache. It could also be Fort Worth's Molly, right? Yes. So that's for you. And I got you some stickers too for your bike. Awesome. Put stickers on them. That's cool. Just a grab bag of different things that, there's the stickers there. Some of the events, there's a t-shirt from the Arts Goggle event that we were part of this past October. And then some local businesses and artists that make stuff. So here's a book that one of our friends made. And so it's a, for every book they sell, they give one away to kids that wouldn't normally be able to do that. People work dreaming. That's a good thing. Well, thank you. So if you see me on the street, don't run over me and eat one of my cool new t-shirts. James and John, we always end the show with mailbag pieces. So we're ready for our questions that come through the mail for us from citizens. People writing letters. Well, there goes the mailbag. And since I prefer email, we're going to take our questions the good way from electronically. So the first mailbag question comes from Hayden Blackburn. And Hayden wants to know, how can local citizens really connect with the local music scene? Yeah, I mean, support the events that you see, you know, sees the opportunity to see us at Friday on the Green, you know, which is a great family event. You get to meet yourselves familiar with some of the dozens and dozens of musicians that play out and about there. And, you know, at the various events they have around the city, there's always music. Never more than a few hundred feet from the musician at Fort Worth. That's probably great. It is. So, I mean, and the opportunity to go to some of the great restaurants we have on the south side. See, Carlos has got live music, Fusion. And these are people that live in the south side. These are south side residents who are playing. And so you'll see them again. Yeah, sometimes you'll see them carrying their instruments. Yeah. A block from their house to the gig. There's one guy who rides with his guitar on the back of his bicycle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, on the north side, our local mariachi groups are very active. And that's largely local citizens over there. So there is a lot of local music. You kind of got my brain started. And I was thinking, there's a lot of local music. Even a lot of our restaurants when you go places, it's largely local musicians playing it. Right. Yeah. Yeah, we encourage, and that's the main reason we have our Facebook page is our main hub for finding out what's going on. And we're always posting stuff that's happening. So, I would say, first off, to be a fan of our page. And you can find out a lot. Which is keep it worth funky. Yes, on Facebook. Perfect. Yeah, and we're working on the website. So it'll be an even more comprehensive place to go to find out. Not just music, but food, local farmers. And we're talking community events, food co-ops, things like that. So everything that's local that supports local will be right there. And we had a question that dovetails nicely in with that that got me to thinking from Rachel Navajar, the question Rachel said, how can we as citizens tell the difference between a local business and a chain business? We don't have a local Fort Worth. We don't have a seal per se. Sticker per se. I'm working on that. But I think when you go into like Magnolia Cheese Company, I think you get an instant idea. Even though Fred's burgers, there's more than one. There's two local. You know they're local. And so look around and you'll see that, you know, this is not a Madison Avenue kind of town. This is the kind of, and actually I don't know that people would so embrace something that would be as such. Because we saw like, you know, the quality that we get, some of the restaurateurs or some of the finest you'll get in all of the area. Because they're local. You know, even in the stockyards. Local restaurateurs. That's true. And you're working on a program that potentially restaurants could identify themselves. Yeah, I was going to say there's a number of handful of businesses right now that have our mustache sticker on the front of their store. So you know that that's a local shop and we support them and they support what we're doing. So it's a cooperative thing that we're working on. So if you see our sticker, you know that it's supported and it's a local business. And there's a nationwide program that the council supports a couple of times a year called Shop Small. And Shop Small, if you see those stickers indicates that that's a local business, a locally owned business. So there are ways if you start thinking about it. But that's a growing concern I think that we could probably do a better job so that citizens would know who we are. We have another question came in from Hayden also. Hayden wants to know what are Keep Fort Worth Bunkies most well attended music events? And what's coming up for 2014? Well, Clear Fork Fest was the first one was last year. And it was a really good turnout. There was a number of local bands on three stages. They had a solar powered stage, acoustic stage that we used a local solar company that has a shuttle trailer. And they do Prairie Fest. Prairie Fest is another one. And Prairie Fest is on the east side of Fort Worth just off Authority. Right, at Tandy Hills Nature Center. Yeah, and that's a great event too. I'd say those two are probably my favorite. And it's springtime as early May as I recall. Yes, April. April. Yes, so that'll be coming up soon. So people can watch that. And then Clear Fork Fest is in the fall. Watch the Facebook postings for those days. Yeah, we'll be sponsoring that event. Don't forget Arts Goggle. Arts Goggle is the... And that's free. That's all free. That's good stuff going on. Well, you know folks, don't forget to send me your questions for the show. You can just email betsy.price at Fort Worth, Texas dot gov. Or you can like us on Facebook. Follow us on Facebook. Whatever you want to do. You can find us if you want to send questions. Thanks for being with us guys. I enjoyed having you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Great. And now for some final thoughts. At the end of 2013, the beginning of 2014, and I'm pleased that we can look back at our accomplishments. We made real headway on this year's budget and getting that pesky budget back in check. We continue to get citizens more involved in charting the direction of our beloved city. We've built on our progress to support clean and healthy communities. We've driven down crime and even increased the efficiency in city government just a little bit. But there's more to be done in Fort Worth. We simply have to hold the line on the budget so that we can reinvest in greatly needed city services. As major highway projects are completed, we must sharpen our focus on bringing to our citizens alternative farms of transportation and getting them interested in that. We should continue to tackle major challenges like access to affordable water and ending chronic homelessness. In the coming months, Fort Worth will hire a new city manager and in doing so, council and mayor will keep the pressure on to cut the red tape to serve you, our citizens better. Thanks to all of those citizens who continue to give their time, ideas and energy to make Fort Worth the great city it is today. Hope to see you again soon. Let's keep Fort Worth funky. After all, it's your Fort Worth.