Students and music teachers from three schools will defend title
in Bay Area radio competition
By Julie Engelhardt, Special to South Valley Newspapers
“We will, we will ROCK YOU!”
That’s exactly what Hollister’s San Benito High School Scarlet Regiment Band and the Rancho-Maze Middle School band did last year, and they’re hoping to have a repeat performance next month.
Both schools took top honors at the first School of Rock competition held by Bay Area radio station 98.5 KFOX. The high school scored big with its rendition of the song “Smooth” by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana, and the Rancho-Maze middle school band marched into the lead with a medley of songs written by the popular ’70s rock group Queen. Each band received an engraved gold record as well as the chance to perform live on disc jockey Greg Kihn’s morning show.
“The idea for the contest came from KFOX’s program director Laurie Roberts,” said Rob Ayala, the station’s promotions director. “She came up with it after watching Jack Black’s movie of the same name.”
When Roberts suggested the idea, Ayala said he liked it but was afraid that putting the contest together might be a nightmare.
“I was wrong,” he said. “It worked.”
The competition is different from what most schools do, said Scarlet Regiment band director Jim Zuniga, and the students are up to the challenge. Zuniga chose “Smooth” as the band’s entry piece last year after hearing the original on KFOX.
“I wrote all the arrangements myself because, as an arranger, I know the strengths of our band and wrote to that,” he said.
Joe Ostenson, director of the Rancho-Maze combined middle school band, wasn’t even aware last year that the station was planning to hold a contest. He had chosen the Queen medley the summer before school started as a part of his regular band curriculum.
“There’s an arranger by the name of Paul Murtha who writes so well for the junior high school level,” he said. “That’s the reason this music caught my eye.”
Ostenson and his students are lucky that it did, because their performance put them in first place in the middle school division.
But even if they took home the honors last year, the heat is on again this year. If both schools want to walk away with the gold, they’ll have to do their best to wow the listening audience.
The Rancho-Maze Band submitted two songs this year, “Low Rider” – originally performed by the group War – and “Pinball Wizard,” from the rock opera “Tommy.” The high school band is currently working on the songs it wants to enter. The station has also opened the contest to middle and high school choirs, and Zuniga said his chorus will be participating in that part of the competition as well.
KFOX began accepting entries Monday and will continue until March 8. After that, a panel of KFOX judges will listen to the CDs and determine who goes on to the next round. Listeners can log onto the station’s Web site between March 13 and 17 and vote – once – for their favorite song.
“The people in our community need to know about this contest,” Ostenson said. “They need to listen to us and support us. Last year we had people who are these kids’ relatives who live out of state, and they voted for us.”
Also Online
For more information about the School of Rock competition or to listen to last year’s winners, go to www.kfox.com/pages/schoolofrock.html.
