WORLDBUILDING WEDNESDAY: Jonesy Spencerson

A.K.A. The radio announcer who does the interludes for Status Quo Radio.
A.K.A. The worst character I ever created for the sake of the Echo Chamber

SQR Canon:
Jonesy Spencerson grew up in New York City during the Depression Era. The last of seven kids born, the first of five to get to work. He was lucky enough to secure a job with a paper route for the RED Paper, the The Crimson Post, later moving up to an Assistant Editor position when he was just 16. He was very attentive to diction and would often review articles at least three times over so that no objections would come from the higher-ups.

Several years later, The Crimson Post closed down after the Editor-In-Chief was found dead in his office. The death was, according to police reports, a self-inflicted sniper bullet. Around that time, disease would finally claim his mother, and whatever family he had left had to relocate to smaller, more affordable housing. They managed to find a place deep within BLU territory, and after a through background check (which may or may not have included brain implants), he was hired on as an Editor for BLU's newspaper, The Blue Storm.

Things seemed to be going well for Jonesy; he was married with two children of his own, had a house of his own, and was helping BLU enter the burgeoning world of television news. However, after his new Editor-In-Chief died due to (according to police reports) a self inflicted sniper bullet wound, he found his employment in dire straits agian.

Fortunately, he was able to salvage his employment be volunteering to relocate and become the manager of the radio station WQUO. When Jonesy arrived at the station, he was instructed via telephone that he would also be the voice of the station, to play the music and to read the press releases that came in via wire.

As per BLU Corporate Mandate, all releases sent to media outlets are done so anonymously. As per RED Corporate Mandate, all releases sent to media outlets are done so anonymously.

The previous manager of the station questioned why both companies would send in their requests, and after asking who actually owned WQUO, he was found dead later that night.

Cause of death was a self-inflicted sniper bullet, which rests on the studio desk to this present day. 

EchoChamber Canon:
He's a carny barker voice I put on to make fun of Dan Ryckert and wrestling jargon. He and Peter Molyneux won't leave my house.

WORLDBUILDING WEDNESDAY: Five Random Facrs, and Corporate Warfare

Album is coming THIS FRIDAY, so here's a little bit more BG stuff:

FIVE RANDOM FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD OF STATUS QUO RADIO:
1. Lead Bastard's real name is Leonard Banks. His name was the only coincidence that the initials lined up.


2.  May Cinder is a sophmore at Teufort Technical University, and is studying robotics, with the intention of learning how to build and develop androids.

3. Beat Bastard's dad, Frank Pritchard Jr., is an accountant with R.E.D.

4. Lead Bastard and Bass Bastard played baseball for their school during the spring.

5. In their high school marching band, Rhythm Bastard played the trumpet, Lead Bastard played the flute, Bass Bastard played the trombone, and Beat Bastard played the tenor drums.

CORPORATE WARFARE:
It would seem to be the logical conclusion of corporate capitalism that everything would be under the purview of one large company, with the government acting as a protector, the reality is that two titans stood among the rubble, having grown large through an orchestrated series of mergers and acquisitions, to avoid direct conflict with the other as much as possbile. While the larger corporations go by many names to avoid looking like they have a monopoly, to those aware of the situation, they are known by R.E.D. and B.L.U.

At first it started out going into separate industries, one going into to train transport, the other going into delivery, mining different minerals, etc. Still with nothing left to gain than the other, the CEOs began to grow weary of the Cold War that had grown between them. Financial and business advisors both advised them that direct conflict would be unprofitable, and a merger between the two was out of the question, as the CEOs were very prideful of the empires they had acquired, and felt a merger would be a concession.

The cold war grew hot, when each company would hire their own private group of mercenaries to sieze key control points, such as mining areas, towns, etc. by force, but their efforts provided little net results for either side. Over time, the mercenaries became the defacto law enforcement of whatever region they happened to be in.

Cooperation was out of the question, and competition had been rendered useless, so the for the two CEOs to settle their rivalry was through complete and total segregation.

At first, with the regions divided due to whomever was providing services such as electric and cable, it was a simple task. Then it became to who's territory lived better. Once spending money on infrastructure was no longer seen as profitable, the homeless were executed in the middle of the night, the poor sent off into an exile, to live at farms in the middle of nowhere. Then the comparison only focused on the rich ("Well, we can't let the lazy bums decided our fate, now can we?"). Eventually the middle class began to move out of the cities and the wealthy led more and more decadent lives. Some are able to make do, but those who don't make 7 figures a year, they experience the stress firsthand, as those with money are in no rush to part with it.

The general attidue the average citizen has or rather, is supposed to have, is complete disgust and hatred for the rival company. Any sense that one may be "better" than the other, or the notion of going for whatever is convenient at the time is laughed at. Cooperation is severly punished.

Any break in the illusion is silenced ASAP, such as a band's biggest song...

WORLDBUILDING WEDNESDAY: The Royal Cow

SUPPORT THE ALBUM ON KICKSTARTER!

While the ruse of "Live From The Gravel Pit" and its sister program lasted for a very long time, and still continues to this day, some individuals liked to get their entertainment elsewhere from smaller clubs that didn't cater either of the big two sponsors.

These kinds of clubs are ignored for the most part, however once they start getting popular, they don't last long, due to "changes in zoning laws", "noise complaints" and "spontaneous combustion". Afterwards, these clubs were purchased by a wealthy corporate sponsor, the acts signed to multi-year record deals, and the sponsors used both for maximum profitability.

Some clubs, through guile and secrecy, manage to stay in business unscathed, one of which being The Royal Cow.

Started by the Cinder family in 1965, after moving to the area from Kansas City, it was originally a sports bar, and did pretty OK business even though the name of the bar is a veiled reference to the Kansas City Royals. Their daughter, May, found some college friends to jam out with on occasion on slower nights, though she still learned to help her parents run the business. She also invited small bands from her university to play as well, but was under constant persuasion by her family to stop so they could keep control of the bar.

After her father fell ill and her and her mother had more control, they renovated the bar to add a secret room in the back that, according to the city is used for "storage", but is really used as a stage.

It's flown under the radar due to clever soundproofing, secret codes, and a couple bodies hidden under the floor boards. Primarily, though, the club remains untouched as it sits in between large office buildings, belonging to two rival corporations, so who have decided it more profitable to leave the small property well enough alone, instead of spending resources trying to acquire it.

WORLDBUILDING WEDNESDAY: The Gravel Pit

Whew! Just barely made it!

"Live From The Gravel Pit" started in 1956 on TV station KQUO. There isn't really an actual club called "The Gravel Pit", it's just a room in the studio, named as such because the headquarters is on the edge of a quarry.

Originally started as a talent/variety show called "The Quarrymen's Variety Entertainment Hour", the show was comprised of mostly novelty acts and gentle comedy, meant to be a brief distraction for the evening. The acts were just local talent in the immediate area, however acts recommended by sponsors took higher priority.

However, the focus gradually shifted to music when both the radio and TV Station found that Rock Music was becoming popular amongst the young and used it as an opportunity to gain more, younger customers. So, the name changed to "Live At The Gravel Pit" to appear more "hip".

Usually when a band appeared on "Live at the Gravel Pit", they were close to making it big, as the radio station, WQUO, would be playing their music non-stop. However, it was quite common for the station to require the song changed its lyrics, whether for profanity or other "controversial" statements. Still, many bands went along with the station's request, because of the privilege it brought.

It's main competition at the time slot was "Live From The Dustbowl", which was the same program, but with the acts rearranged and aired on a different channel, seemingly keeping the same announcer. KQUO did this to get more money from different sponsors. Everybody who caught on to the ruse just turned off their TVs at their time slot.

WORLDBUILDING WEDNESDAY: The Rise and Fall of The Bastards

So, as Status Quo Radio will be a concept album, and Alpha Riff, who I saw at ONF, is doing this grandiose concept album series thing (ala Janelle Monae) called "Digital Champions" it got my noodle ticking (because that metaphor makes sense), so, here's the first edition of my equivalent of Uncharted Realms, Worldbuilding Wednesday:

The Bastards formed a couple months before graduation at Badlands Public High School. Four friends, bored with playing in the marching band, put down their brass and woodwinds for guitars and drums.

Originally, they called themselves The Brawlers, the name of their school's sports team. However, one night, they were playing at fellow student's house as part of a graduation party. They were playing so loud, a neighbor complained, yelling across the street. "SHUT UP YOU FUCKIN' BASTARDS!" Hearing that, the band decided to call themselves The Bastards from that day forward. They then also decided to antagonize said neighbor by crank their music up louder.

After graduation, the band began playing more shows,packing bars and clubs, eventually earning the attention of record executive Paul Ling from the label "Rock Everyone Demands!"

Under Ling's suggestion, they all wore matching purple suits and had corporate logos on their instruments. He had also suggested that each member took on a persona with the group's namesake. The drummer was then known as Beat Bastard, the bassist would be Bass Bastard, lead guitarist and piano player would be Lead Bastard, and the rhythm guitarist and songwriter called himself Rhythm Bastard.

While the band thought it as a farce to mock other groups of the day, audiences everywhere ate up the gimmick and loved their music, playing bigger shows in bigger venues.


Their peak moment was when they were to perform their most popular song, "Status Quo Radio” on the hottest music show on KQUO, “Live From The Gravel Pit”. Before the band was to go on stage, Ling had told Rhythm Bastard that the Administrator of the network had requested some changes to the lyrics.

During their performance, groupies rushed the stage causing a horrible catastrophe, resulting in the deaths of Lead, Bass and Beat Bastard. Rhythm Bastard was presumed to be dead after jumping out the second floor of the studio.