To celebrate 10 years of local journalism, Richland Source is revisiting some of its previous coverage and updating the community on the stories we’ve told. In this article, we look back at our history of an After Hours party to shine a light on local bands.
p.s. Join us this Saturday for SourceFest, a free block party we’re throwing in celebration of a decade in local news. Click here to RSVP.
The year was 2013 and I had an idea.
I was a sophomore in college at Ohio State and had a part-time gig as a reporter at a weird startup company named Richland Source. One of the perks of the job, for me at least, was the openness to try new things.
Ticked that box with this idea.
I took it to Jay Allred, the publisher at the time. In essence, I told him, I want to bring live music to the newsroom. There are numerous original bands in the area, why not provide a venue for them to try out their sound on a local audience?
The inspiration came from NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series.
Three years later, the idea bloomed into reality when I became a full-time reporter. Our first concert was in April 2016.
Lucky for me, the pitch stuck. And 10 years later, Richland Source’s Newsroom After Hours is still going strong. It’s one of those events that has slowly become part of the community’s fabric — like a thing that feels like it’s always just happened. It belongs here.
The first official “RichlandLIVE After Hours” concert was a small gig that featured Aurelio Diaz as Chico’s Brother, playing an autoharp and singing to poems he’d written through the years.
That first concert kicked off a series that would continue to the present day. Our most recent show was Friday night and focused on a Hip-Hop theme featuring local bands Sempel, NewEraCam, Kench and VaunDoom.
The next show is slated for Sept. 15 and it features Chico’s Brother again, along with four other bands.
But Aurelio wasn’t the original After Hours concert. We had a prototype in February 2014 when we featured Cameron Sharp’s solo act “sovroncourt.”
That “concert” didn’t go so well.
Frankly, it wasn’t what we were hoping for. It looked completely different than our newsroom concerts today. The audio was off. The video was shoddy. It was so disappointing, I asked if he could come back the next day to reshoot the song we wanted to feature.
Lucky for me, Sharp was cool and agreed to come back. I remember being very apologetic to Sharp after the reshoot as he loaded his music gear into his 90s Honda C-RV.
“Dude, I’m so sorry about all of that. That was … ” my voice trailed. His face cracked a knowing, empathetic smile.
“It’s OK man. Gave me more practice to play that song. This is a really cool idea. I hope you guys stick with it.”
It took a while to get over that bump in the road, but his words stuck with me as I re-pitched the idea a couple years later. This time, we’d do it right.
And did we ever.
We handed out invitations to VIPs. We secured sponsors for beer, wine and food. We wrote articles about the series and marketed them to people beyond close friends and family. We made a CD one year. We have playlists on Spotify. We were even featured in a MediaShift article.
Through the years, we’ve had people of all ages come and listen, dance and sing to original music.
Most importantly, we’ve had a blast — while also providing a unique venue for talented, original musicians. Mission accomplished.
I’m known as the creator of this beast, but it wouldn’t be where it is today without help from people who believed in that simple mission — publisher Jay Allred especially.
I imagine it would have been easy to see me, a 22 year-old college kid, as just that and kindly say “nah” to bringing all you scary people into the sacred newsroom.
He didn’t. He let me try. And then when I failed the first time, he let us try it again.
Noah Jones took the helm for a bit when I left for a career opportunity in Pennsylvania. He did a fine job keeping it alive.
Now Zac Hiser has taken it to another level. Zac has done a phenomenal, professional job bringing new life to the party. Under his captainship, he brought professional lighting through Potent Studios, festival-level audio from Aaron Nicolas and Levi Kaiser and bands from as far as Cleveland.
The After Hours sponsors — holy smokes. Sometimes I can’t believe you let us keep doing this. Thank you for making this a truly magical community experience. Susan Vander Maas, with Doc’s Deli, has been with us since the first official show in 2016.
Others involve Mechanics Bank, Phoenix Brewing Co., Martini’s on Main and Relax, It’s Just Coffee.
We’ve also brought in talent to help market the annual series. Braxton Daniels has taken stunning photos and Allison Montgomery does a bang-up job on promotional material.
And then the rest of the team at the Source, who willingly participates in bartending, setting up equipment, tearing down equipment, photographing, videography — everything they have to put up with leading up to an After Hours event. I mean, the team is and has been awesome.
The future
When I asked Hiser what he envisions for the future, he said he wants to continue building and collaborating with the arts community.
“Whether that means shows with bigger regional artists and pairing them with local or expanding our genres — doing a country/folk/bluegrass night or spotlighting show tunes and collaborating with the Ren on a Broadway music night,” Hiser said.
He also sees sponsorship opportunities to help increase the series’ budget.
“We’ve never profited on After Hours,” Hiser said. “If we’re able to get sponsors, we put that money right back into the quality of the shows.”
So, to Hiser, a bigger budget just means an ability to throw bigger and better shows.
“No matter what though, the heart of After Hours will always be a focus on local, original music and to provide a welcoming space where all people feel comfortable to come and connect with local music, connect with friends, and have a good time,” he said.
