Operation Stay Tuned Started to Help Local Musicians During COVID-19 Pandemic

By Calcasieu Staff
Published March 18, 2020

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Operation Stay Tuned Started to Help Local Musicians During COVID-19 Pandemic

Operation Stay Tuned Started to Help Local Musicians During COVID-19 Pandemic

Published March 18, 2020
Updated April 30, 2020

Jay Ecker, co-owner of Panorama Music House and Rikenjaks, along with Julia Pourciaux of KBYS and Panorama Music House are teaming up with local performers to help them during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As many people know, restaurants and bars in Louisiana have been forced to either offer to-go only or close completely until further notice by state government officials. Not only is this causing problems for owners and employees of these businesses, but this is also forcing musicians to cancel upcoming shows. While many musicians have other jobs that may help supplement their loss of income from playing shows, some depend solely on playing live shows for their income.

From the full bands you see on the local stages every weekend to the solo musician playing saxophone at a local fine dining restaurant, they are all losing income right now.

Julia and Jay along with the help of others have started Operation Stay Tuned. The idea of Operation Stay Tuned is to help musicians and other performers during the COVID-19 stay at home order. There will also be links to tip the bands and purchase merchandise. To-go specials will also be offered by local restaurants during the live stream shows.

From Julia Pourciaux and Jay Ecker March 18, 2020

“*ATTENTION ALL LOCAL GIGGING BANDS/MUSICIANS AND LOCAL MUSIC FANS*

Operation Stay Tuned:

Our first concern throughout this time is the health and safety of our musical acts and attendees! With that being said we had to cancel all gigs at Panorama Music House and Rikenjaks Brewing Company for the upcoming months. This is a curve ball for not only the business aspect of it, but as well as the beloved acts that perform at both of these venues almost every day of the week. At a time when the music scene in our area is at an all time high!

With that being said we want to let you guys know that we didn’t forget about you! We want to preserve and continue the spirit of the music scene! We know that some of you rely solely on gigging as a way of income and we know that some of you look forward to going to live music shows every week. So we’ve come up with the idea of Operation Stay Tuned! Encouraging musicians to keep their instruments tuned and for regular attendees to stay tuned in!

How might we do this without risking exposure? Simple, by taking advantage of digital age we live in. We plan on posting Pay Per View links on the restaurants pages that allow people to stream shows with proceeds going towards the acts! We also plan on offering to-go specials during the stream of the shows as well as merchandise purchasing!

Any other ideas or beneficial motives in regards to Operation Stay Tuned are GREATLY appreciated! Feel free to share what’s on your heart! Comment, message ,and share. We want to get the word out!

To our local musician friends, WE LOVE YOU! Music is a universal language that gets us through the best of times and the worst of times! There’s something special going on in our regional music scene and we want to encourage it! THE SHOW MUST GO ON!
So, #STAYTUNED ! You are loved. God Bless.

Sincerely,
Your Biggest Fans!

More information about Operation Stay Tuned can be found on their Facebook Page by following this link.