the life of willie

Hey there dudes. I have been starting to hear that word “dude” a lot now that I’m back in San Diego. It’s great to be back. Margaritas from one of my favorite restaurants called Las Olas always put me in a wonderful state of mind.

We went snowboarding up in Lake Arrowhead and had a blast! I was actually catching some pretty big airs and kind of impressed myself. Well, it’s got to be the easiest sport to pick up between surfing skating and snowboarding I think. You can have a ton of fun even if you are not that great.

Lots of stuff going on!

Rock shows are hours away! (The next one is this Saturday March 19th at The San Diego Mission Bay Boat & Ski Club so check out details at myspace.com/windsor!)
IT’S A SATURDAY NIGHT!!! IT’S FREE!!! IT’S ALL AGES!!! & THERE IS A FULL BAR!!!
WINDSOR IS PRIMED AND READY TO ROCK SAN DIEGO FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG ASS WHILE!!! Windsor is also playing a very cool all ages show at The Epicentre on Saturday April 2nd and a 21 and up show at The Surf n’ Saddle on Saturday April 30th…hope to see you there!!! If you want to hear Windsor but you don’t like to go out you can hear us live on 94.9 FM every once in a while and we will be live on the air Sunday May 15th at 8PM so mark your calendars!!!blah blah blah…

There is also a little write up in The San Diego Reader about my famous brother and our band Windsor so read on if you’ve actually made it this far!

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Chambers-KTLA-Windsor- Write Up in SD Reader

“The guys in Yellowcard were walking out of the studios at [L.A. TV station] KTLA. I’m in my suit and these guys are all punked out and hardcore. I said ‘You know, I’m playing a show with you guys in a week.’ They look at me like ‘Whatever buddy.’ Then they realized I was serious. I’m like ‘This is just my day job.’”

Jamie Chambers, 25, is the youngest on-air personality on the staff of KTLA Channel 5. He’s also guitarist in Windsor, the local band that includes him, his singer/guitarist brother Willie and bassist Micah Rabwin who all went to Torrey Pines High. Ian Falgout, professional drummer from the swamps of Loisiana, met Willie and Jaime in Santa Barbara a few years ago, joined the band shortly after, and has been recording and rocking shows with Windsor ever since.

The Yellowcard incident happened last year just before the two bands were going to share a couple SoCal dates on the 2004 Warped Tour.

Chambers files news segments and does a daily a surf and ski report Monday-through Friday on KTLA’s news shows. Starting last week, his work could be seen locally since KSWB 5/69 started airing the “KTLA Morning News” from 7 to 9 a.m.

Chambers never had to work in Stockton or El Centro to break into L.A.; his community college internship led to a producer’s job which led to his first on air assignment last year at age 24. He admits having his grandfather, Stan Chambers, also a KTLA reporter. He has been there non-stop since 1947 when he was 24. He’s been there since they turned the lights on 58 years ago.”

Windsor is named after the street where Stan’s seven bedroom house sits. “”They used it in the movie American Beauty. It’s the crazy colonel’s house where he had his Nazi plates.”

“I’m very happy what I make,” he said of his KTLA income. “But we don’t make what people think we make. The big money isn’t there anymore.”

But it’s still competitive. “People were worried about me from the second I walked in the door because of my grandfather…

I never told anyone when I went there that I wanted to be a reporter. If you want to be a reporter you don’t tell people you want to be a reporter.”

He said he refuses to use let his two careers support each other. “There is no integrity in juicing your back end pocket from another job….I don’t want to quit either one. I want to juggle both as long as I can. It’s worked out so far. If it’s an important gig, I’ll be there.”

Willie said they never use the TV gig as a wedge to get gigs. “We keep it on the down low. We don’t say ‘This is Jamie from KTLA and he has a band.’ We didn’t use it to get in at the Whiskey.”

Jamie said people don’t believe he’s in a band.” I do stories at high school and they look at me as a stiff, as a reporter in a suit and tie.”

Windsor appears with Delancey Saturday 8 p.m. March 19 at the San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club; and April 2, 8 p.m. with Ashbury and The Elipsis at Epicentre.
-Ken Leighton (Writer/Editor-The San Diego Reader)