Turn off the tube and tune in 2...Channel 6/el Don-Monday August 25, 1997

Sublime's Bradly Nowell has a look alike, and he's singing a similar tune with Channel Six. Josh Hoover Fronts the O.C. band.

By Tara Fleig

What started out as a joke two years ago, has become a reality for this Orange County born band. Channel 6 combines, ska, punk, and reggae as they try to find a place in the rising scene.

"It was a big joke," said Bill Adams one of the horn players for Channel 6. "Some of my friends went to see the Mighty Mighty Bosstones open up for Lollapalooza and they thought how cool it would be to start a ska band. So we joked about it for about three weeks and the we finally got serious"

The band started with five members. Bill Adams and Greg Burns who both played guitar, Eric Henniger who played bass, Josh Hoover who couldn't quite sing yet, and Joe Lopez who played the drums.

A while down the road Gary Tucker, who also played the guitar, invited himself into the band. They couldn't have three guitar players, so Adams took up the trumpet.

After deciding against Adventures in Chocolate, which they took off a dessert menu from Denny's, as their name a friend suggested Channel 5 and since there were six members they went with Channel 6.

In February of 1996 the band decided they needed more horn players. So they asked their friend Danny Kasem if he and his trumpet would join the band. A month later Shane McCoy wrote his phone number down on a pog at a concert and he became the eighth and final member of the band playing the saxophone.

Since then Channel 6 has played various ska shows with other ska bands like Reel Big Fish, Jeffries Fan Club, and others. They have also been on a compilation C.D. called O.C. Punk VS Ska that was put out in December of 1996. They've just finished working on another compilation which is a follow up to "Hey Brother Can You Spare Some Ska?" They are currently recording their debut CD which they hope to release around the holidays.

The band's parents are very supportive you can sometimes find them in the crowd at a show cheering their boys on. Adams's mother is very proud of her son. Stephanie Adams is head of the scholarship office for both Santa Ana College Campus and the Santiago Canyon College campus. "they just amaze me," Stephanie said. "I've seen them grow and become aware of their stage presence."

And stage presence is not something that this band lacks. At a show at The Barn, Channel 6 had the crowd totally pumped. they started quiet and played to themselves but once they got warmed up they were jumping and dancing all over the stage. Occasionally Joe would squirt the audience down with a "super soaker" water gun. *