The Broadway Kids Hear America Singing; Rhino Releases Well-loved Berkner Debut

ON BROADWAY: The Broadway Kids release their fifth album, "The Broadway Kids Sing America," on Tuesday (22), and it's something of a departure for these rather terrifyingly talented 11- to 16-year-olds. Instead of kid-friendly show tunes, the Kids take on all manner of musical Americana, including rock'n'roll, folk, country, swing, and gospel. The album will appear on Lightyear Entertainment, distributed by WEA.

To promote the new video, the Broadway Kids will be making a number of personal appearances in different cities, according to Lightyear spokeswoman Alise Kreditor. "They'll be performing, appropriately enough, at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.," says Kreditor, "probably in September. There's also the possibility of an in-store performance at a Barnes & Noble in New York City, which would also probably take place in September."

Songs on "The Broadway Kids Sing America" include Steve Goodman's "City Of New Orleans," the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'," John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," the Beach Boys' "California Girls/Surfin' USA," Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," and the traditional "Amazing Grace," as well as the inspired choice of the wacky "Animaniacs" tune "The President's Song," which names every single U.S. chief executive, in order, from George Washington to "Clinton, first name Hillary."

The Broadway Kids have all appeared either on the Broadway stage, film, or TV ("Party of Five's" Lacy Chabert is an alumna.) They've also starred in their own musical revue on Broadway.

LAURIE LAURIE BO BAURIE: New York's Laurie Berkner has been getting plenty of attention lately and deservedly so. Her albums, on her own Two Tomatoes Records, are winsome, witty, and delightful, and she exhibits an effortless ability to serve up exactly what tickles the fancies of her youthful audience. Not to mention that she has captured the heart of one Lourdes Ciccone Leon, daughter of Madonna, and reportedly those of Sting's kids as well.

In fact, Berkner is doing so splendidly that Rounder Kids is releasing her 1997 debut album, "Whaddaya Think Of That?". It contains a number of Berkner originals, such as concert favorite "We Are The Dinosaurs," as well as movement-oriented tunes like "I Know A Chicken" and "Bring Your Clothes." The nose-ringed singer/songwriter also renders a number of classic kids' and folk songs, such as "She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain" and "The Cat Came Back."

Berkner has had an eventful year, performing at various locales around the country, including a coveted gig at this year's White House Easter egg roll. This fall, she'll make an appearance on the new "American Baby Show" on the FX cable channel.

RADIO RADIO: Online radio station KidsOwnRadio.com is scheduled to launch this summer, bringing the music of the Sugar Beats, the Olsen Twins, Raffi, the Teletubbies, the aforementioned Broadway Kids, and others to their target audiences. KidsOwnRadio.com is the brainchild of MusicMusicMusic Inc.

The site will feature games, crafts, jokes, kids' news, and E-mailable greeting cards. It is to divide its programming between three groups—preschool, primary, and preteen. Activities in each zone are to be geared to the particular age group. KidsOwnRadio allows listeners to program their own shows. Audio files are all playable in Winamp, RealPlayer, MSMedia, and Winplay, in bandwidths from 16 kilohertz to 56 kHz stereo. Label affiliations allow KidsOwnRadio to offer for play the music of kid favorites like Tom Paxton, Rosenshontz, Arthur & Friends, Medicine Man YaYa, and more.

Plus, the site offers links to purchase toys, books, games, videos, and music (all music heard on the station will be purchasable this way). A pre-launch page is currently available for viewing, at kidsownradio.com. The station is currently running a slogan contest; the grand prize is a multimedia computer.