The Hafler Trio

That weird ambient noise collage that plays over the introductory warning at the beginning of many of the earliest episodes of ROX is The Hafler Trio.

B: In August, 2003, I was contacted by a publisher representing the Hafler Trio. He'd discovered this mention on our website and, understandably, he had some questions about the performance royalties. Did we or the TV station pay any at all? If so, to whom?

I was in the embarrassing position of having to explain that ROX has never paid royalties to anyone. In particular, the shows in question were produced back in 1992-93 for a public access TV station in Bloomington, Indiana. We (the producers) were not paid anything for those shows either; they were entirely amateur productions which we produced as a hobby. We did not understand much about copyright or intellectual property in those days.

Later, we learned to ask permission before using music, and so we used only local artists whom we knew personally, but we hadn't yet figured that out in 1992.

I offered my apologies and an assurance that the shows in question were never sold for any amount of money and they have not been seen on television outside of Bloomington.

Obviously, I like the Hafler Trio, and that's why I brought “A Thirsty Fish” to the studio on that fateful day in the summer of 1992.