Up Close: The Doors - Part 2

Up Close: The Doors, Part 2, issued by Media America under catalog number 9801, is a 1998 US radio broadcast CD formatted for syndicated airplay. This is the second installment in the series; Part 1 carried the identifier 97-52 and was distributed the previous year. The disc is a promotional radio product, not a retail release, and was never sold through commercial channels. Its intended audience was radio stations subscribing to Media America's syndicated programming service.

The physical presentation is consistent with Media America's standard radio syndication packaging of the late 1990s. These discs were typically issued in plain jewel cases with minimal printed inserts, designed for station utility rather than collector appeal. The label copy on the disc face carries the catalog number 9801, segment cue markers, and timing information to assist radio engineers during broadcast. There is no elaborate booklet, no lyric sheet, and no glossy consumer-grade artwork. The segment structure is broken into four numbered tracks plus three short promotional bumpers labeled for use as a next-week promo, a this-week promo, and a tonight promo, giving station directors flexibility in how they teased the broadcast. The overall physical object is utilitarian: a tool built for a control room, not a shelf. Condition on surviving copies varies significantly depending on how hard the originating station worked the disc before shelving or discarding it. Surface wear, label sticker residue from station cataloging systems, and jewel case cracks are common on copies that surface today. A clean, unplayed or lightly played example with the original case intact is harder to locate than the raw disc alone. If you are sourcing this, examine carefully before committing, and confirm whether the promotional bumper tracks are present and playable, since those short segments are the most useful differentiators for verifying completeness.

The content across the four main segments mixes studio album tracks with interview material featuring Robby Krieger. The track selection pulls from across the catalog: Roadhouse Blues, Land Ho!, and Waiting for the Sun anchor the first segment; Peace Frog, Blue Sunday, LA Woman, and The End carry the second; and Riders on the Storm closes the program. These are standard album versions, not alternate takes or live recordings. The draw here is entirely the Krieger interview content woven between tracks, giving radio programmers a format that blends biography with music in a way that was popular for syndicated rock retrospectives in the mid-to-late 1990s. The disc also includes national commercial breaks built into the running time, which is standard for this format but means the listening experience is interrupted in a way that feels deliberately transactional rather than editorial. The interview segments with Krieger provide candid reflections, though without access to a complete transcript it is difficult to assess how much unique content exists here versus material that overlaps with his other interviews from the same period. Collectors interested in the broader Up Close series should know that multiple Up Close releases exist, and additional variant pressings of the series have been documented, so confirming the catalog number 9801 is the correct method of distinguishing this specific disc. The Discogs community shows only 3 collectors marking ownership against 10 wanting it, which indicates genuine scarcity in the current market but also reflects the niche nature of radio promo material. Those numbers are low enough to suggest this is not easy to find, but the want-to-have ratio also signals active collector interest. Related syndicated radio CD releases like From The Inside follow a similar format and may appeal to collectors building out this corner of the catalog. For deeper context on the companion release, other Up Close pressings documented here round out what is a surprisingly varied series.

This is a legitimate but difficult-to-find piece of Doors radio broadcast history. It will not satisfy anyone looking for alternate takes or unreleased recordings, since the music is standard album fare. The value is in the Krieger interview content and the completeness of the radio syndication artifact itself, catalog number 9801, intact with its promotional bumper tracks. Collectors building a thorough archive of Doors-related broadcast media will want it; those focused purely on music content will find the commercially available studio records more rewarding.