What just happened?

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in America, announced that it lost $2 billion on a massive trade placed out of its London office.

What was the trade?

Catch the tunes from one of the best blues releases of 2012 throughout Thursday evening's music mix.  

In what could mark a watershed in the fight against HIV/AIDS, a panel of experts recommended that the Food and Drug Administration give a green light to a pill that can cut the risk of infections.

The daily pill, Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences, combines two medicines that inhibit the reproduction of HIV. It's already approved as a treatment for HIV, but its use could soon expand to include protection of uninfected people.

“It’s as if,” one reviewer commented, “The Smothers Brothers were young today, wore better suits, and wrote hot jazz songs about drinking.” The Two Man Gentlemen have a new album that was recorded, designed, & packaged entirely without digital technology. Our kind of band.

Raised in Maine but now living in Asheville, Moses Atwood (you may also know his work with Johnson’s Crossroad) recently released his 2nd album, "One Bright Boat".  With a sound perhaps reminiscent of Randy Newman and Van Morrison, Atwood has a rich, warm sound that we look forward to hearing live on our airwaves!

To quote their website, "If Django Reinhardt, the cast of Stomp and the Beatles all had a party at Tim Burton's house, Caravan of Thieves would be the band they hired."  The gypsy-jazz collective stomps through the Funhouse known as Studio B on their way to three shows in Asheville and Charlotte this week. 

She's one of Charlotte's best talents, she's been a regional favorite of ours since the Rank Outsiders era, she's got a great new release....it's Gigi Dover & The Big Love, back in Studio B!  

Known to their earliest fans as Animal Liberation Orchestra, the California-based A.L.O. sets up shop in Studio B for a fun, danceable live set in advance of shows in Charlotte and Asheville this week.  Their new release on Brushfire Records, "Sounds Like This", can easily be considered their strongest yet.  http://alomusic.com/soundslikethis/

"It was a bad strategy. It was badly executed."

The words of JPMorgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon, as he admitted late yesterday that the investment bank — or, more precisely, a single "rogue trader" working for the bank, had lost some $2 billion in the last six weeks in risky hedge-fund trades.

The news has sent chills through the markets. Shares of JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank, lost 7 percent in after-hours trading and British bank Barclays lost 2.9 percent, while more than 2 percent was shaved from Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mortgage broker Freddie Mac named Donald Layton as its new chief executive officer. Layton worked for JPMorgan Chase for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2004.