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Ray Roa on Muck Rack

Ray Roa

Verified
Tampa
As seen in: Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Art In Your Ear, The Athletic, The Daily Beast, Flipboard, Tampa Bay Times, Consequence, EIN News, NewsBreak, Detroit Metro Times, Rapid City Journal and
Covers:  music, travel & leisure, tampa, art, fod, tampa bay, food, craft beers and microbreweries, spirits and distilleries, sports, recreation
It's been real. Find me on @bluesky. (bsky.app/profile/rayroa.bsky.social) I won't see any new DMs, send 📧 to rroa@cltampa.com

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Ray Roa’s Biography

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Currently: Editor-In-Chief, Creative Loafing Tampa.
Former: Tampa Bay Times/TBT*, Suburban Apologist, Gasparilla Music Festival

College bylines and an obsession with music led to a highly educational run with 24-hour music website [Consequence Of Sound] (http://consequenceofsound.net) before a door opened in the waning months of storied Tampa, Florida music magazine REAX.

Publisher Joel Cook eventually asked me to helm a new project, Suburban Apologist aka [SubAp!] (http://suburbanapologist.co…

Ray Roa’s Journalist Portfolio

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Ray Roa | tampabay.com & Tampa Bay Times

Ray Roa | tampabay.com & Tampa Bay Times

Weekly bylines previewing the best of Tampa Bay's live music calendar.

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It's Tampa Time This Summer

It's Tampa Time This Summer

Heat is an inescapable part of Tampa's essence, and while visitors this summer will sweat profusely, they'll …

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Ray Roa | Creative Loafing Tampa

Ray Roa | Creative Loafing Tampa

Bylines for Creative Loafing, one of the best sources for events in Tampa, Tampa Restaurants, Tampa concerts …

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Cigar City Brewpub, St. Petersburg rock band team up for new beer

Cigar City Brewpub, St. Petersburg rock band team up for new beer

New World Brewery, on any given night, is occupied by musicians entertaining patrons whose taste buds are awa…

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Review / setlist: John Mayer shuts up, lets his guitar and songs do the talking at Tampa's MidFlo...

Review / setlist: John Mayer shuts up, lets his guitar and songs do the talking at Tampa's MidFlo...

Thanks to TMZ, John Mayer may never, ever, be able to live down the things that have escaped his own stupid m…

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CL Music Issue: Hardcore/Punk/DIY

CL Music Issue: Hardcore/Punk/DIY

Consider this: away from the cover charges and security guards, there exists a world where art and music are …

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Articles

Yellowcard tops 97X ‘Legends’ lineup coming to Clearwater on Friday

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By Ray Roa Verified
| Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Verified
Your waistband is always there to remind you that Yellowcard‘s breakout LP, Ocean Avenue, is 23 years old. While the Jacksonville pop-punk hero has a new album to share (Better Days, released last year), expect frontman Ryan Key, fiddler Sean Mackin & co. to lean into the nostalgia for this throwback edition of 97X’s Next Big Thing. In classic NBT fashion, the lineup includes bands that play into the series’ 25-year history which started at Coachman Park.
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TIGLFF’s 37th annual queer film festival takes over St. Pete and Tampa this month

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By Ray Roa Verified
| Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Verified
The gays are taking over the silver screen this month, on both sides of Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (now just “TIGLFF”) paused in January St. Pete festival and is moving forward with a rebrand that will span seven days across two weekends in two area codes. St. Petersburg’s Green Light Cinema gets first licks this weekend that kicks off next Thursday with a night of shorts and a feature film, “Manok,” that takes place in South Korea.
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Gulfport’s annual Geckofest party brings 10 hours of untamed fun to the waterfront

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By Ray Roa Verified
| Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Verified
Inspired in part by the United Kingdom’s Monster Raving Loony Party, Gulfport resident Marlene Shaw had a pretty simple vision for the seaside town’s Labor Day weekend party. She saw “music, color, costume, and characters who treated politics like performance art,” according to a new piece published in the town’s indie newspaper the Gabber.
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Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

Editor for The Hawkeye at Hillsborough Community College

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Who hasn't?

How is social media changing news?

Inaccuracies. Vague Twitter messages.