Gil Scott-Heron died on Friday. To me, his lyrics always seemed to be speaking to my people, focusing on the big picture issues that I cared about and felt like other people should care about just as much. Here's one that I would say sums up the way I feel about music as well as anyone could put it:
Ever feel kinda of down and out and don't know just what to do?
Livin' all of days in darkness, let the sun shine through
Ever fell that somehow, somewhere you lost your way?
And if you don't get help you won't make it through the day
You could call on Lady Day!
You could call on John Coltrane!
They'll wash your troubles, your troubles away
Plastic people with plastic minds on their way to plastic homes
There's no beginning, there ain't no ending
just on and on and on and on and...
It's all because we're so afraid to say that we're alone
until our hero rides in, rides in on his saxophone
You could call on Lady Day!
You could call on John Coltrane!
They'll wash your troubles, your troubles away
"Lady Day and John Coltrane" by Gil Scott-Heron, from Pieces of a Man (1971)
"Left of the Dial" - The Replacements, from Tim (1985)
What's happened to the radio that I once knew? When I say "radio," I don't refer to those other things that claim to be called radio -- i.e., things delivered via satellite or internet wires. Just the kind that gets sent in radio waves. Few people bother nowadays given the other options. Even in the car, seems like most music fans have given up and switched to satellite.
So, does such a thing as good radio even exist anymore? I'll tell you: it's still there, but it's on life support. Down low in the 80s and low 90s typically, where things like college, public and cooperative radio are found. Occasionally you find a pretty good indie or renegade commercial radio station higher up. Still, almost all of my radio listening since I was about 17 has been below 93 FM. Good radio has been reduced to a few small notches on the far left of the tuner range.
It hasn't always been that way, and it shouldn't have to be. In my early radio listening days in the late 70s and early 80s, commercial stations were very genre-specific like most of today's big time stations. The difference was in the content. For whatever reasons, stations were able to mix up the songs a lot more. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the growth in generic stations owned by giant conglomerates rather than local folks. Seems like every other station beyond that 93 spot on the dial is owned by Clear Channel. But back then, regardless of genre, if I moved my FM dial around between classic/current rock, top 40, R&B, oldies, etc. stations I could pick up in Hamden, CT, over time I'd get a pretty good mix of material. Maybe some schlock thrown in, like a little too much Rush and Genesis, but that's just an unavoidable consequence of it being the early 80s.
As I got older and more musically curious, I naturally started moving my dial further down to the left. In Hamden/New Haven, that primarily meant 88.7 WNHU. This being a decade plus before the time of MP3 trading and the like, there weren't too many ways to get exposed to new things. On NHU, I started to listen to hip-hop as it hit the Golden Age, mostly courtesy of New Haven hip-hop stalwart DJ Money Moses. I caught a little hardcore, early electronic music, and plenty of "college rock." They'd play the most obscure things that would never have a chance at airplay higher up the dial. Every hear of Uncle Bonsai or Mahatma Dogma? You're far from alone.
I soon moved on to Boston, a city with a deserved reputation as a college student mecca. The depth and quality of college radio in and around Boston is remarkable. Soon after my arrival, I was mainly flipping my tuner between a few of my favorites: 88.1 WMBR (MIT), 88.9 WERS (Emerson), 91.9 WUMB (BU), 95.3 WHRB (Harvard), and, of course, my own school's 91.5 WMFO (Tufts). As I got to know the stations better, I knew where to go for what. MBR had the best hip-hop shows, although both ERS and HRB also were good in that department. ERS was the clear winner for reggae, with all subgenres covered in the 5:00-8:00 PM slot (to this day). MFO had good local rock, thanks to Mikey Dee's On the Town. Granted, Boston probably had a better commercial radio scene than most places back then. Still, you couldn't touch the left side of the dial for quality, diversity and the all-important coolness factor.
A year into school, I started DJing at WMFO with a buddy of mine. The station was loaded with 40,000 or so LPs, and we dug right in. After a while, we settled on a funk music format for our show. That's where the beauty of that ridiculous record collection comes in handy. See, anyone can play James Brown and P-Funk over and over, but to do a weekly show with an ounce or two of originality, you need to dig a bit deeper. Thanks to the MFO music library, I was introduced to -- and shared with whoever was listening -- the likes of Faze-O, Switch, Eddie Russ and Shotgun. The more I got to know the station, to more I started listening, too. Sure, there was plenty of lameness, but there were some great DJs among the ranks: Main Man, "AK" with Stab It N' Steer, the aforementioned Mikey Dee. When we eventually moved out of Boston in 1994, one of the things I ended up missing the most was the radio scene. Sounds a bit dorky, but no lie.
If you were paying attention to the times, you could see the transformation in radio coming. In the Reagan-Bush years and frankly Clinton as well, laws continued to become more stacked in favor of larger business interests. Antitrust laws seem to have slowly been softened, or enforcement has, or both. Local has been replaced by chain. Everything is more generic. Radio too. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has resulted in a growing concentration of ownership, which has resulted in steadily increasing homogeneity. Stations are all owned by the same few companies. Playlists often are dictated to DJs. Ugly stuff, and bad listening.
So what can you do about it? For one thing, support the remaining good radio out there. Particularly if you're lucky enough to live somewhere with a few good college or community stations or even just one, turn them on. Don't spend money on SiriusXM. Sure, the variety's great, but you can only listen to one thing at a time anyway, right? Instead, donate the money to your local station. Keep it in the community. Don't succumb to the Man!
Community Radio in and around Austin
The left-of-the-dial radio scene here in Austin isn't quite as rich with stations as it is in a city like Boston with dozens of colleges. But it isn't too bad either. The two stations that share the dial at 91.7 are my faves: KOOP and KVRX.
KOOP - 91.7 FM: KOOP is a community radio station that controls the frequency from 9:00 AM until different times from 7:00 PM till 11:00 PM, depending on the day of the week. As you might imagine of a community radio station based here in Austin, you get a pretty wide mix of sounds. None of it is mainstream, some of it is a bit weird, a good portion of it is "free form," but much of it is really good radio.
KVRX - 91.7 FM: KVRX, the station for the University of Texas, broadcasts at 91.7 the rest of the time. Content-wise, I'd call it a pretty typical college station. College students, bless them, have more time to spend focusing on things like indie rock, not to mention far superior access to the word on the street and internet. As the website says, KVRX promises none of the hits, all of the time. Because, remember: no hits is not the same thing as not good.
KUT - 90.5 FM: The other station that gets some airplay in my world is 90.5, KUT public radio. KUT broadcasts some NPR content and some local stuff. The signal is a lot stronger than the 91.7 stations, so when I head out to, say, Taylor for brisket, I'll usually end up on 90.5.
So, with that background, here's a quick rundown of some of my favorite shows on the "Big Three" of Austin non-commercial radio:
SUN 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM on KOOP: "Czech Melody Time" with Thomas Durnin. Central Texas has deep central European roots. Czech Melody Time celebrates this heritage with passion. The show -- on the air for over 15 years -- features "Texas polka, waltz and march music as represented by the music performed and recorded by various orchestras of Texas-Czech, German and Polish origin, both past and present." Not exactly what I put on when I'm sitting around in my living room, but when I jump in the car to grab a cup of coffee and a Sunday newspaper, I always smile when the oom-pah-pah comes on.
SUN 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM on KOOP: "Hip-Hop Hooray" with Miss Manners and dj t-kay. Roots, golden age, underground, etc. In other words, the GOOD hip-hop. MC Lyte to Madlib to Mobonix.
MON - FRI 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM on KUT: "Eklektikos" with John Aielli. Eklektik music. In other words, sometimes great, sometimes terrible, but usually interesting.
MON - THU 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM on KUT: "Music with Jay Trachtenberg." Solid freeform with a mellow indie pop/rock slant. Perhaps a bit too fond of Andrew Bird. "Dad Rock," some might say, but solid nonetheless.
WED 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM on KVRX: "Blues at Sunrise" with DJs Smokehouse Brown and Scotchman. These guys have a picture of Blind Lemon Jefferson on his web page. Need I say more?
FRI 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM on KVRX: "Jammy Jams" with Rebecca. Rebecca is cynical, opinionated, and frank. If she's in a shit mood, not only will she tell her audience, but she'll play 20 minutes of noise to project that darkness. And she'll know that nobody else is enjoying it, but she won't care. But it isn't all misery. This is free form music with an emphasis on the "free." Mainstream radio might champion Lady Gaga as it's lipsticked, garishly-dressed diva, but Rebecca chooses Tonetta.
SAT 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM on KOOP: Saturday is an oddball radio bonanza on KOOP, and it's genre soup. Most of the day is about as far from mainstream commercial radio as you can reasonably get while not being so off-the-wall as to kill the entertainment value. In fact, Saturday is often one of the best days to listen to KOOP ... if you have an open mind. Highlights for me are the illustratively-named "Big Band & Classic Jazz" hosted by Thomas Durnin, which leads off Saturday's line-up; The next slot, the long-running "Lounge Show" with Jay Robillard, for two hours of exotica, space music, and easy listening, and the best place in Austin to get your Eartha Kitt on; and the afternoon "Graveside Service" hosted by Messrs. Harris and Spradling, a weekly memorial to musicians on the anniversaries of their deaths.
If you're familiar with us, you knew it wouldn't be long before we opened up the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival season. The line-up announcement seems like a good launching point. Headlining this year is the legendary Stevie Wonder (although he is playing on Saturday, while the traditional headliner's Sunday closing slot is being filled by the hot Arcade Fire). We, like many other hopefuls, were shut out of early bird three-day passes. We were out of town when the regular sale started, and those passes went quickly. So we decided to do what we've talked about doing the last couple of years: We bought a one-day pass (Saturday) and will focus the rest of our efforts on the pre-shows and aftershows that weekend, which are indoors and at night anyway.
So ... Stevie! I'm sure there are a few folks out there who are clueless and think of Stevie Wonder as a guy who had a few hits in the 70s, then gave us "I Just Called to Say I Love You" and "Ebony & Ivory." The rest of us enlightened folks are well aware that between say 1970 and 1976, Stevie was cranking out beautiful tunes with such consistency it would make Lennon & McCartney jealous. I was lucky to grow up with a father who was a big-time fan and learned early on to appreciate the wonder of Wonder. If you weren't so lucky, or if you're just in a celebratory, "Stevie's playing at ACL" kind of mood like we are, we've created a music widget (below) with a selection of Stevie Wonder songs from the start of his career up through the end of his best period. Not just the hits, but also some of the good album cuts. If you are one of the amateurs and have more time, I highly recommend listening to everything between 1971's Where I'm Coming Fromthrough 1976's Songs in the Key of Life. Don't blame me if you come back hooked.
If you don't have the time, then just click below and enjoy.
