East Village Radio is none too happy about a cover story about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft offered under the titled “Kraftwork.”

“A terribly annoying play on the name of German electro-gods, Kraftwerk,” the post notes. But as EVR also points outs, there’s happier news: a BBC6 celebration of the 30th anniversary of Kraftwerk’s hugely popular hit The Model. On Sunday, three BBC shows explored the Kraftwerk phenomenon.

First, BBC6′s Cerys was joined by Kraftwerk expert Chris Bohn, editor of Avant Garde Electronic Magazine Wire. Cerys played various German Krautrock tunes and “some gems from the likes of Can, Neu and Amon Düül II.” Meanwhile The Huey Show spoke to Afrika Bambaata on Kraftwerk’s influence on Hip Hop. “Bambaata’s Planet Rock was inspired by Kraftwerk and in turn helped pave the way for the electro and trance genres,” the show’s post observes.

And there’s also a retrospective with Wall of Sound guy Mark Jones recalling the German band’s influence on electronic music. “Mark talks in depth to Mute Records boss and Kraftwerk expert, Daniel Miller, about the band’s huge impact.”

Speaking personally, I always thought that The Model was a rather strange song with very simplistic lyrics, eg:

She’s a model and she’s looking good
I’d like to take her home that’s understood
She plays hard to get, she smiles from time to time
It only takes a camera to change her mind

She’s going out tonight, loves drinking just champagne
And she has been checking nearly all the men
She’s playing her game and you can hear them say
She is looking good, for beauty we will pay

But there was something about Kraftwerk’s the-future-is-here personae and the band’s intense electronica sound that made The Model a hit. I got a lot more out of the wonderful breathing sound rhythms in Tour de France; the tune also had appeal because the lyrics were in French.

Here’s an English translation:

The hell of north Paris-Roubaix,
The Cote d’Azur and Saint Tropez
The Alps and the Pyrennees
Last stage Champs-Elysees
Galibier and Tourmalet
Dancing to the top
Bicycling at high gear
Final sprint at the finish
Flat tire on the paving stones
The bike is repaired quickly
The peloton is regrouped
Comrades and friendship

Anyway, this BBC6 stuff is all limited time listen, so click the links and check out the shows sooner rather than later.

This is certainly an indicator of strong growth for internet radio and streaming services. Music royalties agency SoundExchange announced Tuesday that it ended the year collecting $292 million in royalty payments, up 17% from 2010. These royalties are paid by internet, satellite and cable TV music-only services for the right to play sound recordings, and are distributed to the owners of the sound recording rights. The payments are based upon listener hours, which means a service pays more royalties when more listeners are tuned in. Terrestrial radio is excepted from these royalties by statute, though all broadcasters are obligated to pay songwriting royalties via agencies like ASCAP and BMI.

SoundExchange also reports that 15,300 new artists, labels and rights holders were registered last year, and therefore became eligible to receive royalty payments.

I am definitely of two minds with regard to these payments, often known as “mechanical” royalties. On the one hand, I think it is only fair for musicians to be paid when services base their income on playing recorded music. But on the other hand, there are many non-commercial services that do not turn a profit, and for whom these payments can be burden. Furthermore, it is reasonable to question how much money individual artists see from these collections, since the major record companies arguably own the majority of mechanicals rights.

Even the for-profit services like SiriusXM satellite radio and Pandora have been protesting. They say that the SoundExchange fees are too high and that the terrestrial radio exemption is unfair. Last fall SiriusXM made waves by reaching out to the major labels to negotiate individual contracts that would bypass SoundExchange, in the hope of reducing its rates. Such a move is legal because SoundExchange is the default statutory collection agency for those who don’t have other agreements with rights holders. The catch with bypassing SoundExchange is that you end up with a lot of individual contracts to hammer out. The risk for artists with such arrangements is that those who own the rights to their recordings might have difficulty collecting their due royalties.

In any event, this rise in royalty payments are a strong sign that more listeners are turning to online radio and music streaming services, in addition to the more established satellite and cable providers.

The other day I got a chance to see Lev Anderson and Chris Melzter’s wonderful documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone at the Roxy Theater in San Francisco (trailer here). The film is a must see for anyone who wants to understand the post-disco music scene of the 1980s, with its eclectic mix of ska, funk, soul, rock, punk, and whatever else happened to be around. Fishbone was, and still is, a wonderful band, best appreciated live, but certainly beautifully understood and portrayed in this doc.

Fishbone's Angelo Moore at the Roxy Theater in January (photo: Matthew Lasar)

The screening was especially exciting for me, because the band’s lead singer, Angelo Moore (aka “Dr. Mad Vibe”) made an appearance afterwards. But Everyday Sunshine also reminded me of one of Fishbone’s first MTV hits: “? (Modern Industry)”—a 1985 Devo-esque piece that served as a long song to broadcast radio.

Basically, the piece lists and shouts out what I presume were some of Fishbone’s favorite radio stations:

“Turn it on, man . . .
WBRU, KABE, WFLY, Cool 92
KAX, KOKE, KRO
WAMX, yes, wow !
KJZ ! The . . . KUSF, check 94, KFRC
A-A-A-A”

. . . followed by this observation:

“These are the voices of modern industry
They speak the words that bring you together
These are the sounds gears grinding
These are the round levers
These are the sounds behind the machines . . . “

. . . other stations mentioned include:

“K-ROCK, K-VETE, K-VOL, K-ZAP, K-SOUL, K-SHAFF
Disappear !
WIMI
394 … JACE
397 … WEWE
KCOC, Star 96
The Cube…”

. . . followed by:

“WBAS, WOWW, hah, WAX, WDUD
KSIN, we refuged you…
KUSA, hallelujah
KILD, that means ‘kill’
Hey man, we have faith in you…
Hey, can you believe it
Do we have listeners out there
105… 195″

I would love to know the story of how these radio stations were picked (and if any are figments of the Fishbone imagination). But the piece definitely goes on the next edition of my favorite songs about radio list.

The latest Roots Music Report is out, with data on roots bands getting airplay over radio stations in 2011. A lot of great women artists made top billing, including Alison Krauss & Union Station, Gillian Welch, and Lucinda Williams.

But before we get to the rankings, here is how RMR describes itself:

We compile radio airplay data from radio stations around the globe that play all forms of roots music, so that each week you can see which independent artists are being played the most by what stations. Unlike some charts out there we do not alter, accept payment for, or manipulate the airplay data to give rankings for our charts. Stations reporting their play list is the only way for artist to appear on our charts.

On that basis, bring on the drum roll, followed by the first three listings of each of RMR’s Top 100 categories (by artist, title, and label):

The top three Bluegrass albums:

The top three Blues albums:

The top three Folk albums:

The top three Jazz albums:

The top three Roots Country albums:

The top three Roots Rock albums:

Last, but not least, the top three True Country albums:

Strap on some quality cans and check out the sound

I am bit of a stickler for audio quality and fidelity, as readers of my holiday gift guide and recent review of iHeartRadio may have sussed out. I’m reticent to call myself an audiophile because I’m not in pursuit of perfect audio nirvana, nor am I willing to spend the price of a new family sedan on speakers and amplifiers. But I do prefer to listen to well reproduced music. I am willing to spend some money and time to obtain higher fidelity, but I also don’t think it must require significant investments of either.

As I noted in my aforementioned iHeartRadio post, compressed online digital audio can exhibit many sonic defects resulting from that compression and other processing. Of course, one can complain about the sound quality of a free streaming radio service, but if it’s that grating I just don’t listen.

If I’m going to subscribe to an online radio service, like Pandora or Spotify, then I expect to enjoy decent fidelity, even if true CD quality is unlikely. Writer John Grandberg recently wrote a review of the sound quality of streaming radio services for Inner Fidelity. That site is affiliated with the venerable hi-fi magazine Stereophile and focuses on personal audio listening with headphones.

In order to winnow down the field Grandberg excluded services that offer streams at bitrates of 128kpbs or lower. While 128kbps has long been considered the lowest acceptable bitrate for so-called “near-CD quality,” at this point in time most serious listeners contend that higher bitrates are better. He also only reviewed the subscription versions of services, which typically offer better sound quality than their free versions.

He ended up putting five services to the test: Pandora, Aupeo!, Spotify, Rdio and Mog. Of these three are on demand services (Spotify, Rdio and Mog) and two are more radio-like, without the ability to select specific artists and tracks (Pandora and Aupeo!). I have to admit that I’d never heard of Aupeo! before reading this review, though apparently the Germany-based service has been around since 2008.

I won’t give away the results here, but I found them interesting, as it seems like several very popular platform offer widely varying sound quality, probably due to their catalogs having been encoded at different bitrates over time. This is good information for the potential subscriber to have, and I’m honestly surprised that more reviews don’t take a critical ear to sound quality.

John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, Bill Evans; (Photo by Frank Driggs Collection/Getty Images)

NPR asked its jazz listeners to rate their favorite songs, and gleaned from those responses a list of the top ten Jazz songs of all time[1]. What is interesting about the lists is not that they can establish what is “best,” whatever that might mean, or what is most popular (sales records, etcetera, show that). Looking at the lists causes people to discover or rediscover great music to listen to – that is of course what matters most. It also can prompt us to think about what we love and why. Below is NPR’s list, then mine, then some discoveries that I made, in the process of choosing songs, about how I think about jazz – questions about what is a jazz song, and whose song is it.

Also, because he is so central, I try to explain my complicated feelings about John Coltrane’s work, and then finish with a short note about each item in my list.

NPR’s List:

Dave Brubeck, “Take Five”
Miles Davis, “So What”
Duke Ellington, “Take The A Train”
Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight”
John Coltrane, “My Favorite Things”
John Coltrane, “A Love Supreme (Acknowledgment)”
Miles Davis, “All Blues”
Weather Report, “Birdland”
Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, “The Girl From Ipanema”
Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing”

Here’s my list:

Miles Davis/John Coltrane/Bill Evans, “So What”
Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight”
Billie Holiday/Lester Young/Ben Webster, “Fine and Mellow”
Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”
John Coltrane, “Naima”
John Coltrane, “Alabama”
Thelonious Monk, “Tea for Two”
Lester Young, “Tea for Two”
Duke Ellington, “Solitude”
Miles Davis/John Coltrane, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”
Bud Powell/Charlie Parker, “Ornithology”

The criterion I used in picking mine was to ask myself, What music could I not live without? What music, if subtracted from my world, would leave me feeling bereft and forlorn? So if my list of ten has eleven in it, that’s why.

Now for the discoveries:

Gershwin, Kerns, Monk and Coltrane: What is a jazz song, and who is it by?

The first thing I noticed working on my list is that I wasn’t sure what a jazz song is. Not in the sense of “is it jazz or is it rock or pop or whatever,” but because a jazz song is not simply a tune with a name and an author. Many jazz pieces, including the very best, began life as tunes written by songwriters who were not ‘jazz’ songwriters or musicians. Later, a jazz musician (or just as often a jazz group) picks it up, plays with it, works their imagination on it, thereby creating something new. This is not an accident of history, but fundamental to what jazz is – music rooted in improvisation, hungry for ideas from the wider culture around it, from the past and from the wider world.  For example, “Tea for Two” began as a song written in 1925 for the musical “No, No, Nanette”, but it is on my list (twice!) in the completely reworked versions by Lester Young and by Thelonious Monk. So I found myself thinking of items for my list as particular great jazz performances, particular recordings or renderings, not an abstract/concrete copyrighted object.

Individual and Collective jazz performance

My list favors ensemble performances where we think of more than one performer as leading the song: so “Fine and Mellow” is by Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Ben Webster and more; the performance of “Ornithology” on my list is by Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, equally. While I dropped it off the list, the cut of “Embraceable You” that I love is not one of Charlie Parker’s 3-4 minute takes, but the ten minute version consisting of five great horn players succeeding and comparing each others version: Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Tommy Turk, Parker, Flip Phillips. This also is not an accident: the live communication between performers is part of what makes jazz jazz. Reaching into the past for tunes with unexplored possibilities, and connecting one performer to another in the live creative moment, are of the essence in jazz.

John Coltrane’s Sound and Fury, On and Off These Lists

John Coltrane’s name stands out in both lists, as writer, lead performer, as well as ensemble member. But whereas NPR’s highlights him for “My Favorite Things” and “A Love Supreme,” he’s on my list “Naima”, “Alabama”, and (with Miles Davis) “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” This divergence is the only one I want to talk about. As it happens, in both cases I’m talking about pieces that I once revered but now have come to question.

It is an understatement to say that Coltrane’s ballads are the most beautiful ever recorded. I could have chosen “You Don’t Know What Love Is”, or “After the Rain”, or many others, instead of or along with “Naima” and “Alabama”. In the sixties Coltrane moved from hard bebop to abstract ‘out-of-the-box’ compositions, showing amazing virtuosity in this avant-garde “New Thing”. Though many brilliant pieces of music came out of this style, so did some unfortunate consequences: young saxophone players learned how to play extravagant solo riffs a la Coltrane and impressionistic compositions, and neglected rhythm and melody and traditional notions of sonorous beauty. Much of jazz drifted in that direction. Therefore, although Coltrane is as great a horn player as ever walked the earth – only Charlie Parker, in my opinion, is his equal – I think that his legacy, particularly as composer, is mixed. The two Coltrane pieces on NPR’s list exemplify this perfectly, as follows.

The Many Contradictions of “My Favorite Things”

Coltrane’s version of this originally super-sweet Mary Martin/Julie Andrews tune from “The Sound of Music” might seem the ultimate example of jazzman-reworks-pop-tune-into-jazz. The song became Coltrane’s signature tune as he toured the world. He ingeniously releases the melody from its original context, and demonstrates its intriguing power. But everything else is changed as well – not just the pure-as-the-driven-snow words, but the feel, mood and the meaning of the song. As he reprised it over the years it moved away from the original sentiment of gratitude and pleasure into one of pained searching, and in the end one with an ominous, perhaps angry tone[12]. It became an assault on the original song, disguised as a reworking of it. I think it expresses Coltrane’s attempt to bring together the more gentle, soulful side of his work with his later cacophonous saxophone exploits. I loved this song for a decade or so after it came out, but now when I listen to it I feel a sadness. I think that’s because I sense that no one’s favorite things are truly expressed here; I imagine that I hear Trane looking for them, but not finding them.

Jazz, Spirituality, and “A Love Supreme”

“A Love Supreme” changed the course of jazz music, and was a watershed experience for those of us listening in the sixties. It’s a masterful and beautiful piece, and its four movement structure successfully makes a bold classical statement. But for me it is flawed by its emphatic religiosity. Late in his life Coltrane, along with a number of other jazz musicians of the time (notably, his wife, Alice Coltrane) became involved with a sort of pan-religious sentiment, ascribing to the popular notion that all the “world’s great religions” “teach the same thing.” He supposedly said that “I believe in all religions.” He joined Alice, Pharaoh Sanders and others in apparently believing that Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Ancient African/Egyptian religious traditions are all reconcilable and worship the same God.

I guess this kind of straining after God was (and remains) very compelling to some people.  But I find it emotionally and intellectually discordant. I hear the chanting of ‘A love supreme, A love supreme’ as the low point, not the zenith, of this piece. I suspect that many who praise this piece are engaging in a kind of Musical/Spiritual Correctness – i.e. “If Coltrane was into it, it must be profound,” or, even worse, “White people shouldn’t criticize the intense mystical beliefs of this holy African-American artistic genius.” On the contrary, I think the powerful, angry, brave, beautiful and secular free-thinking tradition which jazz is a part of – the yearnings expressed by Miles, Monk, Ellington, Parker, Lester Young, Mingus and Coltrane at his best – these very human expressions of truth, beauty and courage are more bold, compelling and therefore spiritual than the self-conscious mysticism of “A Love Supreme.”

Notes on my favorite songs

Miles Davis/John Coltrane/Bill Evans, “So What”
Also on NPR’s list, this opening song on Kind of Blue is eternally fresh and astonishing.

Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight” [2]
Has a special and exalted place in the jazz repertoire. Almost everyone has a stab at recording it, but no one displaces Monk as the master of this masterpiece.

Lester Young/Billie Holiday/Ben Webster “Fine and Mellow” [3]
Made famous by being captured on film by CBS, this performance has a glorious depth to it and gives us a sense of the connection between the members of this ensemble: Roy Eldridge, Gerry Mulligan, and Vic Dickinson are soloists, along with Young, Holiday and Webster.

Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” [4]
An loving elegy for Lester Young so lovely as to be worthy of the man.

John Coltrane, “Naima” [5]
One of Coltrane’s many extraordinary ballads, a love song to his first wife.

John Coltrane, “Alabama” [6]
The most beautiful protest song ever. A response to the bombing of a black church in Birmingham that killed 4 young girls; an elegy like no other.

Duke Ellington, “Solitude”
This tremendous composition, like Round Midnight, became a platform on which a never-ending stream of musicians could build their versions: Duke’s big band arrangement[7], his trio with Max Roach and Mingus[7b], Sonny Rollins’ astonishing 8 minute solo version[7c], as well as versions by Louis Armstrong alone[7d], or in combination with Ellington[7e].

Lester Young, “Tea for Two” [8]
Young’s take is different from Monk’s but has a magnificent sense of width, of openness: as if his horn is ready to express anything he finds in the world.

Thelonious Monk, “Tea for Two” [9]
The 17 note ending that Monk plays here is stunning, perfect, elegant,
beautiful and unforgettable.

Miles Davis/John Coltrane, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” [10]
A perfect piece: spare, acute, pure, lovely. For me, this is the most remarkable transfiguration of a show tune (Oklahoma!) into high art. Davis etches a magnificent and brilliant outline, and Coltrane fills it in such rich sound.

Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, “Ornithology”[11].
The two great geniuses of jazz in the fifties showcase what can be done with an alto and a piano playing off each other.

[1]NPR list http://www.npr.org/2011/02/19/133479768/the-mix-the-jazz-100
[2]Monk, Round Midnight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMmeNsmQaFw
[3]Holiday,etc Fine and Mellow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKqxG09wlIA
[4]Mingus, Pork Pie Hat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sfe_8RAaJ0&feature=related
[5]Coltrane, Naima http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ywkpVJ624&list=PL6F2DB771EC0A05A2&index=1&feature=plpp_video
[6]Coltrane, Alabama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j_TDoOPnIA
[7]Solitude, big band version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOJT6HoAwn4
[7b]Solitude Ellington in trio w/Max Roach and Charles Mingus] youtube.com/watch?v=oraWwHYKKig
[7c]Solitude, Sonny Rollins solo version youtube.com/watch?v=hPHAsnGagQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLC640413B08DAD7BC
[7d]Solitude, Louis Armstrong]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHcL8UjvlKI&feature=related
[7e]Solitude, Ellington & Armstrong]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIBzSnTBTzQ
[8] Young, Tea for Two[8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imrYnZDxfpk
[9] Monk, Tea for Two on the album “Criss Cross” http://www.amazon.com/Criss-Cross-Thelonious-Monk/dp/B0000AVHBS
[10]Davis & Coltrane, Surrey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvHt08Opi2g
[11]Powell/Parker Ornithology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYNnJBom0ro
[12]See Geoff Dyer on “My favorite things” in “Lives of the Great Song”, ed. Tim De Lisle, Pavilion Books, 1994.

New Spotify Radio lets you skip unlimited tracks

Now Spotify has announced a new version of its radio feature that is available with the preview version of the Mac, Windows and Blackberry apps. The company says it has a an “all-new intelligent recommendation and multi-million track library.” But the thing that sets it apart from the likes of Pandora and last.fm is the ability to skip an unlimited number of tracks. By comparison the other services only allow a limited number of skipped tracks.

This difference stems from the different types of licenses the services operate under. Pandora and last.fm operate under the same license terms as internet radio station, which restrict the ability of listeners to select specific artists and songs, in addition to restricting the number of tracks by an artist or from a single artist that may be played in a row. Spotify, on the other hand, has worked out individual agreements with all the labels that provide music to the service that allow the service to permit listeners to select the artists, albums and songs they want to listen to. However, these agreements cost Spotify much more in licensing costs than what Pandora or last.fm pay.

While this would seem to give the competitive advantage to Spotify, it results in gaps in the service’s catalog where labels or artists will not license their music at all. Pandora, on the other hand, takes advantage of a statutory license which does not require individual deals with labels. For the Pandora listener this means she can hear bands like the Beatles and Metallica which are absent from the Spotify roster.

Another difference is that Pandora and last.fm have many more station building options, allowing you to specify additional artists and songs to add to an existing station, or use your own music library as a seed. As far as I can tell Spotify offers none of these options. You can simply select an artist to use as a radio seed source and that’s it.

In my limited listening to the new Spotify Radio I find that the range of artists is still not as broad or varied as Pandora. Spotify seems to stick pretty closely to genre and style. While there are times that I may want to listen to some music closely related to an artist, it’s doubtful I’m going to listen for more than an hour or so without getting bored. Pandora does a better job of holding my attention with variation and tunes I’m less familiar with.

The UK tech site the Register last week published an excellent two-article overview of digital audio from its birth to the post-Napster era, entitled “How digital audio ate itself and the music industry.” In part one writer Bob Dorman covers the first practical digital recorders used in studios. Part two picks up with the first home digital home recorders, such as DAT and minidisc, and digital sampling, taking the story through the modern post-Napster age. It’s a concise summary of the forces that have shaped our modern digital audio and music environment that, somewhat ironically, often finds artists searching to replicate the analog sounds and timbre of the past.

While not strictly related to radio, the question of digital vs. analog looms over broadcast radio as the commercial industry continues to try to push digital HD Radio, as it faces competition from all digital internet and satellite radio. But, as I must point out, with all of these technologies digital does not ever equal better sound quality. The advantage of digital is more often enjoyed by efficiencies the broadcaster can exploit rather than improved fidelity and experience for the listener.

But, according to CD101, rumors of the station’s death were an exaggeration. Today, Randy Malloy, General Manager and President of CD101, told Columbus’ The Other Paper:

“I can say it until I’m blue in the face — we’re not going anywhere. We’re already booking shows and our normal events for the spring and summer, Big Room shows, and we’re already in talks for CD101 Day,” he said.

“Lesley James is the program director and Andyman’s protégé. Lesley will continue to program the station exceptionally,” said Malloy.

“We have no intention of changing the same format that we’ve stuck to for 21 years.”

Both RadioInsight and some commenters on the Radio-Info.com Message Boards noted that while CD101 and Southeastern Ohio Broadcasting are renewing their LMA agreement, the fact remains that WWCD Ltd. (formerly Fun With Radio, LLC, which, incidentally, is a name I’ll miss seeing when reading about CD101.  It’s radio’s whimsical equivalent to David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants) is still leasing the frequency from another organization.  But the fact of the matter remains that the CD101 brand isn’t going off the airwaves anytime soon.

I had the chance to visit Columbus this week and spent some time listening to CD101, which is rare for me since the station doesn’t stream online and I only make it to Columbus, at most, once or twice a year.  The station continues to sound unique and presents the left of- enter modern rock format in a way that’s accessible to a wide audience, as evidenced by a consistently solid showing in the Columbus ratings.  Personally, I think this is one the hardest traits to master for stations that don’t just play the commercial alternative hits.

During my time listening to CD101, I heard MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams,” (a song that, while recorded in 1969, sounded fresh next to tracks that are mere months old), new songs from CSS and M83 (two artists that, while critically-lauded, have failed to find widespread airplay on commercial radio) and a smattering of modern rock oldies usually reserved for “Flashback Weekends” or other branded programming (specifically great to hear was Edwyn Collins’ “A Girl Like You”).

CD101 is also the radio home for the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets.  When I attended the Blue Jackets game at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday night, it was a nice surprise to see CD101’s Ice Cream Truck parked outside the stadium. And, as a fan of both the station and independent radio in general, it was downright exciting to find CD101’s logo throughout the arena, accompanied by a full-page ad in the free program handed out to all spectators.

I truly hope CD101 can resume their online stream in the coming months; in the meantime, we can celebrate that an innovative, independent station continues to survive.

CMJ 2011 Hits NYC

Last week I was in New York City for the CMJ Music Marathon. As always, the city was packed with bands and college radio DJs who were either in town to discover the next big thing or in town to be discovered.

My focus, as it has been the past few times that I’ve attended, is to see how radio is represented during the festival. CMJ still serves as an industry publication for college radio, with stations all over the country (and Canada) submitting their charts to CMJ on a weekly basis. Back when I first started attending the convention in the 1980s, the CMJ Music Marathon was a chance to meet record label representatives and pick up promo albums. In those days, the exhibit hall was filled with record labels giving away vinyl and cassettes. Times have changes and much of the exhibit hall in 2011 was taken up by technology solutions for both stations and bands. A few tables had free music promoting artists from specific countries (Taiwan, Ireland).

For college radio folks, the main event was College Day on Thursday, October 20. Panels, performances, free food, and the College Radio Awards were the draw at the packed, day-long event on the 10th floor of the Kimmel Center at NYU. In this post, I’ll recap two of the panels that took place during College Day.

College Radio Events: From On-Air Stunts to Pony Rides

The first panel, “Eventus Maximus: How to Organize, Plan & Host a Killer Event,” offered tips for stations planning various types of events. In-studio performances, benefits, and shows co-presented at local clubs seemed to be the most common types of events thrown by the members of the panel. Innovative ideas for events and fundraisers included bake sales, kids’ dance parties at a night club, DJ on-air stunts (“make animal noises for money”), and the recent College Radio Day (one station offered pony rides). All of the panelists agreed that social networking tools (Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc.) were crucial in terms of getting the word out about their stations. Rob Wilcox, a radio promoter from The Syndicate, pointed out that a station’s Twitter feed can provide a “secondary personality” for the station. Some stations, such as KEXP, go so far as to have a separate Twitter feed for the tracks played over the air.

CMJ 2011 in a room with a view (Photo: J. Waits)

Is a 60-year-old College Radio DJ Problematic?

The next panel, Music Directors’ Summit, featured four college radio music directors talking about the ins and outs of working in college radio.

The first topic that they broached was the role of community member DJs at their stations. Moderator Greg Khaikin’s question to the group referenced stations that “have to include” community DJs and the struggles related to “dealing with people…who’ve been at the station for 20 years.” Erin Wolf, Music Director at WMSE at Milwaukee School of Engineering, said that her station is made up of DJs ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s. She said that students make up a small percentage of their DJs, but that she would like to have more students on the air. She added that the students, “don’t always know that we’re there” and acknowledged that, “we need to work more” to spread the word that the station exists.

The situation couldn’t be more difficult at New York University station WNYU. Music Director Maria Sherman said that last semester more than 100 students applied to be on the air. WNYU does also have DJs from the community who have been on the air for a long time. Sherman said that many of them have a large listener base and that it would be “silly” to take them off the air. Allan Benedict of WLUW said that at his station about half of the DJs are students and half are from the outside community. From 2002 to 2008, the station functioned as a listener-supported community radio station. Things changed in 2008 when Loyola University Chicago “assumed more control” of the station and shifted WLUW to more of a student station. Today the station’s executive staff is made up entirely of students.

Cassette Tape at WNYU (Photo: J. Waits)

Is the Digital Revolution Inevitable?

As in years’ past, the panelists also discussed the challenges of digital servicing from record labels and promoters.

In the olden days of college radio, labels sent out vinyl, cassettes, and CDs to college radio stations in the hopes that the material would get airplay. In today’s economy, fewer labels are willing to spend the money to produce and mail physical copies of music, so many of them send digital copies of tracks instead. Music Directors often say that this ends up creating more work and expense for stations.

Benedict argued, “I really don’t like the logistics of it,” saying that it’s “time consuming and kind of a hassle” to download tracks, burn CDs, and print out label art. Sherman added, “Our DJs do prefer physical media” and said that WNYU still does receive a lot of CDs and vinyl from smaller record labels. Wolf agreed, saying that WMSE has an “all physical” music library. Marissa Greenberg, Music Director of Pace University station WPUB, said that it’s exciting to get physical music in the mail, saying, “I love opening a package.” She also explained that WPUB doesn’t even have a computer, so dealing with digital releases is particularly challenging.

Despite a preference for physical music, many music directors are working to digitize their music libraries, even it it’s just as a back up. Benedict said that they are “slowly” working their way through the 13,000 CDs in their library and are mainly digitizing new material as it’s added to their library.

Tensions Dealing with Promoters

One aspect of a music director’s job is to interact with record label representatives and promoters who are working to get their music not only added to college radio station playlists, but also are looking for evidence of airplay in a station’s weekly charts.  Sometimes this interaction with the music industry is positive and congenial, yet other times it is adversarial as some aggressive reps try to pressure music directors to add their music.

Greenberg, who started her music directing career at her high school radio station, said that she got really upset after receiving an email from a promoter that “wasn’t super nice.” She said that she sought out advice from her peers and ended up handling it professionally, telling the promoter that what gets played by DJs at her station is “out of my control.” Khaikin, who works as a promoter at the Planetary Group, said that some promoters are “too pushy with stations” and that it can verge on “bullying.” Wolf said that when asked by promoters why a certain record isn’t getting played, she simply tells them, “it’s because DJs can play whatever they want.”

Khaikin added that it’s important to just “be completely open and honest with your promoter.” He reflected back on his days as a music director and said, “Don’t let the promoter get in the way of the music for you” and “don’t let people push you around.” Greenberg added that she’s been asked to chart music that isn’t actually getting played. She eschewed that practice, saying, “stay true to what’s actually being played.”

Sign at WNYU (2011 Photo: J. Waits)

Does College Radio Need to Fear Spotify and Rdio?

The conversation then turned to music services like Spotify and Rdio and the question was raised as to whether or not they are luring away college radio listeners. Benedict said that he views them simply as “tools” to help spread the word and are actually ways to help a station “branch out.” Greenberg contrasted Spotify with college radio, saying, “we have interactions with our listeners.” Khaikin agreed, adding that, “Spotify can’t turn you on to bands that you’ve never heard of before.” However, many of the panelists said that their stations had developed mobile applications, which they found useful for connecting with listeners.

Spreading the Word about New Music

During the Q&A session with the audience, the music directors shared some tips about ways to screen new music and share that music with DJs. Some hold listening sessions and others invite DJs to write reviews. Wolf said she posts charts and sends them to DJs and Khaikin said that he used to send an weekly email to DJs describing all of the new music adds. Sherman even hosts a radio show in which she focuses on new music from the past 3 months. Wolf also shares some of her favorite picks on the station’s blog, where she highlights a “song of the day” for both DJs and listeners. A DJ in the audience added that it’s a great idea to have a notebook in the studio so that DJs can write comments back and forth about the music that they like. The challenges in getting some DJs to branch out musically was described by Khaikin who said that there isn’t much “crossover” between what students listen to and what’s played on college radio. He added that the average age of a college radio listener is between 23 and 30.

Connecting with One’s Campus

An ongoing challenge for many stations is getting the word out on campus. Benedict talked about doing mix CD exchange events on campus. Greenberg said that at her station they asked a film student to make a commercial to help promote the radio station. Others mentioned throwing campus parties featuring DJs from the station spinning music. Additionally, campus newspapers publish charts for some stations. Wolf said that they are having an architecture student design the station’s new studio. Khaikin pointed out that it can be really helpful to involve students from other departments and Greenberg added that DJing for other campus clubs can be a great way to get a station’s name out.

Stay tuned for most posts recapping CMJ 2011. Previous posts include:

CMJ College Radio Awards Winners Announced

Radio Guide to CMJ 2011

CMJ Announces Nominees for 2011 College Radio Awards

Nominations Open for 2011 CMJ College Radio Awards