Radio Survivor

Gear Used on 'RXP's "Vinyl Experience" Show Photo courtesy Paul Cavalconte

If I were ever to be interviewed for my own “Radio Obsessives” series on Radio Survivor, the topic would no doubt be my Spinning Indie Radio Station Field Trip project.

Since April 2008 I’ve visited 20 different radio stations, ranging from tiny online-only college stations like WECB, to renowned community radio station WFMU outside of New York City, to a high school station near Chicago, and on and on.

I never expected that I’d visit a commercial station, as my focus is really on indie-minded radio. But, the folks at New York City commercial station WRXP kind of surprised me; so I decided to visit in late October 2009.

You can read the complete story about that visit over on my other blog; but the highlight for me was seeing a live DJ picking music during his show. Morning show host Matt Pinfield was having a ball selecting songs and crafting the perfect musical segue way when I stopped by. It was clear that he was still motivated by his love of music.

In addition to their radical approach of actually letting DJs pick (at least some of the) music for their shows, WRXP recently added a vinyl-only program on Sunday mornings called “The Vinyl Experience.” I just conducted an interview with the show’s host Paul Cavalconte and was excited to hear just how evangelical he is about spreading his love of vinyl.

Do you know of other commercial radio stations with shows focused on vinyl? What a welcome trend!

WLIU-BK Broadcasting from CMJ Exhibitors' Loft

Last week I was in New York City for the 29th annual CMJ Music Marathon.

From the beginning, this industry conference was a way to connect college radio DJs, label representatives, and musicians. With panels during the day and music performances at night, it’s an action-packed week designed for music discovery on a grand scale.

The college radio focus of the CMJ Music Marathon has been toned down over the years, with a much broader range of panels focused not only on radio, but also on the business of music. There’s even an entire track for lawyers, and another for the Swedish music industry.

Yet, this year I was really struck by the number of radio stations sponsoring CMJ, broadcasting from CMJ, and doing live remotes of CMJ artists. Host station WNYU at New York University even opened up its studio for a number of visiting college and community radio stations from the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. Each station curated live sets from artists performing at CMJ. Some broadcast live and others recorded the broadcasts in order to air them later.

Backbone’s Student Radio Network also facilitated live remote broadcasts from the floor of the CMJ Exhibitors’ Loft, with various college radio stations streaming live and hosting artists using their simple set-up of a laptop and microphones.

Listening Session Collection Bin at CMJ

KEXP (Seattle) did remote broadcasts from the studios of the Cutting Room, hosting a number of bands over the course of last week. NYC’s own East Village Radio also did some live remotes from clubs during CMJ and set up shop in CMJ’s Artist Lounge.

Even commercial radio showed the love to CMJ, with 4 folks (including DJs, the Music Director and Program Director) from New York City rock radio station WRXP participating in a “listening session” panel on Tuesday, October 20th. Matt Pinfield, Leslie Fram, Matt Ianni, and Brian Phillips gave advice to aspiring musicians and even listened to a number of CDs in front of the live crowd of CMJ attendees. In the session I learned that WRXP feels a responsibility to play and support local music and that their Music Director Brian Phillips is still motivated by the “joy of presenting new music.”

The WRXP folks really dug some of the CDs that musicians handed them at CMJ and a few of those artists ended up getting played on the station later in the week. Can you imagine how excited those bands must have been?

To read more about the radio presence at CMJ, take a look at my recap on Spinning Indie. I’ll also be posting more articles about the CMJ Music Marathon, as well as reporting on my visit to WRXP.