Radio Survivor

It seems like I can barely go a fortnight without mentioning New Jersey’s greatest radio station. But here I am again posting about freeform music station, WFMU. This time it’s because the record collector magazine Goldmine has produced a short video all about the station’s amazing record library.

I’m a vinyl enthusiast myself, having never given up on the format since buying my first record some thirty years ago. Whenever I fill in a music shift on WNUR I make a point to spin some vinyl from the station’s library. Unfortunately, space constraints prevent ‘NUR from maintaining a library as expansive as WFMU’s. Nevertheless I’m quite happy to have an impressive array of great albums to choose from.

Fellow Radio Survivor Jennifer Waits always checks out the record collections at the college stations she tours on her own blog Spinning Indie in addition to writing about vinyl’s continued use in radio here at Radio Survivor. I find that the college student DJs at WNUR are very enthusiastic about playing LPs. It seems like any hour I walk into the station I’ll find at least one turntable spinning or ready to start. Hitting play on a CD or MP3 will never have the visceral experience like cueing up a record and hitting start on a Technics 1200.

The new issue of Rolling Stone now on newsstands features “40 Reasons To Be Excited About Music.” Though I might argue with a lot of the reasons (Black Eyed Peas are reason #1?!), I’m pretty convinced by #40: “Because You Really Like Music.” One of the factoids backing up that claim is the breakdown of how surveyed readers say they listen to music.

Out of eight formats FM radio comes in at a very respectable third place, with 59% of readers saying they listen to it for music. That comes behind 87% of readers who listen to CDs and 72% who listen to legal downloads (readers could choose all the formats they listen to). Satellite radio comes much further down the list at #7 behind cable TV, vinyl records and illegal downloads, surpassing only online subscription services. There aren’t a lot of details given, so I don’t know if Pandora or last.fm are considered online subscription services or if they’re lumped in with “legal downloads.” Also missing from the list is online radio; maybe that’s part of “legal downloads,” too?

Admittedly, at this point in history Rolling Stone doesn’t have a reputation for being at the cutting edge of music or technology. But with a circulation of 1.4 million the magazine isn’t fringe either. A 20-something Pitchfork reading indie rocker might think of a Rolling Stone reader as an aging boomer willing to pay $200 a seat for Eagles tickets, but the mag’s actual demographics show a reader’s median age to be 31, with 63% having at least some college education. So we can’t assume that the average RS reader is necessarily behind the times, as is also evidenced by the fact that 72% of readers listen to legal downloads.

All this goes to show that radio hasn’t yet been abandoned by rock music fans, like the Rolling Stone readership. Then again, 59% does not indicate a medium at its peak. I haven’t been able to track down any similar stats from an earlier year, if in fact RS has conducted such a survey before. But I reckon the percentage of radio listeners ten years ago would have been much closer to CD listeners.

What this tells me is that music radio still has a chance to hang on to listeners, and maybe even grow a bit. But I think it’s clear that the direction of commercial (and, unfortunately, some noncommercial) radio towards tighter playlists, national programming and strict, homogenized formats will not do anything to aid this cause. I’d love to see a breakdown of what kind of radio the Rolling Stone readers listen to, but alas I don’t think they asked that question.

Over the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of music that can be held in one’s hands. The third annual Record Store Day on Saturday (if you missed it, take a look at our Radio Guide for the event) celebrated both physical record stores and the non-digital releases sold within their walls.

As I visited two of my favorite San Francisco record stores, Aquarius and Grooves, I was elated to see people combing through bins of records and CDs and talking about music with each other.

I also spotted a case full of cassettes at Aquarius and boxes housing 8-track tapes at Grooves, illustrating that there is still a market for formats that many assume to be non-existent.

The success of this year’s Record Store Day speaks to the desire held by many to hang on to the physical aspects of music amid the pressures to “go digital.”

College radio is a logical home for some of these tensions, as some stations are getting rid of vinyl (and even CDs), using automation software, and are allowing DJs to use iPods during their radio shows.

These debates about the role of physical music in radio are at the core of an article that I wrote this week for PopMatters called “Technology and the Soul of College Radio.”

In the piece I talk about both the history of innovation in college radio (ever the trendsetter) and how the dark side of tech may be seeping in to its programming, threatening to homogenize the airsound and take away some of the energy and whimsy that I think should typify college radio.

The response to my article has been fascinating, with some people telling me that they are afraid to voice their opinions against digital music and with others sharing how their college radio stations have already gone to the dark side of commercial-esque Selector-scheduled programming. And I didn’t even get into the arguments related to fidelity, which is a big concern for many in the anti-digital music camp. What do you think? Does physical music make for better-sounding radio?

The 3rd annual Record Store Day is taking place tomorrow (Saturday, April 17, 2010) in independent record stores all over the world. In honor of the event, stores will be hosting live performances, meet and greets with artists, and will be selling and giving away exclusive releases on both CD and vinyl.

It’s a wonderful celebration of record stores and of physical music in a day and age when both are being threatened by online alternatives.

Since radio and record stores are part of the same mission to expose new music to the masses, here’s a short guide to some of the radio stations planning special programming or events for Record Store Day 2010:

WRXP (New York City):

WRXP DJ Rich Russo has put together a limited edition LP full of performances by local bands (including Dramarama) recorded on his show or at live events. It’s only available on Record Store Day and is limited to 500 copies. Proceeds will go directly to indie record stores.

Additionally, Rich and fellow WRXP DJ Brian Phillips will be traveling to a number of the participating record stores to host live performances by some of the bands featured on the LP. WRXP DJ Paul Cavalconte (of the Sunday morning Vinyl Experience show) will also be on hand at Passout Records in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon. Paul geared up for Record Store Day by playing some of the exclusive releases (he pulled some strings) on his show last Sunday. He’ll play more Record Store Day material on this Sunday’s show.

NME Radio (UK):

NME Radio aired a special focused on Record Store Day earlier this week.

The Current (Minneapolis, MN):

Minneapolis public radio station The Current is running a contest, airing Record Store Day-themed shows this Saturday, and posted a listing of events happening at record stores in Minneapolis on their website.

East Village Radio (New York City):

Online-only community radio station East Village Radio (EVR) is helping to promote Record Store Day in the New York City-area (and London!) and has a nice run-down of events listed on their website. Record store Fat Beats (which also hosts a show on EVR) will be featuring in-store performances all day.

WXRT (Chicago):

Today WXRT DJ Terri Hemmert shared some thoughts about the importance of record stores and how a record store employee in Chicago actually helped get the first Elvis Costello record played on WXRT back in 1977. The WXRT website also has a nice post from Terri about Record Store Day 2010.

WGN (Chicago):

WGN aired a lengthy interview with Steve Kay of Evanston, Illinois record store Vintage Vinyl (featured in High Fidelity). In their discussion they talk about the resurgence of vinyl and Record Store Day in which he says it “introduces people to the world of records.” In the interview he reveals that Vintage Vinyl will be the only store in the world selling a limited edition Smashing Pumpkins single (only 250 copies available) on red vinyl starting at 11am.

KUVO and Radio 1190 (Denver and Boulder, Colorado):

DJs from public radio jazz station KUVO and college radio station Radio 1190 will be spinning music at Record Store Day events in Denver, Colorado at Twist and Shout Records.

If there’s something going on at your local radio station for Record Store Day, let me know in the comments.

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!

I spend a lot of time thinking about how changes in technology are affecting radio.

I worry that the “kids” (college radio DJs as well as everyday folks) are getting lazier and lazier, bypassing physical music for digital, thinking that it’s easier to find and play.

I also worry that the pleasure of enjoying an entire album is being lost; even though there are still albums being created that beg for a complete listen.

In a piece in The Boston Globe, Steve Almond nicely captures some of these fears as he takes a look at his own feelings of nostalgia for physical music as he converts his record collection to digital files. He writes: