On the State of Music

Recently, my favorite, local radio station had shut down.  It was called 101.9 WRXP, The Rock Experience, and it was headlined by Matt Pinfield, and his co-host Leslie Fram.

Matt Pinfield in Village Voice

For a while, this was my main source for obtaining new music.  Their show was promoting smaller bands from all over the country.  They would always have a guest band or artist that would perform in the studio.  We (my wife and I) learned of so many bands that we ended up going to see live in the area: Rocco DeLuca, Audrye sessions, etc.  They would also promote local music, featuring a weekly session called "Local Licks" and during this time they would play bands from the local, tri-state area.

Evidently, their show was not only about new R'N'R, new bands, local bands.  They played plenty of ol'school Rock and, with the musical historian Mr. Pinfield at the helm, their selection was exquisite.


Now that their gig is up and gone (Pinfield is back on MTV2 for 120 Minutes), I found myself in a very frustrating situation - here we are, in one of the most affluent metropolitan areas in The World, and I could not get a good radio station.  Well, this statement should be qualified.  I could not find a good station that goes out of their way to promote and preserve good music.  That sounds so pompous and esoteric, but take it as you may.
When I lived down in the Philly area, my favorite stations to listen were the College radios, especially the Ivy Leagues' - UPenn and Princeton.  Heck, I learned about Spoon on Princeton's 103.3.  Up here, I tuned into Columbia, Seton Hall, NYU, and found nothing appealing on the waves.  Nothing. 

After this debacle, I turned to my trusty Pandora.  Pandora had become my favorite means of obtaining new music.

However, by poking around the Interwebs, I found that there are still some good sources around the U.S. that invest themselves into preserving good music.

One such station is WNRN in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I subscribed to their YouTube channel after seeing many of my favorite bands and singer/songwriters featured in their studio (e.g. Delta Spirit, Blitzen Trapper, Ellis Paul, Jesse Malin,etc.)  I started checking out new artists I'd find there, and going out to see them live, when they come through the area.  I, thus, discovered really cool new music like Head And The Heart.

Now I get alerts about their uploads in my YouTube account and check them out religiously.  Great acts appear constantly and good music flows my way.


So, what the hell am I talking about here?  What is this rant?  What is this preservation and promotion of good music bullshit that I am spilling?
The way I see it, it is the modern-day radio DJ's responsibility to show us up and coming music acts, all entwined with reminiscing of what good music we've had in the past.  And these reminders should consist of playing the obscure pieces of great bands as well as the most widely known ones.  We've all heard "Like a Rolling Stone" on a radio show three bajillion times; play us something like "Talkin' New York" or "Masters of War".  Those lesser known pieces that defined the artist in his/her era what they really were.

Surely, the media landscape has changed so much in this digital revolution and we can all recur to Podcasts, Music genome projects, instead of our local radio - but the job of the DJ is still the same.

It should also be said that I tend to not discriminate against musical genres.  Though I have been lately, heavily leaning on the side of folk-rock, alt-folk, alt-bluegrass, indie-rock, indie-folk or whatever similar labels are applicable, I can enjoy anything from a good country song to a trance groove.

On another note, my cousin showed me this station in Louisville, KY that seems to be doing the exact same thing.

91.9FM, Louisville WFPK.  They stream and play a plethora of great rock, blues, indie music, folk. 


Why can Louisville, KY have a great station that will play Head and The Heart, and NYC does not???