Support Local Radio!
Or at least my local radio station.
So as much as we’d like to be your only source for musical discovery, and though we’re proud to have, as a staff, the undisputed best music taste on the internet, I’ll have to admit: there are other places you can go for your music. The ‘machine is a pretty good source of things, but I’d like to be on it more than I’d like to use it. Usually, I lean on poor Edward here for new music discovery. Sometimes, I turn on the radio.
Now, most of radio is junk. Pretty unadulterated junk. It’s good if you want to blast The Fray (who wouldn’t?), but not so good if you want to listen to the Noisettes or even Vampire Weekend. For that, I turn to my local 88.5, WXPN. They’re funded in part by the University of Pennsylvania, but local businesses also pitch in, and they have membership drives every so often. All in all, they operate much like an NPR station: no commercials, mostly good stuff, occasionally annoying membership drives. They mostly focus on indie/eclectic sounds, so no mashups, but you’ve got the Show for that, right?
They also support “The World Cafe,” a radio and concert series hosted by David Dye. Through this concert series, they’ve brought several notables like Andrew Bird, Phoenix, Avett Brothers, Grizzly Bear, and a few more to local venues, and several of them, like Andrew Bird, have held free lunch concerts at the radio station that anyone can attend. All in all, it’s a great source for free music, and a great asset to the city of Philly. It’s why I’ve decided to become a member recently, and for my pains, they sent me the latest compilation of recordings from these lunch time concerts.
If you’d like to listen to them online for free, you can do so at http://www.xpn.org. Their stream will open right into the mp3 app of your choice, and you can listen away! If you wanna hear some of the tracks from the World Cafe, they are below.
Crying – TV on the Radio (World Cafe Live) (YSI)
Daniel- Bat for Lashes (World Cafe Live) (YSI)
I’m making a note of the online version being up here in Toronto. Its sad but true that radio sucks. I did university and college radio where I was allowed complete control over what was played during my hours. While I am too young to really grasp the notion of what went down in the late 60s and thru the 70s until 1980, when radio stations stared market and research, I’ve always thought listeners would tune in if they thought the dj knew his or her stuff.
I listen to local college radio here and there, but mostly just plug in my cds because what’s the point of waiting for something good or excitingly new? Its not going to happen on Ryan Seacrest-dj’d radio. As Thom Yorke said, radio buzzes like a fridge for the advertisers. ‘Don’t play Sleater-Kinney because Heinz ketchup has a problem with that’ is what I imagine being said in board rooms…wherever headquarters are.
Over the last handful of years as cats have gotten really good on the internet have I found a handful of incredible new artists and records, and I’d like to think I’m the better for it. Shoot, its awesome going to see shows for $20 or even less (although much love to the Pearl Jam fan club for always getting me killer seats at great prices! And look at who they tour with – My Morning Jacket, Sonic Youth, Kings of Leon, Ben Harper, Ted Leo, Sleater-Kinney, ect – spoiled rotten). Hell, a great one the other night – Band of Skulls -$15. Vampire Weekend was $22. But if you just listen Virgin so-and-so, the concerts are $75 and up. Fucking balls!
So much and many kudos to those stations still waving the flag. I’ve always wanted to get back into doing radio, and as John Lennon sang, “turn you on”. I think you may have turned me back onto fighting the good fight.
the links died… is there any way to pick them back up?
Hey, the YSI links are dead, yeah, but I’m pretty sure the mediafire ones are still up (the ones that you’re linked to if you click on the song itself). Let me know if that’s not the case.
Dave, I’m glad you’re back on the fight! I had a college radio show, too, back in the day. It allowed not only freedom over what music you present, but how you present it. One semester, I had a show with my roommate called “Sountracks to Fictitious Films” where we made up a narrative through the songs that we’d play. It was a good time. (Check out the ol’ radio station at http://wbor.org/).
I remember a few years ago, there was a list of the best radio stations across the country in Esquire Magazine. I can’t seem to find it now, but I know another one that was on it, and one that does a lot of the same things that XPN does, is KCRW out of Santa Monica, CA. Let me know if you find any others in your quest!