The Resurrection of Radio (Part One)

I had the idea to write about Austin radio a while back, but when I realized by friend Joseph had never even heard of KUTX, I had to make this a priority.  Come on, JC.

When I was in high school, I got to do an internship class where students took a period or two and went out into the workforce to get a taste of something they might want to do in the future.  Being that I am a music nerd, I chose radio.  My teacher got me in with the folks at Magic 95.5 and Froggy 94.7, so I started going over to their building out on 360 to get a taste of the business.  

On the left, what I actually had to hear all day (Sloop John B).  On the right, what I wanted to hear all day (Pumpkins).
For the most part, my role was minimally tied to the music itself.  Instead, I was the guy cleaning up the promo closet, opening mail, delivering stuff around the offices, and typing up some of the "Magic of Austin" segments about local charity events.  "Part of the magic of Austin is the Central Texas Blood Bank, doing a blood drive this Saturday from 1 to 4 at the Coliseum!  Come on by!"  But every once in a while I got to do stuff in the studios, and it felt super awesome to be so close to the place where the magic happened. 

However, I was naive about the way radio worked.  I had always thought that being on the radio meant that you get to show off your kick ass musical knowledge or delve into the deep cuts from your favorite band.  Not happening in corporate radio of the mid-90's.  One of the jobs I was tasked with was helping a blind DJ translate his setlist into braille.  The corporate owners of the station would send faxes of the required setlist for the day, handed down from the mothership as law.  I would read those to the DJ while he typed it all up in his little machine.  I have no clue how he subsequently found the right CDs to insert, I suppose they had braille to help him do that.  I remember having a conversation with him the first time, asking why they got their setlists faxed to them.  He told me that the whole world worked that way now, that the huge companies that owned all the stations did market research to figure out the right songs to play to keep the audience happy and tuned in for the ads.  What!?!  Radio isn't about the ads, is it?

Yes.  I was a moron.  I have no clue which of the big companies owned Magic and Froggy back then, but their point of being in the business was not breaking new bands or the love of the tunes.  It was all about that cold, hard advertiser dollar.

Anyway, neither of those radio stations were interesting to me in the first place.  I listened to KNAC (alternative) and KLBJ (classic rock) mostly, with some time for K-98 (pop).  But then I found KGSR and couldn't change the dial.  It was a great station, nicknamed Radio Austin, and they played the kind of eclectic mix that made Austin so cool.  Some country/ Americana, some rock, some alternative, and they went back to old, deep cuts as well as played the new music.  It was great.  You could hear new Lucinda Williams next to old Elvis Costello next to Steve Earle next to Nickel Creek.  

However, not long after we moved back to Austin in 2005, I remember feeling like a lot of those good tunes were being replaced with top 40 tunes that didn't match the long-time ethos of the KGSR I had grown to love.  Smashmouth is one good example I recall - that "All Star" song.  This article pegs that change to around 2010/2011, which seems later than I thought, but likely right.  It looks like new-ish owner Emmis Communications (based in Indy, purchased the station in 2003) lost longtime heart-and-soul-of-the-station Jody Denberg, then they switched the frequency from 107.1 to 93.3, and then Nickelback replaced Nickel Creek in their playlists. All about those ratings, baby.  

When that happened, I quit listening to the radio, pretty much entirely.  I'd nerd out with some news on KUT, but otherwise I'd just use my CDs or iPod or phone to play music in the car that I actually wanted to hear.  Until the beginning of 2013 and the launch of KUTX.  

KUTX is the sister station of Austin's NPR station (KUT), and really separated itself from the rest of the dial, truly playing the eclectic mix that makes Austin different from the rest of the world.  Matt Reilly, an old friend of mine from many years ago, came to Austin from Philly to act as program director, which meant I heard about the station right away.  In addition to Matt, the station got longtime radio stalwarts in Austin like Paul Ray, John Aielli, the aforementioned Jody Denberg, and Susan Castle, along with other folks from KGSR and KUT who had worked to make Austin radio original in the past.  As just one great example, take the awesome Friday afternoon "Old School Dance Party," with host John E. Dee, which is this hilarious trip back into kick ass funk and soul music from 40 years ago. And so you end up with a musical sound that is unlike any other, but matches my omnivore musical tastes really well.  You can hear old school rap (but smart rap, not gangsta, like De La Soul or Tribe), Americana, country, rock, pop, punk, and local stuff you can't hear anywhere else.

Stream it here: http://kutx.org/wp-content/media_player_2/?kutx

So, I started doing an experiment a few months ago to listen to and track a group of five songs from each of the main radio stations I would listen to, so that I could show the raw power of KUTX.  Then it took me too long to write about this and I got a new phone and lost my notes, so I've had to do a new set of samples.  In running this little experiment, I found that there is another radio station in Austin doing a kick ass job of bringing real music back to the masses.  Experiment results to come in Part Two.