Radio at Bonnaroo

A good article on the radio set-up at Bonnaroo. It might give other festivals some ideas. Read the entire article, because I have only quoted parts of it here.

Nashville Scene, 6/14/07 - Radio Daze: "...roughly 30 Bonnaroo acts will record three-song sets and give interviews that will be broadcast throughout the weekend to about 30 of the country’s biggest rock stations, including KFOG (San Francisco), DAVE FM (Atlanta) and WXRT (Chicago), and in Nashville, on WRLT Lightning 100. It’s all part of Bonnaroo’s unique approach to radio outreach, designed by Asheville, N.C., music marketing company Music Allies....

Imagine a reality show called Build a Studio. That’s how carpenter David Gehrke describes the task ahead of him—building the recording and radio studios essentially from scratch. 'Every year they throw changes in,' says Gehrke, drummer for The Bees (U.S.) and co-owner of Niko’s bar in East Nashville. 'This year, I’m doing a proper control-room window. I’m really polishing a turd...trying to make a room that is in no way, shape or form acoustically fit for recording, trying to make it sound, look and feel good.'...

According to Gehrke, the setup is just as much a boon for the artists and radio stations as it is for Bonnaroo. “When you’re on the road pushing a record, you usually have to do a bunch of radio interviews, and it’s exhausting. Here, in 20 minutes, they can do one interview that’ll go to the biggest stations all over the country, then they can go watch the other bands. The artists love us. And the stations have access to all these artists in one space, and can reap the benefits of each others’ questions.'...

These segments will also be broadcast on Radio Bonnaroo, which airs 24/7 to the campgrounds and surrounding area for the entire festival. 'We lease a local radio station [Manchester’s Fantasy 101.5] for five days and put a frequency on the air,' says [Music Allies CEO Sean] O’Connell. 'And we have speakers all throughout the campground. When you’re crawling into your tent at 5:30 in the morning after seeing the Flaming Lips do a late-night set, and that hot sun is starting to come up on the horizon, you may hear Brian Eno holding a note for 20 minutes. We want this to be part of your dreamscape. Nobody has the luxury to program a radio station like that.'"

Colorado Music Scene History

Right now is probably the best time ever in the history of Denver rock. There are a ton of great local bands on the scene. And the major label success of The Fray has finally gotten the labels (what is left of them) to actively look at Denver bands to sign.

This is a look at Colorado music from about 1980 to 2000. It's not comprehesive (because no person could have been everywhere and involved with every band), but it's one man's look

The Colorado Music Scene - History

Mexico City and indie rock

Los Dynamite Noiselab Mexico City Rock - New York Times, 5/13/07: "Thanks mostly to the downloadable avalanche of globalization and the rise of MySpace the current independent rock scene is full of artists who may be from Mexico City but sound as if they could be from New York, Stockholm or Paris....

The debut of MySpace in 2003 couldn’t have come at a better time for the Mexico City indie scene. In the 1990s major labels could still afford to be interested in a diverse swath of rock and alternative acts, but by 2003 they were no longer signing bands whose sales weren’t projected to reach gold in their first month or who weren’t easy matches for telenovela soundtracks. In response a string of indie labels emerged to fill the void, and suddenly it seemed that there were more bands than ever. There were more young people making music on home computers, more places to play (galleries and storefronts as much as clubs) and more international acts — like the White Stripes, which made Mexico City a heralded early stop on a 2005 tour — coming to town.

Most in the scene agree that the watershed moment came in 2004 with the appearance of Reactor, a taste-making, state-supported radio station. Unlike previous Mexico City alternative rock radio ventures, Reactor made breaking independent and underground bands from Mexico as central to its mission as playing the latest from Franz Ferdinand. 'If a band has a strong following, we take notice,' said Raúl David (Rulo) Vázquez, the station’s lead programmer.

Everything, then, was in place for an indie explosion. MySpace just struck the match.

'There’s always what we call the Mexico City lag,' said Luis Arce, a member of Chikita Violenta, whose debut album, 'The Stars and Suns Sessions,' was recently released on Noiselab. 'In the U.S. there was the college rock boom — Pavement, Sebadoh, even Nirvana — and now in Mexico City we have our own version of that. This is our own ’90s indie boom, just a decade or so late.'...

'In previous generations the goal was to present yourself as part of the city, to define the city and express the city,' said Jorge Hipolito, a veteran of the Mexico City scene who works at Noiselab. 'Now that doesn’t matter so much.'...

One particularly controversial result of Nafta has been the growing number of young bands choosing to sing in English, even if the members don’t speak it particularly well. Most of these bands claim that it’s not a bid for crossover success, but a direct reflection of their musical upbringing. 'We’re more comfortable singing and writing in English,' said Mr. David of Chikita Violenta. 'We’re proud of being from Mexico, but this is the way we like to do music. It would be dishonest for us to sing in Spanish.'"

What's a college town?

This is a very thorough look what creates a "college town" atmosphere.

Macon.com | 05/06/2007 | Is Macon a college town?

According to Blake Gumprecht, an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire who studies college towns, a college town usually has at least 20% students. But the article outlines other factors that create a college town atmosphere, which could be adopted no matter the size of the school population.

Entertainment/eating establishments that are open past 2 a.m.
Bars and clubs for ages 18+
Low-cost/free entertainment
Small, funky shops
Large college sporting event
Strong independent music scene
College radio station
Community/college partnerships

Also mentioned in the article, but not listed above, is a specific district, within walking distance to campus, that caters to students.

Commutes, radio, and live music

I stumbled across this article in a blog about radio. That blog suggested that long commutes encourage radio listening because people want to feel connected. By that same token, long commutes probably discourage going out to catch live music because there just isn't time (unless it's a local concert where kids are welcome, which gives families an opportunity to do something together).

The creative class concept, where you encourage people to live at higher densities closer to cultural settings so they spend less time on the road and more time at clubs and in third places, is an attempt to counter the trends described below.

Annals of Transport: There and Back Again: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker, 4/16/07: "Roughly one out of every six American workers commutes more than forty-five minutes, each way. People travel between counties the way they used to travel between neighborhoods. The number of commuters who travel ninety minutes or more each way—known to the Census Bureau as 'extreme commuters'—has reached 3.5 million, almost double the number in 1990. They’re the fastest-growing category, the vanguard in a land of stagnant wages, low interest rates, and ever-radiating sprawl."

Promoting unsigned artists on radio

Although lots of radio promotion concepts seem to come with some sort of catch, this sounds like a good idea. I'm not sure why this hasn't been done before.

CHUM Limited | Press Releases | CHUM Television: "Each month beginning May 1, 2007, CHUM Radio programmers across Canada will vote for the best emerging Canadian artist. The winning artist’s song will be added to playlists at all participating CHUM stations, reaching over 2 million Canadians. The initiative will provide independent artists with mass exposure through airplay, advertising time and promotion.

The Emerging Indie Artist Initiative is developed as part of the launch of CHUM’s newest radio station, Calgary’s ENERGY 101.5 FM. During the term of its license, the station will invest $640,000 annually to the development and promotion of Canadian talent."

Heavily targeted online radio advertising

TargetSpot is a company that will allow advertisers, even very small ones, to buy ads for online radio. The ability to create a drop in an ad to a specific group at the very last minute has its appeal, though it is likely that mobile ads will be pitched in exactly the same way. (For example, if you work downtown, you can get a cellphone ad for special deals from nearby restaurants."

The advantage of any of these concepts for local music is the opportunity for music venues to reach people making last-minute plans for something to do.

A Virtual Ad Agency for Online Radio - New York Times: "'A restaurant near Times Square could realize at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday that it had seven open tables for lunch,' he said, 'and then the owner or manager could go online and target people in the 10036 ZIP code who make more than $75,000 a year.'...

“[A chocolate maker] would be able to advertise to men in certain locales he identified, and select placement next to love songs rather than heavy-metal music,” said [David Goodman, president of marketing for CBS Radio], 'because those listening to love songs are much likelier to buy his product.'...

TargetSpot’s Web site will offer advertisers the ability to record ads by microphone, telephone, prerecorded audio files, computer-generated speech or voice professionals. Sound effects and jingles will be available on the site, as well as images or logos."

What community does public radio serve?

This Salt Lake City station is wondering if they have to abandon some of their special audiences in order to cultivate a bigger, younger audience.

Salt Lake City Weekly - Nudging the Dial: "For 27 years, KRCL 90.9 FM has been a favorite spot for fans of roots, bluegrass, blues and folk. It’s also the only place on the dial to feature programs in Tongan or broadcast information on the state’s Vietnamese community.

Around 32,000 loyal fans tune in each week. But, in an Ogden-to-Provo radio market with a potential 1.7 million listeners, that isn’t many. KRCL’s audience has stagnated to the point the station risks losing one of its main federal grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), about 11 percent of KRCL’s $900,000 budget. Under CPB guidelines, stations must meet baseline measurements either of listeners or local donations, neither of which KRCL hits, said station manager Donna Land Maldonado."

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Local music support versus advertising

Here's an interesting article about how a radio station totally devoted to Texas music switched formats to increase ad revenue, and then hopes to use that to take the all-Texas concept to HD radio, which is better suited to upscale, niche broadcasting.

Caller.com: Local News: "KBSO 94.7 FM, which he had owned since 1992, began playing 100 percent Texas music in 2000 without discrimination - blues, rock, country, Tejano, English or Spanish - as long as the music was good, Davila said. The only exception was rap. ...

"Listeners were in for a shock when, on Dec. 1, Davila switched to 100 percent Tejano. ...

"Davila is building a nest egg for his next move in Texas music. Having worked in Tejano radio most of his life, Davila knew switching genres would generate the money needed to take his beloved Texas music station to the next level - high-definition.

"He hopes to raise the $250,000 to $300,000 needed to make improvements within the year, when he plans to keep his Tejano station on 94.7 and make 94.8 an HD Texas music radio station. ...

"Tejano music is a growing market for ad revenue, whereas Texas music is hovering around a core group of advertisers, said Ed Shane, CEO of Shane Media Consultants and Best in Texas magazine. ...

"For now, the station offers Texas music only through its Web site, HYPERLINK http://www.texasradio947.com www.texasradio947.com, where Davila plans to podcast studio interviews with Texas artists."

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AAA Radio and Local Scenes

Here's an article about how the AAA radio format is important in Austin but is non-existent in Raleigh, NC.

Some AAA stations actively support their local music scenes and others do not. The article explains some of the reasons why there aren't more AAA stations around the country.

newsobserver.com | Why the scene isn't heard on local stations: "After Scott Gilmore moved to Raleigh from Austin, Texas, four years ago, he scanned the radio dial in search of a particular kind of station. He was 30 years old, an active music consumer and club-goer.

"Gilmore wanted to find a commercial station reflecting that sensibility -- one playing a mix of local and national acts, plugged-in to the local music community. He was looking for a Triangle equivalent to KGSR (www.kgsr.com), Austin's flagship 'Adult Album Alternative' (Triple-A) station. KGSR plays current acts such as Beck and Gomez alongside Kris Kristofferson, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely and other Texas acts, plus adult-alternative standbys including John Hiatt and Shawn Colvin.

"He never found anything like KGSR in the Triangle, at least not on the commercial end of the dial.

"'The closest thing we have to that here is college radio, which is so minute by comparison,' says Gilmore, who works as local director of operations for Sonic Drive-In. 'When I go back to Austin, it's almost like you can get the current pulse of the live venues and music scene there just from listening to KGSR. ... This cool inter-dependency between the local scene and the radio, they both help each other out.'"

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How to get on college radio

This article isn't directly related to music scenes or live music, but it is the best discussion I have seen on the workings of college radio.

I've never been quite sure why you have to pay a promoter to get your music on radio, and whether paying one will produce tangible results. This article suggests that radio airplay is hard to come by unless you have the right label support behind you.

The Bwog: "A band or label employs a promoter to push its albums to radio stations and handle press. Promotion comes at a steep price—around $1,000 a month on the cheaper end—and bands that can't afford it don't have anyone sending free CDs and records to stations, and thus aren't getting airplay before their albums are released.

"WBAR doesn't have the money to buy 50 or even 10 new records a week, and neither does almost every other college radio station in the country. Instead, they rely on freebies bestowed by the promoters. In short, the stations need the promoters to be able to play music and the promoters needs the stations to play their music. It seems like a happy symbiosis, but it depends totally on a third party—CMJ.

"Chris Baio, C'07, and Chas Carey, C'08, are the college rock directors at WBAR. They sort through up to 100 albums per week, deal with nagging promoters who want their artists to move up in the charts, and process the new acquisitions. When I asked Baio how he chooses what to add, he told me it's often a 'superficial choice' based on cover art, press releases, a few minutes of listening, and a feeling of what the DJs will want to play. As for unsigned or unpromoted bands? 'There is a glimmer of hope, but it's unlikely,' he said."

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Making a living wage in music

This scenario only works if people buy music, which they may not.

Others can argue that it used to be a better time for full-time musicians because there were more and higher paying live music gigs in every town.

Digital production and distribution has allowed many more musicians to make a small amount of money, and thus reduced the opportunities for full-time musicians to get paid for what they do.

Pandora's Playlist :: Philadelphia City Paper: "Before going off to work, mommy and daddy will load the family station wagon with amps, drums and 2.3 children. On the way to school, there will be no fights over which radio station to play. An intelligent recommendation engine streaming over the ubiquitous Wi-Fi waves will choose music suitable to everyone's taste. Then mommy and daddy will practice at their bandmate's home studio and record music to be sold over the Internet at 25 cents a song, providing comfortable wages for each band member's 2.3 children.

"Is this the future? Probably not, but Tim Westergren, founder of the Music Genome Project and Pandora (a site that recommends and plays music based on your evolving preferences), doesn't think this is too far off the mark.

"'I think what we'll see is the beginning of the musicians' middle class,' he said last Thursday evening at a town-hall-style meeting in the University of Pennsylvania bookstore."

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Make Local Music Promotional Campaigns Easy and Painless for Venues

Nashville Business Journal: "The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau is launching a new advertising and marketing campaign to brand Nashville as the home to all genres of music - country, bluegrass, contemporary Christian, jazz and more.

"Deana Ivey, senior vice president of marketing for NCVB, spoke of the campaign at a meeting of the Nashville Advertising Federation on Sept. 27. She says the multi-year 'Music Calls Us Home' campaign is an important step in the branding of Nashville, a task to which the organization has devoted much effort since it rolled out the Music City Branding initiative in 2005.

"'We've done a good job at branding Nashville as Music City," Ivey says. "But it's a double edged sword...because people think we're just country music.'"
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What I like about this campaign is that it has developed ways to promote local music which should be relatively easy for venues to buy into. Here are some of the projects that fall under the Music City Brand Initiative:
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Brand Story [of Nashville’s diverse music heritage] and Brand Tool Kit for businesses [including brand story, suggestion booklet of how to incorporate music into business, CDs, window decals, etc]

Strategic partners: Coca-Cola · Southwest Airlines · Hartmann · Tractor Supply · Jack Daniel’s · XM Satellite Radio

New Pole banners – displayed throughout the city, will now have a consistency of look

The Branding of Demonbreun Street from the Music Row Roundabout to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center as “The Music Mile”

A new Wayfinding signage program – system of signs in strategic locations around the city will assist people in finding attractions and places of interest and emphasize our musical heritage

New “Live Music Venue” signs – these signs will be offered to establishments that provide live music 4 or more days a week. (NCVB will create maps and brochures so tourists can easily navigate the city's music scene.)

The Visitor Information Center at the Gaylord Entertainment Center will be remodeled into a wireless internet café, with outdoor seating and a stage for live music

In partnership with XM Satellite Radio, a monthly live-to-tape show on XM featuring Nashville songwriters, with the working title “Music City Connection: The Heroes Behind the Hits”
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Having watched a number of good ideas related to Denver's music community fall apart because too many people criticize and not enough offer to help, I think that the initial local music scene push should come from one person or entity committed to seeing it through. Lots of people will jump on the bandwagon after there are signs of success, but initially there tend to be lots of naysayers and it's better to have a program which they cannot discourage or derail.

Texas Music as a Radio Format

Radio and Records: "DALLAS--A group of Texas music industry insiders joined a pair of the genre's leading artists for a discussion about the state of the music at the R&R Convention 2006. At the 'Texas Music: Boon or Bane' session, panelists generally agreed that the Texas music scene remains a vibrant country music subculture, whose artists are gaining notoriety on a national level. ...

"While panelists agreed on how the music is being defined and shared similar opinions about growth potential, opinions were evenly split as to whether Texas music is the basis of a viable, competitive format.

"Stratton and Shane Media Services' partner, Ed Shane, says it is more of an attitude and an extra ingredient for country programmers' playlists. 'We're not at the point where Texas music could be considered a format, because there's still no consensus about what defines it,' he says.

"KFWR/Ft. Worth (95.9 The Ranch) PD Rick Lovett, whose station plays primarily Texas artists in what he terms a '60-40 mix of new and gold songs,' thinks Texas music is a viable format. 'We aren't at a place where there are generally accepted parameters and definitions about what a Texas music station is, but that's the beauty of the format -- it is constantly trying to figure itself out, which keeps it vibrant and keeps the listeners engaged.'...

"Dualtone artist Deryl Dodd commented that in Texas, he can remain true to the style of country music he plays without compromise. 'I've never wanted to play clubs where I have to play covers in order to excite people. I can do that in Texas, because the fans expect originality.'"

Promoting local music without radio

After holding the County Music Assocation Awards in New York last year, the CMA is moving them back to Nashville for the 40th anniversary of the awards. The challenge is how to stay visible in major markets when country stations are being eliminated.

Show's back here, but CMA still savors Big Apple - Wednesday, 08/30/06: "The CMA Songwriter Series at Joe's Pub also has kept country artists and writers in front of New York audiences: Tuesday night's edition of that series featured Jon Randall, Lori McKenna, Jamie O'Neal and Jo Dee Messina.

"Despite — or maybe because of — the fact that New York still doesn't have a major FM radio station devoted to the country format, the CMA continues to develop East Coast media contacts that were sparked by last year's show....

"'We're going to beef up our marketing and advertising in New York and in Los Angeles because we don't have the normal outlet of communicating to country fans, which is radio,' [Country Music Association chief Tammy] Genovese said.

"L.A. country station KZLA recently switched formats, meaning that three of the nation's prime markets — New York, L.A. and San Francisco — have no major country station.

"'We hate that,' Genovese said. 'It's devastating to our format. L.A. and New York are top sales markets for our music, and it's astonishing that corporations would make the decision not to feature this music.'"

A recommended local music podcast

Bostonist: Wednesday Webcast Review: Band In Boston: "The Band In Boston podcast is a podcast, of course, about music. What this podcast does is provide the listener with suggestions of local music to check out in the upcoming week. In addition, they will often play selections of music from the artists which they are recommending that week. ... They will also feature exclusive live performances from their living room. These live performances definitely provide the frosting on the oh-so-delicious cake.

"Like we said, the show is all about Boston. It doesn't get any better than that. Well, actually it does, as the hosts, Andy and Jen, are fantastic as well. They are extremely knowledgeable of the local music scene and provide many amusing moments in addition to sharing all that musical wisdom. The show does slant towards the indie-rock scene, but having some focus is not a bad thing at all. We just hope more 'casts like this spring up for other musical genres. The Hip-Hip In Boston podcast would be great. Any takers?

"If you haven't guessed it, we are completely enamored with this podcast. We wish all podcasts could provide us with this amount of joy. If you enjoy supporting local music acts and venues, then you need this podcast. Yes, we said need. And with that, we say, 'Thank you Andy and Jen, Boston needed this podcast.'"