Ktwin radio (KTWN-FM) ditches Tony Fly

Ktwin (KTWN-FM), making a bit of an abrupt change to its 7 month-old morning radio show, dumped long-time personality Tony Fly while co-host Eric Perkins is away at the London Summer Olympics for KARE 11. Third wheel Dani Starr appears to be absent as well for the time being with former/current afternoon DJ Dan Riggs.

Tony Fly mentioned, in an interview with City Pages, that Northern Lights Broadcasting management stated that they planned on going in a different direction and that ratings had gone virtually nowhere since the switch to a rather bland Modern Adult Contemporary format.

On a curious side note, the Ktwin website offers up zero mentions of its current DJs. This development, along with the axing of Tony Fly who is as serviceable of a DJ as could be expected given the watering down of the music on Ktwin after its first month on the air, makes me wonder if more changes are in the works at 96.3 KTWN-FM.

New radio stations - thoughts on 96.3 KTWIN and Buz'n 102.9

So far, 2012 has been a year of change. Locally speaking the Twin Cities have two new radio stations. But when I say new, that doesn't mean shit when it comes to radio stations because everything has already been done. That is painfully obvious when it comes to Buz'n 102.9. It's a horrible nickname for the new CBS-owned country music station which replaced the equally horrible Lite-FM on Christmas day. I guess it's all about choice for the country music fans in the cities but now with two big country stations to choose from it seems like people being able to choose from two Walmart stores. They both offer the same crap, the only differences being the employees and location. Maybe one Walmart has a more pleasant person working the deli counter so you choose that one but in the end you can get the same offerings either place so maybe you shop both of them. That's how exciting it is having two country station in the Twin Cities.

The second new radio offering is actually different. Gone is 96.3 Now (formerly hip-hop/R&B as B96) and their slightly more danceable mix of KDWB music and in its place is 96.3 K-TWIN. I first checked out the K-TWIN stream as I did some web design work Sunday evening and was intrigued. The station definitely has a bit of a rock and alternative lean to it but tends to lose me when they throw in an 80s track from Bon Jovi. K-TWIN definitely seems to favor artists like Adele, Kings of Leon and Foster the People while I've also heard Lily Allen, Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers more than a few times.

Today (Wednesday) is the first day with live talent on 96.3 K-TWIN and I have been pleasantly surprised with the new morning show featuring KARE-11's Eric Perkins and Tony Fly with the future addition of Danni Starr. Fly and Starr, of course, were both on the previous incarnations of 96.3 and come with that baggage of a more "urban" lean and I've never been a fan of Tony Fly's performance on 96.3. He was terrible in trying to hold down a morning show when it was B96 and even worse in afternoons when the station became 96.3 Now. I'm not sure it was his grating voice or the schtick he tried to pass off.

Perkins, though, feels genuine right off the bat in his first day as a morning drive personality. Maybe it's because he's a personality people can relate to from his current gig on KARE-11 or maybe it's because Fly and Perkins actually work together well on the radio. I'm not sure when their morning show acually ends but they did recycle the two big interviews (Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman) from earlier in the morning in the 9 o'clock hour which doesn't bode well for the first day. Go big right out of the gate, don't mail it in, guys.

Another thing I'm curious about is the involvement if Rick Kupchella's BringMeTheNews.com. Kupchella was in the studio with Fly and Perkins this morning, BMTN provides the twice an hour news segments during the 96.3 K-TWIN morning show and Eric Perkins is also employed by BMTN as a sports reporter. I smell some sort of deeper involvement beyond the purchasing of BMTN newscasts.

Overall, 96.3 KTWN-FM needs a little polishing (get your website up and running) but it should be able to carve out a niche as it refines its music format somewhat. It's different enough from Cities 97 (because it's actually energetic) and features the more upbeat tracks and artists from 89.3 The Current and it avoids the majority of the music played on KS95 and has, to this point, actually managed to hold true to its statement of playing music not found on the majority of stations in the Twin Cities. Add in Blink-182 playing as I finish writing this and I'll keep listening. 96.3 K-TWIN has the familiar music for me and 89.3 The Current covers the new music. Hopefully they can co-exist.

Tim Mahoney's big break happens Tuesday

When I first heard him on the now-gone Drive 105, I turned my radio up a bit. When I heard the afternoon DJ announce the artists in the previous block of music I was blown away. Holy shit, I said to myself, Tim Mahoney stepped up his game for that track. When his CD, Stay/Leave, landed at Target, I snapped up a copy and when I was organizing my disheveled CD rack yesterday I took note of that disc and how it thanks former Drive 105 DJ J.P. The Radio Slave for getting him on the air on an actual radio station and making him at least regionally popular.

Tomorrow night, though, Tim Mahoney takes to the national stage on NBC's surprise hit The Voice.



His music, especially Piece of You, has the core elements of an excellent rock song with the memorable and sing-along lyrics of a good pop song. He's the type of Twin Cities musician who deserves to be on the larger, national stage and I hope that his national television debut tomorrow night on NBC proves to be successful for him. Check it out locally on KARE-11 at 8 PM C/T.

Dear whiners: get over your racial sensitivities

Last week, there was a bit of a ripple involving local top 40 radio station KDWB and a parody song entitled "30 Hmongs in a House" done by the Dave Ryan Show's producer, Steve-O, set to the tune of Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven". The lyrics, while terribly offensive to some had me laughing when the song originally aired sometime during the week of March 21.

The song, supposedly suggested by a listener in some wacky morning radio bit they were doing between one of the eight songs they play over the course of four hours, poked fun at stereotypes of the Hmong population in the Twin Cities. The Dave Ryan Show has a decent relationship with the Hmong population in the Twin Cities and they love to rib that population -- and it seems to be well received.

But after issuing an apology via the show's Facebook page due to a few persons of Hmong descent being offended, an advertiser has now stepped up and pulled their ads from KDWB. HealthPartners, who had been advertising their online clinic VirtuWell, on Friday yanked all advertising from the station indefinitely.

My advice is to get the hell over it. Because a few culturally sensitive people raised their voices over a song which was heard by about 10% of the entire metro population, the station will likely have to issue some sort of heartfelt apology and maybe even go as far as making a donation to some charity which supports the Hmong population (about 50,000 in the Twin Cities metro area) to appease HealthPartners.

It's just another example of advertisers, for better or worse, having far too much influence over the content of commercial media. I'm not a die-hard Dave Ryan fan but I do admit to listening to the mornng show on KDWB. I don't particularly care for the music but the show does have some comedic value to it. For once I'd like to see a media company thumb their nose at an advertiser who jumped ship due to "questionable content" and stand their ground. An apology, especially when the parody wasn't cruel at all, is all for show no matter what the circumstances are. Do stand-up comedians apologize to people who have been offended by something in their act? There's absolutely no reason to apologize for this parody either? After all, what other young-targeting radio station is HealthPartners going to run to in an effort to get the word out about VirtuWell -- 96.3 Now? Sure.

KDWB's War of the Roses is fake

The first clue that the feature entitled “War of the Roses” on local Top 40 station 101.3 KDWB-FM is fake is that when a station calls someone they must inform the person they are calling that they are being recorded. That alone should tip people off that the insanity that ensues when a suspicious woman sets up her man to see who he will send a dozen roses to is entirely fabricated. But some people fail to see the truth.

It’s been discussed back and forth in the inner circles of media insiders

and media watchers but this week it all came bubbling to the surface. Gawker specifically names the faked bit as “War of the Roses”. The name is used nationally and while it’s best known here in the Twin Cities as being a weekly staple of the Dave Ryan Show on KDWB, even the over-exposed Ryan Seacrest in Los Angeles uses the bit on his morning show.

In short, the callers are provided by a company called United Stations Radio Networks (helmed by Dick Clark). The bulk of the talent used for this bit and other pot-stirring radio bits on a number of large Top 40 radio stations are actors plucked from New York City among other places across the country. They are given talking points and a basic outline but the majority is ad libbed and done so quite well.

But it doesn’t stop at staged bits to expose supposedly cheating spouses. When a ludicrous topic is posed by a morning DJ, often times a caller conveniently pops up with an equally ludicrous take on the topic. Many of those scenarios are staged by Dick Clark’s United Stations Radio Network as well. The bottom line is if it sounds too crazy to be real then it’s probably bullshit.

Now while I’m not saying that every wacky bit Dave Ryan (Kibler if you’re all for realism and truth) does on his KDWB morning show is straight up bullshit I think that this company set up by Dick Clark and Premiere Radio Networks (a company under the Clear Channel umbrella) to provide actors for radio bits and calls should be proof enough to be at least skeptical about what you hear during your favorite morning show. Just take t hings with a grain of salt and remember that radio was originally billed as theater of the mind -- not everything you hear is real.

How a labor strike changed everything

Immigration has always been a part of our country. It's how our country was built and it's how we became known as the world's melting pot. But now immigration is viewed by many as being a negative. It's viewed as bringing crime and it's assumed by many that everyone who doesn't look like you or I is here illegally. Sure, that's the case sometimes but it isn't always. That's the subject of a Minnesota Public Radio package airing today about my old hometown -- Austin, MN -- being at a crossroads a full quarter century after the Hormel strike which gained national attention changed the landscape of the city forever.

The subject is of particular interest because I grew up in Austin. Well, more specifically a farm outside of Austin but I attended school there and lived in the city until moving in 2003. Throughout that time, those changes were taking place. I remember our very own neighbors being embroiled in the politics of teh Hormel strike. Some crossed the picket line and some stood firm. Those wounds of union men and women and the "scabs" who crossed the picket line are still a sore subject for some but the real changes in the city weren't totally visible until a few years after the strike.

The dad of a friend of mine was at least partially responsible for finding new workers willing to take the lower wages of the newly formed Quality Pork Processors (QPP). I recall advertisements touting a starting wage of a whopping $7.75/hour. These were the same jobs that, under union scale, sometimes paid double that a few years ago. That was the beginning of the immigration influx. It was (and still is) an extremely low wage for an already established but recently unemployed head of household to earn a living with so the logical recruitment target were immigrants and the logical area was south -- particularly Mexico.

There have been rumors for the past twenty years of QPP advertising on billboards in border towns in Texas and even in cities south of the border in Mexico about the high paying jobs in Austin. Supposedly a bus arrives on a weekly basis -- if not more frequently -- in Austin carrying eager, new employees for the cut and kill lines at QPP.

The new racial make-up of Austin has created a cultural divide. While the once high-paying jobs that vanished overnight left many downtown storefronts, the influx of hispanics in the city created a rebirth of sorts in the business community. Suddenly Mexican markets and restaurants sprung up. When I left in 2003 there was one authentic Mexican restaurant in town. Not so any more. The MPR story lists the number of hispanic businesses in the downtown area as nearly a dozen. They pay sales taxes and property taxes and wages, too. It's good to have businesses.

"You know, we sound like a bunch of racists down here," said Vincent Maloney, who worked at Hormel for 38 years. "But we're not."

But some view the immigrants as taking over their once whites-only community.

"We've got eight parks in town. Small ones. Big ones," Maloney said. "The white man don't dare go out there. The Mexicans have got them all cornered. And what a mess. They get these piñatas. Beat the hell out of them."

In my last couple years living in Austin, I noticed the fondness that the new immigrants had for the community's parks. They were mostly families grilling on the weekends. Sure the crowds were large and to "old timers" the different culture is intimidating. There are plenty who view them all as bad because of the violence their culture has brought to the city. There have been stabbings and rapes and even murders. It's not a pretty fact but I think of it as a growing pain. If it weren't for the city's latest demographic make-up of 25% hispanic, the city would be a virtual ghost town. The police do their jobs in cracking down on crime but they don't racially profile because that is simply wrong.

The big sticking point is that the influx of hispanic immigrants are very adamant about clinging to their heritage, their language and their culture. That doesn't sit well with established residents.

"Everything is labeled here, making it easier for them to keep their language," she said. "At HyVee, the grocery store, they have the Spanish names for the restrooms and they have the magazines that are printed in Spanish. They just enable them to keep their language. ... I think everyone would feel more accepting if they tried to blend in."

That quoted point is something I actually agree with. My grandpa immigrated here from Denmark. He worked hard to learn the language and earn a living. He farmed for decades and provided for his large family. I don't recall my dad ever saying that his dad spoke Danish -- even inside the house or with relatives who immigrated here as well. Sure, he hung on to the language because he as well as his relatives corresponded with family members back in Denmark but that was the extent of him keeping his language. May dad can't speak one single word of Danish. My grandpa blended in.

Is it different now? Was it different a century ago? Was it shameful to be proud of your immigrant heritage in 1917? I don't have the answers but I do know that my old hometown has permanently changed and those residents need to confront the change head on, embrace the positives and work with their immigrant neighbors together to make the city better before the few bad apples effectively take over.

Sinking even deeper in to my bad music collection

There was obviously a time in the mid-1990s when I had a fondness for novelty CDs. That can be the only explanation for me owning a copy of "Turdy Point Buck" by Bananas at Large.

If you're unfamiliar with the song "Turdy Point Buck" then you're obviously not from the upper midwest - or more specifically Minnesota or Wisconsin. The title track, which I had the misfortune of listening to on my commute to my office today, is a tale about a deer hunter sitting in the woods during deer season when he sees and attempts to bag that ellusive thirty (pronounced "turdy") point buck.

For whatever reason, the song gained at least some regional popularity where I grew up (in the greater Rochester radio market - thanks alot KROC-FM). That, in turn, lead me to trudge through what was likely a snow-filled parking lot at Austin's Oak Park Mall and plop down $10.98 at On Cue for a CD that sported one novelty track that I was sadly familiar with and six more that I could give a shit less about.

The CD gave my friends and myself many laughs. I'm sure we sat in my car at lunch outside of the high school and listened to it. I'm sure a certain friend of mine - now a Sherriff's Deputy - prodded me in to playing it again and again because his twisted sense of humor secretly loved the song. I'm also sure that the novelty, just like many others, wore off after about a month.

I have only my old lady to thank for unearthing this blaze orange bastard this morning. She told me she didn't look at CD titles when this one was pulled from the rack but knew that it had to suck based on the color of the spine alone. Hey, at least after listening to it for one final time and reminding myself that I need to punch sixteen year-old me for pissing away money on shit, I can throw this on the spring garage sale. If you find yourself interested in a never-ending buffet of bad CDs, I'll post a link to the Craigslist ad for the sale in late April. Until then, always doubt your musical purchases or you too cold end up with something similar to this blaze orange mistake and find yourself, fourteen years later, listening to this decade's version of "Turdy Point Buck".

Until next time, busy yourself with the archives of MinnPics. I'm sure anything there is better than this week's bad CD.

A penny for my thoughts about the penny

If it wasn't for the radio - yes the radio - I wouldn't have known about the redesign of the penny - or the one cent piece if you're all old-timey. If it weren't for the internet, though, I wouldn't have known just how terrible its new design was.

Which leads me to an actual point. Where do most people get their news? It's been studied and rehashed on an almost daily basis. Newspapers offer up a text and photo-based approach but once a day but to get that particular breed of news in a format you can hold in your hands costs a quarter or two each and every day. Sure, you can get basically the same news as you'd get in print for free on most every newspaper's website but newspaper websites are a pain in the ass to navigate through without using their lousy search functions.

The internet is available, if you don't mind looking over your shoulder, while at work to plenty of office workers. The most accessed time for many news websites in this particular corner of Minnesota is between 11 AM and 1 PM which correlates with lunch time across the different timezones of the United States. But what do you do if you don't want to or can't access the internet for news while at work?

If you're like me, you have a crappy, barely together radio sitting at your desk. My trusty $5.99 earbuds from Menards attached to either it, my iPod or the headphone jack of my computer I keep myself not only entertained/distracted from the outside noise of the office but informed, too. Getting that information/entertainment mix is a bit of work here in the Twin Cities. I can't find a radio station I could tolerate for the course of a workday so I mix it up. I have appointments with certain stations on various parts of the dial but I actually seek out the 4:20-ish news update with Bob Collins on 89.3 The Current. Maybe it's because he has an attitude about the world that matches mine (we're all doomed) or maybe it's because his banter with Mary Lucia is genuine but whatever the case the news he mentions during those few minutes - while not always the biggest headlines - seems almost tailored to my tastes.

And without that newscast and his daily mention - via Lucia's asking - about what's on the News Cut blog, I would have never known about the morons in government with nothing better to do messing with the U.S penny. Screwing with the design of a coin which nobody already gave a damn about is equal to tax forms using a font size 1/2 point smaller than they did previously. Nobody's going to notice! Way to waste money, geniuses! And thank you Bob Collins because without your blog post mentioned on The Current, I would have never known about something most would see as trivial but something I see as wildly maddening.

The only thing more maddening that a new design for the penny is missing an update of MinnPics. Don't miss the kick-ass photos from all over Minnesota including recent name-dropping of Olympic sports. Go now and check it out and subscribe to the RSS feed or I'll write another blog post about curling.

What's the real deal with B96?

When B96 (formerly KTTB 96.3 FM) seemed like its demise was imminent, I hoped for a music format not currently being done in the Twin Cities. We already have Top 40 which leans heavily towards hip-hop, we have rock, classic rock, Hot A/C, A/C, oldies, a watered down A/C that thinks it's a hip and cool AAA station known as Cities 97 and we have FM talk for white guys and and another FM Talker for white women. The Rap/Hip-Hop format that lived on B96 since 2000 was unique. They played DJ mixes, old school hip-hop and even brought in newcomers and local artists on a regular basis.

But it catered to a somewhat niche audience. B96 suffered from a bit of an identity crisis, too. They were more urban sounding than that of the very similar KDWB and that's a hard sell to advertisers because as stereotypes go the format appealed to clud-goers and pawn shops. Sorry, that's just the way stereotypes work. But as David Brauer of MinnPost points out (with help from his commenters), the music played appealed to teens in the burbs, too.

The only problem there is that these kids don't buy much and having ads for pawn shops and downtown Minneapolis clubs next to ads for suburban mall stores is the worst clash of styles you could ever imagine. So the club-goers and the suburban (and inner city) teens lost out. But does the station really matter? For the most part, the same music formerly played on B96 was already being played on KDWB. Sure, B96 did a far better job of connecting with the community and thus the fans of the music but in all actuality that wasn't the station doing that, it was one personality. While his grating voice bothered me deeply, Peter Parker (night DJ on B96) did a hell of a great job connecting with the local hip-hop community.

Parker regularly had guests in the studio either for interviews or performances. He obviously had rather free reign over his show but he didn't abuse that freedom. Instead, he got creative with it and built a community around himself and the music. I won't say he was the most popular radio personality in the Twin Cities but it's been a very long time since radio connected with the listeners and that kind of ethic will take him quite far even with the current terrible state of radio where bland, safe, cheap and distant trumps all else.

Who knows what the future holds for the new 96-3 Now? It will definitely be more safe than its predecessor but safe doesn't always mean abandoning the community but unfortunately safe does pay the bills and music on the radio today is a direct reflection of what advertisers dictate by way of purchasing ad time. The most critically-acclaimed execution of a music format can tank horribly with advertisers but the worst idea ever to those same critics can cast the widest net and thus the most fans and most advertisers. In a way, that's one reason why Jack-FM still occupies 104.1 - it hasn't lasted five (or so) years because it's adventurous. It's lasted because it's cheap to run and that wide variety of safe music appeals to plenty.

Now it's prediction time. Will 96-3 Now (and their shitty logo) last more than a year or two? How long until it's the home to Twins Baseball?

Will MinnPics outlast it? Maybe. It all depends on how much love the internet gives the awesome photos of Minnesota featured daily!

Songs of the year - part two

Yesterday I rattled off a few of the best songs of 2009 in video form - a sort of doudle-edged sword of success for a musician. Today I'll wrap things up with a few more songs that were huge and songs that should have been epic.

Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
Sure, KOL made it huge with mainstream success this year for "Use Somebody" but anyone who follows the roots of their music in the alternative scene would tell you that these southern boys are definitely not newcomers. I remember hearing them locally with "The Bucket" about four or five years ago. Sex on Fire, while it dind't achieve even a shred of pop success this year was most definitely a hit in certain corners during the summer of 2008 and I think that, based on this year's pop success, KOL can again hit it big if "Sex on Fire" is re-released. It deserves to be the soundtrack to half-naked people on beaches everywhere.



Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked
Who? Ida Maria could very well fall in to the one-hit-wonder chasm but this song is catchy as hell and the accompanying video is compelling simply because it's different. The lyrics, while simple, are certainly not throw-away crap like for too many songs released this year but the straigh-forward approach of them makes the song that much more appealing. The lyrics can only be interpreted one way.



Airborne Toxic Event - Wishing Well
The instrumental opening of nearly a minute long is so epic that it's hard not to be a fan of this song. The style that the video is edited feels fast, jittery and choppy and matches the underlying, steady kick drum beat that's present throughout the four minutes of the song. In short, even though this is a fan-produced video, it's as good as many bands turn out.


I think I'll stop here but I could go on forever. Sure, this year wasn't as ripe with favorites to me as years past but it's been a blast putting this together. And for the five or six people reading this, I'm toying around with a video site dedicated to Minnesota music - both from here and appearing here - check back from time to time to see if it happens.

But don't forget about MinnPics - it's like a reliable old friend if that friend captured kick ass photographic moments across Minnesota to share with the world.

Songs of the year

Everyone and their mother seems to be releasing rather pointless and tired year-end or decade's-end lists ranging from sports moments to fails. But this one is different. This one was created by me...

Without further ado, 2009's songs of the year - in video format because I hear that video is catching on.

Phoenix - 1901
I had never heard of Phoenix until they were the featured musical act on an SNL episode early in the year. I was happy I was watching SNL because they were the only bright spot in that wretched Seth Rogen episode.


Metric - Help, I'm Alive
I had heard so much of this band as 2009 came into being and I simply fell in love with this song. Metric, hailing from Canada, makes exquisite poppy tunes and I think that they have even more mass appeal being a female-fronted band. The vocals of Emily Haines are mind blowing in my opinion. Sadly, no ture official video exists outside of this short film produced for the song.


The band's latest song, "Sick Muse", is equally as satisfying both aurally and visually. It already stands an excellent chance of making my list for 2010.


Green Day - 21 Guns
Green Day, after their "American Idiot" album, found themselves all grown up. They wrote more melodic music and while they still appeal greatly to teens their music is more all-encompassing. "21st Century Breakdown" isn't chock full of hits in my book but it's hard to be fair when "American Idiot" had a hit in nearly every track. The music of "21st Century Breakdown" has far less of an obvious political message and stance but is far more powerful. "21 Guns" is the purest definition of power pop that I heard all year long.



Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
It took me all year to warm up to Lady Gaga. Her first single, "Just Dance", was just annoying. The more I heard it the more I hated it. But then came "Poker Face". I was becoming a fan of Gaga. When "Paparazzi" hit the airwaves I was indifferent - until the MTV VMA performance. She is a true talent when it comes to her live performances - they aren't just music, they are art and that's what her persona as Lady Gaga is. The first time I saw the video for "Bad Romance", off her "Fame Monster" disc, I loved it. It was a turn in a new direction for me because rarely do I like a pop song on the first listen. I predicted on Twitter that by Thanksgiving week it would be played 80 times/week locally on KDWB - that prediction was off by about two or three weeks but this song is huge and amazing in so many ways - plus it sounds great at any volume.


Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind
No, it's not so much Jigga-man's rapping that sold me on this song being one of the year's best, it's his decision to team up with Alicia Keys who makes playing the piano cool. This song and its accompanying video almost make me want to live in NYC.



Carolina Liar - Show Me What I'm Looking For
This is another example of power pop - the only difference is that this song deserved so much more exposure than it received. Carolina Liar is a fairly straight-forward rock band that wrote a ballad of sorts that seemed custom-tailored for touching TV montages and commercials. I know that at one point SoapNet used it but these guys deserve so much more.



In the interest of keeping this as succinct as possible, I'm breaking this in to a two-parter. Check back tomorrow for the reast of my humble list and don't forget to spend a few more minutes of your time at MinnPics because who doesn't like photos?!?

The real deal with local music

This past summer marked a breakthrough of sorts for a musician from the southern Minnesota city of Owatonna. He had achieved plenty of notoriety via MySpace for his electronica-type music but finally found mainstream success when the single "Fireflies" found its way on to the radio which, like it or not, is still the sort of passive way of finding new music.

The only problem with radio is that they are extremely slow to pick up on new music. Sure, some radio stations add a couple of tracks each week but those are only added because some label executive paid the radio stations a few wheelbarrows of money and gave the station's executives tropical trips complete with the necessary hookers and blow. That doesn't bode well for new music, it bodes well for record labels with a lot of cash to throw around.

I have basically zero faith in local commercial radio. While there is some new music played, it boils down to a half-dozen or so overplayed paid-for pop songs. That creates a problem for a Minnesota artist like Adam Young who is Owl City. Yeah, "Fireflies" is getting radio airplay in the Twin Cities on KDWB but that didn't happen until mid-September. I first heard "Fireflies" in early August via the webstream of WFNX in Boston, Massachussets.

Yep, it took me listening to the stream of a radio station half the country away to discover a musician who is based an hour away from my house. Local commercial radio can burn in hell if I ever once hear any station claim to play local music or even serve the interests of the public because if you have to wait over a month between first hearing a song and hearing it on a radio station you can get in your car then the entire process is broken. And yes, I'm well aware that an example like this is exactly why iTunes exists but if the old ways of media want to compete in an age of increasing fragmentation then they need to break the mold and shake off the old ways of doing business. Yes, Ryan Seacrest is a big name but what does he know about Minnesota?

This is precisely why MinnPics exists. I am at least from Minnesota and sort through literally hundreds of photos each day to find those which you need to look at. Check 'em out today!

Advertising has apparently gotten very cheap

I know that the economy is in the crapper but it's even more apparent when you listen to the radio. The products and services advertised wouldn't be able to afford advertising unless the rates were so low and the products and services seem to be custom-tailored for a time where 3 out of 10 people are perched on the ledge ready to jump from the nearest tall building. But what about the products? What are they and what do they promise?

Quietus: A product, in a chewable pill, that eliminates the ringing in your ears caused by machinery, electronic devices and loud music. The commercial even mentioned some sort of medical term for the "problem". I rank this one right up there with fibromyalgia and restless leg syndrome in the medical-problems-we-didn't-know-we-had-until-a-cure-was-invented file.

Bio-Life Plasma Services: Sell your plasma (blood). Hey, you can do it twice a month and pocket a couple hundred bucks. It only takes an hour each time and, let's face it, all you're doing is eating Ramen and watching a marathon of Spongebob Squarepants episodes. I have a feeling that business has definitely increased at places like this because two of the most popular ways for college kids to earn cash easily is to donate sperm or sell plasma - now those trends have just moved on to the general population.

ComputerTraining.com: In just 6 months you can become a certified IT Professional. It's easy and you'll become that person at your office who is irreplaceable. Wow, I didn't know that I could learn everything there is to know about PCs and the technology that supports them in a mere six months. Hell, I'm going to their website right now because I believe every claim I hear on the radio and if they have a website it lends that much more credibility to their business model.

And there are tons of others, too, who are taking advantage both of the rock-bottom ad rates on radio and the gullibility of Americans. Then there's Google AdSense. Since when has Google spent a dime to advertise anywhere?

But the best advertising is word of mouth and that's apparently how people find MinnPics. Awesome photos all about Minnesota!

The thought purge - item 6

Oldies-type radio is like your favorite blanket you've had since you were two years old. It's old, it smells terrible and it's soooo fucking predictible yet some people can't let go of it. Sure, it's cool in random, small doses but if it's all you consume, like eating nothing but grapes, eventually your pee will smell funny and you'll die because variety is the staple of a balanced diet and living on grapes (oldies) really should leave you craving more. God, I am loving The Current (thecurrent.org) today.

Is it wrong to say that I am fearful?

In case you've been living under a fucking rock for the past year or so, all forms of media are tanking. There's no kind way that I could say this because it's reality. It's happening more and more frequently and I could list all of the victims of the recent media layoff but with KARE 11 tv laying people off and forcing all employees to take one week of unpaid time off, WCCO tv laying off employees, KSTP tv doing the same and the Star-Tribune filing for bankruptcy. Then there's Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine firing Brian Lambert and another Twin Cities veteran writer.

The sad thing is that this list is short. There have been far more cuts than these which have taken place in the past few weeks. It leaves the media landscape not a leaner operation but one that seems nearly gutted. Can a bare-bones staff fearful for their jobs at every turn be effective in producing and investigating news? Can their support staff, fearful of the same outcome, be effective in their jobs? Will this be the final downturn that leaves us with a media landscape that is a pure laughingstock? What will become of the media companies who cut too far? Is there even a place in the world of tomorrow for the evolving "traditional" media outlets?

Where does that leave these talented writers, producers, cameramen, reporters, personalities and the numerous behind-the-scenes employees of these media outlets? While the evolve-or-die mantra has certainly become true, has it happened too fast?

I hate to think what the media I rely on today will look like at the end of the year. Even more frightening is what the landscape will look like by Spring of 2010 (when I expect everything to begin recovering - slowly). Will I, as a media employee (no, I won't say where or specifically what I do), still have the same job duties or even a job by then? I am at least hopeful in that aspect because I like to think that I understand the buzzworthy trends that are rocking the media world. I've picked up the basic skills over the years that I need to make things work and thankfully I can grasp the new skills needed when they are unleashed.

So there it is in a nutshell. The media landscape - and the world - will not come out of this deep and painful, but necessary, recession (greed and stupidity fucked us all) anywhere near the same as they are now. This will either lead to the richest experience for entertainment and media we have ever witnessed or things will be bleak, bland and totally lacking the personality and skill that is growing and evolving and learning currently.

I am rooting for the former scenario. While you can currently listen to hundreds of hours of music from your iPod which goes everywhere and fits in your pocket, it's lacking the personality and warmth that we still crave and that was lost yesterday and is being lost nearly every day. Hopefully the suits running the world realize that entertainment of any form needs personality. It's what sets the traditional, but evolving, media apart from the "new" media.

Sadly, though, everything hinges on advertising and until those dollars come back into play, things will flat out suck but they will come back but in a wildly different format. A format that I can't wait to see or even be a part of creating.

Losing a loved (Indie 103 point) one

Anyone that truly knows me knows that I'm an alternative music geek. I love it and can't get enough of it. Maybe that makes me a bit of a junkie instead. Whatever the case is, as physical radio stations go, alternative radio's track record in the area of longevity sucks. A five-year lifespan is considered a millenium because music trends are always evolving and the stations often times are stuck in whatever sub-niche of alternative music they began their life as and can no longer grow which leads to their demise. Oh, yeah, and the fact that alternative music tends to attract a younger and less affluent demographic makes it tougher to sell advertising makes it hard for even the most devoted corporation to stick to the format.

Enough boring tech insider speak. Whatever the case is, I've been a fan of more than a few alternative radio stations that met a rather untimely end.

The first I truly grew attached to was The Spy (KSYY) from, of all places, Oklahoma City. I think this one lasted about two years, maybe fewer. From there I grew to love bands like The Postal Service, Frou Frou and The New Pornographers. I still have songs from these relatively unknown greats on my iPod in somewhat heavy rotation.

Before that was 97X (WOXY) from Oxford, Ohio (near Cincinatti). I had listened to that gem of a station since the late 90s. It played all kinds of obscure shit and it had loyal owners, loyal talent and tons of loyal fans. However, when money too big to ignore came calling, the owners took it. They realized that a mom & pop operation had no place and would be unable to compete in today's world. I stayed up late on their last night on the air listening to their online stream as the DJ played their last song (which was its first too) by U2 - Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

More recently and definitely more local was the loss of the longest running alternative station Minneapolis, The Twin Cities and Minnesota had seen. Drive 105 was what it was. It was weak both in power and music but if you could plow through the dreck it wasn't half bad. It served its purpose for the corporate overlords at ABC and they did play some local music. The last song played - Say it Ain't So by Weezer, is a definite must hear on my iPod.

Then there's the latest victim to fall due to the alternative radio curse.

Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles was amazing. It never should have lasted for the just over five years it did. It had everything against it that one could imagine. Ownership, signal and a huge and well-known competitor. Even with the deck stacked against them they survived. Indie quickly became the hip station for celebrities. Zach Braff, in advance of his Garden State movie, took over for an entire day and played his favorites as he interviewed artists and actors from his movie. Henry Rollins, Dave Navarro, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Rob Zombie all had specialty shows on the station. The hot as hell Suicide Girls had a late-night advice show and the music was very indie. Early on, the mohawk-clad TK would play a Frank Sinatra track each afternoon. Yeah, they were that cool. The new music, though, set trends. Songs they played first would often times break across the country months later and be huge. They seemed to have a knack to find music that would be the next cool thing. Oh, not to mention that they were playing some cool new Prince tracks. Why'd you leave us Indie? Oh well, I'll have to add My Way to my iPod because that seems to be the eventual only place for decent and adventurous music.

Then today, at Noon central time, it ended. I caught the last hour or so with the airstaff saying their goodbyes and staying in good humor while doing so. Then came My Way by Frank Sinatra. The personalities are gone. Replaced by a Mexican music jukebox format. Thank God for streaming because for the time being Indie 103.1 lives on in its online format so catch this gem while you can. (more info here and here)

And if music is your thing, check out MinnPics because from time to time I'll feature something relevant to the Minnesota music scene.