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1st April 2013
Bright Spots For College Radio And Indie Music
Though seldom discussed on most music industry blogs, college radio is an important part of the landscape for indie music acts. Though some stations are seeing hard times, others are thriving and music is often a key element in their success. Here are three stations that have made music news in 2013.
Boston Phoenix Closes, WTBU Seizes the Day
Alt newsweeklies are also important to indie musicians so the shuttering of the Boston Phoenix was bad news. However students involved with Boston University’s WTBU Radio saw an opportunity in the empty Boston Phoenix newspaper boxes scattered around the city.
So they started a zine and began distributing them via Boston Phoenix boxes.
“‘We have always promoted the alternative scene in Boston, but as a radio station, we focused on doing that through music,’ said WTBU General Manager and junior Deanna Archetto…When designing the zine, Archetto says the goal was to then draw on WTBU’s strength, largely its ‘punk aesthetic,’ to create content that is ‘in-your-face, informative, honest and fun.’”
Hard to say how long this can last but it’s nice to see old school tactics being revived.
Check out the first issue here.
Kbeach Radio Launches at Cal State Long Beach
As Radio Survivor’s Jennifer Waits noted, 2012 was a “Mixed Bag for College Radio.” These days most things music-related are a mix of good and bad but 2013 has seen at least one high point with the launch of Kbeach FM at Cal State Long Beach.
The station has been online only till now:
“Among the dignitaries in attendance was station founder Mike Soultanian, who was presented with the KBeach founder’s award. He spoke of KBeach’s humble beginnings in his dorm room in 1995. ‘When we started, there was no way to get onto FM or AM,’ Soultanian said of the online approach. ‘It wasn’t about listenership, it was about learning how to do radio.’”
Kbeach launched with a Soulection show by alum Joe Kay.
KSUA Wins mtvU Woodie for Best College Station
KSUA at the University of Alaska Fairbanks recently won the College Radio Woodie in the 2013 mtvU Woodie Awards.
Informed during SXSW that they were one of the final five contestants, KSUA staffers started prepping for an mtvU interview:
“KSUA general manager Rebecca File said they were fixing their hair and checking each other’s teeth in the reflection of their sunglasses, trying to look presentable. Then an mtvU film crew popped up and asked, ‘How does it feel to win an mtvU Woodie Award for best college radio station?’”
I bet it feels pretty darn good. Congratulations!
mtvU is planning a visit to Fairbanks to tape a College Radio Countdown at KSUA.
Source: Hypebot (by Clyde Smith)
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17th October 2011
CMJ Music Marathon Requires Critical Reinforcements
The deluge begins Tuesday when the 31st annual CMJ Music Marathon, which has grown into a five-day overload of musicians, begins with acts who are all hoping for some kind of attention: a record deal, a gig, a blog post, a tweet.
The payoffs of a career in music have grown increasingly uncertain, but there is no shortage of aspirants. This year’s official CMJ schedule lists nearly 1,400 acts: indie-rock, hip-hop, electropop, punk, metal, singer-songwriters, funk, reggae, disc jockeys, blues, even a little jazz. The marathon sprawls across Manhattan and Brooklyn, and across the Hudson to Maxwell’s in Hoboken; it runs past 2 a.m. nightly.
And that’s just the event organized by CMJ, the college-radio newsletter that began the annual showcase in 1980, and that also presents daytime panels on the music business for badge-holding convention-goers. Clustered around the CMJ Music Marathon itself are additional showcases, most of them free, presented by corporate sponsors, music blogs and anyone else who can line up half a dozen bands and rent a club for an afternoon. People who are used to hearing recordings free online can spend afternoons, Tuesday through Saturday, surfing live music on the Lower East Side – most conveniently in the strip of clubs along Ludlow Street – and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Bands that are in demand, and willing to knock themselves out, can literally perform day and night. Caveman, for instance, a New York City band that mingles sustained, moody melodies and walloping percussion, has 10 shows scheduled; it’s hardly the only one. The unoffical parties give bands a chance to build momentum, striving for that amorphous anointment as a buzz band. Will it be the hardcore of Trash Talk? The goth electronica of Zola Jesus? Thebillowing, new-agey hip-hop of Main Attrakionz? The somnabulistic shimmer of Memoryhouse? The dizzying electronic minimalism of Purity Ring? The guitar-distortion-meets-rap of Young Magic? Will longtime indie-rock troupers like Wild Flag or Eleanor Friedberger show the newcomers how it’s done? Perhaps none or all of the above.
There’s a lot of retro out there, from neo-Appalachian to neo-psychedelic to punked-up girl-group to 1980s synthpop to shoegaze. There are also new hybrids incubating, just waiting to claim their own -wave or -core or -delic suffix.
Article originally appeared on NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com) and was written by Jon Pereles.
