WNMC Music Discussion 1

So . . . what the heck is this thing?

This is a blog where I'm going to write some of my thoughts on music, its place in our lives, radio, its place in our lives, WNMC and its place in our lives.

Another big topic is going to be what I perceive to be the future of all those things. The WNMC part is highly charged because I actually have some influence over the future of the radio station. But the point of the blog is to let other possible influences have an airing. I expect--or hope might be the more appropriate word--I hope that other folks will weigh in here and that this blog will indeed develop into something like a discussion.

So, why the heck this thing?

It's pretty obvious we live in times of great change in the media world. Community public radio is certainly not immune from those changes. And I think if we are going to live with these changes, we may have to consider changing ourselves.

Just to head off the usual fears regarding radio stations changing,  I have no interest in running yet another NPR outlet, or becoming a pop station or any of the other horrible things people have done lately with little independent-minded stations like WNMC. What I hope is that I can hand off a healthy, still independent, still offbeat, still open, still fun WNMC to the next manager one day.

To do that though, I think we're going to have to evolve with the changing media environment. Not change in terms of the spirit of the place--our dedication to educational and enriching programming; to providing a valuable alternative (rather than another iteration) to what's going on elsewhere in the media; to opening doors and windows to important parts of the world and our community we'd otherwise miss or ignore. I don't expect these basic values to change.

I do expect how we do these things to change.

I know that talk of change in precious but fragile institutions like WNMC will have some people reaching for their holsters. I realize some of you may have heard this kind of talk coming from authority figures before--rousing talk of positive change and evolution; lip service paid to cherished values but only as a cover to foist some completely contrary-to-those-values agenda on you. I can't prove to you I'm not that person. That a WNMC that had had one of those horrible agendas foisted on it would pretty much be no different than no WNMC at all as far as I am concerned. Maybe worse.

I can't prove that to you, but I hope you know me well enough to know I mean it.

So what changes in the media "environment" do I see as challenges we might need to respond to?

One obvious one is the changes in music and the business of music. Obviously the economics of music has changed a lot in the age of the Internet, much of that change to the severe disadvantage of record companies and artists. There has been some direct fallout on WNMC as a result of these changes. When record companies were big and wealthy, even the biggest, dumbest major labels had outposts filled with like-minded music lovers who did WNMC a lot of little favors that helped keep us healthy. And the smaller labels--your Rounders and Rykos and Fantasies--these were our very lifeblood. Those were our people, and we were their people.

These vital, symbiotic relationships are much harder to develop these days. "Our people" in the industry, where they exist, are usually resource poor with very little prospect of changing that situation.

Sad as that situation is, it hasn't effected us too much. We still get lots and lots of great music coming into the studio, but that music gets precious little other promotional or developmental support aside from what it can get from little radio stations like WNMC. Yes, there is Facebook and crowdfunding and a lot of other Internet resources, but they haven't replaced good label support and the not-laughable expectation of some kind of royalty income.

Our friends in the music biz these days are as precious and fragile as we are.

But we *aren't* really in the same business. As a community/college/public radio station we are accountable to our listeners, our community, our license holder and the FCC. Artists, record companies, and promoters particularly may be concerned with these things, but they aren't the primary drivers of how they do business. The promotion business, for instance, is driven by sales and spins close to release date. That's what they're paid for. But I doubt any of our constituencies really cares very much about those things. If we let ourselves be driven by promoter's interests rather than our own, we are paving the way to our own demise.

Negotiating the next decade or so is going to mean taking a hard, cold look and determining what will best serve community radio in northern Michigan. If that helps artists, labels and promoters, great. If it doesn't, so be it.

More next time . . .