Best of Radio: MPR's The Current
Imagine a musically relevant radio station, one where the D.J. actually hand selects his/her own playlist. It's a station where you can hear classic Bob Dylan, Beach Boys, and The Clash played next to M.I.A., Bon Iver, Built to Spill, Radiohead and others.
On this station they would have 30 minute shows dedicated to serious and intelligent discussions about the latest trends. They might even devote the whole 30 minutes to a one sub-genre, say Grime, and dissect it's importance and place in today's music. There could be in-studio performances with not only established artists but emerging ones too. Imagine this station not being on a pay service like satellite, but completely free public radio.
Now, imagine I shut the hell up and say, "dude, it's fer real."
Dude, it's fer real.
It's called The Current and it can be heard on 89.3 on MPR, Minneapolis Public Radio. Yea, first the twin cities give us Prince and now sweet as radio. Minneapolis is on the musical forefront.
"But, wait," you say. "I don't friggin' live in friggin' Minneapolis or friggin' St. Paul." Fear not, my little frigger. It's on the web, dude, as in world wide.
Along with a live on air stream, the website offers a song of the day podcast, along with one of an awesome show called Musicheads in which music is played and intelligently discussed. Playlists of the days played tunes can also be found along with blogs, polls, and all sorts of other musical goodness.
The podcasts can also be found on iTunes for free, of course. Just search for The Current.
So check out the website at mpr.org/thecurrent. Then you should contact your own public radio station and tell them you want the same thing in your area. Radio can still be relevant. Good music should still be available for free right over the radio waves. (with HD radio this is even more possible.) Every metropolitan area should have their own, highlighting not only great music nationally and world wide, but local as well. The Current is solid proof how good it can be.
On this station they would have 30 minute shows dedicated to serious and intelligent discussions about the latest trends. They might even devote the whole 30 minutes to a one sub-genre, say Grime, and dissect it's importance and place in today's music. There could be in-studio performances with not only established artists but emerging ones too. Imagine this station not being on a pay service like satellite, but completely free public radio.
Now, imagine I shut the hell up and say, "dude, it's fer real."
Dude, it's fer real.
It's called The Current and it can be heard on 89.3 on MPR, Minneapolis Public Radio. Yea, first the twin cities give us Prince and now sweet as radio. Minneapolis is on the musical forefront.
"But, wait," you say. "I don't friggin' live in friggin' Minneapolis or friggin' St. Paul." Fear not, my little frigger. It's on the web, dude, as in world wide.
Along with a live on air stream, the website offers a song of the day podcast, along with one of an awesome show called Musicheads in which music is played and intelligently discussed. Playlists of the days played tunes can also be found along with blogs, polls, and all sorts of other musical goodness.
The podcasts can also be found on iTunes for free, of course. Just search for The Current.
So check out the website at mpr.org/thecurrent. Then you should contact your own public radio station and tell them you want the same thing in your area. Radio can still be relevant. Good music should still be available for free right over the radio waves. (with HD radio this is even more possible.) Every metropolitan area should have their own, highlighting not only great music nationally and world wide, but local as well. The Current is solid proof how good it can be.
ODDS & ENDS
- The Current on Wikipedia
- There's a great article on The Current in the latest issue of Utne, but you can also find it here.
- MPR was also the birthplace of Prairie Home Companion and owns its own theatre.
Labels: Best of Radio
posted by TJ at
9:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home