Really Fresh Air
(Page 2 of 3)
Mar.-Apr. 2008
by James Diers
“They never asked you what you think,” DeVille says of his previous commercial-radio overseers. “It was all driven by research or whatever scored highest in auditorium testing. Here, we’re all very active musical minds, and we have a lot of input.”
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“We don’t do any of the traditional surveying—it’s all based on gut instincts,” says Melanie Walker, the Current’s music director. To keep those guts properly fed, she and her colleagues scour a wealth of rock blogs, music sites, specialty magazines, and promo CDs in search of fresh musical meat. (“I read Pitchfork every day,” Walker confesses, “though I don’t take all of it to heart.”)
“We listen to feedback from our audience,” she says, “but we’re trying to take chances here, too. We always say that every couple of songs or so you might hear something you don’t like, but if you stick around you’ll be surprised how much you do like.”
The Current’s genesis dates back to MPR’s acquisition of a small Minnesota college station in 2004. The goal was to augment the network’s existing classical-music and news-and-information formats by reaching beyond their established baby boomer audience to attract new, younger listeners. While the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area already had numerous commercial and noncommercial music stations, program director Steve Nelson was among the MPR operatives who saw room for something different.
“Our aim is to play the best new music alongside that music’s roots and influences,” Nelson says, which nails it well enough, particularly if you appreciate the aesthetic kinship between Gram Parsons and Ryan Adams, Nina Simone and Feist, Public Enemy and TV on the Radio. “It’s a little different from having your iPod on ‘shuffle,’ ” Nelson adds. “We’re trying to be thoughtful about what we play. We’re all music lovers here.”
As befits a public media outlet with a local community to serve, the Current also gives its listeners regular doses of locally made music throughout the day. That includes Minneapolis scene legends (Prince, the Replacements), latter-day breakouts (the Jayhawks, Atmosphere), and emerging indie favorites (Tapes ’n Tapes, Haley Bonar).
Meanwhile, there’s plenty of new music you aren’t likely to hear on the Current: contemporary country, pop-R&B hits, and glowering mall-metal, all of which are well represented on neighboring signals. In any case, no audiophile is likely to be offended by 89.3’s most glaring omission: commercial advertising. Indeed, the far-reaching success of older-skewing programs like A Prairie Home Companion, The Splendid Table, and Speaking of Faith have made MPR an atypically well-heeled public broadcaster. So while Gen Y denizens may have no appetite for Keillor’s sleepy yarns about Lutheran potlucks, they can take heart knowing that his continued success helps to provide a high-powered FM showcase for indie-rock comers such as Grizzly Bear and Bat for Lashes.