Really Fresh Air
(Page 3 of 3)
Mar.-Apr. 2008
by James Diers
Whether its DJs are playing your favorite song or not, the Current appears to be meeting its demographic objective, with a median listener age around 38. As if that weren’t young enough, the station last year introduced a parallel HD signal dedicated to Wonderground, a lineup of “noncommercial music for kids and their grown-ups.” (Rather than grit their teeth through another Blue’s Clues disc or singsong Disney sound track, music-loving parents can crank up a melodic, kid-friendly mix that might include the Flaming Lips, Zap Mama, and Billie Holiday.)
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The station is also attracting ears from well outside its home community. A round-the-clock web stream, podcasts, and playlists at mpr.org/thecurrent draw an average of 345,000 page views each month. The station also broadcasts live from South by Southwest each spring, capturing interviews and concert highlights. This cross-media approach has helped place the Current alongside kindred stations such as Seattle’s KEXP and Los Angeles’ KCRW as a leader in adventurous, eclectic, musically relevant public radio.
Despite the Current’s lineup of affable DJs and inclusive tastes, some commercial and noncommercial competitors have openly groused about its deep MPR pockets, suggesting that its nonprofit status and populist music-geek mystique belie a grabby market beast of Clear Channel proportions—an unlikely indie Goliath in faded Levi’s and a Neko Case T-shirt. But while its comfy, high-end studio facilities and healthy funding don’t pack the underdog chic of your average independent record shop, the people behind its diverse playlists are staking more than most FM stalwarts to map a viable, valuable future for the medium.
“There are so many cities out there that don’t have public radio stations like the Current,” Walker says. “The next step is to spread the word and really promote the format. I think what we and KCRW and KEXP are doing is a national movement, to support and experiment with this kind of format. Hopefully we’ll be able to carry it forward to future generations.”
James Diers is a freelance writer and a member of the Minneapolis-based band Halloween, Alaska.
About The Artist
Amy Jo (missamyjo.com) creates and hand screen-prints posters for musicians as varied as Patti Smith, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Vandermark Five, and the Bellrays. Her work has been published in The Art of Modern Rock, Venus magazine, and the upcoming Gingko Press release Lucky Disasters in Printing. She recently opened a design studio and store, Who Made Who, in Minneapolis.
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