Spoken Word Show at WSUM in Madison

The Capital Times ran a nice story today about a college radio show at WSUM-FM (University of Wisconsin-Madison's "student-run community radio station") that focuses entirely on spoken word. According to the article "Student Station Allows Radio Host to Wax Poetic":

"The student-run station has its rock and its hip-hop, some heavy metal and some jazz. But once a week the station has poetry and spoken word in all its forms, some as contemporary as hip-hop music, some so avant-garde it seems to be nonsense...

[Paul Alan] Baker is the host of 'Wordsalad,' an hour that features authors reading from their own works. The program plays selections from familiar names like Allen Ginsburg and Gertrude Stein to more recent artists like Anti DiFranco and former Madison rapper El Guante."

The story goes on to give some insight into the programming philosophy of the weekly one-hour show that airs on Thursdays at 1pm:

"He alternates readings between male and female voices, with music in between as a 'palate-cleanser.' He tries to keep readings at 3-5 minutes, although some will go as long as 8 minutes. He tries to provide a balance between 'academic, cerebral poetry' and 'earthy, emotional poetry.' He's been playing more slam poetry lately, he says, in anticipation of the National Poetry Slam..."

You can learn more about the show and see playlists on Baker's Wordsalad blog.

Does your station play much spoken word? Although I don't know of any other shows focused entirely on spoken word, I'm always happy to hear spoken word mixed in during music shows too.