College Radio Goings-On at the 2010 CMJ Music Marathon

The annual CMJ Music Marathon is in New York City this week, with all of the affiliated panels, shows, films, and for the first time a separate gaming seminar. I won't be in attendance this year (but if you want to see highlights of the 2009 and 2008 festivals, take a look at my extensive recaps), but am excited to see that college radio is still a vital part of the 2010 CMJ Music Marathon.

On Radio Survivor I outlined some of the college radio stations who have been nominated for College Radio Awards. If you're attending CMJ, make sure to cast your vote for your favorite stations. Winners will be announced at CMJ's College Day, taking place this Thursday, October 21st. Other college radio events include a College Radio Mixer on Tuesday, October 19 from 4-6pm and mentor sessions for college radio DJs on Friday, October 22.

I'm also pleased to see that a few college radio stations, KXSC (University of Southern California), KVRX (University of Texas, Austin), and CHUO (University of Ottawa), have teamed up to co-present an unofficial (and free) CMJ showcase "Manifest Airwaves" on Friday, October 22 from noon to 7pm at Bruar Falls in Brooklyn.

I spoke with a few of the organizers about Manifest Airwaves in order to learn more about this awesome college radio collaboration. According to CHUO's Music Director Joni Sadler, she was initially contacted by KXSC's Maura Klosterman over the summer. She said, "It initially started out as the idea to just throw a show/party for bands from our areas, and it grew from there when other stations got involved as well."

Each station is helping to book bands, promote the event, and they are all sharing in the costs. KVRX is also planning to film the event. According to KVRX Promotions Director Brittany Campbell, "We plan on filming most of the performances for our YouTube page which has other KVRX performances, interviews, and DJ trivia." Brittany mentioned that KVRX will also be setting up a photo shoot at the event for attendees.

According to Joni and Brittany, all of the stations have benefited from this collaboration. Joni said, "We have a diverse little group of stations working together for this, so that's made for some good brainstorming and diversity with the artists involved." Brittany added, "I think it's a great opportunity for future shows, events and long-lasting relationships for student radio stations. We have to stick together."

Since the participating stations are in California, Texas and Ottawa, Canada, much of the organizing has happened over email. A few staff members have met in person previously, which, according to Joni, "I've met Maura [KXSC] and Nichole from KVRX in person. Our stations definitely have some similarities, and having met them face-to-face before made it easy to know that we'd work well together on this kind of project."

The participating stations aren't necessarily bringing big crews to CMJ, with Joni being the sole CHUO attendee. Joni explained that she pays her own way and that, "From what I know, CHUO has never officially 'sent' anyone to CMJ. It's always awesome to get to hang with friends from all over the US and Canada that you only get to see once a year, and it's a great opportunity to share ideas with people from other campus and community stations. I find the panel discussions valuable, but even casual discussions of how different stations function has been helpful for me in the past. Plus, the WFMU record fair is going on during CMJ - and that ALWAYS totally rules." Brittany said that 3 folks from KVRX would be in attendance and said, "We are looking forward to the big city, east coast music, meeting all walks of life, and being able to stay at a bar till 4am. I am personally not looking forward to the cold... it's 86 in Austin and 54 in NYC."

Sounds like a great time! Sorry to miss all of the festivities, but I am hoping to get the full report from those of you who attend.

Ypulse Mashup 2010 Recap: Day One- Radio's Role in HIV Prevention, MTV's Digital Bill of Rights, Metal, and Mobile

Ypulse Mashup 2010

Although my main focus these days is on the worlds of radio and music, I've always had a strong affinity for teen culture. I did my college thesis on adolescent diaries, worked at an ad agency tracking youth trends on accounts like Levi's, spent most of grad school writing about youth-oriented TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Real World, and Parker Lewis Can't Lose, and even worked for a dot com that helped teenagers to shop online without a credit card.

When I ran across Ypulse back in 2004 I thought that I had found a youth culture soul mate in its author, Anastasia Goodstein. She'd spent many years writing about young people and devoted her blog to chronicling the goings on in youth media and technology.

For the past three years Ypulse has hosted Mashup events, in which youth enthusiasts come together to learn about the latest in youth technology and media. These events draw marketers from both non-profit and for-profit companies, educators, journalists, and youth experts.

This year's event took place on May 24th and May 25th in San Francisco at the Hotel Nikko. As I did last year, I will focus my Spinning Indie coverage on the music and radio-related tidbits that I gleaned.

Youth, Health & Social Media Marketing Session: Radio is Still Relevant, But Mobile is Huge

A really cool theme throughout the entire conference was the importance of social causes and giving back. The first session that I attended featured several panelists talking about how their organizations reach out to youth in order to address various health-related issues.

Tina Hoff from the Kaiser Family Foundation shared some factoids (PDF) from their 2010 study, "Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds." It's an awesome study that reveals how much the media landscape has changed in the past decade. In terms of music and audio, she pointed out that according to their study, 76% of youth own an iPod/mp3 player, 66% own cell phones, and 29% own laptops.

Young people spend more than 2 and a half hours each day listening to music/audio, with 23% of that listening time through radio and 23% through computers. Twenty-nine percent of the time young people are choosing to listen to music through an iPod, 12% of the time listening is through a cell phone, and 12% of listening is via CDs. She also mentioned that in a typical day, young people are spending 17 minutes listening to music via their cell phone. Although her presentation just scratched the surface of the study, earlier this year I took a close look at the report and pulled out all of the radio and music-themed findings.

Trina DasGupta shared the case study "Mobile Matters: Youth Empowerment and HIV Prevention in South Africa" (PDF). She spoke about the project loveLife and how it's working to educate youth in South Africa about HIV prevention. And, interestingly, loveLife is making a significant use of both traditional radio and mobile to reach young people. In South Africa, the Internet is not the best way to communicate information, with only 10% of the country having Internet access.

Radio is still a significant form of communication and loveLife not only utilizes public service announcements, but also airs weekly programs on 11 stations and has an entire program called "Radio Ys" in which young people are getting trained in radio production and are hosting radio shows related to HIV Prevention. At the same time, loveLife has created a mobile social network since 75% of South African youth own mobile phones. It's a fascinating approach, using both new and traditional media.

MTV also shared some of the projects (PDF) that they are doing in order to advance social causes. Jason Rzebka talked about their latest project, A Thin Line, in which they are helping to raise awareness of digital abuse, as well as "It's Your (Sex) Life's" GYT (Get Yourself Tested) campaign and mtvU's attempt to address mental health issues (and erase the stigma of mental illness) on campus with "Half of Us."

In each campaign they've provided opportunities for MTV viewers to create content, submit stories, or write lyrics in response to various questions or challenges. One of the latest projects is an app called "Over the Line," which Jason described as a "digital morality meter." Through the app, people can submit and rate stories related to digital abuse, judging whether certain behaviors are over the line or not (for example, demanding access to a boyfriend's emails or texts). The day of the conference, MTV also launched a "A THIN LINE's Digital Bill of Rights", inviting youth to craft their own rules about how they want to be treated online (or via mobile devices), from protecting one's privacy to being safe from bullying.

As is always the case with MTV, social causes are incorporated within their programming, from "The Real World" to "16 and Pregnant" and music and musicians are often the message-bearers. (By the way, later in the day Jason also did a separate presentation (PDF) focused exclusively on the "A Thin Line" campaign).

Action Sports and Music: Vans Warped Tour as Rite of Passage

Next I dashed into a session about action sports because there was a presentation about the Vans Warped Tour, dealing with the intersections between music and sports. Kathleen Gasperini from Label Networks talked about how influential music and musicians are to young people. She said that the Vans Warped Tour (coming up in a few weeks) has become a "quintessential rite of passage for North American youth culture" and that music helps to forge connections between kids across both gender and ethnicity. She also talked a bit about music subcultures, from NuRave and Synth Punk to Metal. My favorite quote of the day came from her, when she said that metal never really went away, "it just went to Europe for awhile."

Radio, Music and Global Youth

I missed the session about Global Youth, but Ypulse has kindly posted many of the presentations on their website. One thing that caught my eye in the presentation about youth culture in China, was a slide on the "vintage trend" featuring a picture of a young person holding a boombox and sitting next to a dial telephone. I wonder what that means for terrestrial radio?

Ypulse's Dan Coates shared some figures about U.S. youth from Ypulse's research division. According to Dan, 17 to 26-year-old non-college students listen to radio (overall) an average of 7 hours a week compared with 4 hours a week for college students in the same age group. Non-college students listen to traditional radio an average of 5.1 hours a week (vs. 2.6 hours for college students), listen to online radio 1.3 hours a week (vs. 1.1 hours for college students), and listen to satellite radio 1 hour a week (vs. 0.45 hours for college students).

Archeological Dig of Student Backpacks: Condoms, Tampons, and Flash Drives

I love it when researchers do projects in which they delve into the lives of people in real-world settings. It's just WAY more interesting to talk to teenagers in their bedrooms, on shopping trips, or at their schools than to chat with them inside a sterile focus group facility. For the next presentation, Dan Coates presented findings from an audit of the contents of the backpacks (PDF) of more than one thousand high school and college students in the United States. He pointed out that for young people, a backpack is a "library, a workplace, a financial center, a medicine cabinet, a cosmetic counter, a communications hub, a safe deposit box, and a stash."

It was fascinating to hear about the range of items found in backpacks, from underwear to a "beat up apple," a "marginal banana," and a crucifix/knife. As you might guess, young people carry a lot of technology in their backpacks, including items to facilitate listening to music, such as MP3 players (57% of girls, 52% of boys) and headphones (42% girls, 41% boys).

 

Genevieve Bell at the Ypulse Mashup

Genevieve Bell's Keynote Presentation: An Anthropologist's Take on Product Innovation

In the afternoon we heard a keynote presentation from anthropologist Genevieve Bell. As the Director of the User Experience Group at Intel's Digital Home Group, she is fixated on "consumer-centric product innovation" and global research. I was very interested in her comments about "stubborn devices" like television, as many future tech-oriented folks seem to discount their ongoing relevance. She said that home TV viewing in the United States has actually gone up in the past 10 years to 4 to 6 hours a day on average, even though that viewing may be in the background while using other devices like laptops. She added that the fastest growing group of TV watchers is young people (aka millenials), with their viewing increasing by 18% in the past 6 years. [I'm super curious to know what Genevieve would say about radio, as it seems to be another stubborn device, being used by most, despite popular perceptions to the contrary]

Genevieve also argued that there may be a backlash against the "always on, always connected" lifestyle of mobile devices and social networks. She is seeing evidence of people turning off their phones in order to manage their relationship to mobile and has found that some people are turning away from online social networks.  She said that when a technology ceases to be "new" or "sexy," then people may end up using it less.

In terms of privacy fears, Genevieve argued that people now assume that all of their information is already out there and are in fact more afraid of certain pieces of information damaging their image or reputation. She said that people are afraid of others knowing "what we're really watching on television," because that could make them look uncool.

I was happy to see that Genevieve also emphasized that, "a globally located world doesn't end localness" and that there is "no single arc of technology adoption." In terms of radio, I've found that to be true, in that its power lies in its localness and in the fact that how it is used around the world can vary tremendously, depending on the other available forms of communication technology and media.

DJs from The DJ Project

Happy Hour with the DJ Project: Digital Turntables

The first day of the Mashup ended with a reception that featured young DJs from The DJ Project "spinning" music for the attendees. I was fascinated to see that the slabs of vinyl being manipulated and scratched on the 2 turntables were seemingly "blank" DJ records that were used to interact with digital music files on a computer. I chatted a bit with the DJs about this and they commented that it's a lot easier than lugging around a bunch of vinyl. It's the perfect reflection of the seemingly contradictory trends of music's digital future and the renewed interest in vinyl records.

It was awesome to see The DJ Project at Ypulse, as it's an amazing youth empowerment program in San Francisco that uses "music to engage young adults" and provides classes in audio production, DJing, and break dancing.

UCRN College Radio Conference Offers up Tips for DJs, Insights on Commercial Radio, and a Forum to Debate the Digital Future

On April 10, 2010 I got to spend the entire day fixated on college radio at the University of California Radio Network (UCRN) conference hosted by UC Berkeley station KALX. Held twice a year, these confabs for DJs and staff of University of California-affiliated radio stations are a great opportunity for shop talk and networking, but are also a chance to get a glimpse into the current struggles and debates within the music industry and college radio.

Last year I attended the UCRN event at UC Santa Cruz station KZSC and found it to be an amazing mixture of pragmatic sessions, music-focused panels, and intelligent discussion. This year's conference was similar, with sessions about broadcast law, the community and music, news and public affairs writing, how DJs can improve their on-air presence, and a panel about the future of music and media. Staff members from KALX also toured DJs around their station, the highlight of which is their meticulously organized music library containing more than 95,000 pieces of music.

 A mere sliver of the Record Library at KALX

There were around 70 people in attendance at the conference from KALX, KDVS, KCSB, KUCI, KUCR, KZSC, KSDT and upstart UC Merced station Bobcat Radio. And, many of the music industry panelists speaking at the conference had college radio pasts, making for interesting discussions about the college radio world vs. the commercial radio world. Unfortunately some sessions conflicted with each other, so I was only able to attend a selection of panels. Here's my recap of what struck me during the conference:

Community and Music Panel at UCRN

(L to R: Bev Elithorp, Joe Barham, Kathleen Wentz, and George Corona)

The Community and Music: Building Relationships Panel

This panel was fascinating to me, mainly because we got some great insight into the differences between college radio and commercial radio from KSAN (The Bone) DJ/Music Director Joe Barham (aka Joe Rock). Joe has been a DJ since he was in high school (at Mendocino high school radio station KAKX), with stints in both college radio at San Francisco State station KSFS and in commercial radio at a number of different stations. Other panelists worked at music promotions company Terrorbird, for a UC Berkeley concert series, and for local paper The East Bay Express.

Joe argued that with the way the radio and music industry is going, "it's almost an obligation that we pay attention to the local community." He pointed out that with the growth of digital music and services like Pandora, music listening is most likely "going in the direction of on demand [programming]." He said that although "radio's limited to playing something at a specific time," it can excel by continuing to play "original content" and by focusing on "localization." Joe does a Sunday night local music show "Local Licks" on The Bone and told the assembled crowd that that particular program is "the funnest part of my job," arguing that it's important to support one's local music scene.

 KALX DJ Doing a Show Amid the UCRN Crowds Milling About

Music promoter George Corona from Terrorbird (who used to be a college radio DJ at KXLU) shared his feeling that the "landscape for radio [is] shifting" and that "charting [on radio]...doesn't mean that [a band is] going to sell records."

Joe encouraged those in college radio to embrace the power and freedom that they have. When asked during the Q&A about the "forces" that he has to "bow to" in commercial radio, he replied, "The number one thing...We have commercials." Although everyone laughed at this reply, Joe argued that the commercials bring with them certain obligations. He talked a bit about the chaos in commercial radio saying that radio has been "kind of creamed" in the past 2 years and that there have been lots of firings and a great deal of flux in commercial radio staff. He said that being in San Francisco (the #4 market) gives him a bit more freedom, but that he has to answer to an out of town corporate Program Director when making certain decisions about programming.

Giving the crowd of college radio DJs a reality check about the commercial radio industry, Joe pointed out that they have to "play 450 songs over and over again" and that song list is a result of twice yearly music research in which potential radio listeners get to hear an 8 second sample of a song "in a hotel lobby." He said, "That's not art. That's robotic" and contrasted that with college radio, which he said is more like finding out about music from a "best friend."

Although all of the panelists offered up advice (start with an internship was the resounding suggestion) to those college radio DJs hoping to get into some aspect of the music business, Joe was pessimistic about the opportunities for music fans in commercial terrestrial radio, saying, "Don't do it." He was more optimistic about syndicated radio programs and about non-commercial radio where he said "music is art." He predicted that terrestrial radio "will die out," but added that there might be a glimmer of hope when stations rise from the ashes. Joe said that with all of the corporate radio bankruptcies (which aren't over yet), there could be a shift back to local, private ownership and that if that happens radio has the chance to change dramatically and for the better.

I was also interested to hear that The Bone is doing some interesting things programming-wise, not only with its local music shows, but also with Sunday night programming (Little Steven's Garage and Joel Selvin's radio show) that hearkens back to the freeform, underground radio days of the original KSAN. Additionally, Joe mentioned that The Bone airs a high rated all-request show in which music not normally in rotation gets played. His saw that as a sign that listeners really are interested in more than just the same short list of songs approved for airplay.

DJ and Programming Panel at UCRN

(L to R: "DJ Dave" Richards, Khris Brown and Shawn Reynoldo)

DJ and Programming Panel

Next, I sat in on a panel discussion about how to be a better DJ. As with the previous panel, one of the most interesting aspects of it was that one of the panelists had experience as both a college radio DJ and a commercial radio DJ. Shawn Reynaldo of XLR8R started at UC Berkeley station KALX six months after he began working at commercial station LIVE 105 (KITS-FM) as a phone operator. Eventually he became Operations Manager at KALX and a DJ and producer at LIVE 105. As we heard throughout the day, he talked about the importance of internships as the path to jobs in the music industry.

Shawn also pointed out that if you are DJing because you love music, then corporate, commercial radio is the wrong industry for you. He said that the music played at commercial stations comes from a "giant list that a middle-age white man" has compiled based on phone surveys and added that on college radio "you can experiment more."

In terms of specific advice that Shawn and others on the panel had for college radio DJs, here are some of the highlights:

1. "Drink water. Eat a green apple. Imagine your audience is your friend." - Khris Brown (KBA Voice Production)

2. "Pull more music than you need ahead of time...it's better to have too much." -Shawn

3. "Make an effort to expand your musical knowledge" and seek out advice from others at the station- Shawn

4. "Playing random things sounds like playing random things," so really think about your set -Shawn

5. When on the air don't apologize for your mistakes because the audience won't even notice them - Khris

6. Write notes before going on mic so that you remember what you need to cover - "DJ Dave" Richards

7. Be prepared for your shift and for mic breaks - Shawn

8. "Personality really makes a difference on the radio." Be yourself. -Shawn

9. Listen to the beginning and end of each track to ensure smooth transitions without dead air -Shawn

10. If you don't know what to say at the beginning or end of a mic break, say the name of the station - Shawn

11. When mixing sounds don't overlap voices or mismatch beats because "it sounds like shoes in a dryer." - Shawn

Panelist Prepare for the Changing Media Landscape Panel at UCRN

(L to R: Jody Colley, Corey Denis, Jillian Putnam-Smith, and Mike Cadoo)

The Changing Media Landscape: What is the Future of the Music and Media Industry?

The final panel of the day brought together everyone from the conference into one room to discuss the future of the music and media industry. As the KALX staff member introducing the panelists pointed out, "everything's transitioning to digital." This digital transition became the focus of the panel, with several of the panelists working almost purely in the online world.

This led to some tensions in the room as radio wasn't always acknowledged as being a part of this digital future. Corey Denis from Not Shocking Digital Strategies proudly said, "I don't deal with any traditional radio," but conceded that artists do still value radio and that college radio is particularly important for local musicians. She added that "unique programming is still going to be the backbone of radio." Mike Cadoo from digital-only label n5MD added that "[radio] charts are pretty valuable to a label" and said that his label services 200 radio stations in North America.

East Bay Express editor Jody Colley chimed in with the role that college radio plays in her job as the editor of a weekly newspaper that works hard to cover local music events, saying that college radio helps local music promoters identify talent because "college radio has always been on the forefront of finding the best bands." The East Bay Express just opened a music venue, so it's even more important for them to be tapped into the music scene.

Talk then turned to digital music and how it is stored and distributed. When discussing the possibility of housing music in "the cloud," located on servers far from one's own physical location there were concerns raised by both panelists and DJs in the audience. Jillian Putnam-Smith of online music company IODA acknowledged that artists seem to make less money from their music if it exists in this virtual space. One DJ said, "When I DJ...I'm being a fan, but I'm also selecting...instead of going to a faceless website and downloading." Another added, "We're a visceral, tangible educational resource" and stated that it's beneficial to have a "physical library [of music] with physical comments on [the material]."

At this point Corey made the claim, "College radio used to break bands. That doesn't happen anymore."

 New Release Bin at KALX

Corey asked the assembled DJs in the room if their stations accepted digital submissions and as far as I could tell no hands went up. Jillian (who used to be a KALX DJ) pointed out that for college radio stations it's often a very complex process to handle digital releases and navigate the password-protected systems put in place by promo companies.

A DJ in the audience then said that for college radio stations having libraries of CDs and LPs is important and that "the actual physical thing reminds you that it exists."

Later on in the discussion Corey added that if a college station created a system for accepting digital music submissions it would be "such a story" and encouraged stations to do so and hire grad students to develop this type of tool. Similarly, others in the audience wondered about the possibility of having digital music located in "the cloud" so that stations could access it without having to download it from promoter or label websites.

But, then the discussion turned back to the desires of DJs who want to be able to play physical music on their shows. Jillian agreed, saying that as a college radio DJ "you want to be able to go into your library and smell all the vinyl." Someone in the audience then brought up a concern about the sound quality of digital and the difference in sound between playing vinyl, CDs, or a stream off of MySpace over the radio. Corey's reply was that "audiophiles like us...We're not the general public" and she argued that people are being taught to expect lower and lower sound quality and that music formats have "degraded in sound over time" as vinyl made way for cassettes, CDs and digital files.

On the flip side, Mike agreed that there is a resurgent interest in vinyl, with vinyl-only labels cropping up. Jillian said that at IODA they create digital files from vinyl and that there's an entire online store ThinkIndie devoted to digital music converted from physical music, including vinyl.

 Audience for the Final UCRN Panel of the Day

Another DJ then brought up that he couldn't imagine preparing for his radio show without having access to bins of CDs and records and said that he likes that he "can see all the CDs...and the artwork" and that he wouldn't want to plan for his show by just going off of a list of music files. Inexplicably this comment caused Corey to launch into an attack on college radio. She complained about record stores being full of cast-off promo CDs and blamed college radio for selling off material, saying that bands pay $2 for that CD and when it gets sold off they don't make any money.

When I pointed out to her that it should be the responsiblity of labels and promo companies to identify stations that would be most interested in specific CDs, she backed off a bit, but didn't really acknowledge that the financial constraints of labels has a lot more to do with their push for stations to go digital than college radio stations getting rid of free CDs that they don't want. Her argument is quite similar to what I've heard on other panels, in which promoters said that they couldn't send out promo CDs anymore and that music stealing fans were to blame.

It was an interesting discussion to say the least and provided some great fodder for the piece that I was just finishing up for PopMatters about "Technology and the Soul of College Radio," so the timing of this debate couldn't have been better.

Thanks to everyone at KALX for allowing me to again be a fly on the wall at UCRN. It's an amazing event that is so beneficial to everyone who participates.

IBS 2010 Conference Recap - Guest Post by Michael Nevradakis

To wrap up Spinning Indie's coverage of the 70th annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System's conference, I'm happy to present a guest blog post from one of the conference organizers: Michael Nevradakis. In addition to being a college radio veteran and enthusiast, he's also a graduate student in the Radio-TV-Film program at University of Texas, Austin. Thanks to Michael for giving us the inside scoop on what went down at the March conference in New York City!

IBS Conference Round-Up by Michael Nevradakis

This year, the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1940, IBS has been at the forefront of representing the interests of college and high school radio stations throughout the United States and beyond. This mission continues to this day through such efforts as the organization’s political and legal support for college radio stations and webcasters regarding copyrights and royalties, and through the guidance IBS provides to schools, colleges and universities who are looking to start their own radio station.

Not only is 2010 the 70th anniversary of the foundation of IBS, but it is also the 70th anniversary of the organization’s National College Radio & Webcasting Conference. From March 5th to 7th, over a thousand representatives from college, high school and other non-commercial and community radio outlets congregated at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City for a conference featuring over 200 speakers and panelists, including some important names in music and broadcasting, and sat in on over 115 different sessions, panels, workshops and tours.

And, most significantly, this year’s conference included the awarding of the first annual IBS College Radio Awards (click here to read Amber Wilmot’s post on the awards). Students who attended represented college radio stations from as far away as California and Hawaii.

Johnny "Juice" Rosado, Michael Nevradakis, and Chuck D

This year’s conference kickoff session featured Chuck D and Johnny "Juice" Rosado of Public Enemy, who spoke to a packed house for over an hour about their music and careers and more, and who graciously stayed for quite a while after the end of the session to speak with the students in the audience individually, answering questions, taking photos and signing autographs.

Chuck D and Johnny “Juice” Rosado were not the only famous names who spoke at this year’s conference, however. Well-known radio personalities such as Dr. Joy Browne, Broadway Bill Lee, Jonathan Clarke, Marc “The Cope” Coppola, Maria Milito, Joey Reynolds and Jimmy Fink were joined by the likes of Josh Silver (Executive Director of Free Press), Valerie Geller (author of “Creating Powerful Radio”), Alec Foege (author of “Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio), and Larry Miller (the legendary pioneer of the “underground” FM radio movement of the 1960s).

In addition, representatives from CMJ, Democracy Now!, Sirius XM Satellite Radio, the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), Arbitron, the Radio Research Consortium (RRC), the Digital Media Association, Pacifica Radio, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, the Columbia Journalism Review, and vTuner, as well as numerous record labels, also spoke at the conference.

Many interesting new session topics comprised this year’s conference program. “Globalization: Virtual Study Abroad” featured the efforts of Simmons College in Boston, which has teamed up with the African University College of Communications in Ghana to develop a “virtual study abroad” program, utilizing new media platforms such as social networking sites and the internet radio stations at both schools.

“Building a Locally-Based Radio and Music Network” focused on a new effort that has been undertaken by Artists 4 Music Diversity to link local stations and venues with new and established artists, and to share artist-donated music with local stations for programming collaborations and mutual fundraising. Another new initiative, College Newsnet International, an exciting new online effort that aims to serve as the “Youtube” for college journalism students from around the world, was also introduced at this year’s conference.

Finally, Larry Miller’s session, “The 60s and the Birth of Underground Radio,” looked at the radio revolution that took place in the 1960s which led to the birth of underground radio. These sessions were accompanied by a large assortment of more practical panel discussions and workshops focusing on such topics as finding a job in a difficult economy, morning show production and preparation, the future of music and the music industry, show prep, music
licensing/copyright/royalty issues, social networking, remote broadcasts, streaming, podcasting, publicity and marketing, FCC licensing, automation, voiceovers, a résumé workshop, aircheck critiques, and more.

Students who attended this year’s conference also had the opportunity to take part in several tours of such venues as the Paley Center for Media (the former Museum of Television and Radio), the new studios of Clear Channel radio in New York City, and the broadcast facilities atop the Empire State Building. In addition to these tours, two “Backpack Journalism Excursions” were also organized, offering students the opportunity to learn to shoot great video right on the streets of New York City, and how to edit and post their work online for a worldwide audience.


Finally, students had the opportunity to win tickets to live shows featuring RJD2 and Titus Andronicus in New York City, and to take home lots of free “swag,” ranging from magazines to CDs, but perhaps most importantly of all, a plethora of new knowledge and a lot of new contacts resulting from a weekend’s worth of networking.

While the next IBS national conference will be next March 4th-6th, once again at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, IBS coast-to-coast regional conferences are coming up this fall in Boston (Saturday, October 9th), Chicago (Saturday, October 23rd) and Los Angeles (Saturday, December 4th).

I personally would like to thank all of the speakers, panelists, and all the great and talented students and their advisers who attended the conference and who made this year’s event one of the best in the 70 year history of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System! A special congratulations goes out as well to all the winners of this year’s IBS College Radio Awards. The IBS Board, staff and volunteers thank everyone who attended for a great conference!

SXSW Action Begins

As I mentioned on Radio Survivor, we are now in the thick of music and radio conference season, with lots of options for those obsessed with indie sounds. SXSW Interactive is winding down, and the music portion of SXSW begins tomorrow. As was the case in 2009 and 2008, many college (and commercial and community) radio stations are heading to Austin to host showcases, do live broadcasts, and blog about the scene.

Here are some of the stations taking part this year:

WFMU (New Jersey): Showcase with Aquarius Records on March 19th

Radio K (Minneapolis): March 19 and 20th showcases and live broadcasts

Day Stage Cafe Performances: Daytime showcases will be presented March 17-20 by a number of public/college radio stations, including KEXP, KCRW, KUT, The Current, KPFT, KXT, and WXPN)

Let me know if your station is covering SXSW too!

Wanna Take in the NAB Show in Vegas?

You might remember that last year my friend Kyle Barnett reported back to Spinning Indie readers about his travels to Las Vegas for the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference and The NAB Show (put on by the National Association of Broadcasters). It's a huge flurry of activity in Vegas, with sessions focused on TV, radio, multi-media, the web, and content of all sorts.

This year the folks at the NAB Show are offering up free access to the exhibit floor (normally $150), content theater, and opening keynote taking place April 12th through 15th. Although this doesn't grant you admittance to all of the main conference sessions, it's a cool deal. Just register here and use the code A913. If you want to get a sense of what the NAB Show is all about, take a look at this video of the 2009 event that was created by students.

By the way, if you plan to attend this year's BEA conference (April 15th -17th), admission to the NAB Show is included with your registration.

College Broadcasters Inc. Convention Coming to NYC

It is now officially college radio/music conference season. The IBS Conference just concluded in New York City on Sunday and on the heels of that, College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) is prepping for their spring convention this weekend (March 14th to 16th at the Marriott Marquis in NYC). Held along with the folks from College Media Advisers (CMA), the event will feature sessions about radio, television, journalism, and careers in media. As I did with the recent IBS Conference, I will have some guest bloggers on the scene at the CBI Convention, reporting back on the goings on. Additionally, I'll be hosting a live Twitter feed of CBI Convention-themed tweets (#CBINY).

Over the years I've been particularly impressed by CBI's work in both advocating for college radio and educating stations about legislation that has an impact on student stations. They offer a free email list for college radio staff that's open to anyone in college radio, regardless of whether or not one is a member of CBI. Not limited to just radio, CBI's focus is a bit broader than that of some of their fellow college media organizations (such as IBS).

In order to learn about the ins and outs of CBI, hear what's in store for their upcoming convention, and find out their predictions for the future of college radio, I chatted by email with the President of CBI, Warren Kozireski (he's also General Manager of WBSU at College at Brockport) and Will Robedee, Executive Director of CBI (he's also the General Manager of KTRU 91.7 FM and Staff Adviser for RTV-5 at Rice University).

Spinning Indie: When did CBI begin and what was the initial motivation for starting it up?

Warren Kozireski, President of CBI: The organization was conceived in late 1998. The idea came mainly from a previous student media organization who ceased operating. Several people thought the concept of one umbrella group supporting student television, radio, internet and more made too much sense.

Spinning Indie: Can you explain the main focus of CBI and what sets it apart from other college radio organizations (IBS, CMJ, BEA, etc.)?

Warren: The main difference is that CBI supports all electronic student media, which has become even more important in today's converging media marketplace. Our conference sessions are about every aspect of student media from engineering to on-air to public relations to music to management to news to public affairs to public file to streaming legalities, etc.

Will Robedee, Executive Director of CBI: CBI focuses on electronic student media. We hold two conventions per year. The Spring NY convention is done with College Media Advisers (primarily print) and the Fall Convention is done with CMA and ACP [Associated Collegiate Press] - again, ACP is primarily print oriented. We find that combining our conventions to be very beneficial to all involved.

Starting in 2002, CBI also coordinates the annual Student Media Awards in 23 different categories. This competition rewards the great work being done in student stations around the country and also provides the students with a great resume line.

Spinning Indie: How many college radio stations are members of CBI? Do you have members in other categories (community radio? high school radio? elementary school radio? etc?)

Warren: Again, unlike other student media groups we are not just radio. Our membership has consistently been around 340 member stations and associate members.

NYC View from Commercial Radio Station WRXP's Studios

Spinning Indie: Tell me a bit about what you have in store for 2010 year's Spring Convention in New York. Is there a specific focus?

Will: A list of sessions is available on the CBI web site. Since we do two conventions each year, each has a very different goal. At the NY convention, we focus on bringing in talent from the number one market. This year we have representatives from WFAN, WCBS-AM, Bloomberg Radio, NY Times multimedia, Fresh 102.7, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, etc., etc., etc. We don't forget
about important stations issues, such as streaming or advising, but the focus is to highlight what is happening in NYC and how those people got started. Many of them started at college stations.

Spinning Indie: Your Spring Convention is one week after IBS's National Conference. Is there a lot of crossover between members/attendees and is it challenging to have your conferences so close together?

Will: There is some cross-over, but not a lot as the focus of the two conventions are very different. For instance, the IBS President, Norm Prusslin has been doing sessions with us for a number of years, this year included.

CBI joined CMA in putting on the NY Spring conference about 10 years ago. They handle the venue, timing and many other logistics and we handle the broadcast/electronic media session programming. The proximity of the CBI/CMA convention to the other convention made us think about what made sense when programming for NY. As explained above, our focus is on bringing in the local talent to talk about trends, emerging trends, careers, internships, and life in media in general and how these people made it to the number one market. It made no sense to offer a convention that had a similar flavor to another conference held within a week or two of this one and the venue (NYC) made it easy for us to focus on the talent and media in the market.

Image from 2009 Fall Convention Brochure

Spinning Indie: Who typically attends the conventions that you host in NYC? Is it mostly stations from the Northeast or do you have attendees from all over the country? How many people/stations are you expecting?

Warren: While many come from the Northeast, we see quite a few coming from the South, Midwest and from the West. Many of the students (and some of their advisers) have never been to New York City before so it becomes a destination for both the benefit of the conference and the lure of NYC.

Will: For CBI, this is a relatively small conference, but filled with big names and the lure of NYC. We are working on tours of some great facilities and will announce them later this week.

Our biggest event is the Fall National Student Media Convention. That will be held this year in Louisville. At that event, we hold ~100 sessions and events that are focused on electronic student media operations covering everything from recruitment of volunteers, station management issues, promotions, putting on concerts, how to make local band compilation CDs,
engineering, etc.

This is really a nuts and bolts convention that has broad appeal to students at school based electronic media outlets. The fall convention is also attractive in that it is far less expensive because of the venue. Hotel rooms, for instance are much less expensive in Louisville than NYC. Because of these factors, we draw a much larger crowd which leads to another benefit, networking. Many students and advisers find that they learn their most valuable lessons from the peers that they meet at these events.

Spinning Indie: Anything different about this year's conference?

Will: I think we have raised the bar concerning the quality of speakers.

Studio at KSJS-FM, San Jose State

Spinning Indie: Are you optimistic about college radio's future? Why or why not?

Warren: I am very optimistic with student media's future. If you look at today's job openings, many are looking for audio and video editing experience with writing and web development--all skills many students are already doing every day in our operations. That makes today's students very marketable in the job search.

We will have adjustments to make, and we have already made many, but I can see a near future where all of our student media on one campus is under one roof.

One news department writing for the newspaper (and their website), broadcasting on radio and television and supplementing the various websites with audio, video, blogs, podcasts and more. One sales department selling all student media; one production department making pieces for radio, TV and the web; etc.

Will: While I agree that there is much to be optimistic about, I do see some problems and some growing pains as well as tremendous opportunities.

As Koz mentions, many students arrive on campus today without a radio, with perhaps the exception of a clock radio/alarm. A far cry from my student days when many students set up their stereo before anything else when they arrived on campus! That is a hurdle, but I see the outcome a little differently than Koz because his program at SUNY Brockport has a career/training focus, while I am with KTRU at Rice University where the station has no aspirations of training the next big media personality.

I see student media as the testing and launching grounds of new media. If you remember WXYC and WREK both lay claims to be the first streaming radio station. Students often times have a better grasp of technology than older folks. It is likely that some of the real innovations in popular media are going to come from students working at student electronic media outlets.

Also note that the advent of streaming audio has made it very easy and cost effective to start new initiatives. In the past, a new student station would either need to find and fund a license and frequency or be limited to other methods of transmission that weren't always popular, widely available or suffered from technical problems. Today, a student station can literally be started with a donated computer. Keeping such stations alive over a few years takes work, organization and an ability to demonstrate a need for continued funding as the station grows.

CBI aims to help existing and fledgling stations through its free email lists, web site and conventions as well as free phone support via our toll free number 877-ASK-CBI1.

There are many challenges and opportunities ahead for college stations, whether they are indie oriented or career oriented. The keys to survival are continuity, reasonable requirements for accessing new technology, building support for the media outlet. CBI helps stations with each of those goals through its many direct to station benefits and through efforts to keep webcasting rates and terms (including recordkeeping) reasonable and filing comments on issues before the FCC and the US Congress.

Spinning Indie: What are some of the challenges faced by college radio today?

Warren: College media's main issue is commercial media's main issue--adjusting to the media habits of younger demographics to remain viable. Students don't bring a radio to campus with them, so your webstream is the only way they can hear your station. They also are watching more and more television on their computers, so is the student television station providing video streaming of their programming? Funding is an issue for most to help make the above and more happen.

That and marketing to students that media is still a viable career and well worth their time and effort.

Spinning Indie: Is there anything else about CBI that you'd like to share?

Warren: Our e-mail listserv's are free and not restricted to members-only. We decided this from day one as a support for student media and everyone involved.

Also our various legal fights regarding streaming issues have been done for the (hopeful) benefit of all student media and not just our members. We feel it's the right thing to do and the membership has agreed to help fund the effort(s).

Will: CBI is member and volunteer driven. Our members provide advice to each other through a free flow of dialogue on the email lists. The board members are CBI members. We are also fact driven when it comes to legal issues. For instance, we don't just provide stations with advice concerning issues, we provide them with the background concerning the issues so they are free to make appropriate choices for their operations. We believe students and advisers need to know the issues and the choices available so they can make an educated decision. These are, when all is said and done, school based student media outlets. Whether their programming is esoteric, indie, world, eclectic or mainstream, is unimportant. What is important is that CBI serves these stations.

70th Annual IBS College Radio Conference Starts Today in NYC

Over on Radio Survivor I just posted an article about the 70th Annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting Systems (IBS) conference, which will be taking place in New York City starting tonight.

It's amazing that they've been at it for some many years and the conference itself is a great opportunity for college, high school and community radio DJs to connect with other radio folks and get tips on how to maximize one's station.

I really enjoyed speaking at and reporting on my trip to the IBS event last year and will, unfortunately only have to be there in spirit this time around. Blogger Amber Wilmot will be helping out, by sharing some guest posts with Spinning Indie. I'll also be running a feed of real-time tweets from the conference on the right-hand side of this website. If you're planning to be at the conference, please share your thoughts using the hashtag #ibsconf.

Noise Pop Crowd Gets Schooled in Music Biz at Industry Noise 2010

On Saturday, February 27th I headed over to the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco for the 2nd annual "Industry Noise" conference. As I mentioned in my summary of last year's conference, this event is a descendant of the Noise Pop educational sessions that have been taking place pretty much every year since 2000. This year it cost participants between $65 and $115 to sit in on panel discussions, hear keynote presentations, and get advice from mentors in the music biz during the day-long conference.

Perhaps making it easier for working folks, Industry Noise was back to being a weekend event (last year it was on Friday). According to the schedule handed out at the event, "The focus is independent music, technology, and the path we're on as musicians, music lovers, industry schmucks, and tech geeks."

The festivities began at 9:30 in the morning and ended with cocktails at 4:30. I was there for the morning sessions and here are some highlights:

Morning Speaker: Josh Freese

Josh Freese Chats with Ashli Lewis

The morning began with a pretty interesting on-stage conversation with musician Josh Freese. Ashli Lewis interviewed him, asking him to share tidbits from his music career. From their discussion we heard about how his professional music career began at age 12 with a stint playing on the Tomorrowland Stage at Disneyland. He worked with Dweezil Zappa while in his teens and soon after joined the Vandals. These days he's a member of Devo, A Perfect Circle, as well as the Vandals.

Having performed on more than 300 albums (he's worked with Nine Inch Nails, Cher, Megadeath, Joe Cocker, Social Distortion, and many others), Ashli Lewis compared Josh to the legendary session drummer Hal Blaine.

However, the main reason that Josh was at Industry Noise was to talk about his innovative method for marketing his own solo album "Since 1972." When he heard that his release from 2000 was still selling (albeit to maybe one person a week), he started to think about how it would be great to meet the people buying his album to thank them personally.

From that kernel of an idea, he brainstormed a bunch of outrageous packages that he could offer to fans in order to both market his new album and get some publicity. Prices ranged from $7 to $75,000 for simply a digital download of the album ($7) to experiences with Josh. He offered up opportunities like drum lessons, lunch with him at the Sizzler, miniature golfing with him and some other punk/new wave legends, a private tour of Disneyland, ownership of his Volvo, to a chance to have an entire EP written about you and have Josh join your band for a month.

Never Trust Anyone Over 30

Twentysomethings Panel

The next session that I attended was a panel discussion about how young people are helping to change marketing and technology in the music industry. Surprisingly, during this panel I heard some mention that radio was still a relevant marketing tool. When asked about their suggestions for marketing a band like MGMT, Justin Little from Zeitgeist said, "their success has been based on radio." His suggestions for them included that they should "go obscure virally," but that they should also allow some of their album tracks to "develop more organically...even at radio...before it goes top 40."

The panelists contrasted their affinity for technology with the old guard's discomfort and lack of understanding. Eric Frederic of the band wallpaper said, "old industry doesn't understand the way things work on the web." He added that it's best to capitalize on web buzz by getting a release out soon after. Ty White from Topsin Media added that even coming up with a band name and an album name should be optimized for the web and search engines, pointing out that the GIRLS' record "Album" probably suffered lower sales just because the artist name and record name are so generic.

Ty also pointed out that as young people in the industry, "We start with fewer rules," adding that "it's possible for someone our age to never have purchased music" and that just being aware of that helps him to be a better marketer.

All of the panelists acknowledged that new technology tools come and go and they are able to adapt to these changes. At the same time they admitted that there is still no perfect social media solution for bands, with Ty complaining that although Facebook "feels like MySpace 2.0...it's a necessary evil." Eric added that Facebook is great for "engaging with fans," but that it's not a great resource for compiling tour dates, music clips, etc.

Keynote: Claudia Gonson from Magnetic Fields

Claudia Gonson Chats with Yoshi Kato

The final session that I attended was a keynote conversation with Claudia Gonson from Magnetic Fields. Music writer Yoshi Kato talked to Claudia about her dual role as band member and manager for Magnetic Fields. She's been playing music with Stephin Merritt since she was a teenager and has been managing him for almost as long.

Claudia admitted that she sees herself more as "management" than an "artist," and describes her job as akin to "running a restaurant," with the constant stream of demands, conflicts, and logistics. At times, though, Claudia has had to stress about both of her roles as artist and manager; which she said can be difficult to juggle. She said that the band actually fired her as tour manager once and her story about taking phone calls while on stage during sound check was a reminder to her that sometimes she had to focus on one job at a time. She explained, "I do turn my phone off now when I'm in the band onstage."

At the same time, though, Claudia pointed out that many musicians find themselves having to manage their own careers; so that balancing act is quite common. (The panel prior to this also mentioned that technology and websites like Facebook and MySpace have made it much easier for bands to market themselves and manage their careers.)

I was endeared to Claudia when she gave a shout-out to college radio. When describing the early success of Magnetic Fields she talked about the Boston scene, saying, "College radio is great guys...it's just great. That college kids listen to this much radio...and now it's online."

The remainder of the day included mentoring sessions with music industry folks (from labels, management, publishing companies, etc.), a panel about running one's own label, a workshop for aspiring producers, a panel full of artists (moderated by DJ/Live 105 Music Director Aaron Axelsen), a discussion about social media, and a panel about the future of the industry.


Previous Noise Pop 2010 coverage:

Noise Pop 2010 Has a Glamorous Start with Yoko Ono at the Fox Theater

New Wine Documentary "Blood into Wine" Chronicles Arizona Winery with Rocker Roots

My Crazy Final Day at CMJ: Radio-o-Rama

The final moments of CMJ 2009

My final day at the CMJ Music Marathon 2009, Friday, October 23, 2009, was jam-packed with radio-related adventures. In the morning I headed over to commercial radio station WRXP in order to hang out and get a tour of the station. It was a really fun experience and actually made me a bit more optimistic about the potential of commercial radio. My next post will be a full write-up on that tour.



College Radio Mentor Session with KDHX's Kate Estwing
Following that, I raced back over to NYU to take part in a short "college radio mentor session" that I'd arranged the previous day. Students participating in College Day the day before were entitled to sign up to have 15-minute chats with various folks from the industry, including radio promoters and community radio station KDHX.

KDHX's Program Director Kate Estwing talked to me about the St. Louis station. She mentioned that her station streams the past 2 weeks-worth of shows and said that the streams are really successful because "people don't like appointment listening anymore." I was also heartened to hear that KDHX plays vinyl and features a lot of in-studio performances (200 this year!).

The station gets its funding from members (they're doing a fundraiser right now), grants, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Right now they're in the midst of a "Station Renewal Project" grant from CPB and the ultimate goal is to get the station to a place of self-sufficiency.

Man Behind the Curtain Engineering during KEXP Session

KEXP Sessions at the Cutting Room
Next, I raced over to the Cutting Room to see some of the live music that KEXP was hosting and broadcasting from there. On that particular day they were only doing acoustic sets and I caught a bit of the performance by Choir of Young Believers. There was lots of documentation happening, as the set was being filmed, photographed, and recorded for the archives and live stream. The set-up wasn't super conducive to having a live audience; but it was fun to hang in the hallway, meet folks from KEXP and see a bit of how radio was covering the festivities at CMJ.



Internet Radio: A Free-for-All
The final panel that I was able to make it to was all about Internet radio and featured a range of folks from KEXP, East Village Radio, the Future of Music Coalition, SoundExchange, AOL Radio, and Yep Roc. Much of the discussion focused on licensing and fees related to Internet radio and the affiliated rules and regulations. After a long week (and little sleep) I had a hard time focusing on all of the nitty gritty details of the conversation, except to recognize that there's much complexity surrounding these issues.

We heard that podcasting is different from streaming in that a podcast is considered a "distribution of a sound recording" and streaming is a "public performance" according to Kyle Funn from SoundExchange. SoundExchange helps artists get paid for streaming radio.

People talked about fee structures, reporting requirements and the currently imperfect methods for getting royalties to artists when not every song being played is necessarily reported. Internet Radio was described by Casey Rae-Hunter of Future of Music Coalition as having "tremendous promise" in terms of breaking new music and a future was imagined in which "a new breed of entrepreneurs" work to sort out all of the connections between radio, technology and reporting on artists/songs being played.

AOL's Peter Schiecke pointed out that the majority of the money that AOL Radio makes is used to pay royalties, meaning that it's "not a booming business." He suggested that there should be rates in effect that aren't "driving people out of business."

A few highlights/quotes I liked:

Emch Subatomic (KEXP, BrooklynRadio.net): Internet Radio is "a little bit of the wild west...right now."

Peter Schiecke (AOL Radio): Internet radio... "it still feels like it's in its infancy."

Jeremiah Lewis (Yep Roc Records): Radio is "a source for us to make money" (singles sent to radio are meant to encourage album purchases)

Peter Ferraro (GM, East Village Radio): "We are not making money at the present time...it's been a promotional vehicle for the restaurant [Little Frankie's] more or less...[that is] funded by tomatoes and dough and flour."

Casey Rae-Hunter (Future of Music Coalition): He uttered my favorite word all week: "Earballs"


Artist Lounge at the Pure Volume House
My final stop before departing NYC was the artist/press-only "lounge" at the pop-up venue at Collective Hardware dubbed Pure Volume House. This was a place where bands could hang out, get free haircuts, and the occasional free pizza slice. Press (like me) were also allowed, although I was initially denied access to the exclusive loft area where the hair cutting and massages were taking place. As is often the case, when one is told that something is off-limits it often sounds way more interesting than it turns out actually to be. I was in and out in a flash as there was no free food in sight. On my way out I ran into some college radio kids from KSCR who had been hanging there all week disguised as the KSCR Family Band. Rock on.

Previous Posts about the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon:

CMJ 2009 Band Name Trends Revealed
Radio is Alive and Well at the CMJ Music Marathon (for Radio Survivor)
Radio's Presence at CMJ
CMJ 2009 Music Marathon Recap Part Two (10/20/09)
Social Networking, Metal Radio & Digital Music, and Miles Davis in 1959 (10/21/09)
CMJ 2009 College Day Part One- College Radio and Competition
CMJ 2009 College Day Part Two: Music Directors' Summit
CMJ 2009 College Day Part Three: Making Executive Decisions Panel
CMJ 2009 College Day Part Four: College Radio Awards
Small Beast Showcase at The Delancey During CMJ: Theremin, David J, and David Lynch Covers