Chris K's Colorado Playlist

What the radio industry should be doing is building local programs with local personalities featuring local bands and artists and originating from local stations. –  iTunes “Radio” Is Coming by  Jerry Del Colliano from Inside Music Media

This quote is worth repeating every day by all of us concerned with local music… and local radio, which is changing before our eyes and ears.

Since I track Colorado music spins at public radio stations around the state, I can state with near-absolute certainty that KRFC plays more Colorado based music than any other public radio station in Colorado today.  In the past month ending April 18 KRFC has aired 253 unique album titles by local Colorado artists and/or bands.  That is ON TOP OF the Live @ Lunch feature that airs approximately 21 times a month.

Become a member.  Support Colorado music.  Support locally produced local radio.  Without your continued support what we have today may be gone tomorrow and I’m not kidding.  We NEED your support (all public radio needs your continued support) in order to sustain, and to grow as technology around us advances relentlessly.

Please don’t wait, or expect that someone else will be the one who gives…. and as much as I’d love it if you called in during this Saturday’s Colorado Sound program, I’d be just as happy if I knew you became a member via any mechanism we have established for you to do that.

I hope to see your name on the list of those who became a member and showed your support of local programs with local personalities featuring local bands and artists, originating from a local station.

The KRFC Spring Fund Drive runs April 23 to May 1

There is no MMMM (Monday Morning Music Meeting) per se this day… (but see the end of the blog for a taste).

That’s because I’m still in the midst of a home remodel that is kicking this old goat’s ass – and has to be done before Mom arrives for an inspection in early May.  So bear with me gang.  What I did find this morning however, piqued my interest enough to share it with you… and it was this quote:

What the radio industry should be doing is building local programs with local personalities featuring local bands and artists and originating from local stations.

This quote came from the op-ed piece iTunes “Radio” Is Coming by Jerry Del Colliano from his Inside Music Media blog this morning.

So, this is my call to my brothers and sisters at public and community radio throughout the state — that we are among those fighting the good fight on behalf of our LOCAL bands and artists, and we are among those who fight the good fight for LOCAL news and information, presented by LOCAL personalities.

Let’s not lose sight of the service we offer our neighbors – our family and friends – who trust us to deliver  something different than what they get from the “Clear Channels” of the radio world.

It saddened me when a friend I spoke with this weekend, who is a host at a local community radio station, told me that he listens not to the station he broadcasts from, but rather to a local NPR affiliate everyday on his drive home, in order to get the kind of news delivery he considers important to him.

It saddens me when a group of volunteer programmers in a blind survey and in a public showing of hands admit to listening more to other other stations and to other devices like iPods and Pandora than to the station that they are personalities at.  Of course, all of these same people privately and quietly make the assumption that their shows are being listened to by others… even when the ratings research and their own survey answers indicate otherwise.

All of the evidence that’s being presented today indicates that radio as we’ve known it in my 55 years is fading into obsolescence.  I cannot predict how long that will take.  No one can, really.  At least not until the government dictates that this old technology needs to be put to rest permanently – as the British government has done (they’re turning off their analog signals in 2015 I believe).  How behind the Brits we are is a good question — but when iTunes becomes iRadio you just know it isn’t far behind.

And since this is the MMMM here’s a taste of the new Sweet Sunny South album … enjoy!

Sweet Sunny South – Carried off by a Twister
Genre/Style: Americana, bluegrass, folk
Notes: this is as authentic as you’ll find anywhere in the country today … pure, unfiltered, and unadulterated country/bluegrass music from and for the soul.

Earth, Wind & Fire “That’s the Way of the World” from That’s the Way of the World (1975)
Jennifer Lane “In A Magzine” from In A Magazine (2008)
Jon Ridnell “Angels” from Reliance (2010)
The Congress “Minutes” from The Congress (2010)
NEW Chain Gang of 1974 “Funk Giants” from White Guts (2010)
The Knew “Picnic” from The Knew’s Pulperia (2010)
NEW Sweet Sunny South “Ghost of Gram” from Carried Off By A Twister (2010)
Andy Monley “All Hail” from Triplight (2006)
Bobby Walker “Turn Me Around” from Git It (2009)
Xiren “Circus” from Bullets and Rainbows (2001)
John Common “Same Scar” from Beautiful Empty (2009)
Adam Bodine Trio “Omar’s Uptown Jubilee” from The Chauffeur (2009)

Lois Lane “Count the Memories” from The Best of Lois Lane (2004)
The Starlite Ramblers “Ghost Riders in the Sky” from 1992 (1992)
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club “Limon” from Slim Cessna’s Auto Club (1995)
Great American Taxi “One of These Days” from Reckless Habits (2010)
Romano Paoletti “Can You Canoe” from Story of a Lifetime (2009)
The Motet “Dig Deep” from Dig Deep (2009)
Scott Von “Stop and Stare” from The Age of Plenty (2009)
The Autumn Film “Because We Are” from The Ship and the Sea (2010)
Dave Beegle “Big Fish Rumba” from A Year Closer (2000)
Nathaniel Rateliff “Whimper and Wail” from In Memory of Loss (2010)
Dwarf Planets “Suddenly It’s Over” from Far and Away Sessions (2009)
The Grippe “Hucklebuck” from The Grippe (2009)