Pulse: When most music-loving people I know talk about radio now, it tends to be in terms of Clear Channel and just all the negative effects of consolidation that are happening. Sadly, most of the people I know who are really passionate about music have kind of given up on radio completely. We’re sort of in this IPOD age where people program their own radio stations and just use the Internet to find out about new music. Do you see a similar decline in radio maybe not being as big a force as it was for passionate music lovers? How do you go about having that same impact that radio used to have in this sort of different age?

Steve Nelson: I think, first of all, everyone of us around this table kind of falls into that category of being a music-head and really loving music and seeking out ways to discover new music. I think one of the things missing from the commercial dial in the Twin Cities is a station that has that broad and deep playlist to help introduce people to new stuff and play things you might not expect to hear on a commercial radio station. When we’re searching for new music personally we have sources that we all trust, and I think that this new station is going to end up being a source for music lovers to trust and tune in and listen to what’s cool and what’s going on.

Mark Wheat: And to specifically answer the question about the IPOD age, I think we’re all radio-heads as well as music-heads, so there’s a part of us that doesn’t want to see radio as a medium die. I think that’s part of what we’re doing, trying to reinvigorate people’s passion for radio and trust in it as a medium where they can find out about music.

Steve Seel: Not because we work in it … well partly (laughs). We’re also radio listeners, we have very strong feelings about what good radio is when we’ve heard it. And we think there could be more. We relish the opportunity to be able to create more and we’re listening to people as well. What do you miss? What should be done? We want to do it.

Sarah Lutman: The only thing you’ll ever hear on your IPOD is what you program into it. On the radio you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Radio has more people involved and there’s just that opportunity to be surprised.

Dale Connelly: There’s a relationship that develops between the people who are doing the programming and the people who are listening that your IPOD can’t duplicate. We hope that the relationship is going to go both ways. We’re really interested in hearing what the people on the other end of the line’s ideas are.

Pulse: One of the big things that got people buzzing about this new station is sort of the ghost of REV 105 coming back to life with a lot of the people who worked for that station (Steve Thorn, Mary Lucia) playing a major part in the new 89.3. As someone who moved to the Twin Cities in 1999 I don’t know much about REV 105 beyond the folklore and the fact that it was obviously a revered local institution. Do you see KCMP as sort of picking up the torch from where REV 105 left off in some respects? In what ways do you think the two stations will differ?

Steve Nelson: I think that REV was a wonderful station, but the new station is going to be pretty different from what REV was. For one thing, it’s just a different time. You’ve already made mention about the digital music age we’re living in now, and music is really in just a different place altogether than when REV was still on the air.

Thorn: When REV went off the air, music was becoming kind of stinky. It was right when the whole sort of rap-rock monster and bands like Limp Bizkit were taking over. The whole alt. scene, its time had passed in a lot of ways. Even if REV had stuck around I don’t know what we would have played during that period … those were pretty dark times (laughs).

Mary Lucia: The reason people loved REV had a lot to do with the music but also with the people who were on the air. I think people regarded REV 105 as sort of a personal friend. I still to this day have people talk to me about it and it’s always very personal. I’ve never worked at a station since where I’ve had that sense that people felt really hurt when it went off the air.

Steve Nelson: I think that the playlist on this new station is going to be broader and wider than the playlist was on REV. We have a giant news department here at Minnesota Public Radio that we’re going to draw on for this new station, which is something that REV didn’t have. Of course the big difference is that we’re going to be a listener-supported public radio station whereas REV was a commercial radio station. So I think that there are quite a few differences between the two stations, not just in terms of time and place, but in terms of philosophy as a whole.

Pulse: Do you have other public radio stations in mind that you’re hoping to emulate in terms of the way KCMP is programmed?

Steve Nelson: Today you can buy radio stations with a catalog of 600 songs and on-air voices pre-programmed. This station can’t be like that because all of our DJs are entwined in the community, we all live here—we’re going to be supporting local music. In those respects there are some other public radio stations that have those same values and goals, but in terms of what they sound like, I think this station’s going to sound very different than any other station that’s out there. There are some great public radio stations out there, but I don’t think we would ever pick one and say, “we want to copy that station.” We want to create something for the Twin Cities that is really new and unique and serves this community.

Mark Wheat: From a non-commercial radio industry point of view, there’s obviously been examples of where formats that played contemporary music have succeeded in the non-com area, and that’s inspired Minnesota Public Radio to go along with this for their third stream. News and classical is sort of the classic double bill of public radio but this is a new format that’s been shown to be supported by enough people to be wired.

Pulse: There are some people within the Twin Cities music community who are worried how this new station will affect Radio K (770 AM, the University of Minnesota’s long-standing college-rock leaning station). Given that some of you have worked for Radio K and even helped found it, how do you address those people and their fears? How do you see the relationship between KCMP and Radio K sorting out? I personally don’t feel like there’s that much of a conflict just because Radio K is inherently limited in some of the things it can do because of being on the AM dial and having a license that only allows it to be on the air during daylight hours.

Mark Wheat: Well there’s going to be some overlap, obviously, in terms of the type of music that we play, but again, we’re all music-heads and radio-heads and we’ve been living in this city for a long time and saying that it’s been known, really internationally, as a great town for local music and for bands coming through on tour. Music is a huge part of the culture here. And I think we’ve all thought that the audience in the Twin Cities deserves a bigger range of choices. It’s our hope that there is a big enough audience in the Twin Cities to support this new station and to maintain Radio K and KFAI who play some of the same music as well. That being said, there are some people who simply won’t listen to AM ever— they just don’t go there. So for them there has never been the kind of station that’s going to play the type of music we’re going to play, we’re going to be on FM and broadcasting 24/7. I hope that it will be a mutually beneficial relationship. I think that this station has the potential to turn on a whole new audience that never listens to non-com, so then if they find out about us and then find out that Radio K plays some of the same music, we could even be the gateway to helping new people discover non-commercial radio in the Twin Cities. That’s how I feel anyway.

Pulse: I know it’s a little early to have all of the programming set in stone, but I’m wondering at this point if you have certain programming guidelines in place. Are you planning on bringing in any of the sort of “big names” in syndicated public radio programming of pop music, like say, “World Café,” “Morning Becomes Eclectic” or “Mt Stage”? Is there any sort of percentage you guys have in mind in terms of how much local music you plan on spinning?

Steve Nelson: First off, I can give you the schedule for our weekdays. Dale Connelly’s Morning show will be on from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.; 9 a.m. to 2.pm. is Thorn’s shift. 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. is Lucia’s; 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. is Wheat’s and Midnight to 5 a.m. is Steve Seel’s shift, then it starts off all over again. In terms of national programming there are a couple of shows that we have looked at and we’re probably going to end up airing one or two of them, but we really want to build some specialty shows of our own to take advantage of the talents of the people here in the Twin Cities to make some great radio. That’s a process that’s growing, it’s going to start slowly and build from there, just because we had to get the station set up and launched relatively quickly. As far as local music goes, we don’t really have any kind of percentage in mind. We’re going to be committed to playing local music throughout the day. It’s not just going to live in one little spot. We’ll probably have a local show, but that’s not the only time that you’re going to hear it on our station.

Thorn: And it’s not just going to be the Replacements and Soul Asylum (laughs).

Steve Nelson: Who we love …

Steve Thorn: Yeah, but, you know … that’s why Mark moved here.

Mark Wheat: Uh huh.

Mary Lucia: That is so weird, that’s just too weird (laughs).

Pulse: I know Mark mentioned earlier that this station might get people listening to non-commercial radio who previously hadn’t, but one of the things that has me excited about 89.3 is the idea that you could maybe draw some of the more traditional public radio news and classical listeners into the fold. I know there’s a lot of people out there who feel like commercial radio has really fallen by the wayside and who just aren’t engaged with pop music at all currently. They feel like the last good record they bought was in 1991 and that nothing good has happened since. I’m excited at the idea of older listeners or just people outside of the typical indie-rock person getting exposed to the fact there’s all of this exciting music going on right now.

Thorn: I remember the last local radio show that Mary did and she closed by encouraging people not to lower their expectations. Sadly, I don’t think that happened. I think in a lot of ways what people demanded from radio kind of did lessen. I feel like we’re kind of trying to raise the bar again.

Sarah Lutman: I also feel that just naturally in your life you have less time as you get older. You take on more responsibilities—children, a house, gutters to clean out—all different types of things. And you don’t have the same appetite to go out and discover pop music for yourself. So for people who are maybe a little bit older it’s really easy to write off pop music. Because if you say, “oh I want to learn a little bit about what’s going on” and you turn on the radio—I mean forget it, it’s horrible! So therefore you become ossified in your musical tastes and only want to listen to classic rock because just sorting through to find quality music today is just plain too much work. The signal-to-noise ratio is just way too distorted. I think this station will present a strong opportunity for people of all ages who are musically curious. To be able to open up the New York Times and see a review of something you’ve never heard of and then turn your radio on and actually get to hear it and discover that you like it and realize there are things happening currently that really do appeal to you that you just don’t know about, I think that’s very exciting.

Steve Seel: Especially in a community such as this, where there’s such a vibrant music scene, there’s no reason a station like this shouldn’t exit. It’s amazing to think, and sad to think, that some people who live in the metro area might not even be aware of it. Why is that? There’s so much happening here and that should be reflected on the radio. We’re extremely excited to be able to do that and it’s about time.

Pulse: How does 89.3 being a public radio station enable it to operate differently than its commercial competitors?

Steve Seel: We have the privilege and the responsibility to have a mission. It’s a privilege and an expectation that we will have a mission. Uh, someone pick up on that … (laughs).

Sarah Lutman: Well basically Minnesota Public Radio’s mission is to enrich the mind and nourish the spirit, and that’s a very tall charge. We respect the listeners’ deep intelligence and we want them to have their curiosity fostered. We think that when people are curious and informed that they make a better society. We just sort of wake up in the morning with different ideas than a commercial station.

Dale Connelly: The other thing about public radio, and the thing that attracted me to it, is that we start out without the drive that a commercial station must have to get the largest possible audience and be the number-one station in town. While I think that we would all enjoy it, if we found suddenly that we were the number-one station in town, we’d also have to ask ourselves if we were doing our job (whole room erupts into laughter). We have the chance to really honor music with this station by being music lovers and appealing to music lovers, and so you go to the music first and then you see who comes with you and that’s the audience that you end up serving. What you get with that if it all works out right is that the listeners understand how the station works as a public station and they’re willing to support it. If we can get that all going, then we’re doing our jobs.

Steve Thorn: That’s what I was going to say (laughs).

Sarah Lutman: Our [future] listeners’ standards for us are so high. I mean, just by reading the blog they are already so passionate and they already know what they think we should be doing. They’re like the best watchdogs we’ll ever have.

Mary Lucia: One of the expectations I think with listener-supported radio is that you have the responsibility to give them something they can’t necessarily get otherwise. I always come up with the analogy that no one ever washes a rental car. A commercial radio station is like a rental car, you have no stake in it. But when it’s yours, it becomes much more personal and you care about it.

Pulse: I want to look ahead into the future a bit. A year from now where do you hope the station will be?

Steve Nelson: That’s a good question. I think we want to make something that …

Steve Thorn: … the community’s proud of.

Steve Nelson: Yeah, I want it to be a situation where you meet someone and say, “Hey, I’m from the Twin Cities,” and the next words out of your mouth are, “and we’ve got this great radio station.” I think that would be spectacular.

Sarah Lutman: Just some evidence that we struck a chord and are getting things right, that the station feels like a musical home to people and makes for a stronger musical community in the Cities. Good radio stations have a way of sustaining a creative community around them in terms of venues and musicians. I think we can do that. ||