[Dixielandjazz] Do It Yourself Radio programming

[Steve Barbone]

Radio play, a long sought after goal of some bands. Here's how some of the
better known musicians in various genres do it.

Other ways are to blanket XM and Sirius stations with your CDs. Better that
than leaving them in the garage.

I even heard my band on Satellite stations, and gotten calls from around the
US from friends who did also.

Plus you can get airplay on the internet stations, like those of Brian
Harvey in the UK, or www.okom.com here in the Northeast USA. I've been told
Barbone Street CDs are played in such diverse places as Russia, Israel, UK,
China, Italy, Brazil, Venezuela etc.

Or if you are VERY VISIBLE, you can get your own radio program like Cullum
did, but on one of those 150 satellite channels. Why not?

Two reasons to do it. You want to gain personal popularity, or like me who
is too old to worry about that, you want to expand the audience for the
music worldwide. . . to give something back to the music which made you
happy. Naive? Perhaps but like the tune goes,  "So What?"

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



One Way to Get Radio Play: Do It Yourself

NY TIMES - By JESSE FOX MAYSHARK - December 3, 2006

IT¹S the self,² David Johansen growls, ³that finally reconciles effort and
effortlessness, injury and forgiveness, control and surrender, conflict with
others and acceptance of them, awareness of defects and unconditional love.²

It¹s Friday night, and Mr. Johansen is on the air.

His husky, wolfish voice is familiar from his years singing with the New
York Dolls and masquerading as Buster Poindexter, but what he is doing on
the radio is something else altogether. . .

This is not something you are likely to hear on regular old terrestrial
radio, where armchair philosophy is rarely part of the patter. But it is an
example of the ways the two competing satellite networks, Sirius and XM, are
using established artists to build their programming, and of the ways the
artists are responding. Seemingly every week for the past few years has
brought an announcement of a singer, songwriter, rapper or rocker signed to
be host of a show or to program a channel. Some are marquee names: Bob Dylan
and Snoop Dogg on XM, Eminem and the Who on Sirius. Others are less so, like
the folk-rock duo the Kennedys, who have a three-hour weekly show on Sirius,
and John McEuen, a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the host of a
show on XM. . .

for the musicians, it represents a previously unthinkable degree of control
over a medium that has tantalized and tormented generations of recording
artists, and a chance to shore up their own audiences at a time of industry
wide uncertainty. And it is one more opportunity for brand extension, beyond
MySpace pages and YouTube videos.

³I have the freedom to play whatever I want to play,² said Christopher
Bridges, better known as the rapper Ludacris, who has a one-hour weekly show
on one of XM¹s hip-hop channels. ³You don¹t have to worry about fines, you
don¹t have to worry about sponsors. It¹s just freedom.²

Catherine Moore, director of the music business graduate program at New York
University, said the satellite stations provide new marketing territory: a
middle ground between the wide-open Internet, where it is hard to get
attention, and narrowly programmed terrestrial radio, where it is hard to
get airplay. Working within the conversational coziness of a radio show, Dr.
Moore said, ³the artist becomes more than just, ŒHere are my songs.¹ ² And
that, she added, ³leads to a deeper relationship between the fan and the
artist.². . . 

Lee Abrams, the longtime radio impresario who as chief creative officer at
XM has recruited much of the network¹s talent, said hiring musicians was
part of his plan from early on. But he said the idea took some selling to
artists who had come to associate radio with narrowly programmed formats and
label-mandated promotional appearances. . .

And so, enter satellite radio. Ever since the F.C.C. issued the first (and
only) satellite licenses to XM and Sirius in 1997, both networks have
promised to restore diversity and personality to the airwaves, even if those
airwaves are available only to those who pay a monthly fee and purchase the
requisite equipment (or an automobile that comes with a receiver
preinstalled, as many now do). They have raced to sign up customers ‹ as of
October, XM reported 7.2 million subscribers and Sirius 5.1 million ‹ and
have competed fiercely for on-air talent and boldface names.

About half of Sirius¹s 135 or so channels are devoted to music, and a
similar percentage of XM¹s 170-plus stations (exact numbers of channels
fluctuate, as streams are added and subtracted). As a result the competition
for music hosts has been similarly intense. . .

Steve Blatter, senior vice president for music programming at Sirius, said
the network was aiming for ³a return of the art of the D.J. In thinking
about that,² he said, ³what better way to provide people this art form ‹
because it really is an art form ‹ than going directly to some of the
artists themselves?² . . .

³What¹s interesting about radio is there are several ways the artist can be
presented,² said Dr. Moore of New York University. ³It used to be just
songs, with the odd interview here and there. But now you can Œwatch¹ the
radio, you can go to their Web site. You can look up information.² . . .

The future of satellite radio is far from certain. Although both networks
continue to add subscribers, they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars
so far. Both have recently announced plans to expand their presence online,
betting on the growth potential of Internet broadcasting. . .

³Terrestrial radio on the music side has gotten so bad,² Mr. Alvin said.
³What it does, I think, is it chokes off dialogue. And the world, the
country, we need more dialogue, whether it¹s political, or musical, or
artistic.

³And so satellite, I don¹t know if it¹s a redeemer or anything. But,² he
said, pausing, ³I have a radio show.²