Pitch

Remember how kids used to wake up on Saturday morning excited to watch cartoons?  My kids wake up Saturday morning excited for the first strains of TMBG singing “It’s Spare The Rock…with Bill & Ella…and sometimes Liam!!”

Since we started carrying the show, it has become a local cultural phenomenon.  I hear stories from families all the time about how their weekend begins with a family dance around the kitchen making pancakes and listening to Spare The Rock.  Plus, Bill Childs is a nerd.  So are his kids.  And nerd is the new cool.  Do you think they are going to let crappy kids music hit the airwaves?  I’ve heard everything from Rush to Dan Zanes, The Pixies to Brady Rymer.  Pete Seeger to The F****** Muppets.  Yeah, I said it in a thing about kids music.  I f****** love this show.

– Monte Belmonte, Program Director, WRSI (93.9 The River)
(Note: neither Monte nor we swear on the air.  Promise.) 

Spare the Rock doesn’t, and that’s why everybody loves it.

– John Flansburgh, They Might Be Giants

 

For seven years, Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child has been providing the soundtrack to thousands of childhoods in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont on heritage AAA station WRSI (Northampton, MA & Brattleboro, VT).  The show plays “indie music for indie kids,” including the best of music aimed at kids (like Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell, Lunch Money, Caspar Babypants, and They Might Be Giants) right along side kid-friendly tracks from the likes of The Ramones, Mike Doughty, Ella Fitzgerald, Brian Eno, Pizzicato Five, Andrew Bird, Fishbone, and more.

Throw in book reviews and exclusive in-studios from dozens of artists, including the likes of Jonathan Coulton, Asylum Street Spankers, Dan Zanes, Dog on Fleas, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Elizabeth Mitchell, They Might Be Giants, and many more, and you’ve got an idea of what the show is about.  One thing it’s not is your typical kids’ programming.

We’re radio nerds, and we want to raise another generation of radio nerds.  That means a set that starts with Elvis Costello, switches to Brooklyn history-oriented family rock band the Deedle Deedle Dees, and then pivots to Guided By Voices, or one that starts with British folk punker Frank Turner, then family hip-hop artist Secret Agent 23 Skidoo (featuring Cactus from Granola Funk Express), and finishes up with Earth Wind & Fire.  Check out some recent playlists and you’ll get the idea. It’s Kidz Bop- and condescension-free, and genuinely curated, not randomly generated.  It is good radio, period, not just good-for-kids.

Here’s a little sampler of what you’ll hear:

[audio:https://sparetherock.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ChildsDemo2.mp3|titles=Spare the Rock Demo]

And you can listen to recent shows in their entirety at our page at WRSI.com.

As described below, the show has been based for years at a heritage commercial AAA station, WRSI (93.9 The River), and attracts audiences far beyond kids.  It’s a show that works almost anywhere.

History

We launched Spare the Rock on Valley Free Radio in August of 2005.  In February 2008, we moved to 93.9 The River (101.5 in southern Vermont) and have, since then, aired on both stations.  We also help bring a lot of family entertainment to the Pioneer Valley, including the No Nap Happy Hour series at the Iron Horse and at Flywheel and the NCMC series at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, along with co-producing the River’s Meltdown, an annual family music and book festival that draws thousands.  I also book and run the family stage at the Green River Festival.  I also have been a weekend and fill-in DJ on the River for several years (along with my day job as a law professor).

Spare the Rock is a family production, with me (Bill Childs) and my kids Ella and Liam hosting and producing.  I also have written about family music for various media outlets (including Parenting and Valley Kids) and co-produce KindieFest, a yearly family music conference.  And in 2010, I founded Spare the Rock Records to release Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti, which has so far raised nearly $50,000 for Haitian relief efforts.  The label’s second CD, Science Fair, will be released in June 2012, themed around and benefiting science education for girls.

In August 2012, we are moving to Austin, Texas.

I don’t think you should throw rocks at kids:

About the name: no, we are neither encouraging stoning children, nor are we advocating the use of music as punishment.  It’s just a play on words, suggesting that a kid without rock will be ruined for life.  I only kind of believe that.

Some people have written nice things about us:

I’ve also been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many other media outlets discussing family music.