So, we’re fifteen years into this radio thing, which maybe makes it so I have some ideas about radio for families that others might find interesting. But I’m going to start about music radio writ large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two things that I think make it so that music radio continues to be compelling, at least to me\u2014and I think to others.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First<\/em>, it\u2019s music that is selected more or less by human hands rather than even a smart shuffle\u2014and selected with more than segues in mind. That is, it\u2019s sets that are put together to tell a story or represent influences on an artist or just to be goofy. (The non-comm classical station in Austin, KMFA, has being \u201cgently educational\u201d in its mission statement, and I always liked that.) That is part of why we include non-kids’ music in the mix, because I think that’s one way to (gently!) teach about the broader world of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second<\/em>, it\u2019s that music being presented by people with a voice and a point of view.\u00a0\u00a0I know that if I turn on the radio during Mary Lucia\u2019s shifts on The <\/a>Current<\/a> that I will get some dry sarcasm but a lot of humanity; I know that Jeff McCord on KUTX<\/a> has a deeper knowledge of Texas music than anyone else; I know Monte on The River<\/a> is not just connected to but an integral part of the Pioneer Valley; and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think those factors both apply, or should apply, to music programming for kids. The music should be (I don’t like this term, but don’t know a better one) curated<\/em>, and it should be presented in an interesting way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe more importantly, I think those two factors should be overlaid with the critical fact (or at least my view) that kids deserve high quality music\u00a0that is made for them<\/em>\u00a0just the same way that they deserve high quality literature\u00a0that is written for them<\/em>. It doesn’t have to be exclusively music made for them (see: our show playlist), but the experiences kids go through are unique to them and their ages, and family music done right reflects and resonates with that in quite precisely the same way that kids\u2019 books can (should) do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of that together gives us an opportunity to show kids (and to remind adults) what it is that radio and music can be in their lives\u2014not just the music bed to a YouTube video or the background to a TikTok, but part of how they navigate life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n An aside, sort of: That all goes for live music, too. I am not exaggerating when I say that one of the best traditions I have with Ella since she started college is meeting her in Brooklyn the weekend after Thanksgiving to see The Hold Steady, and that Liam is super excited to start doing the same thing (you know, if live music ever starts). I\u2019m 100% confident that their love of live music, and their recognition of the centrality of live music to any city\u2019s ecosystem, comes from growing up going to shows I was booking or promoting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we started all of this, I wasn’t thinking about this in quite these terms, though I think it was always there subconsciously. I was thinking about how it would be fun to do a radio show and to hang out with my kids while doing so. But I was writing this up for another reason and thought I’d throw it out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway! Thanks for fifteen years. Here’s to another fifteen. We love you all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, we’re fifteen years into this radio thing, which maybe makes it so I have some ideas about radio for families that others might find interesting. But I’m going to start about music radio writ large. There are two things that I think make it so that music radio continues to be compelling, at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}