Internet radio comes through all across the universe

Andy Turner, January 2007

When his radio show started nearly a decade ago, Rick Cornell gave "Border Radio" on Duke University's WXDU the subtitle "Drive Time for Truckers" because of its less than desirable time slot of 5 to 7 Friday mornings.

"Figured that truckers might be the only folks up and listening at that hour," Cornell says.

He's since moved to a better time slot, 8 to 10 Saturday nights (EST), but WXDU also helped to expand the station's and Cornell's audience a few years later by broadcasting online at wxdu.duke.edu.

Anyone from Bangor to Budapest can now join Durham-area truck driving men and women and others in listening to "Border Radio." Cornell's not sure how many people actually do listen from far away places - he estimates getting 50 to 200 total listeners a show - but he says it has at least planted the "illusion of a larger audience" in his mind.

"Border Radio" is one of many quality local radio shows that can be listened to anywhere in the world these days thanks to the internet. In fact, until new medical breakthroughs make it so listeners can have multiple pairs of ears attached their heads, their choices will be overwhelming.

Largely found on public and college radio stations, the shows boast knowledgeable and passionate hosts, talented regional artists that out-of-area listeners are likely unaware of and frequent live performances.

Country rock, alt.-country, rockabilly, bluegrass, Cajun, western swing, honky tonk, hillbilly and basically any other form of twang that exists are all well represented on these shows.

All it takes to listen is an internet connection - preferably broadband so listeners don't go nuts from frequent signal interruptions. Shows can be played on a variety of computer audio programs including RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, iTunes and Winamp. Some stations conveniently archive these shows to listen to anytime. Technical problems/interruptions can arise, but most stations provide some help on their sites.

Besides, how much can you really complain? You're listening for free.

Cornell, also a freelance music writer, says being online has not affected technical aspects or the music he chooses for his show.

"I still plan the show at home ahead of time, put the 30 to 35 discs for the show in a shoebox, show up at the station at 7:55, and enjoy 2 hours of music of my choosing - and 2 beers, also of my choosing," he says.

From 8 to 9 p.m. on "Border Radio," Cornell plays a large mix of national roots artists such as Rosanne Cash, Peter Case and The Silos along with local/North Carolina artists including Kenny Roby, David Childers and the Modern Don Juans and Tres Chicas. During the second hour, Cornell hosts "Soul City, NC," focusing on '60s and '70s soul music.

Other shows of a roots or country slant on WXDU include the "Bull City Cosmic Hoedown" (6-8 p.m. Tuesdays) and "A Broken Heart and a Glass of Beer" (8-10 a.m. Sundays).

Doug Gesler has hosted "Lost Highway" on MIT's WMBR (wmbr.mit.edu) since 1998. He says he expanded the focus of the show when it moved from Thursday to Saturday mornings (8 to 10 a.m. EST), where it competes against what Gesler calls the "mothership of local country radio," "Hillbilly at Harvard" (WHRB, whrb.org).

"With that in mind, I began to let the show evolve and expand into areas that I knew they didn't cover as much or at all, like Cajun, zydeco, Tex-Mex - with an accent on the Mex - blues, polka and Hawaiian," Gesler says. "I've always covered the entire history of the music I consider American roots, though exclusive of jazz, from the '20s on up, though that usually happens in the first hour, with the second hour of the show concentrating on newer releases."

Gesler makes the show as international as possible, playing artists from England, the Netherlands, Germany and Mexico. He does an all-Hawaiian show once a year and a set of Hawaiian music in the first hour of the first Saturday each month.

While he doesn't have a lot of time for online exploration, Gesler, a woodworker, loves the idea of radio on the web. He compares it to the "Wizard of Oz."

"For anybody who loves to explore music, discovering online offerings would be like that moment in Oz when Dorothy opens the door of her house after it's crash landed, and everything goes from black and white to color," he says. "While commercial radio gets increasingly shunted into smaller boxes of seemingly smaller preordained playlists, the new listening frontiers are in satellite radio and online. But the most freedom is afforded online."

WMBR has several other roots-oriented shows including two that follow "Lost Highway" on Saturdays: "Backwoods" (10 a.m.-noon) and "American Primitive" (noon-2 p.m.).

Jon Ziegler is the man behind "Jonny Z's Chicken Shack" Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon (CST) on the Milwaukee School of Engineering's WMSE (wmse.org). His show can be streamed or downloaded.

Ziegler, who also serves as lead singer of the R&B/rockabilly band the Uptown Savages, says he hears from listeners from all over.

"I have a couple in the Pacific Northwest, Chicago, Arizona as well as overseas listeners in Ireland and Australia," he says. "There may be more, but those are some of the places that I've been contacted from. I give out my email address regularly, and I am often surprised by old friends reconnecting, and once in a while I even get emails from artists that I play thanking me for airplay."

A recent "Chicken Shack" playlist saw Ziegler spinning everything from Ronnie Dawson, Hank Williams Sr. and Patty Loveless to R&B and blues greats such as King Coleman, Gino Washington and Lightnin' Hopkins.

Ziegler sees online radio as a blessing to cubicle dwellers and those who want to check out what's going on in other cities.

The "Roots Rockabilly Roadhouse" (Tuesdays, 1-5 p.m. eastern) on Princeton University's WPRB (wprb.com) features Hotrod Scott and the Professor. The show also has its own website at rootsrockabilly.com

Featuring a highly eclectic blend of music, the "Roadhouse" has attracted listeners from such unexpected places as Cuba, according to the Professor.

Artists on a recent show included The Cramps, Carl Perkins, Ray Campi and Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant as well as non-country British veterans Roxy Music and Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. '

The Professor says as more people get high-speed internet access, even more diverse shows will show up online.

"The mainstream media does not represent the majority, especially in the country market," he says. "I think the majority is really a mixture of small niche or specialty markets, and what is called the majority is really the lowest common denominator and not really the most or largest number of people."

He hopes to use the internet even more to expand the show's audience as well as promote the various music and car events he and Hotrod Scott coordinate.

"Technology is the tool," he says. "We should be the master. Often it becomes the other way around."

"Bashful" Bob Letson is the host of Memphis' WEVL's "Sho-Nuff Country" show Wednesdays 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (CST). Letson, who is in his early seventies, says he grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and what was called hillbilly music.

"At a very young age, I started playing guitar and singing these kind of songs," he says. "I mostly just listen to old country music. Selecting music for the show is simple, I just play what I like to hear. And any request that fits the show. Sometimes bands or record company's send me CDs, and if they are sho-nuff country and I like them, I will play it."

Letson lives in Blue Springs, Miss., near Tupelo, which is out of WEVL's range, so he has to listen online to hear it. Letson says he usually tapes his shows on digital tape and mails them to Memphis.

"Sho-Nuff Country" has attracted a wide range of fans, Letson says.

"(There are listeners) in Houston, Springville, Ala., New Orleans, South Carolina," he says. "I got an e-mail from a night nurse listening in Melbourne, Australia. An old couple who lived in Memphis moved to upstate New York, and they said bought a computer just so they could listen online. I have got e-mail and phone calls from people listening on radios in farm tractors, fishing boats, riverboats, many truck drivers and several prisoners at the federal prison."

"Many older people who cannot find this kind of music on local radio will listen online or wherever they can find it. Nashville does not apparently care about older people. I get phone calls and e-mail from many younger people saying, 'I remember Mom or Dad singing these songs,' so I know at least some younger people listen."

WEVL has numerous other shows of interest including "Back to the Country" (8-11 a.m. Tuesdays), "Hillbilly Jazz" (2-3 p.m. Wednesdays), the "Bluff City Barn Dance" (6-9 a.m. Saturdays) and "House Bayou" (4-6 p.m. Wednesdays).

St. Louis' KDHX (kdhx.org) offers some of the best roots programming available online. Even better, the station provides archives for the two most recent editions of its shows.

Highlights include "The Back Country" (8-10 a.m. Tuesdays), "Country Function, Bluegrass Junction" (10 a.m.-noon Tuesdays), "Fishin' with Dynamite" (noon-2 p.m. Thur-days), "Memphis to Manchester" (8-10 a.m. Thurs-days), the "Greaser's Lunchbox" (10 a.m.-noon Thursdays) and "Feel Like Going Home" (8-10 a.m. Wednesdays). All times are CST.

Jeff Corbin, who co-hosts "The Back Country" with Bluegrass Bob, thinks online music programming will only expand, but is hopeful that it won't lead to people-/DJ-less radio.

One of the best radio stations in the country period is East Orange, N.J.-based WFMU (wfmu.org), which in addition to a wide variety of interesting and terrific programming, offers years worth of show archives.

Musician Laura Cantrell's "Radio Thrift Shop" is currently off the air, but she does fill-in shows from time to time and archives of the show date back to 2000.

In early January, Cantrell hosted a show featuring Charlie Louvin and a tribute to the late Del Reeves. To be found in the archives are in-studio performances by Son Volt, Danny Barnes and Rodney Crowell and various special shows dedicated to the likes of Skeeter Davis, John Peel and Jimmy Martin.

A few year's worth of Meredith Ochs' "Trash, Twang and Thunder" are also archived on the site. Ochs, now on Sirius' Outlaw Country station, featured guests such as Greg Trooper, Kathleen Edwards, Kim Richey as well as Ersel Hickey and Pam Tillis.

WMBR's Gesler, the host of "Lost Highway," says he would love to have a desk-top radio wirelessly connected to his computer preset to all his favorite shows. "Not stations, but shows, from around the world," he says. "Now that'd be really sweet."

Other Internet stations worth checking out

Nashville's legendary WSM (wsmonline.com) is the home of Eddie Stubbs' great show Monday through Thursday from 7 p.m.-midnight (CST). His show along with the Friday Night Opry and Grand Ole Opry are archived on the site.

The terrific trio of "Swingin' Doors" (6-9 p.m. Thursdays), "Shake the Shack" (6-9 p.m. Fridays) and "The Roadhouse" (6-9 p.m. Wednesdays) are all on Seattle's KEXP (kexp.org). All times PST.

Five other radio stations with various worthwhile roots shows: WWOZ (wwoz.org,) KOOP (koop.org), WCOM (communityradio.coop), KRCB (krcb.org) and KUSP (kusp.org).

The Boudin Barndance, (6-9 pm. Thursdays, EST) on WRIS (wriu.org), hosted by Dan Ferguson celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2007.

Noted country scholar Bill Malone hosts "Back to the Country" Wednesday mornings 9 a.m.-noon (CST) on Madison, Wisc.'s WORT (wort-fm.org). Each show has a specific theme such as politics or religion or focuses on a particular artist.

Hosts Ron Thums and Jean Silverberg call "Radio Rumpus Room" (radiorumpusroom.com) a "musical mixmaster of surf, hot rod, '60s garage, hillbilly, rockabilly, psychedelia, back-to-the-roots country, primal pop and primitive rock 'n' roll." The show, which comes on Fridays from 9-10:30 p.m. (CST) on Minneapolis-St. Paul's KFAI (kfai.org.), is archived.

Thums and Silverberg are fond of themed-shows, some of which are archived on their website, including "Hot Burrito #1: Country Rock Before Uncle Tupelo," which featured songs from Steve Young, The Byrds, Jason & The Scorchers and others. KFAI is also home to Ken Hippler's "Good and Country" on Saturday afternoons from 1-3.

If you want go international: "Tombstone After Dark" (Tuesdays 7:30-9 p.m. MST) on CJSW (cjsw.com) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; "Roadrunner" (Tuesdays noon-1 p.m. EST) and "Passport" (Tuesdays 3-5 p.m. EST) on the University of Toronto's CIUT (ciut.fm); and "Bob Harris Country" (Thursdays 7-8 p.m. GMT, archives available) on BBC Radio 2 (bbc.co.uk/radio2).



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