Great Lakes, I Don't Need No Great Escape -or- Radio Radio

Growing up on the north side of Chicago meant that my radio stations of choice for anything remotely interesting or challenging were either WNUR (Northwestern University), WZRD ("the Wizard," NEIU) or the commercial radio choice, WXRT. I didn't really start listening to these stations until I was in seventh grade and even then I was pretty selective of what and when I'd listen to. My main station of choice was WVVX, which in the mid 80's called RPM 103.1, Real Precious Metal. It was contracted air time, so they'd play metal from around 7PM until 5AM. Rest of the time it was foreign language programming. This was my introduction to Bay Area Thrash, which would be my favorite kind of metal for at least a couple years (until I would discover Faith No More and Janes Addiction, who would doorway me into much different bands). Metallica and Exodus were regulars in my headphones and through Metallica, I got into Anthrax who would get me into skate thrash like DRI, Suicidal Tendencies and JFA. It was a natural progression that would eventually lead me to punk rock. I would stay up all night over the summer listening to metal legends and local heroes playing anthem after anthem. There was a specific show on this radio station in the early 90's called "One From the B Side," which focused on hard to find imported singles and bands from over seas that you couldn't find here. One of those bands was the Manic Street Preachers. This was my first taste of the Manics and I would spend countless hours searching for their records in the used bins.
Flash forward to the mid 90's, specifically the summer of 1995. I had just finished my second year of college and I was staying up late ever Thursday night to listen to this incredible radio show on WNUR called "Bar Codes." The two girls who hosted it were incredible DJ's who would play everything from locals like Oblivion and the Bollweevils to favorites like Sonic Youth. This right here was my inspiration to do college radio. Unfortunately, I was going to a college that didn't have a radio station and once I transferred to Columbia College Chicago, I learned that I'd have to do be a radio major to get a show and even then I'd have to follow the strict dance music format of their station. Sometime around 1998, I was flipping around the college band of radio stations and decided to see what WLUW was playing those days. Back when I was in high school, WLUW was a house music station and later would be an "alternative" station. When I flipped over to 88.7, I heard the Wedding Present. I was curious as to why, what I thought was a horrible station was playing "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" by the Wedding Present. Then "Merchandise" by Fugazi. Then Little Red Car Wreck, then something else and then another amazing song. I was surprised that I'd discovered another cool station that wasn't quite as obtuse as WNUR. The DJ came on and said "This is Independent Community Radio, 88.7 FM, WLUW." I would later follow up on this and a year or so later walk into Shawn Campbell's office and say "I want to be a DJ." A couple weeks later, I was doing Tuesday mornings from 6am - 10am, getting my bearings, spinning "format" indie rock. Over the years I bounced around shift to shift until I landed on Friday mornings, taking over the last bastion of house music, "Wake Up Dancing." I asked Shawn if I could do a more "specialty" style show called "Wake Up Screaming." She thought it was a good idea and let me roll with it. My first broadcast starting with "Raining Blood" by Slayer. From that point on, I was hosting a highly listened to show that played the louder end of indie rock and exploring every corner of punk and hardcore. Nowhere else on the Chicago radio dial were you able to hear the Fucking Champs, Iron Maiden, Apocalypse Hoboken and Stickmen With Rayguns in the same set (at 7 AM to boot!) I started doing sound for Justin Schweir's show, Underground Communique around that same time, and a few years later, I'd take over that show, saying goodbye to Wake Up Screaming.
Doing radio is a lot of fun and especially when you're doing a show with one of your friends. I could try and say something pretentious about how we do radio for a greater good or some other bullshit, but I'd be lying. The reason I do radio is because I heard other people doing cool stuff and playing cool songs and I wanted to do that. I think the main focus of the radio show, or at least while I've been doing it, is to play songs and bands that I really like and I think other people should hear, which I think should be the goal of any DJ anywhere, no matter what side of the dial they're on. Unfortunately, in this day and age, the DJ on the right end of the dial is nothing more than a talking head who reads off what was just played. In many instances, it's not even that. Some radio stations only have DJ's to talk between songs to segway between music and commercials. A lot of people say that if you want to hear real radio you need to get hooked up to satellite radio, but I disagree. I don't think you should have to pay for the airwaves and I don't think what comes across on satellite radio is at all as vital or important as what goes on on community radio stations and college radio. When XM came out, a friend of mine got hooked up with it right away and the whole listening experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I could see why a trucker or anyone driving cross country would want XM or Sirius, but why anyone would want it on their stereo when they could access the same kind of programming on the left end of their dial, confounds me. I guess what I'm trying to say is, XM, Sirius or whatever is slowly destroying community radio in this country and in the long run, such large corporate entities are going to destroy the entire sense of community as a whole.
Currently in Chicago, the city is trying to copy cat San Francisco by preventing large chain stores from opening up in the Andersonville neighborhood. There's a great deal of small independently owned shops that bring a lot of young hip people to the neighborhood and the notion of stores like the Gap and Old Navy opening up shop next to smaller clothing stores would be tragic. I live near Andersonville and I truly enjoy walking through the neighborhood, because of all the weird little stores and coffee shops and bars everywhere. It brings out a diverse crowd to the streets and it feels much more real than what is going on in Wicker Park, which is supposed to be the haven of all that is hip. I think the city of Chicago is making a good move by trying to give that neighborhood "Historic" status instead of just letting it become yet another location for people to visit an Urban Outfitters, the Gap and a Nike store. Is this all due to satellite radio? No, but it is part of the deconstruction of our country's sense of community. I know that in Rogers Park, one of the anchors of the community is WLUW and if that were to disappear, a lot of people would lose their voice to their people. Whether it's dorky indie rock kids talking to other dorky indie rock kids or one of the many Latino or other foreign language shows on the station.
Let's look at it this way. WLUW has a listenership of about 30,000 people. It's the most listened to volunteer driven radio station in the city. Imagine if those 30,000 people lost their connect to whatever community they're involved in. That would be tragic. What would be the alternative? WZRD would be a decent choice, seeing as it's also on the northside, but it's weak signal makes it difficult to get outside of a small radius. WNUR really doesn't focus on community, but instead focuses on... I'm not sure what their focus is. Whenever I turn on WNUR these days, they're either playing something abstract or an awkward DJ is shuffling papers around trying to read their own writing. That's not a slam. That's honestly my experience with that station. That's the reason I stopped listening to WNUR back in the late 90's. Some people like this kind of radio and that's fine. They're welcome to listen to it. For me, it doesn't work, but that's just my opinion.
I guess in closing, before you go out and hook up to satellite radio, you might want to give the left end of the dial a try first, because at least you have a direct connect to those people.

----

I recently pulled DRI's Dirty Rotten Album off the shelf and gave it a spin. I haven't listened to it since about 2003 when Beer City Records re-released it. Jesus Christ, this record is insane. There's TWENTY TWO tracks on the actual album (keep in mind this was originally released on LP), plus TWENTY TWO bonus tracks! You get your money's worth with this album. There's some classic DRI on this album, such as I Don't Need Society, Balance of Terror, My Fate to Hate, Closet Punk and one of my personal fav's, Capitalists Suck. Seriously amazing. My hats off to Beer City for re-releasing these gems.
While on the subject of Beer City, I was listening to that Urbn DK record they put out back in the 90's and was blown away by how amazing that band was. Probably one of the only "Keno-core" bands you really need to know from that era ("Keno-core" being bands from the greater Kenosha Wisconsin area). I totally forgot that there was a Beer City Skateboards sticker inside that LP, until it fell out of the sleeve and onto my lap. Good job guys, I approve.
Apparently, Touch and Go has issued a Fix discography, which is pretty sweet. The Fix, not to be confused with the Fixx, were an excellent Midwestern hardcore band that was in the same vein as the Necros and the Meatmen. I'm going to have to track that record down, or keep my fingers crossed that it turns up in my mailbox. It's really refreshing to see that there's some interest in Midwest hardcore again.