RADIO ON THE TV
Hot on the heels of the Mighty Soul Deacons scoring a spot as the musical drop for the Guv's holiday anti-DWI commercials with their song "Christmas in Jail," three local bands also have found themselves in the governmental commercial spotlight. The New Mexico Lottery has a series of commercials planned for times when the Powerball
Jackpot reaches above $60 million, and the series
features jingles by Latin
rockers
Sol Fire, lounge wizards Vanilla Pop
and pop-punkers the Hollis Wake. Yes, fans, the latter has moved to Albuquerque and forgotten their long-lost fans here in the City Different as they are showered with fame and fortune, but we still consider them native sons and daughters, no?
KWRP IN SANTA FE
It's funny how change flips northern New Mexicans out. Local reaction to the recent transfer of Pecos-based radio station KWRP 101.5 from family-owned hands to the hands of a local company, headed up by Santa Fean Ellie Garrett, has ranged from concern to irritation to downright anger, with a smattering of, "hey, that's kinda cool" thrown in.
For years, the station's following praised its local ownership (it was formerly owned by husband and wife Steve Bumpous and Kathleen Brandon) and roots/Americana musical leanings. Since Garrett has taken over, the playlist has expanded, one minute the White Stripes, the next minute a Frogville band, with few commercials and no DJs.
It seems like such a freaky challenge hereabouts to try and, I dunno,
do
something, that I do not envy Garrett in the least. That is, Santa Fe, it's quite possible we are the knee-jerkiest city in the world. Ownership changes of any kind, from our favorite cafés to our favorite radio stations, create a ripple effect of bitching, a tsunami of naysaying, before projects ever even get off the ground. We all automatically assume the new owners have no other agenda except to upset our community and change everything, to surreptitiously plant some sort of secret George W Bush chip in the base of every Santa Fean's brain, to engage in nefarious actions like wiping the city clean of adobe and tradition, replacing it with Clear Channel-sized corporate shenanigans and Olive Gardens downtown.
Granted, we've been screwed before but, at least when it comes to this particular situation, Garrett seems to actually care about the local and economic effects of the new station, and in fact those effects are at the center of her business philosophies. When I spoke with Garrett about her revamping of KWRP, she came across as almost painfully sincere and thoughtful about the concepts of small business, sustainability and the importance of local media in a paradigm increasingly dominated by giant corporations.
Invariably, when you talk about local radio stations, the Clear Channel company comes up. When CC took over KBAC in 2000 it pissed people off, and understandably so. A once beloved local station now owned by what is perhaps Santa Fe's least favorite corporation? I'm surprised a witchhunt never ensued, culminating with mock trials of KBAC personnel and public stonings.
In fact, Garrett began her life in radio at KBAC, a bit on a whim, after working closely with the station-and others-as part of her involvement with the 2004 political campaigns. "I figured it'd be fun and something new," she says of the career switch, "but mostly I really liked the idea of fighting from within an organization." Indeed, Garrett is more politically oriented than particularly media-oriented. Her politics-and her ideas about manifesting politics in local business-are right in line with most of Santa Fe, only she's more articulate about the subject than most of our general population. Garrett was inspired, she says, by a friend in Europe who is involved in a cooperative that encompasses local media and "a bunch of different fields that are really complementary and work really well together." She decided to try something similar here, to "start promoting the financial viability of independent media."
And that's the kicker, folks. The pie-in-sky fantasies many people have about sustainability, local business and socially responsibility are laudable, but often amount to nothing but hot air and ill-fated, poorly thought-out business plans. It's a sad case of idealism subverting execution.
Garrett has a grasp on those potential failures. This go-around, however, fate happened to get in the way of her measured pace. "The original plan was to spend some time developing business plans and financing and such to make a push to help not just Santa Fe but other communities redirect their media back to local," Garrett says. But 101.5 became available rather suddenly, so Garrett decided to grab it and go.
Oh sure, there have been some hiccups: There was little forewarning of the switchover. The playlist has taken a while to gel. And it's weird to have a local station without actual live DJs. But the programming has slowly streamlined and smoothed out (Garrett also is on an extensive search for local bands to play), and plans to incorporate DJs are in the works.
Garrett is either sincere and smart, committed to core ideals of locally owned media, or else she's the best liar in the world. If the latter is the case, well, we've been had on a grand scale. If not, people, can we give this experiment a few months to shake out before passing judgement? I know we're all in tune with our collective community trauma, but let's try to sit down, order ourselves a big decaf soy chai, and accept transitions as they come.
