FREE JAMES BROWN!

Passion for music is the key to a successful and tasteful change to the music policy. DJs at RUV have a knowledge of music that the average listener does not. Changing the policy will not turn the station into a purveyor of top forty or soulless soul. No one on the staff has any desire to play Britney Spears or mindless music created solely for commercial consumption.

Artists such as Miles Davis, Sly Stone, Otis Redding, and others too countless to name, have left us a wonderful legacy of a vast musical library. There are thousands of recordings to choose from which the average listener has never heard of before. Many are out-of-print and would never be heard if not on independent stations. Playing these obscure tracks will not threaten the integrity or mission of WRUV and would only improve our programming, allowing us to bring a more historical, educational context to the listener.

The music of James Brown is probably the best example I can think of. A truly prolific genius, he has hundreds of fantastic songs that only his most ardent fans are aware of. There have been moments on my show where playing one of these songs would have been completely appropriate to the general vibe of my show. I have no desire to play “I Feel Good” or “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” because these can be heard on other stations and the average listener has had them burned into his or her brain. I would, however, like to play “Down and Out in New York City,” a never-heard, hard-to-find movie theme song. There are no radio stations in our area and few in the U.S. that would play this song.

Here’s my proposal: Any song currently in the Billboard Top 100 should not be played on the station. The current policy reads that we play only “programming that cannot be heard on other stations.” To me, programming means specific songs, not bands, as the policy is currently interpreted. Popular songs by more well-known artists should not be played, but obscure tracks should be allowed. Some songs which at one point may have cracked the Top 40 but which never became part of our popular culture and have faded into obscurity should be freed as well. By doing this and putting more trust in our DJs, passionate music fans that we are, WRUV will improve its programming.

In order to insure that WRUV would not even have the slightest chance to start sounding in any way commercial, DJs would be permitted to play 25% new music, 55% regular programming, and 20% of songs that fit in the “Free James Brown” category (any artist who falls under the current banned list). This would limit the number of songs by “popular” artists to between one and three songs per show, tops. The current music policy would be in effect for other 80% of music. This will still allow WRUV to, as our current policy states, “offer responsible and unique programming to the area (that) exposes its listening audience to many different types of music.”

We all recognize excellence in music—and the difference between music made for commercial sake and truly inspired music which has happened to become popular—and if we allow only the name of an artist to decide what we play, we are forgetting the basic principle that brought us to WRUV in the first place: to play the music that we love and want to share.