Commit to Support

I’ve been hosting a one-hour local music show here in Ventura since February this year on the new community access channel, so I’ve been listening to a lot of great recorded music lately, a lot of which never would have gotten any radio airplay and that’s a crying shame.

I know how hard it is to get one’s music on the air.  I use to be a radio program director in the 90s at the launch of alternative rock with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Collective Soul and tons of other great bands coming on the scene but they were backed up by large labels and “independent record promoters” which I consider the bane of radio.  These guys play hardball and get paid big bucks to get artists on radio station playlists. They are relentless. They were the only reason I was okay with leaving the profession. Everything else about radio was pretty freakin’ awesome.

But then the station I worked at didn’t follow the typical radio model.  We were not one of a chain of stations in a market, we weren’t owned by a huge broadcasting company.  In fact, we may have been one of the last “mom and pop” independent radio stations out there, and we rocked.  We rocked because we had a team of employees who loved to come to work, who would just hang out to be a part of it, who were a part of the community and they all had a voice on the direction of the station, and part of that direction was to include local bands…in regular rotation.  It wasn’t a once a week program late Sunday nights, we would rock bands like Raging Arb and the Redheads during the day during the week during “drive times”.

The point is, local music here in Ventura has been rocking for a long time. It’s all fine to try and figure out why we have such a dense population of artists, but who cares as long as we have an abundance of artists who thrive on creating music. Let’s just be thankful that they do. But more importantly than that, they deserve our support, our monetary support.

I’d like to invite you to support our music scene by committing to buying at least one CD a month from local artists. You can find them at one of our local music stores, or go to their websites for information on how to purchase a download, or attend one of the many CD release parties you hear about all the time.  How expensive would that be?  $10-$20 a month?  And don’t be a cheapskate, buy the whole CD.

Trust me when I say, it really will make a difference, just ask any artist who has invested their money, blood, sweat and tears to produce their work.

In this day and age when a certain sector of society (not you, right?) thinks music is all free, and they listen to Spotify and artists get paid for pennies for thousands of spins…Come on.  It really is the least we can do.

Oh!  and listen to my show!!!  KPPQ-LP Ventura, 104.1 FM Tuesdays 5-6 pm. It’s The Pam Baumgardner Mostly Local Music Show.  It’s the easiest way to hear what you want to buy next!

You can always just shoot me an email and I’ll make a recommendation as well.  Pam@VenturaRocks.com

You know I love you, so get to work!

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