Some of you might
know that blogging is NOT my full-time job. About half of my
work time is spent consulting clients who create, produce, market and distribute nationally
syndicated programs that air on noncommercial radio stations. I have been doing
this very specialized work for almost 30 years.
I try to keep my
"money making" work separate from my journalism. I produce SPARK! as a commercial-free public service. However, this week one of my clients made news that I am
very, very pleased to report: American
Routes is debuting this weekend on WXPN, Philadelphia.
American Routes [link]
is a weekly two-hour public radio program produced at Tulane University in
New Orleans. Since it made its national debut in 1998, American Routes has become recognized as the “gold standard” public
radio program about American music. It features a broad range of music and
styles including blues and jazz, gospel, soul, old-time country and rockabilly,
Cajun and Zydeco, Tejano and Latin, and roots rock n roll.
NICK SPITZER |
My company – Ken
Mills Agency, LLC – has been associated with American Routes since July 2011 when the program moved from
American Public Media (APM) to PRX, who continues to distribute the show today. I work closely with founder, host and
executive producer Nick Spitzer. Today’s
post is about what the new association with WXPN means to me and perhaps to
Nick.
WHAT HAPPENED IN
PHILADELPHIA?
For around 18 years
American Routes was heard on WHYY in
Philly. WHYY has been a terrific host. Recently WHYY continued its programming
evolution and became a full-time NPR News station. American Routes was one of the last remaining music programs on the
station. A couple of weeks ago they
cancelled it.
Triple A powerhouse
WXPN stepped forward to embrace American
Routes. It will now be heard exclusively in Philadelphia on 88.5 WXPN
Sunday afternoons fro 3pm to 5pm.
Everyone associated with the program is so pleased to be associated with
‘XPN. We deeply appreciate the kind
support we have received from Bruce Warren, Roger LaMay, Elise Brown, Kimberly Winnick
and David Dye.
There is more to
this story that just a change of stations. In some ways Nick Spitzer is
returning home and music tribe is finally back together.
MEET NICK SPITZER, A TRUE WIZARD
OF RADIO
NICK SPITZER, FUTURE WIZARD |
Nick Spitzer, now
just past 60 years old, started out as “Nicky.” He grew up in New York City and
rural rustic Old Lyme, Connecticut. His
early interests were rock radio and learning how people express themselves
musically.
After graduating
from Old Lyme High he started college at the University of Pennsylvania,
specializing anthropology. His passion became progressive rock radio, which was
flourishing at the time. At Penn he began doing volunteer air shifts at
then-student station WXPN. He was really
good at it!
At WXPN Nick combined
his love of African American a cappella doo-wop music and avant-garde jazz
with his anthropology studies. In many ways he was a pioneer bringing music of
the street into serious scholarship.
Philadelphia in the
early 1970s was a nationally recognized hotbed of “underground” progressive
rock radio. Nick began working at
WMMR-FM, part of Metromedia, who also owned legendary stations WNEW in New York,
KMET in LA, KSAN in San Francisco and WMET in Chicago. Nick was really good and
WMMR soon offered him a full-time hosting gig.
DAVID DYE AT WMMR |
At WMMR he worked
with David Dye, Carole Miller, the late Ed Sciaky and Michael Tearson. At that time, commercial underground stations
like WMMR not only allowed, they encouraged experimentation with many genres of
music.
How eclectic was
WMMR? Here is a small sample of what
Nick played on WMMR Monday, December 18, 1972:
The Kinks - Top of the Pops
Randy Newman - Lonely at the Top
Bessie Smith - I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave
Randy Newman - Lonely at the Top
Bessie Smith - I'd Rather Be Dead and Buried in My Grave
String Driven Thing
- Circus
The Beatles - Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
The Beatles - Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite
A set that cool can
only be found on American Routes
today.
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
By the later 1970s,
corporate commercial radio was becoming more mass-audience oriented. WXPN began
hiring a professional staff, displacing students. This didn’t please Nick and
he let people know how he felt. This led
to a falling out with other folks in WMMR/WXPN “radio tribe.”
Nick decided to
focus on his studies. He moved to Austin
and worked at alt-country KOKE while completing his Masters and PhD at UT in
anthropology and folklore. During the next decade he dabbled in media as a
commentator and producer for NPR’s All
Things Considered and Fresh Air, ABC’s
Nightline and World News Tonight.
Spitzer directed
the documentary film Zydeco: Creole Music
and Culture in Rural Louisiana in 1986, one of more than a dozen films he
producer or contributed to.
But something deep
inside kept haunting him. What about
creating a remarkable program for the emerging public radio system?
AMERICAN
ROUTES RISING
By the mid 1990s
Nick was living, teaching and writing in New Orleans. In 1997 he fleshed-out
the concept that became American Routes while doing volunteer shifts at WWOZ.
He collaborated with noted ATC producer
Mary Beth Kirchner to create American Routes.
The Corporation for
Public Broadcasting (CPB) agreed to fund the new series. Public Radio
International (PRI) agreed to distribute American Routes. When the show debuted
in 1998, it was already considered a major success, airing in almost every
major market in the nation.
Now Nick’s voice
and program is returning home to WXPN where the “radio tribe” is ready to greet
him.
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