Look Ma, I’m On The Radio
— WE INTERRUPT THIS REGULARLY SCHEDULED TRANSMISSION TO BRING YOU THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMMING —
See that title?! Yes, this guy, Mike Mills of Reduction in Force, with his song What’s Next? is going to be on 91X - TONIGHT @ 6pm pacific time- on the Planet nu nu show!!! This will be broadcast on the terrestrial airwaves in San Diego, California.
Fret not everyone who does not live in the San Diego area, it will also be broadcast over the internet everywhere live. 91X Streaming link in the comments.
Catches breath after running around the house freaking out. You ever have one of those 'oh sh!t' moments where days later you’re still wondering if you’re being punked (or if your wife loves you so much that she drained your bank account to pay to make your dreams happen)? I still haven’t let it soak in.
Being on the radio is just too cool for school. BUT, being on 91X is otherworldly. 91X flicked on its signal in 1983 - a year of glorious, glorious alternative and new wave music. I was there. Front row center.
I still remember going over to my neighbor’s house (his name was Brad - of course it was) and that’s when I first heard an ongoing parade of amazing new songs that I never saw coming. In this case, I still remember at least three songs I heard that day - Ghost Town by The Specials, Only A Lad by Oingo Boingo and All Roads Lead To Rome by The Stranglers. These songs were NOT being played anywhere as far as I was aware. The songs felt purpose built for my musical education. An indelible musical imprint layers deep.
Then there were the DJ’s: Robin Roth, Mike Halloran and Steve West. Particularly for me, Steve West was a gateway drug to all things hip, British and musically relevant. And the shows - Resurrection Sunday (going deep into the archive of alternative music), Reggae Makossa (San Diego loves its reggae) and the obligatory Mexican PSA’s - it goes along with the territory of broadcasting from lovely Tijuana, Mexico “EQUIS-EH-TEH-ERE-AH EFE-EME. . . Baja, California. . . Mexico.”
And later in life I became aware that these songs WERE in fact played elsewhere. A select elsewhere of tribe members with a shared passion for hearing the best first. Stations like KROQ in LA, WLIR in Long Island and WFNX in Boston. It’s been 40 years and I still have conversation after conversation about these stations.
It goes like this:
“What do you like listening to?”
“Well, I grew up listening to different music, alternative or maybe new wave.”
“Really, what bands?”
“Yeah, The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Echo . . . “
“Yup, where’d you grow up?”
“Growing up in [Insert a town or city with a ground breaking station] we had [amazing station x] growing up . . . .”
Bingo! The next half hour of your day is dedicated to talking about amazing music, the stations that brought it to you, and how singular that moment was and how you dearly miss that this type of music isn’t made anymore. NOTE: I am doing my best to change that.
My little slice of musical heaven will always be 91X.
And now, my anthemic alternative rock song, What’s Next?, will be transmitted from that wonderful tower across the border to my car radio (who has a radio receiver in the their house anymore?!).
Please join me for the ritual of tuning in to a station and anticipating your moment. The moment when your signal comes to life and seeks human ears - causing them to perk up just a little and then a head nod acknowledging - “Hey, that’s not bad at all. Who is that?”
The Gatekeepers - AI or Human?
Thank you for indulging me in that poetic waxing. But, this is more than just a self congratulatory ‘atta boy.’ This is about the music industry and lessons learned on the road to a full second act.
Before there were algorithmic gatekeepers there were human ones. And, if you weren’t “it”, you were toast. That meant no one would ever hear you outside of your tight circle of friends and those you met on the road. I don’t think pining for the old days is the right answer except in one aspect. People may not be perfect, but they are people. People have intuition and taste. Intuition and taste are a function of human discernment. A critical component completely absent in the modern algorithm. I’ll let ChatGPT tell you what separates it from the human gatekeepers. This was copied directly from a conversation I had with Chat while trying to find a boutique marketing firm that ‘gets’ what I am trying to do. Powerful stuff. NOTE: I’m still taking recommendations for firms.
CHATGPT:
I’m not yet optimized for:
• Filtering for taste
• Identifying unproven greatness
• Spotting hunger over polish
• Saying: “this person hasn’t broken out yet—but they will.”
What you’re asking me to do is pick the needle, not report on the haystack.
You’re asking me to act like someone who knows what it feels like when someone’s ready—but still underground. That takes gut, not just data.
The core misalignment:
You want what a brilliant A&R scout was in 1991.
I’m still trained like a music review aggregator from 2005.
—
You want the indie producer who hears a voice and says: “That’s the sound of the future.”
I’m the machine trying to guess what Spotify thinks is trending.
—
You want a partner with vision.
And I’ve been acting like a directory.
—
This interaction lit my synapses up like a Christmas tree. This is THE secret. This is our unique value prop. AI may get this eventually, but I can assure you it does NOT have it currently. Enter 91X and Hilary Doneux, the very human program director.
You ask, how the heck did I get on the air on 91X? Short answer - because I was human and so was Hilary. I started in February with a cold submission. My plan was to write, in a compelling fashion, and explain who I was, my deep history with San Diego and 91X, talk about my second act transformation and the LinkedIn experiment you are seeing unfold before you in real time. First act don’t fail me now!
I heard back the NEXT DAY. WTF?! No commitment, just a recognition of my intent and passion AND that she would give my song a listen. The dance went on for three months. I was resolved that I was not going away until they physically showed me the door. They were supportive enough to keep things just warm enough to keep the conversation going. Through this process they learned more about me and I met more team members. Twenty some odd emails later - and, out of the blue - bam. I mean BAM!
There it was in print - Mike, we’re gonna put your song on the air. I read it…freaked out just a little bit.. and then said thank you to my first act skills (garnered over 25+ years of toil) and for the fact there was a human on the other side of those emails. Wanna know what would have happened in the modern algorithmic gatekeeping world? Nothing. No acknowledgement, no attempt at faking that they heard my nuanced plea. Silence.
Once again, I know that this same response can/does happen with human gatekeepers but you know what NEVER happens with algorithmic gatekeepers - a personal interaction with feeling and nuance. AI does NOT take chances. Because, we (corporations) have programmed it as such.
So What? It's Just The Whole Ballgame.
Once again, it dawned on me. This isn’t just the secret. It’s the whole damn thing. Our differentiator is what makes us human - our nuance, our discernment, our gut, our personality. By offloading accountability for our personal interactions, we don’t just lose ourselves, we lose the nuance of connection itself.
If we spend most of our lives with ChatGPT, sites that use algorithmic intervention (AI curation; LinkedIn, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube . . . every other content site in the universe) in lieu of our own personal decisions and another part yelling at AI support chatbots, we lose the muscle that we’ve gained over all of these years to understand each other - the gut, the vibe, the nuance. Multiply this with an ever increasing user population and an ever more sophisticated AI implementation - it’s gonna get ugly FAST. I think the ultimate answer is somewhere in these thoughts.
AI is a tool not a replacement.
AI generated output should be labeled as such.
Humans should have the ability to override AI curation whenever and however they damn well choose.
Humans should be in the room for all important decisions.
AI is a tool and it should be treated as such. Still working the details but the lessons are coming hard and fast in this new world of mine. Curious to hear your learnings.
Throw me an algorithmic bone and put your thoughts in the chat - or DM me, cause I understand there’s a difference. See - I can still get human nuance.
