The Transmission

A few stations have recently been playing Signals and Noises, so I wanted to give a shout-out to WCFM, WMBR, KWCW, and WFMU for giving the record some airtime as of late.

For an independent artist, that kind of thing means a lot. It also makes me think of what made John Peel's shows so important in years past. You could turn on the radio and hear a punk single, some obscure post-punk band, an experimental record, or something you'd never heard of before. That sense of bespoke curation can lead to great discovery.  

Interestingly, it seems like that idea isn't as dead as you might think. Emily White's piece, "Gen Z's College Radio Revival" looks at the renewed interest in college radio among younger people. She talks to student DJs who are drawn to the format partly because it offers something that algorithm-driven music discovery doesn't: human curation, community, and the ability to actually dig around and find something weird.

There's a big difference between being served another song because an algorithm decided it sounds like something you've already listened to and having a DJ play something because they genuinely like it enough to share it in that moment with listeners.

It's especially nice for independent records, where you're usually competing with an endless stream of everything else happening online. Sometimes it's nice to know that the record made it into someone's hands and eventually onto someone's turntable.

So thanks to WCFM, WMBR, KWCW, and WFMU for playing Signals and Noises. I'm glad and grateful it found its way onto your airwaves.