Written by Rusty Roberts
“Cassette tapes in blue Ford Ranger pick up truck”
My earliest memories of music are like a fever dream of different things. My dad playing cassette tapes in his blue Ford Ranger pick up truck. Seeing music videos on MTV for “Free Fallin'” by Tom Petty on a Saturday morning. Playing my Mom’s vinyl copy of ‘A Night At The Opera’ by Queen, which featured “Bohemian Rhapsody”. I was obsessed with that one because the infamous scene in the movie ‘Wayne’s World’. Getting my first subscription to Columbia House where I got 12 tapes for the price of 1 (plus shipping of course, thanks Dad!)
Music was most certainly my favorite hobby growing up. While I never learned to play any instrument, I was drawn to songs I heard on the radio or saw on MTV. While other kids on the playground were talking about some new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy, I wanted to talk to them about how I just discovered INXS and their 1987 masterpiece, ‘Kick’.
Growing up in the 90s, I was there for the grunge explosion and had older cousins who hipped me to certain things. The b-side of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ would play over and over on my Walkman. But, I also had an appreciation for Fleetwood Mac’s 1987 opus ‘Tango In The Night’. I didn’t stray too much from those lanes.
“I even once recorded my own radio show as a kid”
My cousin was in college and started to do college radio at Penn State, and I found that interesting. Plus I would listen to my local radio station and just thought it was cool to get paid to talk about and play music. I even once recorded my own radio show as a kid into my boombox. I pretended that the house we lived in was a radio station (our house number was 986, so 98.6FM haha). Fortunately I went to college and got involved in my college radio station immediately, eventually holding the titles of General Manager and Music Director at the same time.
Since graduating college in 2006, I’ve been in and out of the music industry as a promoter and now my current role as Senior Account Manager at Play MPE. I got back into radio in 2016 when I started to host my current radio show on a station outside of Washington DC called WERA. I’ve always been very fortunate to be involved with music.
“It’s like an art, it’s like making a mixtape”
WHUP is a low power FM station located in downtown Hillsborough, North Carolina. It’s not too far from Chapel Hill and Durham. My show, “This Is Not A Show”, is a weekly new music program dedicated to playing the best new songs out there.
Although I only do my show once a week, it’s something I chip away at every day. I try to listen to as much new music as possible, consuming it while I work. If I want to discover new artists I check out blogs like Stereogum. Radio promoters and folks will send things directly to my inbox – and then I grab the music files and metadata from Player. I scope out Reddit. Get recommendations from friends.
I get two hours every week on the air, so I try to pack it full of my favorite new songs from the week. It’s like an art, it’s like making a mixtape for everyone to listen to each week. I try to make it flow and have a certain feel to it. I don’t get too much into the weeds with that, but I definitely put it together in a way that each episode has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
“Something new, something fresh, something exciting.”
I think radio plays a very important role as a tool for new music discovery. It’s also a means of communication for people to find out what is going on in their communities. Especially smaller stations like WHUP. By listening to a local station you can really know what is happening where you live and not just on a national scale.
Radio is such an effective and important way to get your music out to people, to get ears around it. From the people that work there who love music and are obsessed with it, to its listeners. It is a great way to discover new music. People who listen to radio are there because they want to find new things. They don’t just wanna hear another song by Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter. They want something fresh, something exciting. It’s a medium that continues to thrive despite times of hardship.
“A human being that wants to expose new music”
Radio folk are so dedicated because they want to help to their audience to new music. People, young and old, still listen to radio even when they could just fire up their computer or phone and stream something instantly. People are still willing to take a chance and listen for what a live human being wants them to hear. It’s curation at its core.
I have been involved in the music business professionally on and off for two decades, working for multiple radio promotion companies. I have been the host of This Is Not A Show since 2016, and a new music radio program that airs weekly on 104.7fm WHUP in HIllsborough, NC. You can stream it online at whupfm.org.
Get at Rusty’s latest song recos
BRNDA – “Books Are Bad”
Dust – “Just Like Ice”
Florry – “First It Was A Movie, Then It Was A Book”
Ron Gallo – “Feel-It-All Phase”
True Optimist – “Make Money All Day”
Get your music directly to radio folk like Rusty
Learn more about Play MPE’s DIY music promo tool Caster, and how to get your music to radio DJs/Hosts like Rusty and more!
Want to know about radio formats open to emerging indie artists? Check out our blog Cutting Through the Static and Finding Your Formats.