KCUR…please promote Kansas City Music with NPR

We all have personal tastes in music. I usually stop by NPR Music and “Insound” once a week to see what’s new. Insound.com curates my musical head. I like NPR’s 24-hour radio player to stream. My favorite classical station is WQXR in New York...they have a cool station called Q2 which features contemporary compositions. We all have our favorites...

KCUR 89.3 has a few local music shows: Chuck Haddix's Fish Fry, Bill Shapiro’s Cyprus Avenue and 12th Street Jump. But this is music for "musical retirees"; those happy with the old familiar sounds in their intellectual music catalogue. It’s fine. It’s just doesn’t draw me.

What really inspires me is our fresh local artists. We have so many great people creating musical history in this Kansas City area of ours every single day. What I see is an opportunity to spread a bit of our sounds around the country and the world via the NPR network. NPR purveys music well and KCUR has a chance to add to the delicious stew.

I thought about posting this at the Kansas City Star because they have an affiliation with KCUR via folks like Steve Kraske. In fact, The Kansas City Star could start to add a bit of functionality to their website with a music “venue”. Something for them to think about. I’ll hold off on posting something at MidWest voices.

KCUR, like KKFI (a great local public station), needs subscribers. KKFI is a decentralized model station without a station manager steering the ship…and that’s cool. Their authentic, organic model works and I tune in often. But KCUR has that NPR network of strength and the established, enjoyable NPR Music buffet-like web presence.

Honestly, I wish Chuck and Bill would retire. They’re wonderful folks but they’re out of touch with the street, and not interested in local music. I think they could collaborate and just have one show “A fish fry beneath a cyprus tree”.

If you subscribe to KCUR, give this some thought. It’s public radio, after all. My personal take is that KCUR is in a lovely position to champion the emerging sounds of Kansas City, and with their network affiliation spread our sounds out beyond the Prairie…sounds in all flavors and genres, amazing artists whose art deserves sharing.

By the way, NPR's Tiny Desk Concert format, hosted by Bob Boilen is wonderful, and do-able, something KKFI does often... :-)