Local Current: Thumbs Down

Backstory: For the past six months, I’ve been quietly working on a web-only radio station for MPLSSTPL—the local music and arts site I launched in 2008. That plan is now on the backburner, due to the launch of The Current’s “Local Current.”

While I’m glad the Current has chosen to start up a local music-only stream, a look through the playlists since its recent launch is pretty disheartening. I noticed only a handful of songs by artists I really love. And it may only just be getting started, but the whole thing seems at best a slightly wider cast of their local selection, and at worst an excuse to further pull back on—or even scuttle—niche programming on their FM signal (à la Radio Heartland).

Hopefully, “Local Current” brings more local programming to the dial, rather than having the opposite effect—that of draining local programming away to their WebZone, so their DJs can gush about Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons, or whatever else I’m not listening to.

As a fan of local music—I listen to very little else—my main problem with the Current (and to a slightly lesser degree Radio K) is that their local selection—though boasted over and over and over again—is really, really, quite measly.

I’ll admit my tastes aren’t the most “radio-friendly,” but I rarely—if ever—hear the local tunes I’d like on the Current. To me, it serves more as a reward for an established act’s perceived success than it does as a tool for helping build an artistic community.

To be clear: I would far prefer the latter.

This is not to say I entirely dislike the Current. I do listen from time to time (mostly David Campbell), and appreciate their sponsorship of local artists’ shows every now and then. However, I won’t contribute at pledge time because it just isn’t for me, mainly due to aforementioned wimpy local selection (and six years’ unwillingness to play my requests).

It’s an experiment I’m whole-heartedly in favor of—and one that seems to be working for a lot of people—but it misses the mark for me, and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that they could do better.