Alleluia, The Great Storm Is Over! Or maybe more correctly, partly over.
GREAT NEWS! Former folk radio station (now AAA format playing "WUMB music mix") has partially rescinded its insane calendar artist exclusion policy. First reported yesterday in
NEFolknRoots, this has been at least 21 months in coming.
Station management's shameful and disrespectful treatment of artists, promotors, venues and patrons was first reported in this blog last December in a piece titled "
Chopped Liver"(see certificate awarded to the station 12/07 for their treatment of
multi-award winner Pat Wictor). WUMB is unique in the radio world in that it keeps two seperate events calendars, one for artists who are playlisted Monday through Friday daytime ("WUMB Music Mix" (formerly "folk") calendar), all others being relegated to the "community" calendar. Only the "music mix" calendar events are read on air. That results in another embarrassment. Quite often one hears "There is nothing on the calendar". Interpretation "there is nothing we deem worthy on the "Music Mix" calendar, but there may be events on the "community calendar" we're not going to read because they are unworthy." Granted, part of the problem is many venues are fed up with the way WUMB has censored their listings and just don't submit. Case in point,
Ollabelle, an excellent roots band from the Hudson River Valley, who performed at the
Boston Folk Festival three or so years ago, was at the
Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center, a.k.a. "Club Passim", but that afternoon's announcement was "There is nothing on the calendar...".
Indeed.
The Boston area needs a comprehensive, all-inclusive, unbiased, uncensored, category-filterable folk events calendar or aggregator that venues will want to populate and patrons will want to use, but that is for another discussion and I digress.
That the station judges listing "worthiness" is unfair enough, but what really stinks is when there is a co-feature or feature and opening act, where one artist is playlisted and the other not. Such concerts, submitted as "A and B" would get edited (in the past) to "A and more" (no joke), and to add insult to injury, they were read on air as they appeared in the calendar"A and more". That has affected artists at several concerts I have produced (see certificate at top). That policy was quietly changed a few weeks ago. Apparently being embarrassed by having been called out for reading "and more", they now completely ignore the non-playlisted artists' existence, dropping the him or her into oblivion.
What sense does that make? None!
Who does that serve? Nobody!
On a positive personal note, I am pleased to have received private congratulations for keeping the issue alive from two well known folk artists who I hold in the highest regard.
I know that you've been working hard on this, Jeff. I think you've done the station a service.
and
Congratulations on the WUMB "victory". I know how hard you worked on that and WE ALL benefit. Thank you for your hard work and energy to help WUMB do the right thing when it comes to their calendar.
To date there has been no public announcement of the policy change by the station, if and when that occurs it will be appended here. I am not expecting one, that is their PR history. Remember the demise of the Boston Folk Festival was not announced, we learned that through a gossip column. Read
"Wahlberg and gang take over oyster house"
The original NEFolknRoots posting:
A very quick reply to email sent at same time as the last posting:
Hey Jeff,
They just changed the policy last week to include any artist we've ever played into the on air section of the concert listings. I'll make the changes today.
Thanks!
Jay Moberg
(note the subject line is "Has Bob Franke been removed from the WUMB playlist) because that was the original problem, which devolved into the calendar move / Martin's purge).
This "battle" with WUMB has been going on for 21 months. How am I feeling? I'll leave that to the lyric master, Bob Franke.
Alleluia, The Great Storm Is Over
Words & Music by Bob Franke
Recorded on "One Evening In Chicago" (Flying Fish FF90435, originally on Great Divide, GDSR 1766, 1982)
Bob Franke: guitar and vocal
The thunder and lightning gave voice to the night;
the little lame child cried aloud in her fright. .
"Hush, little baby, a story I'll tell,
of a love that has vanquished the powers of hell.
Alleluia, the great storm is over, lift up your wings and fly!
Alleluia, the great storm is over, lift up your wings and fly!
"Sweetness in the air, and justice on the wind,
laughter in the house where the mourners had been.
The deaf shall have music, the blind have new eyes,
the standards of death taken down by surprise.
Alleluia, the great storm is over, lift up your wings and fly!
Alleluia, the great storm is over, lift up your wings and fly!
"Release for the captives, an end to the wars,
new streams in the desert, new hope for the poor.
The little lame children will dance as they sing,
and play with the bears and the lions in spring.
Alleluia, the great storm is over, lift up your wings and fly!
Alleluia, the great storm is over, lift up your wings and fly!
"Hush little baby, let go of your fear:
the Lord loves his own, and your mother is here."
The child fell asleep as the lantern did burn.
The mother sang on 'till her Bridegroom's return.
©1982 Telephone Pole Music Publishing Co(BMI)
Lifting the restriction of artists played in the past and on their remaining weekend folk, old-timey, world and Celtic programs increases the pool of artists who will be listed on the prime calendar. For example,
Hanneke Cassel performed at the 2/28 Notlob concert, but the listing relegated to the community calendar. Had this policy been in place prior to 2/28, her concert, because she is regularly played on WUMB's Saturday Celtic program, would have been on the "WUMB Music Mix" calendar and it would have been announced on air Friday afternoon. This would have benefited the artist, the series and the community.
Although the partial censorship lifting is a step in the right direction, it is not the change members of the Boston-area folk community ultimately desire (unrestricted* concert and event listing). Note that by making a caveat, "... any artist we've ever played..." WUMB is still judging who is listing worthy. New artists not in their "mix" are subject to arbitrary censorhship and will continue to receive second class citizen treatment.
Incremental progress is good, some artists will benefit. But lifting the restriction completely is desired.
But wouldn't it be simpler to go with just one calendar with user genre filters, and list everybody as submitted?
----------
* I spoke with a staff member at WGBH about their calendar listing policy. WGBH cannot censor calendar event submissions based on their play list because they have no playlist, their folk programs are produced by the hosts). Rather, WGBH has a "within reason" policy, meaning within the music genre. They would only disallow a listing if the submission were totally outside the event category. The example they used was "a baseball game to be played on the beach".
========================
3/6 UPDATE
Two concrete examples of how WUMB's revised policy discriminates against rising / non-playlisted artists.
Avi & Celia and
Chris Puhard join a very distinctive list of musicians who have been dissed by WUMB.
Below, copied and pasted from WUMB's "
music mix" and "
community" calendar listings for their Me and Thee and UnCommon Coffeehouse gigs tonight (italics mine):
WUMB Music Calendar
listings for March 6-March 20
Friday March 6
Christine Lavin
Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University
Waltham, MA
8:00 pm
781-736-3331
http://www.brandeis.edu/arts/concerts/marquee.html
Eddie from Ohio
The Center For Arts In Natick (TCAN)
Natick MA
8:00 pm
508-647-0097
http://www.natickarts.org
Jumpin' Juba
Pasta Loft
E. Hempstead, NH
8:30 pm
603-378-0092
http://www.pastaloft.com
Ollabelle
Narrows Center For The Arts
Fall River MA
8:00 pm
508-324-1926
http://www.ncfta.org/music.php
Red Molly
Me and Thee Coffeehouse
Marblehead MA
8:00 pm
781-631-8987
http://www.meandthee.org
Here is the "community" calendar listing for the same day:
Friday March 6
Carlene Carter
Firehouse Coffeehouse
Littleton MA
8:00 pm
978-742-9957
http://www.fculittle.org/workspace/coffee.html
Christine Lavin
Slosberg Music Center, Brandeis University
Waltham, MA
8:00 pm
781-736-3331
http://www.brandeis.edu/arts/concerts/marquee.html
Eddie from Ohio
The Center For Arts In Natick (TCAN)
Natick MA
8:00 pm
508-647-0097
http://www.natickarts.org
Glenn Pettit
Perks Coffeehouse
Norwood, Ma.
8:00 pm
781-762-5565
http://www.myspace.com/raymondbrady
Irish Set Dance with Broad Street Ceili Band
The Blackstone River Theater
Cumberland, RI
8:00 pm
401-725-9272
http://www.riverfolk.org
Jumpin' Juba
Pasta Loft
E. Hempstead, NH
8:30 pm
603-378-0092
http://www.pastaloft.com
Ollabelle
Narrows Center For The Arts
Fall River MA
8:00 pm
508-324-1926
http://www.ncfta.org/music.php
Red Molly
Additional Performers: Avi & Celia
Me and Thee Coffeehouse
Marblehead MA
8:00 pm
781-631-8987
http://www.meandthee.org
The Atomica Project
PA's Lounge
Somerville, MA
8:30 pm
617-776-1557
http://paslounge.com
Avi &Celia and Chris have been double-dissed! WUMB announcers read the "music mix" calendar on air, meaning not only were they dissed by being deleted from the web listing, they were dissed by their names not being read in the on air listing.
Progress (lifting the censorship of any artists played on WUMB) is good, but please spread word of this insane policy and get people to contact WUMB.
What we want is an end to artist censorship, we want one calendar, with concerts listed as submitted!
