As part of my extensive clean up of my office one of the things that I have been doing is putting the straggler CD's on my computer. As I was putting them on I came across the REV 105 Radio Archive. For those of you who did not live in Minneapolis in the mid 90's let me explain, or try to explain what REV was all about.
REV was a mid power radio stations serving the Twin Cities with the frequencies of 105.1, 105.3, and 105.7 (I never really figured out why there was three frequencies). REV played the kind of music that was perfect for a young college student like myself. It was the kind of station where you never knew what they where going to play next, but they never hit you with anything too far out in left field. The music the played was hip, without being condescending. The DJ's were the best, Brian Oake, Thorn, Shawn Stewart, Mary Lucia. They seemed to care about the music they played and had a seemed very genuine. It made me so desperately want to become a DJ. REV 105 was a commercial college station for all intense purposes. They would play the new "indie" artists without the hippies playing their Dead bootlegs, or John Zorn retrospectives, like so many college stations do now.
REV introduced me to so many of my favorite artists, G Love; Pavement; Frank Black; Spearhead; Ben Folds Five; and of course Soul Coughing. Just a quick note about Soul Coughing and REV. They where undoubtedly the house band of REV 105. REV 105 made Soul Coughing, in fact an alarming 40% of all of there record sales where in the Twin Cities area. That is pretty impressive from a band out of New York. It showed the power that REV had and radio in general had to push quality artist.
Something this good of course did not last. With the Bill Clinton and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which deregulated ownership of media outlets paved the way for the eventual buy out of REV 105 by the Disney Corp. REV 105 was commercial station and the Cargill group and Carl Polad was offered a ton of money. I don't balme them, they are a business they are here to make money. I blame the Act and the lawmakers who thought it was a good idea. There is an interesting recollection here.
March 14th was a sad day, there where many people very upset at the demise of REV and a grass roots organization sprung up with the eventual goal of getting the Telecommunications ACT overturned. In essence it was really trying to get REV back on the air. The group was called Americans for Radio Diversity or ARD for short. They held fund raisers and even put out a CD, with some very familiar artists. Even the hidden track by Soul Coughing gave a shout out to REV and Shawn Stewart. The group eventually turned their focus from the Telecommunications Act to low power radio stations and other FCC type things. ARD from the looks of their website has disbanded and do no work for us hard working Americans who want true radio. Russ Feingold has seemed to take up this cause sometime last year, but I don't think it is going anywhere. Guess we have to wait until he is president.
Nearly 10 years after the Telecommunications ACT was signed the state of Radio is not good. Sure there are pockets here and there of quality stations. There is even a radio station in the Twin Cities that have the same frequencies as REV and even some of the same DJ's, but it really shallow shell of what REV used to be. Doesn't really matter that the only good station in town plays Johnny Lang and Eric Clapton on a continious loop? Do we really care that Disney and Clear Channel own most of our media. I say no. There is a new media, the internet. I have found more new music through the internet then I have ever had through radio. The internet is a place where shomes like us can share new, old , and weird stuff. It is a place where I can get Radio from Finland, Spain, and Louisiana. The state of music is fine. Yes, I will miss REV and what it was, and I would love have the station back. But am I going to write my congressmen and burn down Disney and Clear Channel, I don' t think that is necessary. Billie Joel said it best, "The good old days aren't always good, and tomorrow isn't as bad as it seems."
I have put up both Rev 105 Radio Archive, and ARD's TELEconned vol 1. for your listening enjoyment. There are some great performances on both of these discs. The REV disc is quite good, I love the Spearhead and They Might Be Giants song. Also Dylan Hicks song on the ARD disc is awesome. Enjoy
***This post updated while listening to the Cubs v Pirates***
