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| Cages photo from Local/Live |
WMSE-FM’s Local/Live has become Milwaukee’s premier radio showcase of live, original local music. But outdated recording and broadcasting equipment threaten to silence this important piece of the city’s original music community and history. In response, the station has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $30,000 necessary for an upgrade.
Music Notes talked with WMSE Promotions Director Ryan Schleicher about the past, present and future of Local/Live and why losing this valuable resource would be a major blow to Milwaukee’s original music community.
What is Local/Live?
Local/Live is our weekly program on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. For the last seven years we have invited a different local band to perform live on air. The program’s a half-hour long, so it’s usually four songs with a five to 10-minute interview.
Tell us a little about the ongoing Kickstarter campaign.
The gear that Billy Cicerelli (WMSE’s in-studio audio engineer) uses to produce and put Local/Live on the air is so severely outdated. He’s using a 1998 style Mac, which if you saw a picture you’d be taken aback. There are times when a session will just drop because a computer will freeze up. Usually he will be able to still put it out on the air, but the recording will freeze up. Sometimes he will have to boot up the computer three or four times to even get it to turn on. In order to keep putting local and national bands on the air, we need modern equipment that won’t fail on us.
By December 22 we need to raise $30,000, which covers all of the equipment. But if we don’t get to the goal, we don’t get any of it. That’s kind of how Kickstarter rolls.
What has the feedback been like so far?
We’re at just over $6,000, so we still have about $24,000 to raise. We kind of knew that it would see an initial surge and then die for a little while, because we did our on-air fund drive in the middle of it. So we’re kind of looking at it now like a 30-day campaign for $24,000 rather than the last 30 days of a 60-day campaign. Initially there was really great support from both fans of the station and a fair amount of bands who have played Local/Live.
Why is it so important to have a resource like this in Milwaukee?
One, we’ve always been a big believer in documenting Milwaukee music history. In 10 years, half the bands playing right now might not even exist. I think it’s important to have an archive of that, both video and audio. Also if some of the bands do get more international recognition, it’s important to have those early recordings and early video.
Secondly, I think it exposes young up-and-coming bands to Milwaukee. Their first big exposure is playing a set live on WMSE. A lot of bands turn their recording into EPs, send them to labels or just use them as a mic check for themselves.
Third, I think it creates more of a bond between Milwaukee musicians and the community. Bands tune in to hear other bands, and if you’re looking for people to play shows with, you contact people who played Local/Live.
Internally for WMSE it’s important because media is changing so fast, and radio can’t just be the terrestrial signal anymore. We have to do interesting multimedia things. When national bands come through we need the ability to video and audio record them, put that content online and make it available for more mass views. We just need to keep doing things like this that support music but also bring WMSE further into the future.
If you want to help keep Local/Live on the air and documenting Milwaukee’s original music scene, please donate to the station’s Kickstarter campaign.
