Before iPods, before Walkmen, before boom boxes, before cassette tapes, and before record players, there was radio, an art form that has survived the extinction of these other mediums. Here in Ann Arbor, our own WCBN-FM free form radio station 88.3 continues to help feed listeners a variety of diverse, adventurous music. Housed down a flight of stairs, through the doors of a long, windowless white hallway on Denison Street, just behind the U of M Union, is WCBN. Here, radio is created. Its sounds are emitted through airways via a tower atop the building to listeners throughout the Ann Arbor area and beyond.
I caught up with Jim “Tex” Manheim, a long time DJ at WCBN, as the station was midway through its “Jazz Til’l Noon” show. “We have this whole library here and it’s really one of more unusual, unsung, unappreciated resources in the state of Michigan,“ Manheim said. This was evident as I walked past the radio lobby into the studio and saw thousands of CDs and records lining the walls. This collection is not where you would find the current top ten, or even top hundred hits, but instead music that is alternative, historical and gives listeners a new perspective. Manheim went on to say, “My mission is to get stuff out there that is interesting and nobody has heard.” The station received an extremely rare collection of bluegrass music from a local collector. The value of this record collection increased because the rest of the bluegrass albums of this local collector burned in a fire. “So we have the only copies of some of them that are extremely, extremely rare,” Manheim explains.
To help listeners gain new experience in music, WCBN offers over ninety shows weekly with titles such as Robot Pasta and Train to Skaville. Manheim explains Train to Skaville, “ It’s based in jazz and elements of collage. I don’t even know how to describe it, that’s how unusual it is. Collage and schmaltz, this show uses these elements to make social commentary.” The Dwyers, a local Ann Arbor family, host the Robot Pasta show. Each family member chooses their own personal taste in music to play on the show each week. In addition, WCBN tunes listeners into sports programs five days a week, including live streaming of sports events. WCBN also offers public affair programs. It’s Hot in Here is an environmental talk show that presents innovated topics such as a farm that partners with the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative and CLEAR Corps, a Detroit nonprofit working to reduce lead exposure in homes. Also a show called Living Writers hosts poets and writers who read from their personal work and explain their ‘Passions and preoccupations’. This diverse and vast amount of programming makes every hour on the air a new listening adventure.
The future of radio is unclear. Manheim says, “If it’s well done it will survive just as it did when television came along or drama or movies came along.” Our generation has become attached to iPods. Reality is that our generation plugs our iPods into the car instead of listening to the radio. And it’s rare for a teen today to have a clock radio by their bed to fall asleep and wake up to. These pose threats to the survival of radio. Our generation has begun to lose out on quality music and quality sound. Community High senior Nate Coryell explained,”There is culture surrounding it [radio] that you can’t get on a mp3 device.”
“Anyone curious in the community, whether connected to the University or not, often finds us at one time or another and that’s why we hopefully keep finding new listeners,” Manheim said in response to the threats to radio. Music is a common link for Community students; walking in the hallways, playing in the jazz band and going or performing at the B-Side, we are all, in some way or another “curious” about music. WCBN, just blocks away from Community, is where our curiosity can be answered and we can expand our musical taste.
