...one more thing--

Several posts mentioned "free" radio, and that perhaps we ought to just pay for satellite radio...

What I have noticed on these kinds of stations is a rather bland, "mainstream" kind of music--not unpleasant, but not exactly stimulating, either.

And who will play the local artists? Certainly not a satellite station, broadcast homogeneously across the entire continent!

We have a small college station (WXOU -- Oakland University) that has a folk program on Tuesday evenings: The Old Front Porch Radio Show. Talk about variety in programming--they have even played *my* recording! Do you think satellite radio programming is ever going to find--much less PLAY--an obscure recording of "The Keweenaw Light" by a kindergarten teacher from Michigan? Not likely... (The problem is that WXOU has an absolutely miniscule broadcast area; I have to drive across town to be able to pick it up.) It takes a show with a personal touch--the input of a thoughtful DJ, the feedback from the listeners--to have the kind of impact Matt's show had on folk music in the Detroit area. No national or worldwide satellite program could reproduce "Folks Like Us."

The promotion of local talent and local venues was one of the things that was always so great about Matt's show. You could hear someone on the program Saturday afternoon, think, "Wow! I've got to go see HER!!"--and see them in town that very evening. There's no other way to create that kind of interest in a new or unknown performer.

I can see this changing the entire face of acoustic music in Southeastern Michigan.

denise :^)
...rambling, I'm afraid, but this is so upsetting!!!