10 Questions with ... Aaron Axelsen

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

25 years at KITS (Live 105, Alt 1053) serving as APD/MD. Also, hosted two weekend specialty shows, Subsonic and Soundcheck, and afternoon drive host. Co-founder/promoter/resident DJ and manager of San Francisco club night Popscene (1996-current)

1. What was your biggest takeaway from over 2 decades at KITS (Live 105)/San Francisco? 

Building trust with your listeners is a delicate balance that requires the right amount of passion, integrity, localism, consistency, engagement, promotions, and market research. Understanding your audience needs and delivering these expectations is paramount but also challenging them is equally as vital to building brand loyalty. Combining research with gut instincts from a local programming team who understands the uniqueness, lifestyle and complexity of the Bay Area was always our strength and whenever we abandoned these fundamental ingredients for whatever reason, it would always negatively impact the ratings.

2.  Let’s talk about the beginning days of FLOOD FM. Take us back to earlier this year and how you got hired by Flood Media founder Alan Sartiriana as Head Of Programming to launch a brand new commercial-free digital Alternative station?

I've always been a massive fan of Alan's endeavors and Randy Bookasta (Publisher), including Filter Magazine and now Flood Magazine, and we've worked together on many Popscene partnerships over the years, so I jumped at the opportunity to join this incredibly talented team and build something very special from the ground up. Flood FM is basically the audio companion of Flood Magazine -- which in itself has become an influential voice and a trusted haven for art, music, culture as well as a reputable and respected lifestyle brand for nearly a decade now. 

Flood FM, in layman's terms, is my dream radio format and that station you fantasize about launching in your market after you won the lottery!

3.  How did you go about launching FLOOD FM and what was most important to you?

We partnered with Live 365, which provided all the essential tools and audio platforms, to build a digital radio station, and I’m programming Flood FM with music scheduling software akin to RCS and MusicMaster. Flood FM is an indie-alternative leaning format, with an emphasis on new music discovery, but we also heavily embrace other genres that are extremely relevant to today’s young and vibrant music demographic, including electronic, progressive R&B/hip hop, bedroom pop, chillwave, folk rock and more. Basically, we embody the diversity and genre-bending spirit that you'd find at a Coachella, Outside Lands or Governor's Ball and also reflect the eclectic aesthetic of Flood Magazine.  

We're like a more focused and structured college radio or non-comm station. I'm able to apply standard programming 101 rules like proper clocks, rotations, sweepers, sound and tempo codes, dayparts, etc., to create a really unique, coherent, consistent and palatable listening experience. We're driven by TSL, with a very deep and compelling music library, and I’m not consumed with winning AQH's like I did in a PPM world. 

4.  Give us the 411 on the music and imaging on FLOOD FM and your new music discovery process?  

Flood FM is about 60% current and 40% library, and we have several new music categories incorporated into the clocks that range from 15 to 25x spins a week. Think of us as an all-star team for the indie music scene! We embrace artists that could sellout 1,000-8,000 seat venues in your market but rarely receive airplay on commercial alternative radio. We usually add about 5-8 new releases a week to our playlist (NACC reporter) and a new track could live on Flood FM for up to two months. The strongest of the new tracks could eventually head to a power recurrent category. Our imaging is outsourced by a production specialist with over 15 years of major market radio experience and the writing and messaging is done by me and our team.

5.  How are you curating the FLOOD FM playlist 

Very similar to how I curated the music for Live 105: I listen to hundreds of new releases a week, interact with labels, managers, independent music promoters, press, etc., plus I’m still very aggressive and active with seeking out new music on my own and through channels like music blogs, booking agents and record pools. I do have access to audience listening intel and also use a myriad of streaming metrics and data, but Flood FM is primarily driven and powered by our pure passion for new music discovery and engendering a very special community and loyal clientele of fellow indie music fans.

Something I've learned from dozens of focus groups and DJing over the years is there is a limit to the amount of new music a listener can consume before they tune-out or leave the dance floor. As a DJ if you dropped on 3-4 unfamiliar new songs in a row, you'd clear the floor. I feel we effectively navigate between new music discovery and showcasing an incredibly deep library of titles from the 2000s to provide that comfort of familiarity. 

There is a plethora of culturally significant and trailblazing artists from the aughts that I feel commercial alt radio missed and harboring and embracing this abundant body of music in our library is a key ingredient and foundation of Flood FM. Our library is loaded with deep Y2K titles from the likes of Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Vampire Weekend, The National, LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., Father John Misty, Interpol, Bloc Party, Bon Iver, Daft Punk, Beach House, Grimes, James Blake, TV On The Radio, Santigold, The xx, Lana Del Rey, Miike Snow, Robyn, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Frank Ocean, Toro Y Moi, etc.

FLOOD FM SAMPLE HOUR:

SNAIL MAIL- Valentine
BEACH HOUSE- Space Song
PARCELS- Somethinggreater
FUTURE ISLANDS- Ran
GLASS ANIMALS- I Don't Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)
JULIEN BAKER- Faith Healer
TAME IMPALA- Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
MUNYA- Cocoa Beach
FRANK OCEAN- Chanel 
YUMI ZOUA- Give It Hell
THE AVALANCHES- Frontier Psychiatrist
NATION OF LANGUAGE- This Fractured Mind
ELLIOT SMITH- Angeles
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA- This Life
ARACDE FIRE- Rebellion (Lies)
AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS- Hertz
HOT HOT HEAT- Bandages

6.  Give us a rundown on all the specialty programming you offer that makes FLOOD FM unique.

We plan on launching several specialty features in the near future, including artist guest DJ takeovers, specialized sub-genre shows like electronic, punk rock, hip hop and more, but for now, since we're barely six months old, it’s all about establishing our overall music brand and what Flood FM represents and provides. We want to ensconce our primary music position first before we venture into specialty programs. 

However, our benchmark specialty feature is Flood Flashback Sundays, where we serve up 24 hours of commercial free classic indie, new wave, britpop, '90s electronica, post-punk, shoegaze, trip hop, dance punk and more every Sunday. It’s like showcasing an awesome record collection from 1980 through 2010. 

7.  Over the years, you have been instrumental to so many artists on your longtime running Soundcheck new music show. Who are some of your biggest discoveries from 2021?

Speaking of Soundcheck, which ran on the Bay Area airwaves for 21 years, we launched a weekly Flood FM new music podcast on Spotify that I host called F Yeah Fridays: The Flood Fave Fifteen. Because of Spotify's partnership with Anchor, we're able to host a podcast that amazingly and effectively emulates a proper new music radio show like Soundcheck. Complete with talk breaks, music beds, and songs spun in their entirety. We're already up to episode #22 now and post a brand-new show every Friday.

I'm really proud of the amount of new music from fantastic female artists we support on Flood FM:  Arlo Parks, Munya, Indigo De Souza, Caroline Polachek, Wet Leg, mxmtoon, Chloe Moriondo, Clairo, Mitski, Japanese Breakfast, Biig Piig, Wolf Alice, Noga Erez, Jessie Ware, Bachelor, Snail Mail, Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Peggy Gou, Remi Wolf, Phoebe Bridgers, Angel Olsen, St. Vincent, Soccer Mommy, Lucy Dacus, Torres, Girl in Red, Park Hye Jin, Ela Minus, etc.! 

8.  How did FLOOD FM get on some of the biggest audio platforms and how is your audience building?

Luckily, between Alan Sartirana, the Flood Magazine crew, and myself, we've fostered some strong relationships over the years that enabled us to quickly forge several important partnerships with many of today's key audio platforms, including Live 365, TuneIn, Sonos, IHeartMedia and more. We've built up a lot of equity and trust within the music industry via our brands and career endeavors and thankfully, this helped expedite procuring these incredible audio distribution hubs for Flood FM.

9.  What is your favorite part of your job?

As I delve into this next chapter of my career, I feel completely reinvigorated and recharged! That original passion, spark and tenacious drive that originally led me to pursue a career in radio way back in the day as Steve Masters intern at Live 105, has phenomenally returned. I love being a part of the visionary, creative and forward-thinking team over at Flood and to be the architect of a new and intrepid audio music brand such as Flood FM has truly been a rewarding experience so far.

10.  Tell us about operating Popscene during Covid and the plans for your club in 2022.

After a 20-month pandemic hiatus, Popscene triumphantly returned earlier this month and we currently have 32 active shows up! (Including 9 sold out shows this fall) 

We've been hosting weekly parties in San Francisco for 27 years now and have become synonymous with introducing new artists to the Bay Area.  Acts like Amy Winehouse, Muse, The Killers, Florence + The Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, The 1975, Glass Animals, Calvin Harris, Mumford And Sons, Vampire Weekend, Flume, Imagine Dragons, Foals, Rufus Du Sol, and countless others have all made their SF debuts at Popscene over the years and we plan to continue on with this rich tradition of new music discovery into 2022 and beyond.

What led to buying a house in Utah earlier this summer and how will you split your time in in the Bay Area?

Great place to raise a family! We're expecting another boy in November. I'll be flying back home to the Bay Area 3x a month and the flight so far from SLC to Oakland is super quick, easy, and chill. 

Tell us about what weekends are like for you with your wife and 2-year-old slugger Max.

DJing at Popscene on a Friday and then my weekly Saturday softball game OR teaching Max how to hit a ball off his Fisher-Price baseball tee. I also love college football and going on day trips with the fam.

How much of your weekend is consumed by music?

I always have Flood FM blasting on the smart speakers throughout the house and also, go on long runs listening to music, too! I love that runner's high, and I've been an avid runner now for 25 years. 

  Tell us about Aaron Axelsen the softball player.

I guess you can say I'm pretty obsessed with softball. For several years I played 4x a week in various Bay Area leagues but ever since I got married in 2017, that number has been trimmed to 2x a week. I play LF, bat 2nd in the order and I love going oppo. I co-founded a music industry team in San Francisco called The Happy Mondays and also, I've proudly coached the West Coast radio all-stars at The Gathering Convention in Louisville to a 4-0 all-time record against the East Coast radio all-stars! 

  You’re a big sports fan. Rank your teams in order of passion.

San Diego Padres
Oakland A's
LA Chargers
BYU Cougars
Utah Jazz 

And my top 5 all-time favorite players:

Tony Gwynn
Rickey Henderson
LaDainian Tomlinson
  Steve Young
John Stockton 

What concerts would be in your Top 5 of all-time?

Nirvana opening for Dinosaur Jr @ The Warfield, SF, 1991
Amy Winehouse at Popscene, 2007
Beastie Boys at Bottom Of The Hill, SF, 1996.
  The first ever Coachella in 1999
Every BFD from 1994 to 2018 (Live 105's annual summer concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, RIP)
 

My top 5 all-time favorite alternative radio PDs:

1. Sean Demery
2. Michael Martin
3. Richard Sands
4. Kevin Weatherly
5. Mike Halloran/Lisa Worden (tie)