10 Questions with ... Mike Luoma

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

WWPV College Radio at St. Michael's College, Winooski, VT 1983-87; WIZN 1987-2006 (overnights to MD to nights, Middays, afternoon drive, APD, Creative Director); WNCS 2006-2009 (production/afternoon drive), 2010-2018 (MD/Middays); WBKM.org 2018 - Present (PD/MD/middays).

1. How did you become interested in radio?

Grew up listening to the radio in the suburbs of Boston. My dad loved the radio, always listening to Jess Cain in the morning on WHDH. I'd record tunes off the AM radio with my little Sears tape recorder and make "mix" tapes (before we called them that). In high school, I used to love listening to afternoon drive on WAAF - Harvey Warfield was the jock. I can still remember his catch phrases, like "Trying not to fall in" and "maintaining equilibrium," and, of course, he was the "Supreme Allied Commander of the Rock and Roll Air Force." When I got to college, I saw a sign for shifts at WWPV, the college station - signed up and never looked back.

2. Who are were/your mentors?

What's a mentor? I'm an introvert, and very self-driven. Probably not an easy person to mentor - in the professional world, no one ever took me under their wing. I've learned from people I've worked with, but never had anyone's guidance or advice. Often, I learned what NOT to do by observing bad examples. And I learned there are many narcissists in radio, too many of whom will take credit for your work rather than help you excel by it. I would credit a couple of my college professors with early mentoring, so let me be positive and single out Chris McClure at St. Mikes, who did teach me a ton about radio in college.

3. Tell us about WBKM.

WBKM.org just celebrated its 13th birthday - we're an online station from since back when the tech was wonky - we had to figure out how to jump through a few technical hoops to go live when station co-founder Tony Gallucci helped start it up in 2006. The station was broadcast on-air for a few years, but two years ago went back to exclusively an on-line signal. The station deliberately took on a strong local focus, serving Burlington, VT as any local radio station would - in fact, the call letters reflect this - W-e're B-urlington's K-inda M-usic. Its long-time commitment to the local music scene has created deep and abiding relationships with many area musicians, who are some of the station's biggest supporters.

4. What kind of reach does it have?

We have around 3,000 steady listeners and see spikes during some shows in the 7-8k range, occasionally 10k. We focus on Burlington, with strong, long-running local features like Tim Lewis' "Sounds Of Burlington" specialty show. Given our local focus, it's surprising, yet rewarding, to find we have active listeners around the globe, as we routinely hear from folks in Australia, Israel, Thailand and more.

5. What is your biggest challenge at the station?

Educating people on how to listen to us, as an online station. And, to some extent, proving to the record industry that WBKM is a "real" radio station worth working with to break new music. Coming from commercial radio, non-comm's fundraising is also a challenge, because I don't like asking people for money.

6. How would you describe the music on the station?

Adult Alternative Album Rock. A Triple A with more of a rock than pop flavor, playing format hits in line with the charts, but also playing a lot more. We're not afraid to take risks and be quirky. We have an incredibly deep library and a deep commitment to including and promoting local music in the mix. This area's music scene is incredibly rich and full of talent - local releases stand up next to national and international ones, though this isn't that surprising given the scene has produced Phish, Grace Potter, Tony-Award winner Anais Mitchell (Hadestown) and other internationally known musicians. It's a pretty amazing place, and we try to reflect that.

7. How do you feel about the current climate of music?

I'm always hopeful, because there are always people making good music somewhere out there. The trick can be finding it. Since the '80s and industry deregulation, risk aversion and the over-reliance on marketing techniques and metrics means major market commercial radio stations aren't that interested in breaking new music. Major labels, of course, respond in kind. Got pretty bad for a bit, until the internet kind of re-democratized music consumption. The industry is still risk averse, but there are more artists they'll take chances on now thanks to being able to see internet-grown, kind of grass-roots support.

8. What new artists are you most excited about?

I've become a big fan of Decker. He was the first artist to do our WBKM Virtual In-Studio and was one of the first shows we promoted after I arrived at WBKM, so I definitely have a place in my heart for Brandon Decker and his music. He's not "new" new, but new to me, and our area.

Local heavy instrumental rockers Wolfhand are also favorites - their new EP is "Live on WBKM," from a session they did for the local music show at an area studio.

Weyes Blood isn't new-new either, but her latest, Titanic Rising, was the first time her music impacted me - and it did, big time! I'm still listening to her album a ton. I'm looking forward to hearing new music from Million Miles, too. Her EP last year really floored me. There are other, younger bands I'd love to see break through, like Darlingside and Bear's Den, but they're not exactly new to the format.

9. What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?

You can only really trust in yourself.

10. How is your graphic novel career coming along?

Great! Last summer I wrote a non-fiction graphic novel for a local agency, Green Mountain Support Services, where I interviewed their Direct Support Providers and turned their answers into stories. That's out of my hands - being drawn by artists now, GMSS will be publishing it later this year. It was interesting, combining my journalism background with my comic book creating.

Also just released issue #3 of my own Adventures of Alibi Jones comic book last month. I'm on panels at the Arisia Science Fiction Convention in Boston in a couple weeks talking about that and some of the other stuff I do, too, like narrating audio books, podcasting, and writing science fiction novels - I'm releasing chapters of my new novel currently on the Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast.

First record ever purchased:

Steve Forbert "Romeo's Tune" - the 7" single on Nemperor

First concert:

Kiss on the Dynasty Tour - Providence Civic Center, summer of 1979

Favorite band of all-time:

Tough one! I'll go with my long-time fave that shows how much of an un-cool Prog Rock fan I really am - Jethro Tull!

Fill in the blank: I can't make through the day without ...

... Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.