Keep on rockin': University of Minnesota's Radio K celebrates 30 years

BAKARII: (SINGING) [INAUDIBLE]

CATHY WURZER: This is our Minnesota Music Minute. This is the song "Cooler By the Water" by Twin Cities artist Bakarii. His group Ozone Creations will be at First Avenue tonight for Radio K's 30th anniversary party. More on that in just a minute.

BAKARII: (SINGING) I hear the waves roll by. I get away sometimes. Finally getting nice outside, but I know the price so high. Try to preach, that don't work on them. Try to teach, I can't notice. I just say it's cooler by the water.

Oh, yes, the sun is shining. Woke me up, call it perfect timing, yeah. But I'm too easy to distract, though. I'm trying to see what's up with that, woah. So I pull up to the beach.

CATHY WURZER: When you turn the dial up several frequencies to 100.7 FM or 104.5, you could hear anything from indie pop to Japanese post-rock and everything in between, and that is the beauty of college radio. This weekend, as I mentioned, the University of Minnesota's student-run station Radio K is turning 30 years old, so we're going to talk to some of the people who were there from the beginning.

Jim Musil is the founder of Radio K. Ali Lozoff was the station's first marketing manager. Both of them are with us right now. Hey, welcome to you guys. How are you?

ALI LOZOFF: Great.

JIM MUSIL: Great, Cathy.

ALI LOZOFF: Hi.

CATHY WURZER: Hi. Hey, Jim. I'm going to start with. We should say for listeners that Radio K's history actually goes way back to 1922. It was KUOM, one of the first radio stations in Minnesota, the call letters playing off of the U of M. So there was that station. What was the low power station on campus?

JIM MUSIL: It was called WMMR, which stood for Women's and Men's Minnesota Residences. It broadcast only on campus.

CATHY WURZER: Among the buildings, the dorms.

JIM MUSIL: Yeah, that's right. We had wires. The sound audio was piped directly to the buildings, and then it used the electrical wiring in the building using a technology called carrier current to broadcast. So if you were in your dorm room and near an outlet, you could pick it up.

CATHY WURZER: I can only imagine the crazy stuff that you heard on WMMR. I mean, think about it.

JIM MUSIL: Yeah. But it really had a long history of really colorful radio. A lot of people passed through there. Garrison Keillor came through there and did work there, and there was a lot of professional radio folk that ended up doing great things here in the Twin Cities that spent time on WMMR.

CATHY WURZER: Ali, so is Radio K kind of a marriage between KUOM and WMMR?

ALI LOZOFF: Yeah. Jim, as a student at the time, and a couple of other visionaries, I would say, had the idea to work with the professional staff at KUOM to bring a student-run service to the airwaves, and that's how it was launched. It was launched in 1993.

I started just a little bit after that in 1994 when I went to the university. And 30 years later, it's still this amazing, groundbreaking, influential service that brings new and legendary artists to the airwaves every day and provides a platform for students to learn in a professional setting what it's like to run a radio station.

CATHY WURZER: Jim, who did you have to convince to get this transition together and then rebrand as Radio K?

JIM MUSIL: Well, at the time Nils Hasselmo was the president, and the Board of Regents needed to be convinced. Let me set the stage just a little bit. The financial situation for the U was not great at that time. This was around the time that they had shut down the Waseca campus or planned to.

And one of the things that they had slotted to sell was KUM's frequency, 770 AM. And so we just tried to convince them to say, hey, wait a minute. Why don't you give students a chance to run this? And we can do it a lot cheaper. We can do it and have a lot more fun, and we can provide training opportunities. And so we had to do that.

CATHY WURZER: All right. So then that led to Radio K launching in '93, October 1st of that year. And I think the first song ever played was, what? "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio" by the Ramones?

[THE RAMONES, "DO YOU REMEMBER ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO?"]

- This is rock and roll radio. Come on. Let's rock and roll with the Ramones.

CATHY WURZER: Of course, I had to play that. You know that, right?

JIM MUSIL: Of course.

ALI LOZOFF: Absolutely. Still sounds amazing.

CATHY WURZER: I know, right? OK. Knowing you, Ali, I'm betting you had a hand in the rebranding of Minnesota's oldest radio station to the newest when Radio K went on the air.

ALI LOZOFF: Well, like I said, I started a little after. Radio K did exist, and I think Jim and the folks who started it had come up with the name Radio K. But then I came in, and I had been working in the music scene with bands, and so I knew of Radio K. As soon as I enrolled at the University, I applied for the job.

And then it was really my job to take what they had started to the public. And so as the marketing manager, I worked on partnerships and marketing and really got the name out and away from campus to the greater public. It was an exciting time. The '90s were full of music in the Twin Cities.

The '90s explosion of alt rock was going on. REV105 came and went during the time that I was at Radio K. It was an amazing time, and I just felt really privileged to be there and to witness it. And it really started my career in public radio. And full disclosure, I now work here at Minnesota Public Radio.

CATHY WURZER: I was going to mention that, of course, a bit later on in the conversation. But yes, exactly. I wonder, when you think of the word partnership and sponsorships, you don't usually think college radio, right? I mean, that's something that commercial radio does. Good for you to have that as a way to go forward.

ALI LOZOFF: We were selling underwriting. We had students that learned how to sell underwriting and support the station that way, and we were partnering with local venues to present bands and put on showcases. And so all the things that say The Current, which I was involved with when that started up here-- very similar.

The K is just such a valuable commodity to all the students, the thousands and thousands of students that have gone through there and all have learned, again, in a professional setting the great joy of running a radio station, the trials, the tribulations, but also that practical knowledge.

And so many of the students that have gone through there have gone on to go into public media, to go into the podcast industry, to go into creative services. I mean, it's just such an amazing institution now after 30 years that just continues to flourish. They're in member drive right now, I'll just say, as part of the 30th anniversary. If you can check them out, you definitely should.

CATHY WURZER: Say, Jim. I adore college radio, and that's how I got my start.

JIM MUSIL: That's great.

CATHY WURZER: I know when you listen to college radio, there's mistakes, and there's awkwardness. But there's some great stuff. Can you explain the magic?

JIM MUSIL: Yeah, for sure. Kids are really just playing music that they really feel strongly about, and there's a real authentic quality to it. And even though they make mistakes and maybe their breaks aren't very tight and they're not that well spoken, they still love the music, and that comes across really clearly. And I think that that's part of the magic of it.

CATHY WURZER: I know this is going to sound like a strange last question here for both of you. But if you had to have one memory that you took away from Radio K of all the memories, what would it be for you, Jim?

JIM MUSIL: Well, when we signed on-- I still think that this is an amazing event. So when the morning we signed on, meanwhile, across campus, across the river, we were doing a special event where Steve Nelson at the time, who later worked at MPR-- he had put together an event of 77 simultaneous haircuts. So somehow, he had pulled together 77 hair stylists and people to get haircuts. So while the station was launching, that was happening. That was one of my favorite events that we ever did.

CATHY WURZER: That does not surprise me that Nelson would do that. Ali, what about you?

ALI LOZOFF: Gosh, there's so many to name. But we just we were involved in so many great events. I'd say Cedar Fest on the West Bank. That doesn't exist anymore. We got to program some incredible stages with bands like Modest Mouse and Babes in Toyland and a little band Lifter Puller that went on to form the foundation of The Hold Steady. And it was just it was an incredible time to be part of the local and national music scene.

CATHY WURZER: Do you think that Radio K has a bright future? And I ask that because of course, with changing media and tastes and the whims of University management-- I don't know, Jim. What do you think?

JIM MUSIL: I think they're stronger than ever, and it looks great. I go back regularly for tours, and the studio and the staff and everyone is-- I think they're just doing a great job there. I think they found a way to make themselves solvent and keep going, so keep on rocking.

CATHY WURZER: OK, you guys. 30 years. Wow.

ALI LOZOFF: I know.

CATHY WURZER: Where did it go? What the heck?

ALI LOZOFF: Blink of an eye.

CATHY WURZER: Right. I am so happy I had the chance to talk with you both, and thanks for your work. Because I'm sure at the time when you were young, you had no idea what you were doing and didn't know how it would all work out. But it's worked out beautifully, so congratulations.

ALI LOZOFF: Thank you.

JIM MUSIL: That's awesome.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you, Jim. Jim Musil, Ali Lozoff, founding members of Radio K. As we mentioned, First Ave is having a 30th birthday party tonight. Doors open at 7:00 o'clock, tickets $15. Ali mentioned this, too, that Radio K-- I'm going to put a little plug in for Radio K. They're in the midst of a fundraising drive, so give them a listen. Put a little money toward them.