The hiss and pop of a shellac disk spinning at 78 rpm. A time-warp trip back to an ‘80s weekend dance party. An informal chat about ways to give back to the local community.
These are the sounds of a by-gone era radio, but they’ve brought one Lansing radio station a listener base that’s financing a move into a more powerful future.
WLNZ 89.7-FM, broadcasting from the campus of
Lansing Community College, resonates with programming that’s hard to find elsewhere on the dial. And they’ve been doing it going on 14 years now.
“Our whole thing is to keep it as local as we can,” says WLNZ’s Dave Downing. “We don’t want to re-invent anything that’s already out there.”
With a stable of veteran and newbie radioheads, the station broadcasts programming that includes jazz, blues, adult album alternative and reggae. Local talk, sports, news and public service forums are also integral to the line-up.
“We’re probably the only place you’re going to hear releases of local musicians—Monday through Friday,” says Downing from the WLNZ studios at LCC. “Or hear talk with non-profit organizations and artists. That’s the kind-of stuff that makes our brand of community radio unique.”
Downing was among the founders of LCC’s flagship station, which has a sound that now stretches from downtown to beyond Lansing’s outer suburbs.
“The station was the result of a core group who got together to work on their broadcast skills,” says Downing of the students and instructors who founded the fledging outlet in the ‘60s and ‘70s. “My quest was to get us on air.”
Initially broadcast in the campus cafeteria through 16 carefully placed speakers, the station has grown along with its audience. Locked out of a license by a decade-long
Federal Communications Commission freeze on new stations, WLNZ finally broke from the confines of FM cable in February, 1994, to begin broadcasting 17 hours a day, five and sometimes six days a week.
Now a 24/7 operation, the station was given the ultimate vote of listener support in February 2008 during the WLNZ Power Drive, which raised $20,000 in donations. The money will be providing a nearly three-fold increase in wattage that will bring the signal from Lansing to towns such as Owosso, Portland and Leslie for the first time.
The station also plans continued expansion in digital and additional Internet-only stations.
“It’s exciting because we can offer more than one audio signal now,” says Downing of both the wattage increase and the station’s ongoing venture into digital radio. “You can listen to the regular WLNZ, but if you have HD radio, you can also listen to WLNZ HD2—or essentially, another station.”
Hear It NowWLNZ proves there’s room in Mid-Michigan for an ever-evolving sound. It’s one that doesn’t skimp on local flavor, or on providing access to the community and LCC students.
Though local non-profits often garner brief segments or public service announcements on local broadcast outlets, WLNZ provides a unique hour-long program for informal, in-depth conversations with people whose organizations serve the community.
"The Coffee Break," Downing says, got started in the aftermath of 9/11, when community radio everywhere was trying to gauge local response.
“We started to realize that non-profit organizations didn’t get a lot of press for what they were doing,” he says. “Or you’d see the press after the event or service was already done.”
WLNZ patterned the hour-long "Coffee Break" on the popular format of having its two gregarious hosts—Jack Robbins and Karen Love—bounce ideas off guests.
“We have about 65 non-profits who come in on a rotating basis,” says Downing. “We also see an occasional artist or author making their way through town.”
Within two years of launching the show in October, 2001, WLNZ began simultaneous broadcast of "The Coffee Break" on the
LCC TV channel.
“The response to the show has been really surprising,” says Downing. “But it’s one of those good surprises.”
Another recent surprise is the newly-conceived "Every Spin on Sports." Hosted by LCC softball coach and long-time sports enthusiast, Bob Every, the show focuses exclusively on local prep and collegiate sports, providing a venue for fresh discussion outside the typical rehashing of pro sports.
Simulcast on LCC TV, Every’s show gives Mid-Michigan it’s own mini-
Sportscenter, with an impressive guest list of athletes and coaches.
“It’s a departure from what other sports talk does in the area,” says Downing. “It’s part of our new HD2 music and talk lineup, as well as the shows you can see on LCC TV.”
A Taste of LansingWhile talk and news formats provide a backdrop for community storytelling, the station’s core revolves around a blend of locally-produced and network shows.
Capping the local line-up of jazz, blues, Latin and reggae is Lansing’s version of adult album alternation, or Triple A in radio-speak.
“We’re a very folky type of town, so we thought it important to get that element on air,” says Lyn Peraino, program director and producer of Horizons—a show built on folk, rock and blues. “We’re giving people an idea of some independent as well as local artists.”
Tune in to "Horizons," Peraino says, and you’ll hear deep cuts from Bob Dylan, Carole King and Neil Young, in between local artists like
Jen Sygit,
Steppin’ In It, T
he Radiotown Flyers or
Root Doctor.
“We’re showing that it’s not just the big dogs and the big companies that offer talent,” says Peraino. “Plus, we try to keep our finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the community and to support local festivals and concerts as much as possible.”
In tandem with filling the airwaves with local artists and smaller, independent labels, the station provides bandwidth for community volunteers.
These broadcast aficionados produce one, two or multiple hour shows that draw on their own private collections and knowledge.
Among locally-produced shows are Peraino’s "Strings and Things," the "Natty Dreadlock Show" with Rootsman Bird, "Big Band Swing" with Jim Stone, and "Forgotten 45s" with John Robinson.
"Saturday Night with Mark B" has also been a staple since the station hit the FM airwaves. The live show, produced by Mark Buzzitta, features retro from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
Buzzitta says much of what he plays derives from his coming-of-age years in Lansing. Sitting in the studio on Saturday nights takes him back, he says, to those long hot days cruising in his car, hanging out at home, or out and about with friends.
“There’s just something about being live in the studio that’s fun,” he says, remarking that live broadcasting is a rarity in today’s pre-recorded world.
“Just knowing there’s someone on the other end listening, right at that moment, has a personal type of appeal.”
Ann Kammerer lives in East Lansing. She has written about area businesses, non-profits and people making news for a variety of local and regional magazines.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Karen Love
Present and possible future coverage map
Video producer Elena Cortes
Jack Robbins
Sound board
Dave Downing
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie