Jeremy Deatherage, the station’s National Music Director, was nice enough to grant us an interview, giving us some background on the station and his personal taste in music:
How did Radio Phoenix get started?
Arizona Community Media Foundation was founded by a group of individuals and community members as a means to encourage and support independent broadcast media in Phoenix. The coalition incorporated on January 22, 2004 as a 501(c)3 educational non-profit organization.
Radio Phoenix is their first project, which was launched as a streaming internet radio service on October 31st, 2008. We've been "on-air" (internet air, which we all know is way cooler than "air" air) continuously now over a year and a half, with a staff of roughly nine members and a dozen or so live deejays, with more being trained on an ongoing basis.
The purpose of Radio Phoenix is to serve as an outlet for independent coverage of the local arts and music communities, and to the various cultures and ethnic groups that call Arizona home. We call it the place where the Valley comes to "talk.sing.connect."
How did you get involved?
A friend invited me to check it out during First Friday, which has its cultural epicenter in the Roosevelt Arts District of downtown Phoenix, and is the same neighborhood where our studio resides.
I came in as the Music Director only a month or so before we went live. In this role, I have the privilege of curating the music collection and guiding volunteer deejays in the conquest to becoming the greatest source of excellent music in radio today. The Radio Phoenix Music Department is second to none in the state in playing the latest, cutting edge emerging artists with a strong focus on local, unsigned, and mom-and-pop label artists that are rarely if ever heard on commercial radio in the Valley.
What is your favorite part of working with the station?
Even with a workload of something like 30 volunteer hours a week, I find it hard to complain about listening to more than three dozen brand new records every week. What music geek could afford to do that on their own dime? On top of that, there is travel to events like South By Southwest in Austin and the CMJ Festival in NYC where there's even more opportunity for networking and discovering the best emerging bands.
You host Forsaken. What is your goal with the show? What kind of music are you giving people a chance to hear?
I call FORSAKEN "your weekly supply of bleary-eyed, soul-searching music featuring post-folk, neo-psychedelia, faux country, drone, gothic Americana, and otherwise sorrowful music of the tormented mind and lamenting heart."
This show offers a non-traditional, even experimental take on folk music. In listening to and reviewing hundreds of CDs, I cull from them the songs that have a desperate edge, a world-weary bleakness.
Gosh, that sounds awful, right? Why would anyone listen to that? For myself and probably for many other people, listening to another person's tale of woe brings catharsis. We will huddle together for two hours every Wednesday and share our misery and maybe discover something about ourselves.
What is the importance of local music to you?
You know, every band in the world is a local band in their own hometown. Through some combination of talent, conflict, misunderstanding, breakups, girl/boyfriends, sweaty clubs, fizzy amps, and lots of beer, a band learns to work as a team. They come up, create art, develop a local following... and then they split town.
Phoenix has an incredible wealth of talent and we as a community should do whatever we can to encourage and support our local musicians and in turn make them proud to say, "I'm from Phoenix."
Does the station have any events lined up for the community?
We're launching the new Sticky Fingers weekly dance night at Rip's Bar (3045 North 16th Street in Phoenix) which kicks off on Friday, April 30. We'll be out there every week in promotion with DJ William Reed, Shake! and FILTER Magazine.
Radio Phoenix just held a successful fund-raising music event at the Rogue in Scottsdale and we have another planned for May. And we're also very active tabling at festivals, public rallies, and other non-music events.
Our station is non-profit and depends solely on the contributions of listeners and supporters to cover copyright royalties and other expenses of being on the air. If you're unable to make it to an event, we encourage folks to make a tax-deductible donation any time from our home page, www.radiophoenix.org.
