It's a pleasure of the summer schedule at Radio New Zealand National that Music 101 is running a full five hours each Saturday, from noon till 5pm -- and is filling the time with some notable content. The first extended show last Saturday was a cracker and tomorrow's lineup looks just as good.
Most notably, there's Yadana Saw's four-part A History of Student Radio. You can listen here to Part 1, which features comments and memories from John Campbell, Mark Cubey, Andrew Dickens and many more on the fledgling days of the student stations. Part 2 airs at 2.10pm and by the looks of things, it will feature a bit of chat from me about Hard News.
I'm also on the show earlier on, talking to Melody Thomas about the changing realities of the way we consume music, following Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, on the themes covered in his feature story The Shazam Effect.
Before that there's Far-fetch with Sam Scott of The Phoenix Foundation and Bunnies on Ponies. The format dictates that every week Sam "is given an obscure genre and a week to return with relevant musical examples and stirring stories." This week, he tackles Bhangra.
Still earlier in the day -- and with rather less craft on display than those nicely-produced radio features -- I'm standing in for Peter Urlich, 9-11am on 95bFM. I'm just going to play some good music and talk occasionally. In keeping with the Nice 'n' Urlich vibe, there will be some sweet, sweet house music.
Meanwhile, if you're looking for a summer mixtape, this two parter put together by Cousin Cole (ironically, in a place where it is not summer at all) is tickling up my ears something lovely. Soul, American roots, African pop, all sorts. Downloadable too.
So ... how were those New Year music festivals?
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