Fashionable Radio
UMFM launches a new logo and limited edition shirts
Jeanne Fronda Staff
UMFM is into fashion. Although what they beam to listeners via radio may be the station’s main focus, 101.5 UMFM is plastering a brand spankin’ new logo, designed by the station’s graphic designer, Tyler Sneesby (aka DJ Hunnicutt), on some very special T-shirts.
“It’s a combination of things, but since I came on board as the station manager this year, one of my main directives was to effectively market and brand UMFM in the Winnipeg community without branding us in the conventional sense of the word,” said UMFM station manager Jared McKetiak. “And we figured one of the ways to do that would be to launch a brand new line of merchandise, launch a brand new logo.”
Although the station has sold black and white T-shirts with UMFM’s logo on it in the past, this time round they’re releasing six limited edition T-shirts that were designed by local artists. The board at UMFM chose six designs from several that were submitted, and only 25 of each design will be printed. Images such as a robot, a heart with penmanship and a woman wearing sunglasses will be featured on the front, while the station’s logo will appear on the back. In addition, the T-shirts are American Apparel shirts and come in six vibrant colours that include green, grey, blue, brown and even a combination shirt that’s fuchsia and silver.
“We decided we were going to go all out and print them on American Apparel T-shirts . . . it’s kind of the hot brand, and we figured we’d use a lot of vibrant colours. So we figured it’d be more of a fashion statement,” said McKetiak. “I get a countless number of band T-shirts in the mail and they’re all black. They’re all white. They’re all huge. So I wanted to put forth a line of merchandise that people could actually wear.”
And the shirts are getting noticed, said McKetiak, as he’s already received some requests for pre-orders before the shirts are officially released on Jan. 27, which is the day of the official logo launch and concert.
So it’s no wonder McKetiak’s thinking of more merchandise that can bear the station’s logo.
“In the spring we’re looking forward to doing record bags, baseball hats, hoodies, and we’re also looking at getting some tuques done up for winter. Basically, we’ve had people suggest coffee mugs . . . pretty much anything that you can screen print or stitch stuff on . . . . we’re going to play it by ear once we run out of this line of shirts.”
McKetiak said that it was really important that the station use the designs made by local artists. He hopes that releasing limited edition T-shirts featuring designs by local artists could be an annual event for UMFM.
“Since day one we’ve been about supporting the local music scene,” he said. “[Involving local artists] was important to me because a lot of these local artists tune into our station or CKUW [the University of Winnipeg’s campus radio station] and support campus radio. So in turn I want to support what they’re doing. I can’t get out to every art show and buy their work, so this way I’m giving them a chance to put forth their work, so everybody can buy it on a different scale.”
101.5 UMFM’s official logo launch is on Jan. 27 at the Pyramid Cabaret with performances by the Western States, the Paperbacks, Break Bread Crew and American Flamewhip. Tickets are $4.99 and can be purchased at the door. Shirts can be purchased at the night of the launch for $20, but will cost $25 after Jan. 27.
For more information about purchasing a UMFM T-shirt, contact Jared McKetiak at jared@umfm.com.
