New music library

UMFM’s Library Card will let you check out some fresh music

Jeanne Fronda Staff

Music geeks, rejoice! There’s a new way to relieve your need to compartmentalize and endlessly probe song melodies and vocal harmonies.

The Library Card, one of the newest shows on campus and community radio station UMFM, strives to round up a “listening library” of songs each week. Molded after CBC’s radio show The National Playlist, The Library Card hopes to give something new to listeners each and every week.

“[The show] will be really accessible to anyone . . . or to people who like a good fight,” joked UMFM programming director Michael Elves, who is one of the show’s four rotating hosts. UMFM station manager Jared McKetiak, Tyler Sneesby (also known as DJ Hunnicutt) and Winnipeg radio icon Howard Mandshein are the other hosts.

The fight Elves is alluding to is how the show’s songs will be selected, as two to three guests (i.e. musicians, writers, journalists and other local guests) will each choose one song for each of three categories: local, national and international. Guests will explain why they chose their respective songs, and listeners can phone in to give their two cents about the music. The audience can vote for the tracks they think should be on the show’s weekly top five lists.

“It’s about building a listening library, choosing five songs [to create a] library,” said Elves. “There’s great stuff from each [category] . . . . Plus, what music geeks don’t categorize music?”

Although there are four hosts, the folks behind the mics won’t be setting any sneaky agendas of their own.

“The guests will change from week to week, and they will set the tone,” said Elves. “We certainly have our own tastes, but we’ll never know [what’s going to be played].”

The show’s visitors will likely be local musicians, public figures or quasi-celebrities.

“[The guests] will likely be local, because there are a variety of different types of people in Winnipeg,” said Elves. “Who doesn’t want to know what the conductor of the WSO is listening to? Or what three songs [U of M President] Emöke Szathmáry would listen to?”

Elves said one of the main objectives of the show is to expose listeners to different kinds of music.

“We think people should listen to these different areas of music equally,” said Elves.

Elves welcomes feedback and hopes it will be a regular result of the new show.

“We will have message boards, so [we can read things like] ‘Oh, man, I hated what you played today,’” said Elves. “Radio, definitely, when we broadcast, it’s from us to the listeners. [For this show], there’s some interactivity, but there’s also some feedback.”

The Library Card is slated to hit the airwaves on April 7, and will air Friday afternoons between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.. Listeners can call in to the broadcast at 269-UMFM or 269-8636.