by Sarah Crisman

Ever notice that your car radio sounds better on Sunday nights? Meet the tastemakers bringing eclectic music to the airwaves each week, and how they, in turn, affect the North Texas music community.

A few years ago, I found myself making excuses to be in my car on Sunday nights. At some point, my weekend drive time turned into my primary source of music discovery. Programs like The Paul Slavens Show, Block of Rock, and The Local Edge curate an eclectic mix of underground music (local and otherwise) in every style imaginable. I sat down with these sonic weekend warriors out of sheer appreciation for consistently turning me on to new music and curiosity as to where it all comes from, and the impact they have on the North Texas music scene.

It started with Paul Slavens. We were discussing the possibility that Sunday nights stand apart because there aren't as many people tuning in; therein lies more creative freedom in programming. "I think that might explain why there are so many local and underground shows that seem to pop up on weekend nights," Slavens said, noting that this trend could potentially move to primetime listening spots with the new presence of KXT (where his show airs each week). "If KXT starts in as a strong advocate and you see the other stations all responding, there's starting to be this organized push towards raising the level of consciousness about the local music scene happening again. It's been about 20 years since it's happened. It is just a matter of building up some momentum."

It's true. If there is one thread that carries across the dial on Sundays, is that the music is good -- much of it just happens to be local. In other words, they aren't playing homegrown talent for the sake of charity.Telegraph Canyon flows well in a set with more established Indie acts like Arcade Fire and My Morning Jacket. This way, you almost hypnotize people into listening.

“We sprinkle in the local with the rest of the good stuff.” says Tom Urquhart of KTCU's The Good Show. “We don't play anything we don't like. The most valuable commodity a station can give a local artist is air time.”

And how do they find all this music, since none of them are feeding off the Billboard charts with the other hundreds of commercial radio hours each week (each show programs approximately two hours worth of music each week, respectively)? Elyse Shrock, of KNTU's Block of Rock, relies on a trusty hard-drive chock full of garage rock, curated for her primarily by a record-label friend.

“I just play what I like,” she told me. I asked her how she felt about being a tastemaker. “I wouldn't know if one person listened to the show, honestly. I'm glad that people like it. I didn't expect that from playing '70s power rock and punk and the Chiffons. When I first started the show, I was focusing on the history of rock and roll, but now I play whatever I feel.”

Turns out if you're a music fan in North Texas, what you can be exposed to over the airwaves is decided at the whim of a half-dozen able minds. These influential voices (to-the-core fans in their own right) do whatever they can to build up the local scene by introducing you to stuff they want to listen to themselves. What's interesting is that it's not relegated to public and college radio anymore. Mark from The Local Edge is certainly doing his part to mingle North Texas music with mainstream rock.

“The stars have finally aligned,” Mark said. “The alternative, indie, underground programming in the past ten years has been specialty weekend programming. Not really sure what it is now, that this indie/alt music is becoming mainstream. It's a sound now. When that becomes more mainstream, coupled with three cities worth of incredible talent -- it was just a matter of time before commercial radio caught on.”

It's an encouraging thought, especially since Mark assured me that The Edge is returning to it's original roots and – you guessed it – "an internal push for more local content.” This could be signal a pending boom for the North Texas scene, but we can't just leave it up to the radio stations and musicians. There are many pieces to this puzzle.

“You have to have the band that has 'The Sound' and a crowd that will support that band and buoy them up and create that excitement,” says Slavens. “The clubs have to facilitate all of that happening, and the promotion people that can get everything organized, and the radio people to play the songs on air, and the press people that can write articles about it before and afterwards. When you have all that together, then you just have to have someone step up and be bad ass. If you make it, they will come.”

Game on, North Texas. Sounds like we've got some work to do -- at least we can take a break on Sunday nights and listen in on everyone's progress.

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