By JC Poppe Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Mar 18, 2011 at 9:12 AM

This week WMSE 91.7 FM Frontier Radio is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and this whole past week has seen a different show each night to celebrate the big 3-0.

WMSE, a long-standing supporter of local music, provides a great resource to the community and definitely deserves a great birthday party. Tonight's show at the Bay View Brew Haus is guaranteed to provide a great time.

This evening's birthday bash -- which features performances by the legendary Rusty Ps and the much-buzzed about AUTOMatic -- is a continuation of the WMSE/Hot*Pop hip-hop series, which has involved local talents like Prophetic, The Figureheads, The Hollowz, Melissa Czarnik, Fresh Cut Collective, A-Biz and Kid Millions, in addition to bringing in national rapper Toki Wright. Kid Cut Up, host of the weekly Madkids show, is always the host for the event and his co-host DJ Bizzon has also been helping out with hosting and DJing duties.

The series, just like most things in Milwaukee that revolve around the city's music, was started to satisfy genuine interest in what Milwaukee hip-hop has to offer.

"We felt that the hip-hop scene had some strong artists but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of cooperation or organization. Even at WMSE we often found out about shows at the last minute. A lot has changed since we started (here's looking at you Mr. Poppe), but at the time we thought that if we shone a big old light with a dedicated series it might bring greater visibility to the talent our city is harboring," Ryan Schleicher, WMSE's promotions director, told me.

That kind of positive and giving attitude coming from such a cornerstone in Milwaukee culture is fantastic for the hip-hop scene at large, and is 1 of 100 reasons anybody could pick to support WMSE.

Schleicher also informed me that they are already working on the next installment of the series and that WMSE might bring in another national act to hit the stage with our local hip-hop talent.

JC Poppe Special to OnMilwaukee.com

Born in Milwaukee and raised in the Milwaukee suburb of Brown Deer, Concordia University Wisconsin alumnus Poppe has spent the majority of his life in or around the city and county of Milwaukee.

As an advocate of Milwaukee's hip-hop community Poppe began popular local music blog Milwaukee UP in March 2010. Check out the archived entries here.

Though heavy on the hip-hop, Poppe writes about other genres of music and occasionally about food, culture or sports, and is always ready to show his pride in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.