In a city that's had its ups and downs up and down the radio dial (well, more downs than ups, actually), WMSE-FM, the radio station of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, has been a guiding light for music fans for years.
Where other stations are hog-tied by restrictive playlists, music directors beholden to major label-hired record promoters and the vertical ignorance of corporate ownership, WMSE has been free to explore every aspect of music. From blues to heavy metal to jazz to folk to punk to electronica to literally every corner of the musical world, WMSE has done it all.
Of course, the early days of completely free-form radio had problems of its own and station director Tom Crawford has done an admirable job of making the station run smoothly and become more professional without sacrificing the on-air talent's obvious love for the music they play.
The station's history goes back as far as 1922, when MSOE put on the air one of the city's first stations, WIAO, which went on to become WSOE and, later, WISN, a station run in conjunction with The Wisconsin News newspaper company. Another WSOE hit the airwaves in 1969 and WMSE was effectively born as students begin to broadcast from the basement of the school's bookstore. In 1981, the AM WSOE was transformed into the FM WMSE and the only truly modern rock station Milwaukee has ever seen became a reality.
Within a year, a Milwaukee Journal poll reported that WMSE was the second most popular station in town. A host of awards and similar polls over the years has confirmed the station's success.
But that popular success hasn't prevented conflict on campus, where MSOE brass hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the students with regard to the station's image. This reporter has always found this to be somewhat curious as most universities would be thrilled to have such an effective public relations tool as WMSE, which represents the only connection to MSOE for many Milwaukeeans, young and old.
In 1983, then-Milwaukee Brewers announcer, the late Bob Betts, was hired as general manager and he began the process of streamlining the station and raising funds to improve equipment while addressing the university's concerns. Upon Betts' retirement, music director Crawford was promoted as his replacement and has made massive strides in keeping WMSE alive despite almost constant financial strain. Crawford's ability to tip toe through the minefield of MSOE's main office and keep the fans happy has been a blessing for the station.
Recently, WMSE got a state of the art facility in an historic downtown building on the edge of the MSOE campus and streaming its signal via the internet has been wildly successful with listeners from Europe, Asia and beyond tuning in to hear shows by the station's djs, a group of rabid music lovers who do their shows gratis.
Why do they do this, you might ask. After all, it's a lot of work.
"First and foremost, I love the music," said Tom Augustine, a veteran dj who now fills in as a substitute with the on-air tag, MoT. "I have been buying records since age 10 and listening to music since I can remember. Doing my show is a way of sharing that with people. Simply put, no where else can I express that interest quite so directly."
The volunteers and employees at the station are also heavily invested in the philosophy and spirit of free radio, with its freedom from advertising and the restraints that ads bring and its open-minded attitude.
"I think what we do is make the music we play that much more interesting by being who we are and eliminating all the hype and crap you hear on commercial radio," Augustine said. "We are not selling an audience to advertisers. We are listening to our audience and sharing that audience with musicians that have no where else to go. It's give and give. Musicians and bands give us the music and we give it to the people."
A second studio in the new facility is wired for recording and the station plans to being taping in-studio performances by bands, a practice pioneered by the BBC's John Peel and now mimicked throughout the U.S. by stations like Chicago's WXRT and The World Cafe, broadcast locally on WUWM.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
