By JC Poppe Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Sep 04, 2011 at 1:13 PM

Milwaukee and its metro area - and Wisconsin in general - has a surprising amount of musicians and singers that are heavily influenced by country or alt-country music, so much so that they themselves have taken to performing and composing tunes within those genres.

For any artist to hear themselves on the radio is one of those things dreams are made of, and WMIL FM 106.1 is more than willing to make that possible for local and regional twang-sters.

FM 106.1 features a program on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. called Home Made Jams that runs for 30 minutes and features music by you, the aspiring country artist.

I hit WMIL's music director, Mitch Morgan, with a quick six questions about Home Made Jams, and he even lets prospective submitters know that they're not just looking for pro-style recordings and the next Taylor Swift. Alt-country is OK too!

OnMilwaukee.com: How long has the show been running?

Mitch Morgan: The program has been running for just about two years now.

OMC: How come WMIL decided to do a hometown talent show?

MM: The idea came from the company, Clear Channel, to have more local programming.

OMC: What has the reaction been from both the public and the artists?

MM: The reaction by both radio listeners and by members of the music community has been great. Everyone has been very supportive.

OMC: What are you looking for in regards to the songs that you play on the show?

MM: The songs submitted must be original, no covers. And, they don't have to be strictly country but if it turns out to be something too rocky it probably won't get on.

OMC: How can people get you their music?

MM: All a local artist has to do is go to fm106.com and click on submit music. You can upload your songs right there. Today with Apple notebook computers, etc., it is very easy to get a quality recording.

OMC: Have you encountered any hiccups with Home Made Jams?

MM: The only problem I have is getting enough new music each week to keep it fresh.

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.