The essence of Musical Adventure is the realization that there is an awesome array of wonderful music than is not being played on commercial radio and is not being pushed in the dominant culture and entertainment industry; that this music is most often more innovative, more creative, more genuine and real than commercial music; that the people making this music are not mere recording artists but musicians.

I would define Musical Adventurers as those people who proactively seek out new and intriguing music. These people do not sit back and let the commercial entertainment industry bring music to them, because commercial entertainment and commercial radio, by definition, are commercial, thus their primary interest is and must be their bottom line, and not music. The commercial entertainment and radio industries have discovered that the easiest way to earn a profit is to concentrate on narrow segments of music and bands that are tried and true, safe and inoffensive, i.e. not new or unique or challenging. The Musically Adventurers are people who have realized this. They usually shun this commercially driven music. They seek out the music that touches them with its creativity, its meaning, its feel-good or feel-bad emotionalism, its raw power, its syncopation or rhythm or groove or whatever else strikes their fancy.

College radio and community radio are the auditory homes of these Musical Adventurers and this independent music. By definition, these non-commercial radio stations like are not bound by the dictates of corporate conglomerates, of demographics, of advertising dollars, of the groups with the most disposable income. Therefore these stations can and do play what they want to play, and I would argue, what they should play, not what any economically driven incentive dictates.

The people I have met in college radio are not in radio for the money. Fortunately for us folks, college radio does not have to frantically avoid offending listeners to garner advertising dollars. Therefore we don't have to worry about losing our jobs-and after all, most of us are unpaid volunteers. And most of us came to college radio and stay for the music, the music that cannot be heard anywhere else on the radio, that you won't see on MTV, and that you won't hear in the soundtrack to the latest blockbuster movie.

By the broadcast of independent music, college radio keeps this music alive, broadcasting it out to anyone who is willing to listen, to experience new and adventurous music and sound and noise. This independent music allows the listener to escape from the control of the dominant culture manipulated by corporate America, from the music "they want you to buy", to the music that by its innovation, its creativity, and its depth will add those elements to your own life.

Indeed, most of the music played on college radio cannot be bought in your average chain CD store. Some can be found at independent record and CD stores, but yet more are local, rare, out-of-print, or foreign releases that were never intended to be sold on a mass scale anyway. Speaking as a former Music Director at a large college radio station, some of the music played on college radio stations was not even sent to the station in order to get listeners to buy it, rather it was sent for college radio listeners-those Musical Adventurers-simply to hear, because whoever released that music thought it valuable enough that it should be heard, whether it generated a profit or not.

In my opinion, college radio's mission is not just to entertain those who are already Musically Adventuresome, however. It is to reach out to the entire community in an attempt to show all the auditory light, so to speak. To offer everyone the chance, if they so choose, to discover the enormous breadth of wonderful music that the dominant culture does not encourage them to hear. In this way college radio attempts not to rebel against the dominant culture nor "to overthrow it"; college radio simply avoids it. Just as a home-owner can grow their own vegetable garden and gain at least a small degree of freedom from dependency upon the grocery store, so too can the Musically Adventuresome nurture their own unique musical tastes and explore new forms of music. They can enjoy a challenging listening experience on the radio or from their own music collection without the harassment of incessant advertisements, of shock-jocks, of the same narrow genres of music, of the same tired songs played over and over and over again.

College and community radio stations which are adventurous to one degree or another like play a crucial role in keeping alive an incredibly valuable part of our modern culture. Unfortunately, many college and community stations are not particularly adventuresome in the music they play. But without those stations that are adventuresome, much of the music they do play could be heard nowhere else.

These brave stations keep their local music scenes alive, giving new musicians and bands much needed exposure, because commercial radio offers them so little. They keep traditional and experimental jazz alive, because all most commercial radio will play is watered down homogenous "smooth jazz." They keep the underground hip-hop scene alive, because commercial rap stations are usually only interested in the big names. They keep cutting-edge rock-n-roll alive by playing bands that commercial radio won't play, by playing forms of rock which commercial radio disc-jockeys have never even heard of. They keep modern composed music alive because most classical stations are only interested in the "Greats." They keep world music, ska, reggae, noise, punk, bluegrass, grind, blues, folk, lo-fi, spoken word, funk, surf and many other eclectic forms of music alive which simply cannot be heard anywhere else on the radio.

Without the support of community and college radio stations, much of the above mentioned music would be relegated only to small clubs, to small scenes, to small cult followings, to word-of-mouth only. Fortunately, radio has the power to bring this music to entire communities and cities, to bring Musical Adventure to anybody that will just listen, to preserve that music which is so valuable to our culture yet is ignored and smothered by the dominant commercial culture.

Community and college radio stations like are not the toys of crazy college students and wierdos. The people at these stations are not extremists. These stations are not trying to be "the alternative." They have a purpose: to be independent, to spread Musical Adventure, to uphold truly creative music in the larger culture. To me, this passion about music and creativity is what college radio is all about.