Radio Tipsheet
August 10, 2000
There's Room for All on Mountain Stage
by Lynne Margolis
'I'm looking for things that are unique or original or part of a time-honored tradition.' -- Larry Groce
 Larry Groce plays just about every disc that lands on his desk. The host of West Virginia Public Radio's Mountain Stage insists, "Everybody who gets on the show does it one way: They send us a sample of their material."
Well, Bob Dylan would be excepted, along with Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and a handful of other stars who have yet to grace the show's West Virginia Cultural Center stage in Charleston. But with space for only 130 new artists annually, Groce explains, "We have a limited number of slots and I just have to listen to everything. I assume that any artist who's smart has something good for the first two tracks." Because, Groce reasons, if they don't know enough to put their best first, what are they doing in the music biz?
Point taken. From the perspective of a harried A&R person -- which, essentially, Groce is -- there just isn't time to jerk around. He skims through the first three songs, and if he's undecided, he tries other tracks or listens again later.
"I put on the CD before I even read the promo stuff," he says. That helps keep him impartial, though he admits that "if it has a huge buzz, then obviously I have to pay more attention."
But buzz alone won't get an artist exposure on the 120 Public Radio International affiliate stations that carry Mountain Stage, which can also be heard on one commercial station in Annapolis, Maryland, an Irish station, and Voice of America.
"Certain bands, I think are very good, but I can't see any reason for us to do it," Groce says, mentioning as examples Madonna and Hootie & the Blowfish (a.k.a. Hootie who?). "To me, that's just mainstream commercial pop music. I'm looking for things that are unique or original or part of a time-honored tradition. If you can sing well, that doesn't hurt, and if you can write a good song, that really helps.
"We also don't do a lot of instrumental things," Groce says. "That's just the nature of our show. (It's) about songs … it's about words and music."
Style is less important. Because Groce firmly believes that true music lovers don't care about formats and categories, Mountain Stage is purposely structured for those with open minds. One recent show had a jazz focus; another featured Texas swingers Asleep at the Wheel. An upcoming segment will showcase a Chilean group and a 16-year-old fiddle phenom.
A member of the Wild Colonials once called it "the rock and roll version of the Grand Ole Opry, except everyone does more than one song." And it's hardly just rock and roll.
Program host Larry Groce (L) chats with guest Michael Lipton behind the scenes at Mountain Stage. photo by Brian Blauser/B&B Studios
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Building a History
'We have no safety net. This is the way we've always been. This is the way we like it.' -- Larry Groce
Mountain Stage has been on the air for 17 years (15 as a national program) and is about to celebrate its 500th show, a milestone that marks it as a granddaddy of live-performance, contemporary-oriented radio. As Groce says, it "kind of pioneered the genre that's now called AAA (Adult Album Alternative) or Americana."
Though World Café host David Dye, profiled in last month's Radio Tipsheet column, also has been credited with that feat, Groce claims no one was creating that blend on a live show before Mountain Stage.
Producer Andy Ridenour came up with the idea, aided by engineer Francis Fisher. Ridenour, a former commercial radio jock, had interviewed Groce when he made the rounds with his novelty hit, "Junk Food Junkie." (Groce also has several gold and platinum Disney discs -- and a Best Children's Album Grammy nomination -- under his belt, and has recorded five albums of hymns.) Fisher met him when the performer moved to West Virginia in 1972.
When it started, Mountain Stage was local and monthly, though national distribution was always the goal. Lacking facilities to make and mix multitrack recordings, they recorded on two-track and broadcast live throughout West Virginia. But without an uplink they couldn't go live elsewhere. So they shipped unedited tape for satellite distribution.
The show went completely to tape in 1995, partly because it was too difficult to get artists to West Virginia for a 3 p.m. Sunday show. "Trying to get somebody to do a sound check at nine in the morning was not a lot of fun," Groce says. Most stations didn't want to move the two-hour show's air slot, so they took the taped feed.
It actually works out better, Groce says, explaining, "There are certain artists who don't want to go live on the radio." Established players sometimes find it risky; others just get nervous. Tape also tightens the show because guitar re-tunings and other elements that don't translate well to radio are edited out.
Still, Mountain Stage remains live to two-track. "We have no safety net. This is the way we've always been. This is the way we like it," Groce says. "If the artist has to do it right the first time, so do the engineers. In fact, Mountain Stage is based on the absolute pragmatic principle of 'do what can be done.'"
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