MPR: 89.3 The Current

You’re like the bum pan handler hanging out on the Freeway entrance/exits…Every single time I tune in you’re begging for money so I do the equivalent of rolling up my windows and ignore you, I tune out.
FFS if you cannot run a radio program without begging every minute of the day perhaps you shouldn’t run one.

When this station began, I was thrilled. It had a true variety of music, local and national. Now it has about 20 artists it plays consistently. To give an example of how narrow it had gotten, every time I flip to it during a commute, I recognize the band if not the song 80% of the time.
The station also will play music based on reputation, not quality. For instance, a new Hold Steady track was «teased» and the morning DJ said something like, «when the full-​length is released you can bet we’ll be playing a ton of it.» What if it were terrible? The public radio station has decided for the public what we like. That’s what you’d expect from commercial radio.
It also touts its commitment to the local scene… It has a handful of favorites, otherwise a few second tier acts get played on the Local Show. Radio K’s «Off the Record» digs much deeper and is more in touch with the scene.
Overall, so much potential, but has become a new Cities 97 for indie rock.

I’m Currently surfing the Current’s Current, while I compose this, because it’s my absolute favorite radio station across the land and the best background noise you’ll ever find. Or rather, I’m streaming it, because the app is free and it connects me to my midwestern musical roots. It’s a seriously wonderful public radio station that captures an enormous breadth of genres and eras, while keeping me «current» on lots of kewl modern music. No commercials. Mainly focussed on the local scene. Oh man, The Specials just came on, «Doesn’t Make It Alright». My heart is throbbing.
So, while I could definitely go on and on about the Current, I’d rather drop a note about the Past. I’m an old guy and therefore an Olde School Mpls music geek; I grew up on Hüsker Dü (and later Sugar), Prince, The Replacements, and some of the coolest lesser or totally unknown bands to ever rock a garage. I have a fond memory, from high school, of sneaking into the Uptown Bar (long gone) to watch Dumpster Juice only to find myself at a table with Lori from Babes In Toyland. I felt like I was in the presence of Aphrodite. I could hardly speak.
The beauty of the Current is that it was shaped by the Past in such a unique, awesome tradition. REV 105: Kevin Cole and Mary Lucia both hosted shows (before Kevin left for KEXP, Seattle’s stellar alternative). That station had a seriously deep influence on my musical tastes because it was my teenage soundtrack, and I’m so, so thankful I grew up in a market where people cared about great music. Music, like food, writing, and love, make life a constant joyful discovery. Another memory: the week the REV died, I was a dishwasher at the Malt Shop, and I remember that they endlessly looped «End Of The World» by REM. And to me, it was indeed the end of it all.
The resurrection, as it turns out, is better than Jesus. Support it!

Simply the best radio station out there, period. Stream it at work, and at home via SONOS system. An awesome mix of new and old music, crossing several genres. Kind of like a college radio station (was a RadioK fan for many years) mixed with your CD collection. Great local (MN) music. And, it’s public radio, and so no commercials! Great, knowledgeable DJs as well. Proud to be a supporter.
Update: Good example of music played… just this weekend, heard a song from the Replacements, followed by Gordon Lightfoot (Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald)! Awesome.

For those of you who don’t live in Minneapolis or the surrounding suburbs and want your current fix you can listen to it streaming online.
When I had iTunes installed you can go to the section to look for live streaming and find it. Otherwise, they have a link to their live streaming. I realize this does not help for listening to music during your regular commute, but it helps if you are hanging out at home or another place with a internet connection and you want some good music.

The great thing about this streaming music is that they offer background about the bands they recently played on the website. I don’t usually read any of it, but it’s comforting to know that I could become a knowledgeable music listener anytime I like.

The current is great for gettin’ old. I mean that in warmest fandom. I love this station in spite of some limitations that die hard current fundamentalists refuse to acknowledge.
It’s not the leaking in of major label crud now and again that bugs me, it’s the «keep this on your other public radio stations» stuff —
I find the going-​to-​sleep-​bill-​deville-​roots-​rock thing insufferable, aural ambien. You can tell this guy WANTS to be on after Garrison Keillor — MN public radio, please put him there.
Weird songs? I wish. If I want that pull-​over-​stop-​the-​car-​what-​IS-​this moment, I can still get it from Radio K, sometimes. I do encourage Current-​lovers to spend an afternoon with the K and hear what they’re going to be hearing in five months. Even better put on KFAI during the right slots and enjoy radio at its free-​form all-​access best.
I also have a love/​hate with the hiphop tokenism. It’s not done well, but then it IS being done and with indie station comes indie hip hop.
If I want to listen to clear signal and pitchfork best-of’s — the Current has my back.
It’s true, finding things remotely like the current is hard — though not impossible. Chicago probably has the worst radio situation of any major city I’ve lived in, Minneapolis the second best.
I grew up spoiled on FDU, and dated someone spoiled rotten by public radio XPN out of Philly. I’d say the Current does it just as well.

The Current has kept me… current in the music scene. Every since I left college, I found it hard to keep up with indie rock in the same way. Sure, I had friends to tell me what was good and what wasn’t, but with everything else going on, I wasn’t able to immerse myself in the music world like I could when I was in college.
Until The Current! Between the DJs with their differing personalities and styles and the local music requirement, The Current has made my musical life anything but boring.
I was flounding when I first moved to the Twin Cities, and the Current helped me feel at ease. I could hear music that I thought no one else had even heard of (The Unicorns much?) on the radio! Then when I was excited about the choices, i could email the DJs and they’d write back!
The music mixes are eclectic and interesting. Sure, if you listen to the station for 16 hours a day (…not that I’d know or anything…) you’ll get some repeat songs, but all in all, there is such variety that it’s barely noticeable. The playlists tie together new music with its old influences and creates a bigger picture of not only where we are but how we got there.
The «gimmicky» things that the DJs do are also educational, interactive and downright fun. I look forward to the Coffee break every day and when I was just on vacation, I found myself missing it. Not to mention No Apologies at 4pm always surprises and delights me (imagine sitting at your desk, working along, and all of a sudden «I Like Big Butts» comes on the radio!).
The DJs are also relatable, easy to like and fun. I find that I know more about Mary Lucia’s cats than I probably should, or that I look forward to the silly 4:20 banter on the news report. I also follow their stories and miss them when they’re gone for a week or so!
All in all the Current is world class music with a local feel. I wouldn’t give it up for anything, and strongly feel everyone should try it!

Indie music? Check.
New music? Check.
Local music? Check.
The Current is the best so I really don’t even mind when they spend hours upon hours trying to solicit funding through the radio waves.
For example, the «No Apologies» track a couple of weeks ago was «Bootlylicious.» I think I can speak on behalf of the XX chromosones of Minneapolis and say that we shamelessly blasted it.

I am not sure I can even put into words how much I love The Current… I had listened whenever I was in their broadcasting area since they started and when I moved back to Rochester this summer it was all I listened to. Why waste battery life on my iPod when the current plays everything I would choose plus SO much more! I must also thank you for posting your playlists online or else I am sure I would have gotten into some kind of accident trying to «Shazamm» all the amazing music you play that I know I must have in my own collection. Is there any better feeling than when a song catches your attention within the first few bars and you can’t wait until you hear it again?
Now I live in Denver and can I say I am not sure how long I would last here if I couldn’t stream The Current while I am at work and at home. I love Minnesota’s music scene and I can’t say how proud of our state I am while I am streaming Local Current.
I absolutely love the 9:30 Coffee Break! Fun musical topics that get you to think more creatively about the music we all love. I try to never miss it. If I can hear Foster The People into Run DMC and then The Beatles I know it will be an amazing day!
I guess what I am trying to say is Thank You MPR for starting this station. You are incredible.

After working in a restaurant for over 3 years and having the same music played over and over and over again in the kitchen, I now realize that I truly, madly, deeply love and enjoy The Current. I never realized how many times a station could play the same Katy Perry song in one day. And no Katy, I have never felt like a plastic bag floating in the wind, thank you.
I love that The Current supports local Minnesota music and introduces you to new music you would have never otherwise heard of, and they also play oldies (yet goodies) like Stevie Wonder or Buddy Holly. Although sometimes the music they play can be questionable, every now and then there’s mariachi-​eque music played, but I still enjoy it’s quirkiness. And I always look forward to the «no apologies» track.
I’m going to be moving out the country soon and I am so happy that I will be able to listen to The Current online, this little plus has made my life complete.
Enough rambling, thank you 89.3 The Current for existing. Me love you long time.
P. S. The Local Current has made me fall deeper in love. Check it out.

89.3…I love you. We’ve had our differences, but now that you’ve given me Local Current streaming to my computer… it’s like we’re falling in love again. A platform for local artists to be heard, only you could have thought of that… and this is why having you in my life… I just lost sight of how important you really are and I am sorry. hugs?

Where do I begin? The Current has accomplished the following in my life:
1) Resurrected my relationship with my sister, as we realized about 4 years ago that we could bond over tracks played on the Current. Then we started going to shows together, spending more time together, and laughing and dancing a whole lot more. Now we’re more tight than ever.
2) Helped me to smile while driving in to the office. I love how beautifully random the playlist on a weekday morning can be… Prince, Florence and the Machine, Vampire Weekend, Elliott Smith, Ryan Adams… basically I can span the gap of 84 different emotions in a 20-​minute car ride. Spectacular.
3) They help bring AMAZING artists to the Twin Cities! The in-​studio performances are mesmorizing.
4) The Current brings our community together over a shared passion for music.

Best radio station ever. Can’t stop listening, even after moving 2000 miles away. Just wish we had such a good station in San Francisco.
As for you just looking for a station, I’d say that I would have given it ~3 stars over the first few months of listening, but then came to realize that what makes it different is what makes it great.

As a former college radio DJ and someone who has lived in 3 different areas of the US, I can honestly this station is one of the best I“ve come across.
A friend got me started listening to The Current 3.5 years ago and I really enjoy the songs that the DJ“s play. You get a aural cornucopia of music. Everything from jazz/​blues to rap. I first learned about Brother Ali on this station and he is one of my favorite hip-​hop/​rap artists now.
Mark Weed and Mary Luccia (sp?) are two of my favorite DJ’s. They constantly please and surprise me. But Mark, in the US, we say Con-​tri-​bution.
Keep on keeping on, The Current. I“ll be listening as much as I can. Thanks for the music.

The best radio station in the country if you want to be exposed to new music, some of their stuff can be a little too obscure but most of it is great. I miss the current, my only choices in my current city are top 40 or country.

I realized how much I enjoyed The Current last year while road-​tripping to South Carolina (or South Cackalacky, as we discovered it is called by their local radio DJs)… I don’t know how many times we heard the auto-​tuned train wreck of a song, «Kiss Me Through The Phone.» ‘Twas rough.
I can remember the days when the only major radio choices in the Twin Cities involved Clear Channel-​like entities. It wasn’t that long ago, because 89.3 has only been around for five years… unfortunately, I think it was long enough to make some of us feel entitled to such good radio, but it’s important to remember that we are the lucky ones.
Most of the country is living without such luxuries like a mainstream radio station that can play whatever they want. They have their KDWBs and their KS95s, but they do not have anything like The Current on their radio waves. Even when I was driving my friends from Chicago around, they were shocked when I told them it wasn’t a mix-​tape coming through the speakers… it was the radio.
The Current has influenced our local music scene like crazy. They have been able to give a voice to a whole host of local bands that are typically ignored by other local radio stations until they make it big. And the DJs are so fantastic! I love Mark Wheat and Mary Lucia. When Mary Lucia and Bob Collins engage in their afternoon banter after the news, I just die. They are always cracking each other up over nothing, and it makes sitting in traffic a lot more entertaining.
Now, I don’t blindly (or is it deafly?) love every single track The Current plays, but they introduce me to the new, the old, the different, the independent and the local, which I can fully support — with my ears and my MPR membership dues.

The hosts have actual personalities, the ticket giveaways are awesome even if I never get through, and the background noise of the radio just keeps me company when I’m cooking/​cleaning/​driving/​ignoring the Boyfriend’s chatter.
I appreciate having a reliable music source, and while some of their tracks make me raise an eyebrow or two, The Current always keeps me tuned.
They also contribute to the local music community in ways that harldy any commercial radio stations do. Rock the Garden is awesome, Rock the Fair is a must see, and all the great Current sponsored events around town are always fun.
Seriously. Thank you for being awesome, The Current. You make the Cities a bit lovelier every day.

I have a new favorite radio station, though admittedly, there isn’t much competition because I didn’t really have a favorite to begin with.
While I have always liked the idea of Seattle’s non-​commercial indie icon KEXP and former Oxford, Ohio’s terrestrial radio now Cincinnati/Austin’s online only WOXY, neither station really satisfies me. KEXP is just too easy listening. They play way too much really quiet, wussie indie music, boring alt-​country and ambient electronic music. Despite its revered hipster status here in the Seattle area, it has become a really sleepy, boring radio station. I can listen for a whole hour and not hear one song that I really enjoy and it will probably make me slip into a deep music induced sleep. WOXY isn’t as boring, but they play a lot of music that is less accessible, less polished — but not in a good way. Don’t ask me to explain, I can’t, it just doesn’t work for me.
While searching around for some good kid’s music — the kindie genre is one that I’ve become really interested in and am thinking about doing a radio show/​podcast — I found Minnesota Public Radio’s HD and internet channel Wonderground Radio. It’s a station that has a nice little mix of music that is kid friendly — some good adult indie music mixed with kid’s artists. The only problem is that it’s completely automated and seems to repeat quite often. But Wonderground Radio led me to the station that it is an offshoot of, The Current — my new favorite radio station.
The Current is basically the same format as both KEXP and WOXY but what it does really well is keep things pretty upbeat. In direct comparison to KEXP, The Current plays most of the same artists, but where KEXP plays a lot of the softer, slower songs off of an artist’s album, The Current plays the faster, poppier, more radio friendly songs. Now instead of not liking a single song over an hour I’m bopping along to virtually an entire hour of music by practically the same artists. Sure they play some softer, slower tracks, but it’s usually the exception instead of the rule. It’s just so much more of a satisfying and exciting listening experience for me. It’s almost exactly what I’ve been looking for in a radio station for a really long time.
Anyway, you can find MPR’s The Current at 89.3 FM in the Minneapolis/​St. Paul area, on the web at
or if you have an iPhone, you can listen on the MPR app.

In the local radio ecosystem, the public radio stations (all three MPR, 88.5, KFAI) are the best not only because of great content but also because they don’t have the irritating commercials (Call 1−800…). I actually enjoy the fundraising and support them because they really do serve a purpose.
I wish The Current would come out with their version of 91.1 (news and information). I like the music but more variety would be great. Maybe an HD version or web only like Radio Heartland?