"'Sesame Street' was built around a single, breakthrough insight: that if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them."
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Malcolm Gladwell, from the book "The Tipping Point"
Lexington, KY - The breakthrough insight that author Malcolm Gladwell alludes to in the above quote has served "Sesame Street" well - on the air since 1969, it is officially the longest running show in television history, and one of the most critically acclaimed. In recent years, this same insight has been at the center of a handful of locally-instituted programs that seek to engage children through music, including "Ages 3 and Up," a Saturday morning radio hour geared toward kids; and the more recent kid-friendly Rock-N-Romp concert series at Al's Bar. An aspect almost as important to these programs as engaging kids, however, is teaching adults that kid-friendly music doesn't have to be torturous for older ears to listen to.
"The children's music genre as a whole has been looked down on for many years, because there have been some artists who have gone on to fame who aren't producing the best quality of music," said Amberly Warnke, founder of the "Ages 3 and Up" radio show, which airs every Saturday morning from 8 -
9 a.m. on WRFL 88.1 FM in Lexington. "Because of that, people don't always think of children's music as a viable form of musical expression. It's just a market that's been overlooked."
Slowly but surely that notion is changing with the help of an emerging music genre known as "kindie rock" that is making waves with parents and kids who genuinely love music. The genre refers to independent ("indie") kid's music, usually created by musicians who have made a name for themselves making music for adults (popular artists in the genre include Lisa Loeb, They Might be Giants and Dan Zanes from Del Fuegos). Kindie rock themes might touch upon popular kid's subjects, such as pirates, animals, numbers and clouds, but stylistically the music sounds much like something you might listen to without your kids in the car -
singer/songwriter, folk, punk rock, you name it.
"One of the really interesting things about (the new kid's music movement) is that a lot of the artists who are making music for kids now were instrumental with college rock and indie rock music - then they had kids, and this is what they write about now," Warnke said. "Chris Beluga from the band the Presidents of the United States of America has a fantastic kids album. Robert Schneider (Apples in Stereo) has a really great one; Medeski, Martin and Wood did one."
A longtime DJ and independent music fan, Warnke has always found it important to incorporate music into her son Oliver's upbringing, but at the same time she always rejected the idea of spoon feeding him popular children's music that was less than satiating to her own taste. About five years ago, while watching a kid's music show with her son on Noggin (a commercial-free Nickelodeon channel that was recently discontinued), Warnke had an epiphany when a music video for the '80s punk/new wave song "I'm a Little Airplane" by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers came on.
"It was the greatest video - it had kids running through the park pretending to be airplanes," she said. "It kind of got stuck in my head, and I started thinking, 'It would be really cool if they started playing songs like this for kids on the radio.'"
At the time, Warnke, who served as a DJ and "7-inch director" for WRFL during the '90s, had been out of the radio loop for a number of years. She regularly made mixed CDs to play in the car for Oliver, who was 3 at the time, but the emerging presence of kid's music created by famous musicians she already loved got her thinking in a new direction. After doing some research, she found that even though there was not much nationally syndicated, kid-friendly programming, there were a handful of shows across the country that operated on a more grassroots level. One that served as an influence for "Ages 3 and Up" is a show she discovered on WFMU in New Jersey, a station after which WRFL is modeled in part, called "The Crazy Kids Show."
The concept of non-commercial media options for kids had always been important to Warnke, and she wanted to see an option in that realm available in Lexington. So in 2005, with her 3-year-old son in tow, Warnke made her re-entry at WRFL after a 10-year hiatus - as a kid's music DJ. "These days, I'm more likely to play songs about robots and songs about video games and 'Star Wars' and things like that," she said. "That comes from having an 8-year-old boy."
Turning It up a Notch
After five years as a kid's music DJ, with lots of urging and encouragement from her listeners and supporters, Warnke made the decision earlier this year to take her radio show up a notch, after noting a void in the availability of national radio programs geared toward children.
"While there is an amazing kids music channel on Sirius radio, that's a pay service and the hosts are a little slicker - Amberly brings the feel of a hands-on storytime, craft-time actual show for the kids," said Kakie Urch, a longtime supporter of Warnke's efforts and a founding member of WRFL. "It fills a niche that has a huge audience, but not many people filling the gaps."
In April, Warnke launched the premiere episode of "Pied Piper Radio," an hour-long kid's radio program designed for syndication on public, college, community and other non-commercial radio stations. The move came after years of being contacted by online listeners of "Ages 3 and Up" who are interested in seeing a radio show for kids in their own communities. "In the past, I've encouraged them to start their own shows, but it recently occurred to me that it might not be so easy for someone who hasn't had the kind of experience I have to just pick it up and do it. 'Pied Piper Radio' is made for those listeners and their communities."
The initial episodes - she has put out one a week since the premiere on April 24 - came about after Warnke overcame a series of obstacles, such as finding distribution and an affordable production site (she didn't want to use the studio of WRFL, a non-profit radio station, for a for-profit project). After coming across the distribution site Public Radio Exchange (PRX) -
an organization that will host the show online and make it available for stations to purchase; she gets royalties with every syndication - Warnke invested in quality USB turntables and a microphone, which she hooks up to her Dell computer. She records the show from home each week.
"It's definitely had its challenges," she said. "I work when my son is asleep, and I treat it like it's a second job. So I work two, three hours a night, Monday through Friday. I put my kid to bed around 9 and I work until midnight."
Still another obstacle lies in convincing the public radio industry of the viability of music that appeals to kids. "In the past the public radio segment has said, 'There's not a market for it,'" Warnke said.
She strongly believes that is changing. "In 2007, our nation had the highest birth rate in its history, surpassing the post-WWII baby boom. So 3-year-olds are definitely around." Warnke also points to a statistic released by the Recording Industry Association of America which reports that sales of children's music increased from .4 percent of the market share in 1999 to 3 percent in 2008 (as a comparison, classical releases sold just 1.9 percent in 2008, and jazz recordings sold 1.1 percent).
While Warnke is holding back on doing a huge marketing push to national radio stations until she feels confident she has worked out every kink involved with self-production, the show is now available for syndication on www.prx.org. In the meantime, Warnke cherishes the experience, which she shares with her son, Oliver, who is now 8.
"I do this for my son. We connect over music - he often helps me make musical selections for our shows, and he helped design PiedPiperRadio.com," she said. "I think it's really important that we, as parents, introduce our kids to many different experiences, including musical ones. Now, especially when music education programs are being cut in public school systems due to lack of funding, it's important for us to teach our kids an appreciation for all the amazing things there are to hear.
"There really is more out there for kids than what you see advertised on television, and I'm glad that I am able to help other parents find it."
You can hear "Ages 3 and Up" every Saturday morning fro 8 - 9 a.m. on WRFL, 88.1 FM in Lexington. Amberly Warnke blogs about her show (posting playlists, etc.) on www.Ages3andUp.blogspot.com. For more information about Pied Piper Radio, visit www.piedpiperradio.com or e-mail piedpiperradio@hotmail.com.