History of the show with odd little tidbits
Michael Thomas started "Music For Listeners" in August of 1999 after eight years of regular and fill-in work at the station. After being a fan of John Peel's radio show since the early 90's, it was always a goal of Michael's to have a show where he could break format barriers and play whatever sounded good. Music For Listeners is not a rip-off of Peel's show, but more of a companion. John Peel was always the place to hear new music, and MFL tries to carry on the tradition of anything goes. From Brian Eno to Beethoven, to the Buena Vista Social Club, and then back to some classic brit-pop, you'll never know what your ears will hear.
When Michael joined KRTU in 1991, it had the format of classical and jazz; but in order to best serve a missing radio format in San Antonio, it was decided in the summer of 1999 to change the format of KRTU to jazz during the day, and college freeform overnight. "Music For Listeners" started during this transition, and it became the first show of its kind on KRTU.
In the summer of 2000, Michael started playing the most popular segment of the show, "The Mid-Morning Recording". Every week a show is produced, "the listener" can hear a full album presented in a complete, unedited form. In essence, you will hear a collection of songs from a different band every week a show is produced.
In 2004, after a several stints as a co-host, Orlando Torres joined Music For Listeners as a permanent and welcome co-pilot.
Orlando and Michael met in the early 90's while Orlando was producing a public access music video show entitled "Indievision". Orlando's original vision for his program was to spotlight a different band each week through interviews and complete collections of video work. Ride, Sugar, My Bloody Valentine, Lush, The Verve, James, Frank Black, The Breeders, The Wedding Present, Luna, and many others all made appearances on "Indievision". Not too many people know it, but Orlando also has the distinction of playing Radiohead's video for "Creep" before anyone in America. Playing the video only a week after it premered in the U.K. and months before it would be shown on MTV.
Clearly through the editing, interviewing and filming experiences Michael and Orlando had working on "Indievision"; that show's influence slowly made its way into the fabric of Music For Listeners. Now with Orlando as a permanent co-host, Music For Listeners has essentially become a radio version of that video program.
Every week Michael and Orly bring nothing but the best.
New music that no one has heard, and older music that everyone should hear.
Music that can only be heard if you're listening...
Some staples on the show:
In the year 2000 "The Mid-Morning Recording" is launched. Since then, an entire album has been played on the show each week. This way a different band can be showcased each time a show is produced. See what albums we've played here.
In 2004 we began using "Country Mike's Theme" by the Beastie Boys as our theme song. Before Orlando became a permanent co-host on the show in 2004, "Country Mike's Theme" was only played when he was a guest host.
We also usually play a country/folk song for the first song of the show. Good country isn't played on the radio anymore.
In 2005 the website musicforlisteners.com was erected, and now people from around the world can not only hear an encore webcast of the FM broadcast, but also hear exclusive recordings and interviews through our podcast feed.
In 2005 we began using "Sayonara" by the band James for our closing music.
In 2005, we tried to play a Talking Heads song every week.
In 2006, we tried to make each show a special occasion.
In 2007, we played a Poster Children song every week. - In honor of their 20th anniversary
In 2009, we started having daytime parties up in Austin!!!
Music For Listeners
Friday Nights - Saturday Mornings - Midnight to 3 A.M.
KRTU 91.7 FM San Antonio, Texas
Streaming live on www.krtu.org and
all week on www.musicforlisteners.com
History of the Mid-Morning Recording
This
part of the show was first presented as an accident. On July 15th, 2000,
I couldn't decide what song to play from 'The Sophtware Slump' by Grandaddy,
so I just played the whole thing. I liked the idea of playing an album every
week so I added an hour to the show and thus started The Mid-Morning Recording. Since then, Music For Listeners has played an album in its entirety almost every week a show was presented. We might play a classic rock album, we might play a techno album, or a blues album, or an album that was just released. Like the first two hours, this part of the show is so eclectic that it has already had three different names attached: The Bar-Run Record, The 3 A.M. Recording and finally The Mid-Morning Recording. Whatever you want to call it, you should turn your dial to KRTU 91.7 FM in San Antonio, or www.krtu.org everywhere else. It's live every Late Night Friday/early Saturday Morning. (2 A.M. CDT)
These are our favorite albums played as they were meant to be heard.
Michael A. Thomas and Orlando Torres