With Laurenti, WUMB aims to make its folk more accessible
WUMB-FM (91.9), the station formerly known as "folk radio," continues its shift toward a younger middle ground with the addition of a commercial radio talent. John Laurenti, who served most recently at Greater Media's WBOS-FM (92.9) and has also worked both on air and behind the scenes at CBS station WZLX-FM (100.7) and Providence Clear Channel station WHJY-FM (94.1), has been named the public station's music director.
"My goal is to build the music foundation of the station," says Laurenti, whose duties include filling in on air. "To be the curator of the library." He talks about bringing in younger listeners, aiming for those in their 30s and 40s, as well as the typical, older folk-music audience. "My main goal is to make us the musical destination for the crowd that listens to [news-talk public station] WBUR," he says.
Laurenti discusses the benefits of his new job, mentioning the freedom to play more local artists and music from smaller labels than he could at a commercial station. Meanwhile, the folks at the University of Massachusetts-Boston station tout the advantages to their side of bringing in someone from the highly competitive commercial side of the medium.
"It's interesting to have somebody who has as many years in so many different radio stations, especially in the Boston market," says Pat Monteith, general manager for the station, which also broadcasts at 91.7 FM from Newburyport and 1170 AM in Orleans. "He knows an awful lot about listeners here and brings a whole different perspective to the station."
The addition of Laurenti, as well as additional staff to be announced next month, is part of the overhaul of the station that began last winter. Some of the change, say WUMB staffers, is in listener perception.
"We haven't made drastic changes," says Laurenti. "It's shuffling the music around. You have to grow with the audience, exposing the listeners . . . without doing anything jarring."
That means changing the station's image for potential new listeners, as well. "If I told someone who listened to WBOS, 'You'd like WUMB,' they'd say, 'Oh, that's folk music,' " he says. "But it's roots music, Americana," much like WBOS and other commercial stations - notably "The River" WXRV-FM (92.5) - play, he adds.
Some of the changes, of course, do involve widening the range of music. Although the station's focus remains on singer-songwriters and roots music, the artists who fall into those categories are being reexamined. "Bruce Springsteen is a folk musician who happens to write great rock songs," says Laurenti, who also names the new Willie Nelson-Wynton Marsalis and John Mellencamp albums as perfect for the new WUMB.
"It's no different than what Keith Lockhart has done with Pops on the Edge," he says. "My goal is to keep the core here but also play some of the stuff that I was playing when I was at WBOS."
"We've never had a bona fide music director before," says Monteith, who explains that the station previously had "music coordinators." One difference, she says, is that Laurenti regularly holds meetings that involve the entire staff in decisions about new music for the station.
"More people will make a better product," she says, "and we're looking at ways to include listeners in that dialogue, too." 