AADL Talks To: Martin Bandyke, Host of Fine Tuning and Former Morning Drive Host at Ann Arbor's 107one

Thu, 11/21/2024 - 9:02pm

When: August 22, 2024

Martin Bandyke studied radio and broadcasting at the University of Michigan, started broadcasting at WDET-FM in Detroit, and eventually capped his long career in Ann Arbor as the morning drive host for 107one. In this interview, Martin takes a personal look back at his career, recalling many of the local community and business partners who helped and supported him along the way and sharing memories of interviews and encounters with musicians in the studio. He also reflects on programming at 107one and changes in the radio industry. 
Check out Martin Bandyke Under Covers, Martin's long-running AADL podcast.

Transcript

• [00:00:09] ELIZABETH SMITH: Hi, this is Elizabeth.
• [00:00:10] AMY CANTU: This is Amy. In this episode, AADL talks to Martin Bandyke. Martin got his start in radio at Detroit's Public Radio and NPR station, WDET, leaving to become Ann Arbor's 107.1 Morning Drive host in 2006, where he worked until his retirement in 2022. Martin tells us about his lifelong interest in music, film, and the arts and how these interests influenced his career in radio and podcasting. Thanks so much for coming, Martin.
• [00:00:43] MARTIN BANDYKE: Thank you for having me. I'm honored. It's such a blast to be here and to be on the other side of the microphone, so to speak.
• [00:00:50] AMY CANTU: That's not your typical routine. We'd like to start first just with a little bit of background. Can you tell us what brought you to Ann Arbor? I think we know, but give us a little background on what you came to Ann Arbor for, and what you studied.
• [00:01:05] MARTIN BANDYKE: Absolutely. Well, I attended the University of Michigan, graduated in 1976 with a BA in the Speech Department, majoring in -- surprise, surprise -- radio TV, and film. Through the first two years, I was doing all the prerequisite courses, for the most part, and trying to figure out what might appeal to me. I stumbled into, I think it might have been first a film class with probably Frank Beaver, the incredible legendary, University of Michigan professor, and immediately, it clicked right there and then both of my -- I have two older sisters who both attended U of M, and I never even thought about going any place else. The first couple of years though were a little tough for me. I had a know-it-all late teenage sensibility, like Oh, I'll breeze through this; I'm just living for the day, or whatever, and it was like Wow. Classes were pretty difficult, surprise, surprise. [LAUGHTER] But once you find something you love, everything seemed to change at that point. I was a fan of music in radio -- lifetime; music, most likely, because on my dad's side of the family, because he played piano, and he worked for his brother-in-law's hole-in-the-wall indie record store in northwest, Detroit. So when I was 5, or 6 years old, my dad would be coming home with albums by Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus, and Van Cliburn and show tunes. This is a pre-Beatles even. It was... it was magic. It was enthralling from a young age. Then going into the '60, the real glory days of still AM radio, Keener 13, AM, CKLW and then underground radio, WABX once you got into the FM format, and that what led me into radio. I was also an avid musician playing in a couple of bands, playing drums in a couple of groups. The one band that was called the Zooks Z-O-O-K-S, the other one Retro. Especially Retro. We played a lot, late punk new wave -- I hate that term -- days in the late 70s and early 80s. When the final band I was in, I think it was called Assembly, broke up, I literally started doing a show a WDET FM in Detroit. And that became, you know, a volunteer weekend host, and then got a full-time job in 1990, a 5-day-a-week show in 1991, and that lasted till '05. Then it was in January of '06 that I started at Ann Arbor's 107one as the morning drive host, and hired by the program or the general manager at that time, Bob, who was the visionary of the format that we still have to this day. At first, when I interviewed, I thought I was interviewing for the program director position. Well, I was interviewing for the program director position, but after a little while, Bob said, No, I'm thinking you're going to work better as maybe the morning host, and I was like, Sure, whatever works. But in the back of my mind going, "I'm not a morning person, but that's okay. I'm going to become one." It worked out very well. I retired just under two years ago in December of 2022. Still do my weekend show, my Sunday afternoon show "Fine Tuning."
• [00:05:09] AMY CANTU: Congratulations on your retirement.
• [00:05:10] MARTIN BANDYKE: Thank you, Amy.
• [00:05:13] ELIZABETH SMITH: You touched a little bit on your musical influences. Were there any performances in Ann Arbor specifically that had a great influence on you?
• [00:05:25] MARTIN BANDYKE: One of the earliest ones, I still think about it to this day. It was a dance performance, actually, that had music in it, of course. It was the Merce Cunningham dance company presented by the University Musical Society. It was one of the first times I think I drove myself to Ann Arbor. It was I checked the date yesterday, 1971, and I got my driver's license in November of '70. I went primarily because the avant-garde composers and performers John Cage and David Tudor were providing the music to these dances that were choreographed and featuring Merce Cunningham, who I enjoy. But I was there for the music and went through this phase with John Cage, where he basically said anything could be music and blew my mind. It was Keith Richards, John Cage for a while, they were my two big musical heroes. I remember being slightly late finding a parking space and walking into this performance of a piece called Rainforest. With the dancers on stage, they were dancing around and through these silver pillows designed by Andy Warhol. The rest of the set the curtains were all pulled. You just saw the back of the auditorium, and the music for that piece was done by David Tudor. Sounded like you were in an Amazon, a jungle and Amazon, with like it's all an electronic score, but it sounded like crickets and wildlife. I thought, I've never seen or experienced anything like this before in my life. That was a big one. Then in terms of rock performances, there are a lot seeing the Police and XTC at the Michigan Theater. XTC did not tour that much because their leader Andy Partridge had severe anxiety problems being on stage. But, I didn't realize it at the time that I would never see this band again. The Police were in their heyday too, this is about 1980 or so or something like that. So many. I think by venues, perhaps the most moving rock show I ever saw was Tom Waits at the Power Center. This is when I really discovered him when he had changed his sound from the drunken poet at the piano, and he went in a more avant guarde direction with albums like Swordfish Trombones, and Rain Dogs. And I still remember it as one of those rare concerts where I was literally crying and laughing at the same time because his music -- like the greatest artists, whoever, Thelonious Monk -- just seemed to capture every aspect of life, the beauty, the sadness, and it was this real genius stuff. What else at the Michigan Theater, you know performances by The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Power Center, also, my friends Los Lobos, hosting them. I've adored their music and supported them for years, and just to bring them out on stage is always an utterly thrilling moment. There's a whole bunch.
• [00:09:04] AMY CANTU: I want to go back to something you said a few minutes ago about "New Wave." You don't like that term. Can you tell us why you don't like it?
• [00:09:12] MARTIN BANDYKE: I associate the term with, as they were called then, the "haircut bands," that were more concerned about the way they looked, perhaps, than the way they sounded. I like the term more in terms of new wave filmmakers, like Jean Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, then the musical term. I just prefer "alternative music" or something like that or "post-punk." I'm okay with the term punk rock and stuff like that. But "new wave" sounds so disposable to me. Maybe that's an incorrect way of thinking, but they're... Some of my favorite bands really came of age in my 20s listening to, or who were from that era who I still really enjoy a lot: Joy Division and New Order. A lot of British bands from this long... I mean, I love American bands too, but I'm just an insane anglophile too, starting with Beatles and Kinks and all of that stuff.
• [00:10:22] AMY CANTU: Has your musical taste changed over the years? You've been immersed in music for your whole life, and you've been meeting people, talking with groups, performers. What's changed?
• [00:10:36] MARTIN BANDYKE: That's a really good question, Amy. I may gravitate now, especially with post-pandemic -- I don't know if we are post-pandemic -- but ever since the pandemic started, the one change seems to be -- and I think this is age-related too. I'm going to be 70 in November -- I've always gravitated towards music that gives you hope, gives you a feeling of catharsis. But I feel more than ever, that I want to play music, I want to listen to music that -- this sounds hokey, I don't mean it too -- but that has some sense of healing, some sense of unity. If you're going to just come out and say, "The world sucks nothing, everything's meaningless, everything's stupid, we're all going to die." It's like, I'm not interested in that. I knew that when I was 7 years old. I don't want to share that with listeners. I think life became so precious when were losing people. In the studio next to us, a host almost passed away in the early days of COVID. It was just so horrific that, I think if there's been a change, certainly recently, I think it's that. Not like everything I play has got to be "kumbaya, everything is fine in the world." We know it's not. But I think that would be the major thing for me.
• [00:12:21] AMY CANTU: That's really interesting.
• [00:12:22] ELIZABETH SMITH: Back to your start in radio, you said that you were working at WDET.
• [00:12:30] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yes.
• [00:12:30] ELIZABETH SMITH: For how many years?
• [00:12:32] MARTIN BANDYKE: A long time. I started as a host in February of '83, and then was at the station until December of '05, so almost 23 years or so, so a long time. I had been an avid listener of the station well before '83. First got on the air as a guest. The lead singer in the band that I was in at the time, Retro, who was accomplished writer, poet. new folks who hosted a show called Dimension on WDET, which was a writing-focused program. Then also played some music as well. I got invited through my friend, the late Jim Atkinson, lead singer of Retro, who knew the hosts of the show, George Tish, and Jim Wanless and Dennis Teichman. I was working full time at a record store which is still around, Dearborn Music, and I was the import and indie music buyer at that time. I brought a couple of import, hard-to-find records from the early '80s and hit it off with the hosts of the show. They said, Come back next week. That went well. Ralph Valdez, who was the bass player in Retro, and also a gigantic music fan as well, we kept showing up every week as guests on Dimension. After just a couple months, we ended up inheriting the show. All of the hosts, starting with George Tish, I believe, and then the other host, said, We want to focus our energy elsewhere, would you like to do the show? We're like, My God, yes! We were on, it was a late evening shift; I think it was like Sunday nights, like 10 to midnight, graveyard shift stuff, not a ton of listeners. Did that show until I got hired full-time at WDET as assistant music director in 1990. It was a year later in 1991, I started to do the late morning show right after Morning Edition, and then about a year later did that mid-afternoon shift, usually, like 1: 00 till 4:00 or thereabouts. In '95 became the music director at WDET. That was such a blast because the station... Detroit back then was a top 10 market ratings market. We played such a wide variety of music there. We had the opportunity to have -- and we had a beautiful, and still do, there's a beautiful music studio at WDET -- we could have, my God, 15-piece bands in, or Bruce Cockburn with an acoustic guitar, everything in between. That was one of my absolute favorite aspects of hosting that show, was the live music broadcast, because anything could happen. It was really the adrenaline -- whenever that mic went on every time, we did live performances -- was special.
• [00:16:01] AMY CANTU: You cut your teeth interviewing then, too. Can you share any stories or any memorable interviews?
• [00:16:11] MARTIN BANDYKE: Oh, sure. There's tons. I've been asked before who's my favorite person I've ever interviewed. That's an easy answer, and I'm doing a big tribute to him this Sunday, because he turned 70: Elvis Costello. We were born in the same year. He's absolutely my favorite singer or songwriter of my generation from that same time period that I was born. He had this reputation, still does, of not suffering fools gladly. I interviewed him backstage, and he's getting, right around the time, he's doing a soundtrack at Pine Knob. It was the last time he performed with this original band The Attractions. I overprepared for that interview because I was reasonably terrified, quite terrified. First question was this this softball underhanded pitch over the plate, "Mr. Costello...uh...I'm sure you must have listened to some music from Detroit growing up. What was perhaps your favorite..." I'm exaggerating. I'm nervous. I was, but can you name someone who was really important to you from Detroit? His first answer, I felt like it went on beautifully for 10 minutes, and it was about a Motown act -- I forget which one, forgive me. Probably the Four Tops of The Temptations -- He's describing the front cover, the back cover of the album. We just locked in from there it went. This is like a brother I never had or something. He's just so -- not just a musical encyclopedia, which he is -- but the passion that he has and the depth of it. When the, whoever the tour manager said, "Guys come on, that's enough." I was like, Oh, my God. We've been talking for, like, 35 minutes." It felt like it was two seconds. Then a little later, a couple of years later, I interviewed him at the, I think it was called the State Theater, now the Fillmore, in Detroit. He remembered me, and it was really fun. We sat in his dressing room, which was really tiny and we ended up just sitting on the floor. There wasn't enough room for us to be comfortable on the little couch in there. We felt like two little teenage boys gabbing about music. Finally, I heard this little sound and it was his set lists being pushed under the door. He looked at it and said, "I'm sorry, Martin, but I've got to go on stage right now." We had talked right up until the time that he was ready to take the stage. He, in particular, was really special. But there's so many. I think the fun interviews just have no parallel for me, but the learning experiences are the tough ones. Before we turn the mic on we were talking about my first interview with David Gray.
• [00:19:28] AMY CANTU: Tell us about that.
• [00:19:28] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yeah. You know, I love David Gray, but the particular album that he was out on tour supporting was not one that I played all that much. I love you, David. If you ever hear this, you truly are an artist I regard highly, and for some reason, this album didn't click that much with me, and that makes one have to really dig with the prep, because if you sound disinterested, the artist is going to know, the audience is going to know. You need to find something to talk about that will be of interest. The first couple of questions weren't really going anywhere. Again, I don't mean to stereotype in any way. I've had a few English-British musicians on that were really talkative, but I've had a number of British artists who were on there, they're quite reserved at first. There is something about our Midwestern "Hey, how are you?!" sensibility that's in my mind, a real thing. I was having a tough time breaking the wall with him, with the interview almost in desperation after a couple of questions and answers that didn't really go anywhere. He was dressed really nicely and he had on this incredible pair of shoes like, bespoke shoes that looked like they cost more than the Honda I was driving at the time. I made some off-handed joking reference, like, "Wow, I can't help but notice that really snazzy pair of shoes you got on David. Where did you get those?" He, finally cracked a smile, laughed, and everything changed after that in the interview. It broke the ice, and we were able to talk about the album and talk about his career, and it went a lot more smoothly. It's like the way I tried to approach interviews. Yeah, do all the prep, have your questions, and then get ready to just throw them all out, if the interview is going in a certain direction, usually a really good one where you don't even have to look at what you've got next, because it's a conversation, not a Q&A. Those are the best ones. But over the years, it's just... there's so many. The toughest interview overall, of course -- and me, as other people have gone through -- Lou Reed was utterly impossible.
• [00:21:59] AMY CANTU: Tell us about that.
• [00:22:00] MARTIN BANDYKE: Again, one of the... a genius, someone beyond influential, and when he was alive for the longest time this reputation of just eating up journalists, of hating them. I always found it so strange to me. I'm thinking to myself, Why are you even doing interviews then? I got offered an interview with him and thought it was going to be taped. I thought, Well, that helps, because then I can be ready to edit if he hangs up. It was a phone interview. Again, I overprepared, and I avoided all the things you shouldn't do in interviews. You don't start an interview, talking to a legendary artist, talking about that album that made them legendary 40 years ago. You don't talk to Lou Reed and say, "How did you record White Light White Heat?" They're there to promote their new album. You start with questions about the album, you really do, because artists who've been around are sick and tired of talking about, at least for the first couple of questions, about their famous album that everybody knows. They're pushing their new release. I talked about that. I talked about, like, that he worked really hard on the guitar sound, amplifications, and the special amplifiers he was using. He was literally saying things like, "Why are you asking me that? Why do you think your listeners even want to know that?" I was just thinking like, "Oh, my God." I mean, he was really -- I hate to say this because I revere him -- but he was really obnoxious. He knew he was being it. That was part of Lou Reed. Not all artists are nice people. I'd say about 98% of the people I've had the honor of speaking to over the years are really sweet and kind-hearted. He's not one of them, and that's okay. The interview, I edited down, I think it was five minutes or something like that. There wasn't too much that I could use. But it was a learning experience. You just try to find something that we can talk about. Very little in the case of Lou Reed.
• [00:24:13] ELIZABETH SMITH: When you say you over-prepared, what was your typical preparation like for an interview?
• [00:24:20] MARTIN BANDYKE: Thoroughly listening to -- depending if it's a brand new artist, and they just have one album out -- again, I go back like pre-Internet days. Sometimes you didn't really have a lot of material beyond like a two-page press release from the record label. Obviously, over the years, you're able to look up more about certain artists. I remember the first time I interviewed, well, I had Wilco for a full band tape performance and was not as familiar with the band as I should have been. It's what you might expect, going back, listening repeatedly to the entire catalog, looking at the lyrics, looking at other interviews, looking at other press about the band. Pretty basic stuff, but just trying to cover all the bases, especially being really careful. You've got that biographical material. You don't accidentally ask a question that's really not a good thing to perhaps start with, like, "Oh, gee, you name -- say I didn't prepare right for an interview -- why did you name your first song "Carol"? Well, that was my wife's name, who just passed away last month.
• [00:25:51] AMY CANTU: You don't want to do that. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:25:52] MARTIN BANDYKE: Stupid moron. That's crushingly obvious, but you'd be surprised that certain hosts who just... "I don't need to know anything"... just turn on the mic and here we go. It's like, I never was a believer in that. The more you know, the better, about the artist. But again, it's that feeling, Don't get stuck having to go, "I didn't ask question number 8 out of 10." It's like, Hey, if it's going well, don't worry about it. You can just go in any direction.
• [00:26:30] AMY CANTU: You came to Ann Arbor eventually, and the transition from WDET to 107one must have been interesting. Can you talk about your approach?
• [00:26:43] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yeah. From being on a non-commercial station like WDET to a commercial station like Ann Arbor's 107one, musically, it's different on WDET. I would bring in a stack of albums and CDs, and you are creating this three-hour medley of sorts broken up by news at the top of the hour and announcements and things like that. Not in the sense of I never approached it -- it was a music show I did on WDET, but it was never "I'm just going to randomly throw this in, throw that in." It really never was like that. You started with the... It's very important, the first song that you played, to set the tone. Then see where you go from there and I still believe to this day to try to connect the dots between artists. If you're going to play a brand new artist, an artist that listeners may not be familiar with. What can you also play that is somewhat reminiscent of that artist that people do know? The whole point is to get people to listen and not to alienate them, whatever format it is, and sometimes at WDET -- and thank you, listeners -- you would go out on a limb, sometimes. Like when the composer John Cage passed away and they played some of his work and some of that stuff is about as experimental as you can get and I remember getting some eyebrows raised by my program director at the time. Like, really? John Cage was important to me. But going into the world of commercial radio on 107one -- and I knew this, and I was great with this -- I got asked this very directly by Bob Bolak, who hired me at 107one. How's Martin Bandyke going to deal working at a radio station where you're not controlling this playlist? You can make suggestions and things like that, but you are not the program director. The songs are going to be there on your computer screen, and that's what you're playing. How are you going to work with that? Are you going to be happy with that? I was like Yeah, I am totally fine with that. I understand how commercial radio works. I don't have any problem with that at all. I was also very quickly given my Sunday show "Fine Tuning" by Bob Bolak, bless his heart. He said that is your WDET-style show. You can play anything. He literally said to me, "You can fart down the air for two hours and that would be okay," jokingly. To this day, there's no restrictions. I play classical, I play jazz on that show. I play blues, folk old, new music. I still have that. People who want to hear the Martin Bandyke from the WDET days, you've got that. But also coming in as the morning host, there's more to it than music, obviously. Bob Bolak said, You need to think of yourself as the morning mayor of Ann Arbor. You need to talk about what's going on in the city. Culturally I want you to bring in the guests, and I wasn't directed who, but, like, the guests who you think are important, culturally. Obviously, that was easy. Russ Collins, Michigan Theater, Matthew VanBesien, UMS, all of the non-profits that we worked in. That became one of the most absolutely satisfying parts of doing the morning show. 107one has had a long relationship with Food Gatherers, being the media partner for "Rockin' for the Hungry" for years before I started there. Bob Bolak also said, Bring in some other non-profits that you are passionate about and have them as regulars. I'm a gigantic animal lover and advocate. Our cats are our children at the Kim Salarski-Martin Bandyke household. Shortly after I started at the station, I started doing a pet-of-the-week adoption segment with Deb Kern initially at the Humane Society of Huron Valley, and then Wendy Welch after that. It's been a really wonderful, fulfilling relationship. We had them on when they broke ground for their current facility. I've been the host for their "Walk-n-Wag" fundraiser for going on close to 20 years now. That's been satisfying. That's been really different working for a non-profit like WDET. I didn't do interviews like that with the equivalent, say Gleaners, Food Bank or something like that. The interviews I did were almost always focused on musicians. But very different on 107one. I love that aspect of it, and I think that listeners did too. It was different. I learned real quickly. I remember, right around the time I started at 107one. I did an interview with, it was probably Barb Chaffer Authier of The Ark about the announcement for the Ann Arbor Folk Festival for probably '06 right after I started, and I played a song by one of the headlining artists. I made the decision on my own that, "Well, gosh it's the most important music event arguably of the year in Ann Arbor, the Folk Festival." Was very quickly -- and I love you, Bob, and thank you. I learned -- he came in and said "You shouldn't do that." I was like Okay. I just thought that because it's a headlining act, I think it was John Pryne at the time and thought, it's a really well-known act, and it's like, No, a lot of people don't know who that is. The interview is enough. You can play the artist on your "Fine Tuning" show. I'm like okay. I may not have personally agreed with that, but it was all right, that's how things work at the station, and it's okay. There were certain things where it was like, "Oh wow, ok, all right we going to stay in the lanes here." For those who go, Well, that's ridiculous, look at our ratings, man. We had the first year -- and it wasn't just me, but I had perhaps a little bit something to do with it -- the ratings, once I began at the station, were I think the greatest in the station's history. We were doing something right. It was really important for 107one and still has to be part of the community. I just walked over here from the next to last Sonic Lunch concert, where there are probably over 1,000 people screaming their support of Andrew Horowitz of Tally Hall, one of the greatest bands ever who I've ever had the pleasure of having on the air. They played a concert for me in honor of me on my first day that I started 107one at Bivouac. They are just the greatest people. I'm sorry I'm just going off the track here.
• [00:35:00] AMY CANTU: No, we want to hear more about the Sonic Lunch because we couldn't find parking very easily. [LAUGHTER] We were planning to complain to you about that.
• [00:35:09] MARTIN BANDYKE: I know I barely made it in the lot, too -- the underground lot by the library here.
• [00:35:12] AMY CANTU: I know.
• [00:35:13] MARTIN BANDYKE: A lot of people from out state to see Andrew even though the band has been inactive for a long time. Their second album came out in what, 2011. They're on officially hiatus, but I would be shocked if they ever played together all five members, but still have an incredible following. And like new listeners. I was looking at the audience when Andrew was playing today. A lot of people who are really, far younger than their original audience. Good guys. Good people.
• [00:35:53] ELIZABETH SMITH: Are you involved in organizing Sonic Lunch?
• [00:35:56] MARTIN BANDYKE: I'm on the committee that gets together in winter to put together the lineup. It's obviously Tim Marshall, the president, the CEO, Bank of Ann Arbor. God bless you, Tim -- and I got another story that, if you want to hear it, about how he saved my job when I got let go -- but he founded Sonic Lunch, and, of course, Matthew Altruda, another dear friend of mine, who does the Tree Town Sound show after my "Fine Tuning" show on Sundays. It's just absolutely paramount in terms of booking the acts. Then on the 107one side of things, it's currently myself, along with Mark Copeland, who's our program director, and afternoon drive host. Then Scott Vertical, who is our sensational morning drive host, who took over after I retired in late '03. Also, sitting in is Heather Herman from Bank of Ann Arbor, Sarah Booth, from Bank of Ann Arbor. But Tim and Matthew are the dynamic duo in terms of putting the lineup together. But we're the media partner, and we have certainly contributed and helped bring acts to Liberty Plaza. including very memorably, Michael Franti and Spearhead a couple of years ago, which was a magical show. Again, Los Lobos, who are so near and dear to me. We had them booked one year when the pandemic happened, and we couldn't have them perform, but we finally got them a couple of years ago. That was really special. Yeah, it's always been done jointly. Tim has just got the most open ears and sometimes an open checkbook too [LAUGHTER] because it helps. Bands are getting more and more expensive too. They really are. It's sometimes shocking -- groups that are really quite new who we try and pursue -- and it's, They wan how much? Really? A lot of festivals these days, I think I attribute that to, because festivals can just throw lots of money at artists who perform. Sometimes it gets them out of reach for us. Sometimes you got to grab people at the right time, saying they're going to be on their way to Lollapalooza, in Chicago, and we can get them for an afternoon gig, and they can play a show at Lollapalooza that day or the next day, or I think in the case of Michael Franti and Spearhead after they played at Sonic Lunch. They played in Toledo, I think, the same night. You have to hit that timing thing, it can count for a lot.
• [00:38:57] ELIZABETH SMITH: I was curious about how 107one evolved over the years that you were there.
• [00:39:04] MARTIN BANDYKE: Let's see, when I started the station's format had been in effect for about a year and a half, perhaps two years. You could probably check that on Wikipedia, but it was still relatively new. At that time, our general manager, who I've mentioned repeatedly was Bob Bolak and Brad Savage was our program director and Mark Copeland, who is our current program director, he was music director at that time. Things really got shaken up during the recession and where I got let go just for financial reasons by our company Cumulus, and later, Mark Copeland also got let go, as well. Even before that, when I was hired, the station was owned by Clear Channel, and it was about a year later that the station was sold to Cumulus, which still owns the station to this day. There are four stations in our building, us, 107one, W4, the great country station, WTKA, the equally great sports talk station, and WLBY, the talk station with our mainstay Lucie Ann Lance. Once the station changed from Clear Channel to Cumulus ownership, Bob Bolak and Brad Savage, the GM and program director, left very quickly, and I'd only been at the station for a little over a year. When there are big changes like that, that always gets you nervous because when there are changes, sometimes it can be wholesale changes, across the board. But luckily, I still stayed as the morning host, and had a great partnership with Chris Ammel, who was the program director for many years until the time that I retired and Chris left the station a few months after I did. Chris Ammel and Brad Savage's skills as program directors were fantastic, really brilliant. I mean Chris Ammel -- the research that he would do about music and what stations were playing certain songs. There's such an art to what song follows another song. The listener may not really think about that. Hopefully, you're not. You're just enjoying the groove and enjoying the music. But it's so carefully put together, and Chris was always very adamant. "I don't want there to be too many slow songs in your show, Martin, from 6:00-10:00 AM. People are getting up. They're getting motivated. I love the Cowboy junkies, but I don't want to play them that much because most of their stuff is way too slow, and I don't want to put people to sleep. Not every single song has to be wildly upbeat, but there needs to be a flow to the music that keeps people feeling caffeinated, feeling awake by what is being played." We did for a while to a great segment Studio A2 On the Road at the Borders L1 store across from the Michigan Theater and that ran right when I started in 2006, until gosh, when did Borders go under? I don't have that exact date.
• [00:42:53] ELIZABETH SMITH: 2011.
• [00:42:53] MARTIN BANDYKE: Something like that. That was really fun, particularly fun times. I was a host of those Studio A2 On the Road. I did my show was 6:00-10:00 AM. Then most of the Studio A2 On the Road events at Borders happened like around noon, sometimes later. There was even the occasional one that was in the evening, notably Patty Smith, when she read from Just Kids. That was right when the book came out, too. I knew it was a great book, but I didn't know it was going to get -- she's known by many people for that book more than any of her albums. It's such an incredible book. That was fun. Again, I like the live stuff. I know some fellow hosts -- and if you're not nervous, especially when you're in a different location, it's comforting to be in the studio and the mixing board is there and your coffee, where everything is. But then to be out at Borders, and you've got this live audience sometimes this close to you and you're waiting for the countdown. The adrenaline is really pumping, but I love those moments. We had big bands, too, Barenaked Ladies. We had the Avett Brothers. We had Suzanne Vega, we got Patty Smith, who was reading. She wasn't performing, reading. Oh gosh, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings performed, Patty Griffin, just tons of people. That was a really fun several-year stint of those Studio A2 On The Road events. The music, it evolves over time. It was a few years before that I retired that we started to play less music from the '60s, which was a little tough when I originally [LAUGHTER] heard that because I'm a baby boomer, and it was, like, Really? Nothing by the Beatles or the Stones or Dylin or Joni Mitchell, and... But I get it. Times change. People get older. The core demographic you're really shooting for is at 25-54 listenership. As painful as it could be, to me, turning 70 this year, it's like, Well, the Beatles started their first tour of North America 60 years ago this week - it's a long time ago. I'll always treasure that music, but I think, Time moves on. That's inevitable. That's why you have an astute program director who can get past the personal stuff. I think that's why Chris and I had... Because we worked together for so long, I admired his ability to program the way he did. I think he admired me being the blubbery, emotional guy who couldn't get on the air for a week after David Bowie died without breaking down in tears. That was a good partnership. It really was. Listeners like that, I always felt, when I break that wall, it's the most the initially embarrassing thing to, I just want to talk about music. I don't want to sit and hear me cry about someone. I remember, even after the third or fourth time, I kept getting choked up about Bowie's death, which hit me particularly hard. I literally was getting calls from listeners going, Will you stop apologizing about being emotional? We are too, and we're grieving, and you're helping us. Don't apologize for your emotions. That's part of why we listened to you. I'm like, Okay, All right.
• [00:46:56] AMY CANTU: That probably was nice to hear?
• [00:46:57] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yes, hard to put into words how much that meant, because there are moments like that where you're naked, the emotions are just there where you feel -- and I guess it's corny -- but they're there with me. it's intimate. Radio's intimate. People are in bed listening to you. They're naked in the shower, hearing your voice. I would get more than one person say, "I wake up with Martin Bandyke every morning." I get it. I grew up listening to that. There's a little bit of mystery, too, because you don't necessarily know what the person looks like. You just hear the voice in your ears. There's a little bit of mystery and intimacy there, I suppose.
• [00:47:48] AMY CANTU: When you were let go and brought back -- you were going to tell us that story -- was it that empathy and that relating to the audience that helped? Tell us about that.
• [00:48:00] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yes, that was during the recession. I think it was right around February of 2009. Chris Ammel, our program director came into the studio right at 10:00 AM. When my show ended on the Friday. Right around that time, a lot of people were losing their jobs. My sister got let go from her longtime job at Ford a little bit before I did. Chris walked into the studio with an utterly stricken look on his face. And I knew. He said, "Martin, you got to come down."
• [00:48:31] MARTIN BANDYKE: GM Scott Meier needs to meet with you, and I knew what was happening, and I'm like, God, I'd only been with the station for barely three years, I just felt like... And Chris had just been there for -- we'd switch ownership from Clear Channel to Cumulus -- for maybe two years. It was still pretty pretty new and I'm like, Oh my God, what am I going to do? Scott Meier says, it's not your fault or anything, it's a recession, cuts are happening across the board at other stations. I packed up my stuff and left and a couple days later, I was talking to Chris, and he said, Do you know what's going on here? He said people won't stop calling. They are furious. People are not going to listen or not listening anymore to the station because you got let go. Advertisers are furious, and I'm like, Wow, really? That's so nice, but in the back of my mind going Well, but that doesn't get me my job back. Literally, I was filing for unemployment and got a call from Tim Marshall, the president of Bank of Ann Arbor, one of our biggest supporters, biggest sponsors of the station. He said, "Martin, would you mind if I called Lew Dickey, the President of Cumulus, to discuss you losing your job and see if there's anything I can do?" And I'm like, Bless you, Tim. Really? Yes, I wouldn't mind it at all. My goodness. We hung up and I thought, He is just the sweetest man in the known universe, but I know this business. People don't get their job back after they get let go. It just doesn't happen. Radio stations, TV stations move on. It doesn't happen. Tim Marshall talks to Lew Dickey. I get a call the next day from my general manager, Scott Meier, saying, Can you come down here tomorrow and meet with me? I'm like, what the hell is going on? Long story short. I was offered my job back. It was a big news story in my business. I heard from my former general manager, WDET, and Karen Mathis and many other people like, Do you know how lucky you are? Like, this does not happen? It was ultimately Tim Marshall's phone call, but it was the support of everyone on my behalf that really swung the whole deal. Scott Meier made that decision, this guy has meaning in this community. I was not going to be replaced with anyone, apparently. There was just going to be music that was going to be played in the morning, which I don't think would have made for a terribly good morning show anywhere, especially in Ann Arbor, where the most listened-to station is WUOM, the NPR station, and I think we filled -- and the station still fills -- a need that, not every station could be everything to everyone. Always felt like, ok, if people aren't listening to public radio, hopefully they're listening to 107one, because we aim for an intelligent presentation. We never did dopey shtick on the morning show. We still don't. We don't act stupid. We don't make people do dumb things to win tickets, we just say we're giving away tickets to see Bob Dylan, like, Call the number, we'll take the fourth caller. That's worked over the years. But it was a real moment. I felt just humbled and fortunate to keep doing what I love doing, 'cause I was at that stage when that happened, what was I? Let's see in '09, what was I, 50 or something like 50-something? I'm born in '54. In my 50s, 55, and I was like, my God, what am I going to do? I just didn't have any idea, I couldn't retire that young. That was quite an experience to go through. Mopping his brow. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:53:05] ELIZABETH SMITH: The motto, "It's different here." What sets Ann Arbor apart from other places and allows such a broad range of artistic output? Do you see this as having changed over the years?
• [00:53:18] MARTIN BANDYKE: University town, really smart creative environment. I've been coming to shows here since I got my driver's license, Merce Cunningham. I haven't even mentioned that much -- other than referring to Russ Collins -- what a film lover I am. The arts scene here, we've got one of the greatest film festivals of anywhere in the world, experimental film festivals. My God, we are talking about Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. They played at one of the first Ann Arbor film festivals! I just don't think that that's changed. You have UMS presenting, along with classical music and jazz, very progressive theater that again, a lot of it is very experimental, not for everyone. I don't know, Ann Arbor is the place because when you've got a college as a university as good and progressive as this one, I think that that wouldn't exist without the university and without the astute cultural mainstays that we have, the UMS and the Summer Festival, and the Ark, who are so incredibly important. I didn't even mention them, the shows I've seen there over the years. To be able to see Marianne Faithful, perform in a space that intimate. My God, or Bettye LaVette. I don't think it's changed.
• [00:55:15] AMY CANTU: You also have written a lot. You've written for the Free Press, annarbor.com, so how do you approach that? How different is that?
• [00:55:23] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yes, I have not written for the Free Press now in quite a long time. I think I'm retired from being a freelancer. I think the last piece I did for the Free Press was several years ago. But the avid listener of my show WDET was the deputy entertainment editor, Steve Byrne, who I still know well, and Terry Lawson, the then-film critic was a regular on my show WDET and it's worked through Terry Lawson Gee, do you think, maybe the Free Press might be interested in some album reviews, and it's through Terry Lawson and Steve Byrne that I got a pretty steady gig doing interviews, reviewing a lot of albums at a regular column and the Sunday paper. We alternated between the staff critics, Brian McCallum, and others and myself, where every Sunday, we would alternate writing about music and reviewing albums. Before that, I used to write for the Detroit Metro Times too. Always freelance stuff. I always enjoyed it. I still do a little bit of writing. I write the weekly blurbs for Sonic Lunch and I love it, but I agonize way more... Writing, for some reason, doesn't come easily to me like being on the air does. I'm always so jealous of my wife, who's a fabulous writer. She works at the Detroit Athletic Club as their editor there for primarily works on their monthly publication, the DAC News and she can have, a deadline 10 minutes away, and just, would write an article like that, and it'd be picture perfect. I'm like, How do you do that? I'm sitting with my laptop blank for an hour going, "The new Elvis Costello album is really good." [LAUGHTER] I could usually come up with something, reasonable, halfway compelling, but it took me a long time to learn how to write a lead and make things interesting. Writing is... Not too much going on these days, but I'm still involved. I did the Martin Bandyke Undercover podcast for years for the Ann Arbor District library, and still host some book events here and other events. This year, I'm hosting an Oscar preview. I've been doing that for many years, and I've got some other library events coming up. In fact, I got to pitch some more ideas to the AADL for some author events. There's a new book coming out about the MC5 who are releasing an album, sadly, after the passing of their two surviving members, Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson. But there's a book about them that's coming out this fall.
• [00:58:37] AMY CANTU: They're getting inducted into the Hall of Fame.
• [00:58:39] MARTIN BANDYKE: Finally inducted in the Hall of Fame after every member has passed away, at least Dennis Thompson, their great drummer, knew that they were going to be inducted before he passed. That's something. But who would ever thought of a new MC5 album, 50-plus years after the last one. I've heard parts of it. It's excellent.
• [00:59:00] AMY CANTU: Really?
• [00:59:01] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yes. It sounds good. Sounds like them. Lot of special guests on it.
• [00:59:06] ELIZABETH SMITH: I was curious what your thoughts were on how radio has changed since your career first began, and what do you see for its future?
• [00:59:15] MARTIN BANDYKE: That's another really good question. I was just talking about my lovely, beautiful wife who doesn't listen to the radio at all [LAUGHTER] and saying, "God, honey, I love you so much. You make me feel so useless. This is my career." This is a conversation we had years ago, and I was like, really? We live in Harper Woods, so we can't get the air signal for 107.1 on our car for where we live. I couldn't say, You don't listen to me, but like you don't listen to any music on the radio. Well, no, I've got Spotify. Well, what about traffic? Don't you listen to WWJ? She's like, well, no, there's a traffic app. Well, don't you listen to NPR for the news? She's like, no, I get all my news through Facebook or wherever. I'm like, God. It's like, welcome to the crisis that radio and television and print media have been going through for a long time. Having said that, there are still many people who really rely on radio and are devoted to radio, and I'm one of them. I still listen to radio, primarily in my car, every day, still. I don't know if that makes me old or what. I don't care. I still think it's just absolutely important. The thing that will keep radio alive and has kept it alive for me is that localness that has been so important, from the day I started at 107.1, to be able to have Barb Chaffer Authier announce the lineup for the Ann Arbor Folk Festival before it's online, or as it's going online, or having Russ Collins on to discuss the weekends' films; the winner of the Palme d'Or at the Canne Film Festival, who people may not know about it. Russ and I, again, one of my favorite people to interview -- talk about a natural on the air, so relaxed, so knowledgeable, funny, fun, easy going, but knows it all, never gets thrown off by anything you ever ask him. We could fill each other's sentences in. If he forgot an actor or a film title or vice versa. I think that's what will keep radio going. There's always threats. It's the same with film. I asked that question of Russ, what about streaming? He said, Martin, when television came along, it was going to be the end of film. When streaming came along, it's going to be the end of film. It's absolutely a challenge, and it's a challenge with radio as well, but if you are providing something that people want and can't get elsewhere, it will not just survive, it'll thrive. I was driving back from seeing the Rolling Stones in Chicago a month or two ago and was getting the air signal around Chelsea or so, and Mark Copeland on the Afternoon Drive Show was playing a song by the British band ABC. It was one of those, Oh, my God, turn that up. I haven't heard that song in so long. It's like, you could go scroll through the phone, and I'm going to look at, what should I listen to? But to have someone make that decision, and you're just sitting there passively listening and going, Wow, someone decided to play that, and that's really cool. That's a neat song. Well, I can't win tickets now. But geez, now he's giving away front-row seats to see a major act coming to Hill Auditorium. It's like, people will listen, or people will listen for the Pet of the Week segment from the Humane Society of Huon Valley. I know, I did that segment for years. When we would talk about the Pet of the Week, it would almost invariably be adopted within hours or days of that segment, and people would, during Rockin' for the Hungry broadcasting that we were really important. You have to do something on the air that is important to listeners. Patently obvious, I realize. I still think that there's a future, even if my wife doesn't listen to radio. I love you, honey. You know that. [LAUGHTER]
• [01:03:57] AMY CANTU: Will she listen to this?
• [01:03:59] MARTIN BANDYKE: Yes. She will.
• [01:04:03] AMY CANTU: What are you most proud of?
• [01:04:05] MARTIN BANDYKE: In terms of work, I am most proud of having a career doing something that I love. Because it's that old cliche. It's not work when you're loving it. Believe me, not getting up at 4:30 in the morning, every day...I don't love every day of that. I don't know if you ever quite get used to getting up that early. But it's a difficult business. There's just not that many time slots and a lot of people who want to do radio. I am proud that I persevered. When I started a DET, I did my weekend show with Ralph Valdez, as a volunteer. I never even thought to ask management to maybe get paid a little something. I remember a friend of ours, I think it was Larry Burnski from the Detroit Film Theater, who said to us, You guys are getting paid. You're bringing albums, you bought, you're driving there. I'm like, No, Larry, why would we want to do that? I love it. Well, maybe you should ask... And it was like, Oh, okay, and I started to get paid. I did it because it was so much fun. It's the equivalent experience really. Our house where I grew up in Dearborn was a house where all my friends would come over and throw on whatever new album or single had come out and discuss it while we were drinking a beer or imbibing of some other substance. I don't see what I do on the air as all that much different. The comments that I've gotten repeatedly was just like, It's so obviously how passionate you are about music, and it's like, Yeah, that's the thing that gives me the most joy and the most transcendence over all the awful things that we've got to deal with and difficult things that we have to deal with in life. It's where you hear a song that you love that makes you happy, that makes you sob, that makes you think of somebody you love, who's gone. It's just to be able to have that, and that can be whatever for a person, art or film or religion or whatever, but to have that be my thing, to have that be music. I tried making it playing in a band. It's so difficult, but it helped give me great empathy for how hard it is to make it. When people drag themselves in the studio at nine o'clock in the morning to play when they'd rather be sleeping in the hotel, I respect what artists do. It's such an intimate thing revealing what's in your soul and exhausting and gratifying. You probably know one of my first cousins is Jack White of the White Stripes. Just to see how beautifully he's handled his career, which, just like anyone, has ups and downs, and he's devoted to promoting people listening to vinyl, and his support for the City of Detroit. It's extraordinary. But I'm long-winded here. I'm most proud of being able to have a career that's now going on 42 years, doing radio, playing music, and talking to people. I think that was the most unexpected thing in my radio career. It was because it was always music and then coming to 107.1 and my relationships and promoting the nonprofit world, promoting Food Gatherers, promoting the Humane Society, UMS, the Michigan Theater, The Ark, forgive me, there are tons of others... Big Brothers, Big Sisters, all of those groups. That was unexpected. I didn't quite realize that that was going to be such a big part of the show. If you don't have enough food to eat, music is secondary. That comes first. We'd have people at Rockin' for the Hungry when one man came up at 6:00 in the morning one day and saying, "All I can give you is five bucks. But I was homeless last year. Food Gatherers saved my life. I didn't have anything to eat. Now I've got a job and this is all that I can give." It was like, That's the equivalent of $1 million to me, that you do that. In Ann Arbor, the passion of this community for causes like that... We're fortunate to be in a place like this, we really are.
• [01:09:41] AMY CANTU: Thank you, Martin.
• [01:09:42] MARTIN BANDYKE: Thank you. I appreciate it.
• [01:09:45] ELIZABETH SMITH: Thank you. That was great.
• [01:09:46] MARTIN BANDYKE: Appreciate it. Thank you.
• [01:09:50] ELIZABETH SMITH: AADL Talks To is a production of the Ann Arbor District Library.
• [01:09:54] [MUSIC]