INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Loving local music

Whether you’re a rapper, a rock band, a polka trio or a solo acoustic act, if you’re local, Indianapolis Music Channel wants to put you on the air. Whether you want to be a rock superstar or just gain some local recognition, Dan McNeal, along with the rest of IMC, wants to help get Indianapolis’ music scene recognized.

While Radio One, a Maryland based corporation that bought IMC about four years ago, tries to promote local music in all 22 of its radio markets, because IMC is their only television outlet they have no specific procedure for promoting local videos. That’s where McNeal comes in. In the mid-90s, before the station was purchased by Radio One, he worked with local bands to produce music videos for Localville, a weekly show about the Indianapolis music scene. Today, however, there aren’t enough local videos submitted to fill that segment. Because Radio One manages the station fairly loosely and allows it to operate in the interests of the local community, McNeal has the final say in what makes it to air – and he loves the Indianapolis music scene. He wants to get more bands on the air doing studio segments and with videos in the regular rotation. For artists interested in getting their music on the air, McNeal suggests contacting one of the many organizations and local filmmaking groups about producing a video. Even homemade videos have a place on IMC – they’ll run them back to back with national artists. For those hesitant about running a video filmed in a garage back to back with the latest million dollar OutKast or Britney video, McNeal is willing to critique videos and offer suggestions to make them more marketable, even if they never make it to the air. Most of all, McNeal says he wants to show people that Indy’s music scene is richer and more vibrant than some critics claim. “Everyone out there is playing for us,” McNeal said. “We might as well get to see them.”