Milwaukee's WMSE 91.7FM and The Fantatsic Planet

WMSE 91.7FM Frontier Radio

The Fantastic Planet show was first aired in January 2004 on Milwaukee's world famous independent radio station 91.7 FM WMSE. I hosted the show with Marcus Doucette aka Marcus Garvey. After returning from 5 years in London, I had a wealth of musical exploration to share with the midwest. It was a bit of a slowdown for me. I had spent years bathed in music discovery in all genre's while living in London and now it was time to give back. Taking all that I learned from working with great artists in East London's Miloco Studios and nights listening to Gilles Peterson's worldwide show on BBC Radio 1, I was mixing all styles and genres together. If it had a beat I could mix it. Marcus and myself met through friends and our similiarities in styles found us working well together. We both brought something new to the table, something that would surprise the other. Of course I applied several times for a spot on WMSE, but it wasn't until the station manager heard us playing in a bar that we were able to get a chance at a show on the air. For the first few months we were just called global beats or something stupid and cliched like that, when I told people I mixed world music they would repond "whats that" or "you mean like hippie music" and partially like what has happened to Jazz, world music had become a genre dead in the water, no one had interest in it except academia and musicians, the mass public was not interested in Fela Kuti or A.C. Jobim. After a few months of training we got our own show and had to come up with a name that defined our style, The Fantastic Planet came first. It was a great opportunity, because unlike spinning in a bar or a club we weren't restricted to music that was designed to move. We could wake people up with Indian Sitar music or Tuvan throat singing and keep them going with Samba or Salsa and African drumming or Ghana funk. It was here that the Fantastic Planet developed into a mature show with a heavy listener base. These days WMSE continues a sa listener supported radio station with but a few rules, no swearing and no drug references. It is an oasis in the world of corporate dominated radio were a computer picks the songs you listen to. check them out, unfortunately the fantastic planet is no more at WMSE, but all the DJ's there are worth hearing in any genre.