return to BlowUpRadio.com
|
return to BlowUpRadio.com |
| Established on December 15th, 2000 by Lazlo, BlowUpRadio.com sought to be a refuge for people, tired of mainstream radio's refusal to regularly play New Jersey musicians.
Some NJ (and even NYC?!?!?) stations claim to be "Jersey's Rock Radio", but their idea of "Jersey rock" is playing an occassional Bruce Springsteen or Bon Jovi song. |
About Lazlo
| Lazlo is the alter ego of former WDHA DJ, Larry Seltzer. Growing tired of mainstream radio and it's refusal to put unsigned New Jersey musicians in the regular rotation, he started BlowUpRadio.com as a way to support the local scene he loved so much for years. "I've lived in New Jersey since I was two years old, and have been seeing local bands live almost as long. Ok, so that's a slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean." Larry (Lazlo) fell into radio quite by accident during his freshmen year of college. "I was going to an awful college in Philadelphia, which I will not mention by name, but my roommate worked at the college station, and I filled in for him once and next thing I knew I was an addict." An addict indeed. He soon transferred to Middlesex County College to figure out what he wanted to major in for his degree. "My parents tried to pursuade me away from radio as a major, but it was becoming my passion in life." He continued to do a radio show at MCC, playing many NJ artists and going to even more local concerts. Soon he would transfer to Monmouth University, where he would officially make Radio Communications his major and was host of the Local Music Scene on WMCX. While at Monmouth University, Larry took an internship with WDHA which eventually turned into a part-time DJ-ing job, a time he looks back on fondly. "For the most part, my time with WDHA was a lot of fun. After 5 plus years though it's just like, 'what do you mean I have to play Freebird again. Ahhh!', not that Freebird is a bad song, but when you hear it every time you're on the air...I was just getting burnt out there. It wasn't fun anymore. I missed doing the Local Music Scene, and wanted to get back to a more free format/indie station." He had long talked of doing an internet station based around NJ bands, but didn't have the technical know how to pull it off. Then he saw an E-mail list post about live365.com. "It was great. They host internet radio shows for free, and give you instructions on how to load the mp3's. Suddenly Live 365 gave me the opportunity to carry out my dream." And so it became on December 15th, 2000, the BlowUpRadio.com was born, named for his feelings at the time on mainstream radio. "I didn't want to literally blow up radio stations, just the conformity of playing the same songs and popular artists over and over again. I also wanted to figuratively blow up the lines between the different formats. My only criteria is the artist has to be from the great state of New Jersey. I don't care if you do rap or easy listening. I think there can be ways to play these different styles on the same station and people can enjoy it all. Radio narrows it's format to such strict criteria that it's unlikely you would ever hear Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra and Wyclef Jean side by side, and that's just picking 3 well known musicians from New Jersey that have different styles of music." But BlowUpRadio.com isn't really about commercial artists. "I do play some major label artists from New Jersey, but most of my playlist comes from the unsigned bands. Bands you may be hearing for the first time here. That's what's exciting, is that I could be playing the next big thing before some major label decides to sign them and make them stars. There's lots of potential in the New Jersey music scene." Indeed there is, and that is why we are all thankful there is a BlowUpRadio.com where NJ rock lives! |