On Jan. 1, Riverwest Radio, WXRW (104.1 FM) officially went on the air with 100 watts beaming across five miles from its home base. But the station had already been active online, with live shows produced on minimal gear from the window ledge of Riverwest Film and Video, 824 E. Center St. Off the Cuff visited on New Year’s Eve with two of Riverwest Radio’s organizers, Station Manager Xav Leplae and Program Manager Martin Hallanger.
Let’s start by talking about Riverwest Film and Video.
XL: It started in 1997 as the only store in Wisconsin selling film and video supplies for independent filmmakers. I had been dabbling in renting videos and around 2003, when Video Visions closed, I thought Milwaukee needed an independent video store.
This was just when Netflix was getting under way. How have you survived?
It’s a niche business in a neighborhood where people are less quick to get the latest gadgets. I’ve always done things in a frugal way. I continued to rent DVDs thinking it won’t last past 2009. I announced I would close in 2012, but people got really upset. Now it’s 2016 and it’s still going.
How did the radio station grow out of the store?
I was involved with the Occupy movement—I was at the Capitol when everything was happening. People were having conversations. I thought it would be good if we could record those kind of conversations—to give people a voice. I began applying for an LPFM [Low Power FM] license in November 2011 and started webcasting. The station’s license is held by the Riverwest Artists Association. The Riverwest Neighborhood Association was our fiscal sponsor. We owe a lot to both organizations.
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MH: Xav and I went to college together at UWM’s film school. We worked together at MATA when it first started. By the time I came into Riverwest Radio as programing manager, last June, Xav had already gotten the money and the license. I helped get the equipment and the programming up—filling out all the forms and paperwork.
What’s the station’s reason for being?
XL: Talk radio is our mission. What’s lacking in radio is conversation—that’s not right wing. We’re non-partisan, we don’t judge content. We’re giving people who are non-professionals, who didn’t go to broadcasting school, a chance to express themselves.
MH: We also have some music shows that are excellent. Their producers select music that’s not available on any other station. But yes, the conversations are impressive. It’s easy to put down humanity, but people are interesting—they do have something to say. If you find WXRW while going between stations, you won’t notice we’re using cheap equipment run by untrained volunteers.
XL: Radio is a changing environment. A lot of people are turning to their devices and aren’t tethered to terrestrial radio. Nowadays people can listen to radio shows at their leisure. We’re very aware of all this as we started a radio station.
MH: All of our programs are available on SoundCloud. Producers can share their programs immediately, even to people who don’t have a radio.
