It's Not the Size of Your Tower, It's How You Use It

What is Seven Watt Media?

When I was 19 years old, I was hired as Director of Promotions for The Blaze 1260AM, the college radio station at Arizona State University. It was as "college radio" as you could imagine : lack of funding, old equipment, stuttering freshmen DJs and a need to be able to improvise with very few means. We ran on a mere 7 watts (it was FCC mandated that college stations that pay a certain amount could not exceed 10 watts. Most corporate radio stations run on over 25,000) We had a huge advantage in online broadcasting, but still lacked the funds to get our name out there in a traditional way. In my department, I had an annual budget that barely paid for pens, let alone any large-scale marketing campaign. One afternoon, in an effort to be inspired, I dug through the old supply closet that held the dreams of years of other promo Directors . . . and also some paint and butcher paper.

Our building sat on the south side of one of the busiest streets in Downtown Tempe, and often had lines of cars sitting idle during traffic. And here we have a building with an odd amount of window space over the doors. I rolled out the butcher paper in middle of the lobby of the station and tried to think of what would best draw attention and cause as few traffic accidents as possible. While listening to our station over the speakers, a bumper played between the songs :

"The Blaze 1260AM , 7 huge watts of raw radio power. It's not the size of your tower, its how you use it"

I quickly jumped up and started painting the latter part of that statement on the butcher paper, as wide as 3 of the glass doors out front. I made sure to tag it with our website and gathered a few tall boys to help me tape it up. It stayed up for a good two months, and a lot of times I'd walk to the window and watch as people read the sign, knowing it made an impression.

It was my goal from then on to go beyond my means. I spent that year guerrilla style, making deals and working off of exchanges. Finally convincing people that we were a legitimate radio station, and leader of the music and ASU community. Being as vocal and visible as possible. While I knew not everyone would tune in, I also knew that with enough reminders, people would take notice. I heard from a friend a few years later that he felt that year that there wasn't one person on ASU campus who didn't know what "The Blaze" was.

This carried over into a lot of aspects of my life. My college didn't offer a music industry major, so I made one up for myself. I spent my life improvising and creating things, such as a launch of a film my brother made, working with local bands in various capacities (including a live performance show on The Blaze that first broke What Laura Says, Dear and the Headlights, Kinch and more) and building a lot of somethings out of nothings. I worked my way through college and eventually back east for work, finally getting paid to work in an industry I love and having means to expose music to people who may not have heard it before.

That's where Seven Watt Media came in. In an attempt to keep myself interested in active in music, I decided to try out a few aspects of the business aside from my day job and seeing how it can be done in the same guerrilla style as The Blaze. I knew that our station didn't broadcast far (usually within a mile or so of Tempe) but I always had it in my head that at least ONE person might be listening, and that makes it worth it. In times where I sometimes question the music industry or my love for music in general, I keep that thought in my head and my heart. There are so many other ways to love and enjoy music, and you have to be open to how you and other people experience it. I've taken on a few projects and plan on taking on a few more, just to get my feet wet again.

So what is this blog? That's a great question. It might turn into a place a post a few videos every couple of days. Maybe rant about some new industry initiative (but seriously, iTunes, tiered pricing on songs? Really?) or figure out rhetorically (or not, who knows) what direction music is going and why anyone should still care.

There is a lot to explore in music, and I'm excited to do so . . . while I'm still excited to do so.