MPR Launches Carbon Sound
• At noon on Thursday, June 16, Minnesota Public Radio’s KCMP (The Current)/Minneapolis-St. Paul launched Carbon Sound, a new Urban Alternative music stream, website and app dedicated to celebrating the depth, breadth and influence of Black musical expression through multiple musical genres, including Hip-Hop, R&B, Afrobeats, Funk and Electronica, honoring the foundational role of Black music throughout all genres of music.
The project is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and has been developed in partnership with Twin Cities’ community broadcasting Hip Hop station station, 89.9 The Ice (KMOJ-HD2). The team behind Carbon Sound is (left to right): Content Director Julian Green; the voice of Carbon Sound, Sanni Brown; and community engagement specialist Andre Griffin. Other stations launching in this new format include Radio Milwaukee’s HYFIN and WJSU-FM/Jackson, MS.
• Julian Green built and manages the music library for Carbon Sound and oversees content output. During his time at the University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, he was the PD of Radio K and founded its online Hip-Hop stream, The Vanguard. He was lead on crafting the mission and vision of Carbon Sound and guided the project in its initial stages. Green said, “The mission and the vision here are my passions. It’sshowing the depth, breadth and beauty of Black musical expression and showing how it’s foundational to the whole canon of musical expression in this country.”
• Sanni Brown is the host of The Message, The Current’s hip-hop and R&B show airing Wednesdays. The show will now also be heard on Carbon Sound, Monday through Thursday from 10am to 1pm. Brown brings more than 10 years of local experience in radio at KMOJ-FM, KFAI-FM, and KTMY (107.1 MyTalk). “What’s most important to me is that we’re bringing something to the community — we’re public media, we’re here to give more than we get,” Brown said. “I want Carbon Sound to feel how I feel when I walk up on a barbecue I was invited to. I want it to be like that feeling of, ‘it’s safe here.'”
• Andre Griffin is a graduate of Augsburg University with a passion for community outreach and education. He has worked as a Youth Mentor at Banyan Community and as a Community Outreach specialist for the Pan-Afrikan Student Union. His mission at Carbon Sound will be to help elevate and amplify local music and artists on the stream and airwaves, as well as being active in the community, helping provide digital and physical spaces for artists and fans to engage and connect. “My love of history and my love of my North Minneapolis community guides my work every day,” he said. “I believe in abundance, we believe in abundance, and I’m so glad to be a part of bringing more abundance to the Twin Cities.”
Freddie Bell, GM of KMOJ’s Center for Communication and Development (CCD) and KMOJ-FM, “The People’s Station,” said, “This partnership will help extend and help elevate what we’re doing on The Ice and beyond. Now listeners who are looking for a wider variety of Black music in the Twin Cities will have a destination to find all these different sources of programming.”
David Safar, Managing Director of The Current, remarked, “I’m excited for MPR to be joining the cohort of new stations under the CPB’s project to develop a new format for public media. We’re so proud of the work this team has done to create such a powerful addition to the local music community. We’re also grateful to the funding from the CPB and thrilled to be collaborating with Freddie, his team at KMOJ and The Ice.”
• Carbon Sound can be found at carbonsound.fm and on Carbon Sound’s new app, which can be found in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. [Photo credit: Awa Mally for MPR]
