The publicity for Flood FM refers to Aaron Axelsen as their showrunner. It’s the type of positioning I’ve wished radio would use for a long time (I had just been hoping more stations would use “music supervisor”). But Axelsen was APD/MD/p.m. driver at Alternative KITS San Francisco for more than twenty years, through both its Live 105 and Alt 105.3 incarnations. When he left last April, he didn’t just tweet his goodbyes, the Killers tweeted about his departure.
Launched in conjunction with music and culture site Flood Magazine, Flood FM will also become the home of Axelsen’s long-running electronica program Subsonic. He’s also promising “daily on-air personalities,” guest DJ sets, and “Flood Flashback Sundays.” One of the stations sweepers declares “if you love music, but hate corporate radio, we got you.”
Flood FM is being positioned as “Indie, Alternative, and Electronic.” Listening to it, you also hear the extent to which Alternative and Triple-A have intersected recently. Here’s Flood FM on April 14:
- MGMT, “Electric Feel”
- Boy Pablo, “Feeling Lonely”
- The War on Drugs, “Pain”
- Girl in Red, “Serotonin”
- Emmit Fenn, “Moving On”
- The DMA’s, “Silver”
- Chvrches, “Recover”
- Jungle, “Keep Movin’”
- Avalanches, “Wherever You Go”
- Vampire Weekend, “Harmony Hall”
- Grrrl Gang, “Honey Baby”
- Robyn, “Missing You”
