surfing the radio waves
sean smith, The Excalibur (York University)

When Patti Schmidt, host of CBC Radio's late night avant-garde music program utters the words "Hey, this is Brave New Waves" at the beginning of each show, it is siren sound for those interested in hearing original music without all the hoopla of commercial radio and the programmed praise for artists whose credibility rests on the decisions of big label executives.

For 16 years, the voice of Brave New Waves has resonated on the airwaves of CBC Radio Two's midnight to 4 a.m. slot and has earned a special spot in the hearts of both full-time and part-time nighthawks. While Brave New Waves' late/early time slot puts it out of reach of many, its time frame allows for a degree of creative freedom and risk taking that few other radio programs can boast. Those who listen to it do so in the expectation they will be jarred or moved in a new way.

Patti Schmidt comments that, "It used to be really easy back in the mid to late '80s to be just alternative but now it's started to splinter,"

"There came a point when we'd have to start looking at Beck and considering his Grammy nominations, how many records he sells and where else he is heard. Does he need to be heard here? Probably not. I'm never at a loss to find stuff to play."

Schmidt is proud of the added work that her show does to provide the hard to find music her listeners enjoy.

"Despite the bazillion choices people have for music and the emergence of Web stations," says Schmidt, "I think there are people who still appreciate that we try to look under the carpet harder than somebody else might."

For many, the hosts of Brave New Waves have become like spiritual guides in the quest for new music. With so many choices to be had in the realm of music, Brave New Waves is a reliable source for quality. Still, with its reputation for continued excellence, one wonders how they come to find the next big thing time and time again. Knowing all the right dance steps to keep you on the edge without falling off can be a tough thing to accomplish.

"I'm always amazed at how short the music memory is," offers Schmidt. "I spoke to the woman who is now the head of radio music at CBC who did a lot of new music stuff at Berkeley and who actually worked with John Cage and did performances with him back in the '60s. I tried to explain to her a lot of our new music content and she said "'Whoa, the world hasn't really evolved.'"

Finding the right mix of music can be just as difficult as finding original sounding bands.

"I think it's a voodoo kind of thing really," comments Schmidt. "At some point you have to resource stuff, find out what's available, who's playing what, saying what about what, figuring out what the mandate of this program is and where it fits in. It's partly voodoo and partly intuition. There's no formula for it. Advertising agencies will spend millions of dollars trying to figure out what the kids want, what's hip and so we try not to get all insecure and weird about it. Just make quality choices and informed choices."

While Schmidt's position as the host of Brave New Waves is an enviable one, it wasn't always the case. When she took over as host of the show in 1994, she was expected to fill the shoes of previous host Brent Bambury who had hosted the show for nearly 10 years. It meant she had to convince the show's faithful following that she was worth listening to.

"I was auditioned with a whole bunch of people from CKUT, which is the McGill campus station, to be possible fill-ins for Brent," explains Schmidt. "When the [show's producer] called I had a moment when I almost said no. It was terrifying and frightful. All of us who went in thought it was so difficult. You'd think we'd never done radio before." The audition for the show was nearly as difficult as showing up for the interview.

"We had to read a program that was written for Brent and the people who wrote it did so in 'Brent style' so it was kind of hard because it is so big compared to what happens on campus radio," says Schmidt referring to Bambury's so-called "voice of doom." "It took a while before I started to find my confidence. For the first couple of years, I would listen to the show every single night when I got home from work just to see what Brent did. Sometimes I would go downstairs and listen to him, taping it, then go home and listen to it because I was so excited. It'd be like 'Oh my God, he just said that line I wrote.'"

Despite her place of prominence as the reigning regal of late-night radio here in Canada, Schmidt has not forgotten her campus radio roots and tips her hat to the job being done at college radio stations across the country.

"I hope that we're a companion to [college radio]," says Schmidt. "Everybody who works here is from college radio. One of the criticisms of us is that we're ripping college radio, but I will say that on every campus radio station there are one or two programs whose hosts do a job that is far superior to what happens on CBC. We also get criticism from college radio that we're stealing their stuff or something. But whose is it? Isn't it better that we all open people's ears? If we all knew that we had choices then maybe the world would become less mediocre."

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