​Farewell to New Music Thursday

Christopher Gabriel say new plans are on the horizon

Willie Waldman, Riesage, Turtle Island Quartet, Little Winter, Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome’s horn section, Longreef, MSUM’s Straw Hat Theatre, Haley E. & The Rydells, Poitin and dozens upon dozens of others all have one thing in common. All these creative projects have been guests on The Christopher Gabriel Program’s New Music Thursday.

Gabriel, a local radio personality for 970 WDAY, started this music segment when he was first hired about five years ago. As of last week, his program, which also features sports, pop culture and news, has moved to an earlier time slot, 6 to 9 a.m., and with that New Music Thursday has been cut.

On behalf of the musicians and performers that have been featured on New Music Thursday, we’d like to give Christopher Gabriel are warm, hearty thank you for allowing us to perform in a unique way and to a unique audience. It means a lot to be recognized by the community in such a way.

“As an actor for so many years, Diane, I understood the journey of young artists,” Gabriel said to HPR. “And whether you are trying to be local or whether you’re trying to go regional or whether you’re trying to go national, you know what it’s like. You’re trying to get gigs, you’re trying to get your music out there and you’re in a supportive environment but you’re still trying to get your brand out there.”

Indeed, every radio chat, every newspaper appearance, every Facebook “like,” every Twitter re-tweet and especially every word-of-mouth reference can make a difference for a musician or a performer working to promote a show, album, song, etc.

Gabriel said the idea for New Music Thursday was largely inspired by Mitch Albom’s radio program that had its own live bumper music. Albom, the best-selling author known for “Tuesdays With Morrie,” also happens to be the driving force that pushed Gabriel into talk radio after he was getting burnt out on acting and in need of a new creative outlet. And at the time Gabriel was performing “Duck Hunter Shoots Angel,” per request of the writer, again, Mitch Albom.

Fast forward to a few years later, Gabriel began his program on WDAY. About five weeks after the start of his first show, The Christopher Gabriel Program never missed a Thursday that didn’t feature new music by either a local musician or a band from as far away as Australia. The program even had Bonus Music Friday from time to time.

“The diversity of music was so amazing that it just became a thing and it was wonderful,” Gabriel said.

The radio host also found it rewarding to hear performers scale back from their normal plugged in, full-band sound.

“It’s this underproduced quality that I found so gratifying to be able to listen to, to be up close to hearing you guys,” he said. “There were flutes, clarinets, alto sax, tenor sax -- we can go right through the orchestra.”

Gabriel explained to HPR that the major reason New Music Thursday had to be cut was because of the logistics of moving to the early morning.

“Half of the bands that we have on the show were coming from Minneapolis or Duluth or somewhere,” he said. “And I am not going to make them drive at 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning to get up here by 7:30 in the morning.”

However, Gabriel made it very clear that he and WDAY will not be completely forgetting about the arts and music community.

“It’s not for a lack of interest, it’s just the show is moving in a direction that is going to necessitate New Music Thursday being done a different way,” he said.

Being done a different way? Hmm.

We’ll just have to stay tuned to figure out what that entails. Gabriel wouldn’t reveal any further details, though he did say it’s something to be eager about.

“I think it’s exciting,” he said. “And I think it allows my program to continue that connection with local artists, with the local music scene, with a portion of local arts scene that is significant here, but at the same time give artists a way to put themselves out there, their music, their vibe, in a way that we haven’t done before.”