NEW LONDON, Conn. – Michael Kickingbear is quite candid about the challenges he has faced since launching Indigenous Peoples Music, an Internet-based radio station more than two years ago.
The station’s goal is to give American Indian recording artists the opportunity to connect with a wider audience in and out of Indian country. However, the station is finding it is struggling to make money in the emerging Internet broadcasting field.
“I make no bones about it,” said Kickingbear, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, of the station’s income. “We are not making enough money to pay for the space the studio is in and I have looked at hanging it up several times.”
But Kickingbear hasn’t hung his microphone up quite yet and remains committed to connecting Native artists directly with new audiences for their music. Indigenous Peoples Music has an unrestricted format that includes live concert broadcasts and interviews with artists. Some of the more prominent American Indian musicians that have appeared on the station include Howard Lyons and Martha Redbone.
Listeners also have the opportunity to purchase contemporary and traditional music by independent artists not being promoted by major industry labels. According to Kickingbear, the big paycheck isn’t there right now but the immediate benefits of the station are for the American Indian artists “trying to do their own thing” and get their music heard.
“Right when I’m ready to quit something always happens and I keep trying,” said Kickingbear who serves as the station’s president, CEO, producer, advertising salesman and on-air personality for the station’s three-hour live shows three nights a week on top of having an outside full-time job.
In addition to financial challenges, Kickingbear said he has also been forced to deal with cultural attacks because of his mixed heritage. He said before returning to his roots he had a rewarding life in North Carolina that included teaching martial arts to children among other things, but saw a chance to make a difference in Indian country.
“It is a matter of opportunities taken versus opportunities presented,” said Kickingbear. “Most people want to have a chance to give their lives meaning and I have asked the people who have questioned me what would you do if you were me …”
Undaunted, Kickingbear continues to look for new sources of advertising revenue to fund improved technology for Indigenous Peoples Music. There is a perception that Internet-based broadcasting ties people to their computers for too long leading to the need for new media broadcasters to look at even more new ways to get their programming out like satellite radio services, said Kickingbear.
Recent advances like broadband technology have helped to legitimize his programming due to the speed and clarity with which the product is delivered to customers, but the content is what drives Indigenous Peoples Music. The mobility of his operation and the ability to go to the artists and their concerts is an advantage. Kickingbear has to generate original, quality content to achieve his goal of connecting listener and artist. One of the more successful remote broadcasts on Indigenous Peoples Music was a concert headlined by contemporary artist Jana originating from the Onondaga Indian Territory in N.Y. this past July.
This also the venue where Kickingbear demonstrated his enthusiasm for contemporary American Indian music by leaving the booth during the broadcast and dancing during Jana’s performance.
“I can point the artist to the computer screen during an interview at a simulcast and say right now there are 20, 30 or 50 people listening to you right now,” said Kickingbear. “A flute player in another part of the country can log on and play live right over the Internet.”
Indigenous Peoples Music also provides Kickingbear a platform to wage his self-described “crusade” to encourage tribally-owned gaming and entertainment facilities to book more American Indian acts. He conceded and supported the tribes’ rights to make a profit by booking mainstream and contemporary acts, but did not understand why they have failed to book Native artists.
“We’re not talking about every day, but they could be doing more to support our own artists,” said Kickingbear.
Indigenous Peoples Music can be accessed by visiting www.ipeoplesmusic.com with additional information available by e-mail at kickingbear@ipeoplesmusic.com. The site is very user friendly and features detailed instructions on accessing live programs, traditional and contemporary American Indian music, recordings by artists featured on the station and an archive of past broadcasts. Some downloads are needed to support interaction with the station, but are relatively uncomplicated for even the worst technophobe. Live shows are scheduled on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday evenings with exact schedules and special broadcasts listed on the site.