Everything you ever wanted to know about Neighborhood Weekly Radio (but were afraid to ask)

By Henry Lipput

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mitch Lynch and Mark Harvie (you know them as your friends and mine Mitch and Mark of Neighborhood Weekly Radio; their show is on most Friday evenings at 5) by email. I asked them how they met, their backgrounds in radio, how the station and their show got started, where they are now, and what they think (and hope) the future of the station will be. (No Cheez-its or alcohol/beer were harmed during the conducting of this interview.)

PURE POP 4 NOW PEOPLE: Mitch is from New Jersey and Mark is from Maine: How did you guys meet?

MITCH: In the neighborhood!  When we moved to Maine in 2011, our daughters were in the same grade and played together in the neighborhood, and we would get together for typical social occasions.

MARK: Mitch and his family relocated to Maine for work (and to escape the swamps of Jersey) about 12 years ago.  The neighborhood was very boring until that happened. I think the first time we met was a Halloween party at our house and Mitch just never left…

PURE POP: How did Neighborhood Weekly Radio come to be?

MITCH: I had a thought of doing some sort of podcast/show about music and connections, etc., based on what Mark and I would chat about at get-togethers. We were at my bar while I was discussing it, and Mark was interested in doing it too.  Together, we evolved it from a podcast (where you can't legally stream/play copyrighted material) to an actual Internet radio station, through Live365.  Live365 is the only platform that pays all royalties, etc., for music we play.

MARK: It was definitely music that connected us before everything else (oh, and beer). I didn’t know a lot of people (other than my wife) who loved The Smithereens, The Clarks, Connells, Jayhawks, and on and on. We invented a series of musical games which mostly consisted of one of us having to play a song that somehow connected (sonically, lyrically, thematically?) to the song the other was playing.  Mitch had the crazy idea that there could be other crazy people who might find us (or at least our musical choices) entertaining.  And here we are…goofing off on the air, three years later…

PURE POP: Did each of you have experience in radio?

MITCH: Mark had experience. I had more experience in the technical side of things since I've been playing music and recording for a while.  I had mixers and mics and the knowledge of how to hook things up. 

MARK: I did the college radio thing between 1981 to 1983.  What a great time to have access to albums that were not being heard anywhere else (at least in Maine).  I became a huge fan of Elvis Costello, R.E.M., The Beat (both of them), The Clash, and the Boston underground scene (Lyres, O Positive, Cavedogs, Big Dipper, Dumptruck, Chain Link Fence, Bebe Buelle).  I also did basketball play-by-play on the college station for two years and was able to land an overnight DJ gig at a big top 40 station and did that for about a year while I was still in school.  

PURE POP: What has changed since you started doing the show?

MITCH: We are poorer? I think, for me, the biggest change was when we started interviewing bands/artists/labels to bring a new dynamic to the show.  We have had a chance to meet so many people, even if just through Twitter or email.  It's been cool to promote music we love that doesn't always get the attention of radio or other outlets.

MARK: Well, we don’t have to spend as much money on music as we did when we started. While we each owned enough music to start the station, one of the major components was finding and playing new music or obscure music that we didn’t know yet.  That got pretty expensive. Now, we are a bit on the radar with some of our favorite labels and are provided with so much free music we almost can’t get to it all.  A great problem to have.  Also, I feel like our laidback style has helped us develop into better than average interviewers. I work very hard not to talk over our guests. Mitch is kind of a given…

PURE POP: In the last year or so you’ve added other shows and DJs to NWR. How do you decide who to bring to the station?

MITCH: Some people were folks I've known for years, and that I know had interesting musical tastes and have good personalities.  Others we have met after starting the station (Chip is a great example) and organically it happened.  I think Mark reached out to Chip?  And then Chip recommended Alan?  And also Tom?  It was all Chip's work!

MARK: Our first (Cam) was an early listener and someone I knew.  He brought a whole new batch of listeners with a hard rock focus, but he had a great pop sensibility as well.  Beth was also a listener. I am pretty sure that I was a fan of hers before she became one of ours.  It was a no-brainer to ask her to join us and, wow, she played a very important role in our growth and we miss having her on!

By the way, Twitter has been our connection to most of our DJ’s, listeners, labels, and artists.  We started playing The Hangabouts and when Chip was between DJ gigs, we were one of the stations he contacted and again – No-Brainer! He’s connected us to a couple of other DJs (Alan and Tom). 

We were also lucky enough to connect with Wally Salem early on (pretty sure it was the SUPER 8’s cover of “Serious Drugs” and, again, Twitter).  You and Wally have been around since the start and to have two guys with such musical knowledge show interest in what we do has meant a lot to us.

PURE POP: What’s next for Neighborhood Weekly Radio?

MITCH: Prison. One of us is going to jail and it ain’t gonna be me!  Something about inappropriate use of NFTs…

Mark touches on a lot of the things we are looking to do as far as video content, editing shows quicker, diversity, etc.  I do hope we can interview folks in person at some point. Till then, we need to upgrade the studio equipment to do better zoom/video interviews.  I’m also thinking of new shows with more of a podcast format (no music) that can be recorded and played multiple times a week.  These shows would discuss music in general, books, current events, whatever.  I also want to get more station IDs recorded to promote the shows/DJs we currently have. Most of our IDs are older before we had other DJs, so would be good to promote all the shows.

And, as we have said, you have to spend money to lose money. Hopefully we can lose a little less :-)

MARK: We hope to continue to add programming, especially live shows.  I’d like to see some diversity.  Without meaning to do so, we have become an “older white guys playing indie pop” station.  We certainly miss the class that Beth brought to the station and would also welcome other musical genres (we had a jam band show and a hard rock show at one point and I think a soul/R&B show would be great).

In addition to that, we have some ideas for multi-media shows (we will need a good makeup person) that we can add to our YouTube channel (cooking, “How to” - with a comic twist, etc.).

Eventually, we hope to have enough Patreon members to be able to afford studio space that would be more conducive to live music and easier for guests to join us live. We know we need to improve our production turnaround time to be offering a Patreon product that stands out from the crowd.