Executive producer/partner Bonnie Goldfarb and director/partner Baker Smith of harvest, Santa Monica, have officially launched radio harvest, an Internet radio station that is accessible from www.harvestfilms.com or www.radioharvest.com Though it has been up for some time, it had only been broadcasting music from a randomized playlist; in September the station began to incorporate live shows starting with a program that Andy Delaney of the harvest directing team BigTV hosted.
Goldfarb and Smith opened harvest in order to have creative control over their lives and this station is an extension of that. With their hectic schedules, this project offers an opportunity for balance. “I think radio harvest is a way to pull back for just a moment and say, ‘OK, this is a way to express yourself creatively that may be able to fuel what you do in commercials all that much more,’ ” Goldfarb said.
Neither Smith nor Goldfarb are strangers to spinning tunes; both were DJs years ago. Goldfarb worked at radio stations in Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Los Angeles, Calif., from 1979-85. Smith worked at a station in Tucson, Ariz., in the mid-80s that focused on funk.
Unlike their previous experiences on traditional radio, this Web-based station does not have to cater to a specific market, like a Top 40 audience. Though the station is primarily about the music at this point in its infancy, Smith noted that upcoming shows might include a friend of his with a Ph.D. in comparative literature who would discuss John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Smith would also eventually like to have in-studio performances. “I think what’s beautiful about starting this thing is there is no agenda, there’s no format, it’s what radio should be,” he said. “It should be about music and expressing yourself whether that be reading from the Bible, or playing some hard-core funk, or screaming or reading poetry.”
Goldfarb said that she imagines shows on location as part of future programming. “I like the essence of being in the moment [when playing music],” Goldfarb related. “But I also think it’s a format to talk about advertising. I have this vision that we could do live remote broadcasts from our shoots, completely keeping it in a radio format, so you could hear what was going on on set.”
Currently, Smith and Goldfarb are inviting associates and friends into the radio station to host programs based on music the guest DJ likes to listen to. The harvest partners are also getting behind the microphone to play music that moves them. Goldfarb is drawn to classic and punk rock, while Smith plays an eclectic mix, anything from jazz to the Rolling Stones to Cajun and Hawaiian music. “It’s so much fun,” Smith commented. “It’s a great way to blow off steam and get to play music that I like.”
Working in a creative field with fellow music lovers, Smith wants people from the spotworld, like creative directors, writers and producers, to bring in their iPods or albums and spin. “It’s a production company,” he said of harvest, “so there are always people hanging out waiting for something.”
The station is averaging about four hours of live programming each day and most of the shows are being recorded and archived for future use. The rest of the day’s music still comes from a randomized playlist. Eventually, the archived programs combined with live shows will fill out a day’s line up. Since production is the company’s focus, the radio station has to fit into production schedules, not vice versa.
Looking to the future, Smith commented that if the radio harvest project turned into a record company, it would be a fantastic way to continue to feed his and Goldfarb’s creative appetites. “We all work so hard, I mean that for everybody that’s in the advertising world, and I think it is important to find things outside of it that turn you on and don’t put you in jail,” he joked.
