Who Is Fritz Kundler?

Who Is Fritz Kundler?

Some while back, I had the idea of starting an Internet radio station and I did just that. My idea was somewhat different, since there were a lot of streaming sites around at the time and also Internet radio stations.

Many of the radio stations were, and still are, what is called ‘pay for play.’ In other words, getting airplay was not that special, you simply had to purchase credits for a certain number of plays.

Even sites that were supposedly free would give priority plays to artists that got the most ‘likes,’ and, of course, a paid upgrade would ensure more airplay.

One problem is ‘ballot stuffing’ by bands that get their band mates, fans and friends to vote for them. Outside of being total bullshit, there’s nothing much wrong with these models.

Interviews With Fritz

Anyway, my idea was that submissions would be reviewed and accepted on basis of quality content. To this end, I invented a DJ persona that I called Fritz Kundler. The idea was that Fritz would be a curmudgeon, an outspoken critic and musical authority.

Having established this, I set about going around to various forums and posting that I knew a guy who was running an Internet radio station who was looking for submissions.

It seemed that, in no time, I was getting submissions from all parts of the world. One of the first things I learned was that there were a lot of really good bands and artists out there who were unsigned.

So I had the idea of starting to interview some of these bands and artists as one needs ever expanding content to run a radio station. What I learned then was that many had the same or similar stories.

For example, one singer songwriter I interviewed had a contract with Capitol Records previously. She said that, at one point, Capitol Records had many different divisions for all sorts of different musical genres.

Then something bad happened and Capitol shut down all these divisions. They informed her that they owned her material but they were shelving it. She had to get a lawyer and fight them to get her material back, which she did, and then she went independent, setting up a studio in her basement and recording her music.

It was a very interesting learning experience but running a radio station began to take up too much of my time, so I let it go.

I decided to dispense with Fritz as well, since I’m as outspoken a curmudgeon as he ever was.