WKNC relaunches music podcast
By Jamie Lynn Gilbert
NC State’s student radio station is creating space for female and LGTBQ performers with a newly relaunched podcast.
MargRock celebrates and brings into focus music created by and for people of marginalized genders and sexualities. The podcast is a rebranding of FemRock, a punk-minded, music-based podcast about female and gender non-binary representation in the North Carolina music scene. FemRock produced six episodes from October 2016 to October 2017, but it has been dormant since then.
“I wanted to restart the podcast because I saw that there wasn’t really any representation for people in the punk/rock scene that weren’t predominantly straight white cis guys,” said Liz Baron, a junior in political science who relaunched the podcast. “Learning more about local bands made up of people of marginalized sexualities and genders — and spreading the word about how sick these bands are — is really important to me.”
Baron said she wanted to change the name from FemRock to MargRock to be more inclusive, as many musicians don’t identify with “fem” in any way. “Expanding the reach of the podcast allows for more underrepresented voices to be heard,” she said.
“Expanding the reach of the podcast allows for more underrepresented voices to be heard.”
In its first two episodes, Baron interviewed the Raleigh bands Goddamn Wolves and Sidewalk Furniture. Conversation topics included the role of feminism in a band’s music and the weight the term “fem” carries.
“The return of MargRock (once, FemRock) to WKNC’s podcasting rotation is one of the most exciting projects thus far within my tenure,” said Laura Mooney, the station’s general manager. “Being able to use our platform to support musicians of marginalized demographics, and to actively seek out these musicians, is inspiring to myself and — I hope — to the rest of my staff as well.”
MargRock can be found at https://margrock.transistor.fm/ and wherever podcasts are found.
