If you've paid close attention to Milwaukee music, you'll recognize Ken Gaspar as the man behind the New Milwaukee Web site lauched in the 1990s and, before that, as the executive producer of Peggy James' highly-regarded debut disc.
Working as a Web designer, Gaspar -- who is also a musician -- remains passionate about Milwaukee's music scene and he combines his work and his play with NewMilwaukeeRadio.com, an Internet radio site which streams music by local artists.
Although at the moment, he's only got a handful signed up, Gaspar is just completing beta testing of the site and hopes to launch soon. That's when bands and listeners, he hopes, will begin to participate.
"To be honest with you," Gaspar says, "I do not know what to expect, from listeners and the bands themselves.
"The mission is to give local artists exposure they might not get from current traditional radio stations that already pack their play list with the standard fare. We believe that there is a deep pool of talented musicians that has gone ‘undiscovered' by the general public in this area and that they could use some help in getting their music heard."
Gaspar has enlisted some local musicians to help get the project up and running, he says.
"Brian Wooldridge and Jack Rodee are good friends and they are slowly spreading the word to their friends that this will become available and helping to round up music. I am starting to put the word out after some weeks of beta testing and feeling the system is ready to be shown."
Although a lot of time has elapsed since Gaspar's New Milwaukee online magazine -- which was an early entry into the then-young world of the Web -- disappeared, Gaspar says the Internet radio site is connected in a way to that early predecessor.
"I guess in some ways this idea goes back to the newmilwaukee.com site where I tried to promote the local arts and artists. I simply could not do all that by myself and wound up instead helping others build their sites, which is what I do now.
"But in my heart, as life-long songwriter myself, I still believes there is an untapped desire for unproduced, unvarnished real music."
That, Gaspar says, along with a conversation with a Web design client is what led to the birth of NewMilwaukeeRadio.com.
"When the owner of that business asked me if I had any ideas for other models that might be similar, I mentioned that years ago I had had the idea of promoting local music but the technology was not quite there yet but now there were free -- not counting all the time and headaches it takes to set them up -- audio streamers available and I thought that might be an idea whose time had come."
Although that potential partner was skeptical, Gaspar says the idea was reborn for him and he continued to move forward. Now that he's got a concrete site to show people, interest has increased. Finding an affordable provider that offers streaming, helped, too.
Once the site is launched, bands can submit their music (although they must sign a release since there is no funding yet to pay performance royalties). They can also upload bios and other information. Once a week, a featured artist will be spotlighted on the site and in an e-mail sent to opt-in subscribers.
The site will then add the music to its playlist so that anyone can listen to Milwaukee-made music, non-stop, via iTunes.
"I do not think others are doing this in this way," Gaspar says. "I as far as I know no one else is concentrating on local music ... but I suspect it is just a matter of time before these start to spring up."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
