By Karen Glauber

Those of us who started our careers in ’80s College radio are having a field day with Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick of Governor Tim Walz, whom we now know is an avowed fan of The Replacements, Hüsker Du, Warren Zevon, Prince and Bruce Springsteen as well as an epic person. He’s just like us, except nicer, and we strongly suspect he could also speak fluently about Soul Asylum and The Jayhawks, while he’s undoubtedly a fan of Semisonic and Peter Himmelman. For the first time in months, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about the presidential race. Maybe, just maybe, the national nightmare of Trump will finally end.

If you want to know where the country is heading, look at the crowd that Chappell Roan drew at Lollapalooza—one of the biggest in festival history, with 80,000 fans (three times the population of my hometown) performing the choreography to “HOT TO GO!” This community of young people who were never the popular ones possesses the collective power to literally change the world. I hope these kids vote.

After 24 years on the air, Kansas City’s The Buzz is now a sports station, with brilliant air talent Lazlo segueing over to KQRC, the rock station in the market. When Lazlo programmed KRBZ, the station was the first to support bands like Glass Animals, Phoenix, The Lumineers and Spoon, while staying true to its Midwest roots. The argument was always, “But, it can work in Kansas City,” and I’m still friendly with contest winners from The Buzz that I met during the many promotions Lazlo and I set up. Unfortunately, despite the KRBZ’s decent-to-stellar ratings, the sales team couldn’t sell it. Losing WWCD and KRBZ this year really hurts those of us who believe that radio is an important part of breaking an artist.

Ted and I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the new beabadoobee album, This is How Tomorrow Moves, and lead track “Beaches,” our first single for Alternative. The song is currently #1 on Spotify’s New Music Friday and her photo highlights the Lorem playlist, along with a note that reads, “someone tell rob the new beabadoobee album is here.” If you watched Love Island, you’ll know what this means. The album, produced by Rick Rubin at his Shangri-La studios in Malibu, will solidify her as a huge star. We’re going for adds on “Beaches” on 8/19, but early airplay is most welcome.

I celebrated my birthday by seeing Spoon in Solana Beach. For some reason, Spoon is always in Southern California on the week of my birthday, and I am grateful to celebrate with them.

Happy to see that Myles Smith is Top 10 at the format right now—this is a fantastic achievement for Gary Gorman, the man who will be your concierge for the next two nights of Foo Fighters shows at BMO in scenic downtown L.A. I’m taking the kid tonight (8/9), and we’ll be there in time to see The Hives open.

I was telling a manager what it costs to run an Alternative promotion campaign. $20,000 to chart is my best estimate, unless you have a record that radio programmers hear at first listen. I’ve had maybe one of those in my entire career: Kongos’ “Come With Me Now.” The remaining thousand-plus songs I’ve worked have been a challenge. It should be easier now, with the metrics of streaming identifying which songs people care about, but Alternative is one of the few formats that doesn’t look at streaming, even when it’s the primary story. All you can do is hope that the proverbial gods are aligned and that these programmers like your record. I just hope that the format I helped build 40+ years ago sticks around for another seven or so years, or until I die at my desk.

Props to Michael Starr at Glassnote on his success with bby’s “Kinky.” His band Phoenix and fellow French group AIR are closing out the Paris Olympics this weekend. That will be epic.

Speaking of French bands, Audacy added Justice’s “Neverender” featuring Tame Impala. Also added was the new one by the Smashing Pumpkins, “Sighommi,” which Mike DePippa is working. Both are songs to hear.