Want a peek into the future of the highly influential music programming at KCRW-FM (89.9)? Sneak into the Santa Monica College station's CD library on Sunday and just listen.
That's where and when Nic Harcourt will be planning the set for Monday, his first day as host of the station's 9 a.m.-to-noon music anchor, "Morning Becomes Eclectic," and plotting out the initial course in his duty as the new music director.
He was hired after a nationwide search to replace Chris Douridas, who has left to concentrate full time on his duties as an artists and repertoire executive at DreamWorks Records that he took on last year.
"I've thought about picking something for the first song that would say something," Harcourt, 40, says from his Woodstock, N.Y., home on the eve of his departure for Los Angeles. "But I haven't figured it out. I'll probably just go in Sunday and pick out a bunch of music. And even then, I might change my mind Monday morning."
It's not a decision that the Birmingham, England, native will make lightly. He knows that the station's loyal listeners, who have come to rely on it for the introduction of notable artists and emerging trends from around the world, will be paying close attention to what he plays right off the bat. And he also knows that what he does will be watched closely by music industry executives, who listen to the station to keep a finger on the pulse of music developments.
Douridas introduced Beck to the world on KCRW--a move that was key in his own rise in the music business--and with his own programming and the hiring of such deejays as Jason Bentley, he helped pave the way for techno music's move into the American mainstream. Douridas' predecessor, Tom Schnabel, can take credit for spurring U.S. recognition of such global music stars as Nigeria's King Sunny Ade and the late Pakistani qawwali music great, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
With that in mind, though, Harcourt hopes no one reads too much into what he does with his first song--or first show, or even first few months, for that matter. The program will still be the same "Morning Becomes Eclectic," mixing recordings and live guests, with an on-air performance by L.A. techno band God Lives Underwater scheduled as part of the Monday debut, a solo acoustic Mark Eitzel appearance Tuesday, neo-jazz singer Holly Cole and her band Wednesday and French electronic lounge music figure Dmitri in Paris on April 24. Harcourt's own imprint on the station, he says, will be something that will evolve over time.
