Aiga Leitholde: How many years have you been a radio person?
Kaspars Maurins: Man This year will be the official year since I was the director of the radio station. Prior to that, I was acting director. As for the total length of radio experience, it has been about 20 years since I worked for Latvijas Radio. At the beginning I create author’s works, I have read news in LR2. Then I retrained as a program manager. Before that I worked at Cēsis Radio as a DJ. DJing was better for me than reading the news. I have been to the Pieci.lv project and also to the campaign “Give five!” in its original composition.
If someone had told me at the age of ten that I would work in LR2. I would have answered – never in my life! The way I am now the director of LR2 has changed my life, it would never have appeared to me in my dreams.
I have fallen in love with this station and am doing my heart’s work – eating a sense of Latvian music.
For example, last week I was sitting with Maestro Raimonds Pauls in his office listening to a concert by his young artist Paul Saija and judging with him which song might be what could potentially sound like a live radio recording, which is one of the reasons why glad I come for this job.
Kaspars Maurins
Photo: Thomas Baker
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LR2 is still the most listened radio in Latvia. What do you think keeps this popularity so constant?
It seems to me that this is a combination of several circumstances. First of all, we are Latvian light music radio and there are no more stations like us in Latvia. Obviously, the desire for Latvian music for Latvians living in both the Latvian and foreign diaspora is high enough. Above all, the popularity of the radio station is maintained by our simple and close-to-the-nation radio personalities.
Another key to success is that radio music programs are author’s works.
Although it is already an old school, when a DJ creates a musical program manually, going through the sound library, finding the right music for a particular day, it still works best for us. We offer people professionally prepared content that they want to consume.
LR2 also organizes thematic actions. I have in mind the “Longest Midsummer Song of the Century”.
The Marathon of Maestro Raimonds Pauls, designed and produced by my colleague Baiba Palkavniece, was close to my heart in the context of his round anniversary. Then for several days or 80 hours we played only Paul’s music. Also in everyday life, when musicians have anniversaries, we create special rotations, in which the music they create is heard more.
What is the audience of LR2? Are they experienced listeners or are young people listening too?
If you look at the audience’s research on radio channels, they reveal that even a little more young people listen to us than Pieci.lv, which is a youth channel. Of course, the vast majority of our listeners are from the middle generation and the older generation, for whom the linear ether is still important. Audiences are changing – I remember one of the last comments, in which a listener praised the program created by Kaspars Markševics, adding that he is about 30 years old. For some years now, LR2 has been the seal of old people’s radio. In recent years, a younger audience has arrived, which was also one of the goals of our channel. We will not work for young people, but more for the middle-aged listener, offering them content, such as the Latvian pop music classics of the eighties.
Kaspars Mauriņš and Līna Rudzone
Photo: Thomas Baker
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Let’s talk about car shows! The first thing that comes to mind is Robert Buivida’s “Unformatted”, which also gives LR2 a little alternative sound.
LR2 by our chief music editor, Robert Buivida, will be broadcast on Sunday evenings at 10 pm. Of course, music known to a wide audience will be played on the daily air of LR2, but we try to represent all genres of Latvian music. We have a pop-rock song poll “Muzikālā banka”, a hit and country show “Latvijas sirdsdziesma”. And there are also singers, ethno musicians, alternative and electronic music performers in Latvia, about whom Roberts tells in “Unformat”.
I am very pleased that we managed to realize several programs due to the exit from the advertising market, which also coincided with my election to the position of LR2 Director.
For many years, the content of LR2 was minimal. There were program managers who worked more like DJs. There was a lot of music and relatively little shows. We currently have a content show every night. If we talk about music, then we should note the program “Sheet Music Key”, which is composed by Daiga Mazvērsīte. The show tells about the development of Latvian popular music, about its performers and creators. It sounds on Saturday afternoons. Daiga has a talent for attracting interesting stories from musicians, linking them to different generations and in the context of other events. The show “The Key to Sheet Music” is basically an analysis of Latvian popular music.
How do you assess the development of current young musicians and current Latvian popular music?
Young musicians in Latvia are really very active. Every week we receive new songs from known and lesser known and completely unknown lyrics. Representatives of the hip-hop stage do not send us their songs, because they know that this is not really the LR2 format, but LR2 plays the music of young Latvian artists. At the same time, I am also a producer of “Muzikālās banka”. At “Muzikbanka” we evaluate new songs and do not always take the musician’s first song, unless the potential of the song is clear, which is what happens. An example is the young musician Bouch, whom we noticed before he won his laurels and accolades.
But there is a certain paradox with hits. If the song will hit and live, it will happen organically.
An objective reality emerges from the subjective choices of program makers. There are also songs by popular artists that for some reason do not go to LR2 or other radio stations. And it has to happen organically, not artificially to the listeners. You can stick to anything, but I don’t think it’s the right direction. The story of the song is the most important. This is the song’s potential for success, which either forgets or doesn’t.
What is your biggest musical surprise lately?
Good question. I was just surprised Collaboration of “Bermuda Triangle” and “Auli” in the song “Bride”. This means that we can never know what will happen. This collaboration would not have appeared in my dreams. It is these events that surprise me from time to time. Of course, the value of LR2 above all else is a hit.
Well-known songs, “Evergreens” or songs with a hit potential will be played on the air most often.
We are not experimenting, we have tested the value of radio. You may have noticed that LR2 doesn’t sound the way it sounded in the mid-2000s, when there was a big hit on the air. Of course, we still play hit music, but we also float the gold of pop music of the eighties.
In turn, the survey “Musical Bank” not only reflects the current situation in popular music, but seems to be especially valuable for musicians with their year-end concert. For example, this year’s performance of “Other Boys” in the finals of the “Music Bank” not only brought them 2nd place, but also gave a good start to the victory in “Supernova”.
That’s right, if you are among the 15 final songs of the “Music Bank”, it means something. Young musicians also have a place to grow and strive for. Of course, the big names are hard to compete with, but there are also younger artists next to them every year. The same “Other Boys” – if a year ago we included them in the finals as special guests, this year they fought the big musical sharks. That’s why we try to keep the “Music Bank” bar – the song has to go through the entire selection of the year, so that in the end, being on the stage stage, it would really be an achievement. We have already highlighted the new words in the “Music Bank” – the same “Musiqq” once won with the song “Abracadabra”. As a project at the time, they were in their infancy. Or Nikolai Puzikov, with the song “God Loves You”, looking back, “Z-scars” should also be mentioned.
In conclusion, a new year begins for Latvijas Radio 2. What’s new this year?
We will basically continue what we have started – new thematic programs, strengthen our whole concept of music. Let’s continue to introduce the concert life to the audience: we have various concert recordings, which are often heard on our air. We will continue our cooperation with the Music Bank and the Latvian Heart Song of Latvia. This is what I think LR2 goes hand in hand with! We are also thinking about how to offer LR2 content on various other platforms.
Latvian Radio 2 will celebrate its 27th birthday with musical performances by various artists on Friday, April 1. A total of seven live performances will take place during the day, with the participation of such musicians as “Other Boys”, “Vintage”, Don, “Golden Stud”, Ainars Bumbieris and “Akacis”. All these artists will visit the Latvian Radio 2 studio, while at 19.05 listeners will have the opportunity to hear a live broadcast of Ivo Fomina’s concert “Man” from the VEF Culture Palace.
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