Liz Warner on Electrifying Mojo and Detroit Techno | Living for the City Full Interview

Liz Warner is an award-winning journalist and the host of Alternate Take on WDET, Detroit's NPR affiliate, where she explores music and culture in the city's most freewheeling register. This is her full conversation with host Hanif Abdurraqib.

Warner traces Detroit radio's role as a source of comfort and community, from Martha Jean The Queen calming the city during the 1967 riots to her own philosophy that the airwaves are a state of mind. She talks about building an audience during her midnight-to-5am show by thinking about who was actually listening, auto workers on the overnight shift, night owls, musicians, and why discovery, not just rotation, is what keeps a radio audience coming back.

She also breaks down Electrifying Mojo's outsized role in breaking Detroit techno to a wider audience, his relationship with Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May, and how his willingness to get fired for following his instincts set him apart from safer public radio programming. She talks about why she eventually left Detroit, her return to WDET, and what she thinks is most important to preserve about Detroit radio's sense of collective discovery.

CHAPTERS

00:24 - Mixtapes, Radio Dreams, and Finding the Station

02:37 - Martha Jean The Queen: Radio as Comfort During the 1967 Riots

06:43 - "The Airwaves Are a State of Mind"

09:32 - Late Night Radio: Building an Audience of Night Owls and Shift Workers

13:17 - Detroit as a Car City and the Power of the Commute

16:04 - Breaking Detroit Techno: From Drexciya to Electrifying Mojo

24:09 - The Responsibility of the Airwaves: Ed Love and 70 Years in Radio

27:34 - Staying Curious Over Five Hours a Night, Five Nights a Week