With a blend of local music and discussions of feminism, MargRock, a rebooted podcast by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD2, might be the podcast for you. Liz Baron, a third-year studying political science, has revamped and renamed the show once called FemRock into MargRock.

MargRock stands for marginalized rock, according to Associate Director of Student Media Jamie Gilbert who advises WKNC, which means the show aims to meet with and interview bands and musicians that are made of people with marginalized identities.

Baron wanted to bring back the idea of FemRock, a radio show from 2006, but expand it to inclusive to an even broader group of artists.

“MargRock is taking the ‘fem’ out of Femrock and kind of diversifying it, so for like LGBTQ+ people that have nothing to do with fem, they don’t feel like they’re not welcome there,” Baron said. “It’s just bringing to light musicians of marginalized sexualities and genders.”

Baron said she started the podcast because of her own love of music, along with the fact that most of the music she listens to is by queer artists.

“It’s something that I’m very passionate about,” Baron said. “I’m just happy that I can express my passions in terms of feminism and activism and meeting new people and seeing what their lives are like and seeing how they might agree or disagree with each other.”

The podcast has already picked up some attention, according to Gilbert. She talked about how due to its origins as FemRock, it already has a lot of growth.

“It was good in that it focused on the female and the fem side of music in the Triangle, but this does take it a little bit further,” Gilbert said. “The first band, Goddamn Wolves, has I believe male members — I didn’t ask them pronouns, so I don’t know for sure. So it’s not just women or maybe nonbinary people, it’s people who identify as LGBTQ+, so queer artists, fem artists. It’s the same basic principle, but it’s expanded.”

MargRock already has two episodes out. The first interviews Raleigh band Goddamn Wolves, discussing the local music scene. The second episode is with Sidewalk Furniture, where there was a discussion amongst the members about what “fem” means.

“I didn’t know there would be such different perspectives within the community,” Baron said. “I thought that was really interesting.

Baron continued on to talk about the topic of her next episode, the Manifest Music Festival.

“Hopefully, the next one that comes out will be about the Manifest Music Festival that was created by Erika [Libero] and Sarah [Shook],” Baron said. “And it is just about kind of the same thing, bringing to light underrepresented musicians, and I got to interview a couple of artists there. I’m really excited for it to come out, because it’s kind of like meshing together different artists’ opinions.”

Gilbert said the show will have a good impact for local bands. It will give bands that people may not have heard of a chance to be heard.

“That’s a great opportunity, to take a band, particularly a local band that people perhaps may not have heard of … and give them a spotlight,” Gilbert said.

Episodes of the podcast, MargRock, can be found at WKNC.org.

Editor’s Note: WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 and Technician are both organizations under Student Media.