The reason that I ventured into my college radio station when I was a freshman in college was because I was really into music. I quickly got my own show and eventually became Music Director along with a friend and co-DJ. It was always our mission to try to get other DJs to branch out and be more experimental, as it seemed like many people just relied on old favorites or mainstream hits. We’d write up lists of the exciting new records that we were adding to the station’s library, but that wasn’t enough to get some DJs to take a chance on strange music.
When I read CMJ’s interview with the Metal Director/Program Director at college radio station CJLO (at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada), I was immediately taken back to my Music Director days, as it seems that it’s an ongoing struggle for adventurous music directors to get less adventurous DJs to play unfamiliar music. In the interview, CJLO’s Andrew Wieler explains how he introduces metal music to DJs who are not metal aficionados, saying,
It depends on what someone is doing on their shows. The convo will go something like, ‘Oh, you liked the new Godspeed You Black Emperor record? Maybe you should listen to this Failure record and see if you like that.’ That’s why I also don’t mind seeing things that aren’t ‘trve’ go into the vault. It’s not just metal, it’s loud rock too, and sometimes people need a gateway to get into other styles of music. Most people can’t just jump into Cannibal Corpse: they need a transition.”
I completely subscribe to the concept of “gateway” music for various genres and it’s a way that many of us DJs introduce different styles of music and more experimental sounds into our shows, as there is music that can help both DJs and listeners transition from one sonic space to another.
CMJ College Radio Award Finalists Announced
Speaking of CMJ, the college radio organization just announced the finalists for its annual College Radio Awards. Over the past few weeks CMJ has been accepting nominations from its subscribers and CMJ Music Marathon attendees will vote on the winners during College Day on October 14th in New York City. The station up for the most awards (6) is WWVU (West Virginia University), followed by KUOM (University of Minnesota) and WSOU (Seton Hall University), with three a piece. For what it’s worth, I’ve only been to a handful of the finalist stations (WLUW, WFMU, KUSF, WVAU, and KCPR), but hope to see a few others this year.
Station Of The Year:
KUOM (Minneapolis, MN)
WSOU (South Orange, NJ)
WTSR (Ewing, NJ)
WWVU (Morgantown, WV)
Music Director Of The Year:
James Calvet (KVCU)
Chloe Croom (WLUW)
Elizabeth McIntrye (WWVU)
David Wolfson (WVFS)
Specialty Music Director Of The Year:
Brian Doc Holidae (CJLO)
Cody Roane (WWVU)
Rohit Ravi (WSOU)
Andrew Wieler (CJLO)
Biggest Champion Of The Local Scene:
KUOM (Minneapolis, MN)
WDWN (Auburn, NY)
WKNC (Raleigh, NC)
WXIN (Providence, RI)
Most Creative:
KUOM (Minneapolis, MN)
WFMU (Jersey City, NJ)
WMUA (Amherst, MA)
WWVU (Morgantown, WV)
Small Station, Big Idea:
KRNU (Lincoln, NE)
WHUS (Storrs, CT)
WMUA (Amherst, MA)
WWVU (Morgantown, WV)
Best Student-Run, Internet-Only Station:
KUSF (San Francisco, CA)
Radio UTD (Dallas, TX)
Spinnaker (Jacksonville, FL)
WVAU (Washington D.C.)
Biggest Improvement:
KCPR (San Luis Obispo, CA)
KWCW (Walla Walla, WA)
WSOU (South Orange, NJ)
WWVU (Morgantown, WV)
On Radio Survivor This Week: College Radio Day, KTRU and WRAS Updates on Podcast + Tour of KAOS
I really hope that you are listening to the Radio Survivor Podcast. It’s full of interesting stories about radio and I report on college radio news every week. We devote much of episode 14 to the topic of college radio. I interview the President of College Radio Day to learn more about what’s in store for this year’s event and in College Radio Watch I discuss some updates about WRAS-FM at Georgia State University and about KTRU at Rice University. Both stations lost access to FM channels (Rice’s license was sold and students at WRAS-FM are now relegated to the webstream during daytime hours and are only on FM at night) and I talk about what supporters of both stations are doing in order to change the status quo.
Yesterday I posted my 89th radio station field trip, in which I report on my visit to Evergreen State College’s radio station KAOS-FM. More of a college radio/community radio hybrid, KAOS is full of both student and non-student DJs doing freeform programming in Olympia, Washington. On next week’s podcast I’ll be sharing some bonus tidbits from that tour.
A Glimpse at WSJU
Rob Quicke of College Radio Day shared this short piece about WSJU-AM, the college radio station at St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens, New York. It’s mainly a profile of one jazz DJ, who interestingly got his start by doing the morning announcements at his high school (he was also the General Manager of his high school radio station). Scan to the end to see some familiar sights, including U.S. mail tubs full of CDs.
More College Radio News
75th Anniversary Exhibition Celebrates Princeton’s Beloved WPRB Station (Mudd Manuscript Library Blog)
The history of Princeton University radio station WPRB will be on view…
WQFS is Still Marching to its Own Beat (The Guilfordian)
Profiling the Guilford College radio station
KSUU Offers Free Concert Series in Cedar City (The Spectrum)
Southern Utah University radio station KSUU is hosting a weekly concert series this semester
How I Became a Radio Personality and Executive (Cosmopolitan)
Hot 97 Exec TT Torrez discovered her love for radio while at college radio station WNSB at Norfolk State University
We cover the culture of college radio every Friday in our College Radio Watch feature. If you have college radio news to share, please drop us a note at EDITORS at RADIOSURVIVOR dot COM.
