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Don McGahn’s 1990s College Radio Moment
One of my favorite stories in recent memory is a tale about the confluence of college radio, 1990s punk rock, and 2019 government officials. With members of Generation X in their 40s and 50s today, it stands to reason that plenty of them with high profile jobs also have indie rock/college radio pasts.
I enjoyed every word of “I Was on a Compilation CD with Don McGahn in College,” John Dugan’s account of how his 90s self crossed paths with the former White House counsel. Dugan writes:
There’s really nothing more ’90s than being on an obscure compilation CD. And perhaps there’s nothing more 2019 than being from the DC area and having a bizarre, tangential relationship [to] the Trump administration.
…an old college radio chum alerted me to the fact that Don McGahn, President Trump’s OG White House Counsel and purveyor of fine ’80s cover tunes in Scott’s New Band, has a solo song on the Jericho Sessions CD. Yes, the Don McGahn who Trump tried to pressure into firing Robert Mueller.
Dugan explains that his band also appears on the Jericho Sessions compilation CD of campus bands, which was put together in 1991 by University of Notre Dame’s student-run college radio station WVFI (“Voice of the Fighting Irish”). Read his article to see vintage images of the CD compilation as well as Dugan’s reviews of the student bands.
Coincidentally, my husband is also a WVFI alumnus, but alas has no compilation CDs from his radio days there. We did return to the station back in 2008, with our 2-year-old in tow. That tour (saved for posterity as my 3rd radio station field trip report) is the stuff of family lore thanks to my daughter’s epic face plant into a college radio couch. While she dozed away, my husband and I enjoyed a leisurely tour through the WVFI studio and library, having no idea about the cross-section of characters and bands that had occupied those same spaces over the decades.
More College Radio News
Profiles of Stations and Personnel
- Pune’s SPPU Radio Surpasses Boundary, to Give Voice to Other Colleges (Hindustan Times)
- Odisha’s Ravenshaw University Radio Back on Air (New Indian Express)
Events
- KFJC Hosts Weekend Listener Appreciation Party (Mountain View Voice)
Programming
- Paws Radio and Coyote Radio Collaborate to Bring New Shows to Listeners (InlandEmpire.us)
Popular Culture
- Blinded by the Light – Gurinder Chadha’s Latest Inspirational Comedy (India Post)
- Streaming Previews, including ‘Dear White People’ (Sydney Morning Herald)
Alumni
- Husband and Wife Duo Grow Hispanic Radio in Sarasota (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
- The Return of Isis (The St. Louis American)
- Lessig Joins Sun Prairie Media Center Staff (Sun Prairie Star)
- Grey Chief Creative John Patroulis on Hypnosis, Odd Jobs and the Value of Niche Subcultures (AdAge)
- Tim Sweeney’s College Radio Past at WNYU (The Guardian)
History
- I Was on a Compilation CD with Don McGahn in College (Washingtonian)
- How Handsome Boy Modeling School Created the Perfect Album for ’99 (The Ringer)
