Lude-Poppin' DJ Segues Oval Into Jelly Roll Morton

In Slate, Douglas Wolk has a nice appreciation of college radio. Here's the key passage:

College radio is local and individual, and the digital audio revolution has barely slowed it down. You can download songs from a dorm-mate or someone halfway across the world (or, all right, an actual online music store), but that only works if you already know what you want to hear. The point of college radio is that you get to hear things you didn't already know about.

Comments

[saw-whet]

Damn right, Jesse. And way too many college radio stations don't present new or obscure music. Consequently one might say that some college radio stations SUCK. I'm looking at you Syracuse University (with your two, count 'em, two pukey stations).

The poor misanthrope who ran the radio station at my alma mater, Oregon Tech, single handedly made my time there a bummer for me. On the other hand, West Conn had a great radio station.

Looks like the server squirrels need another nut break.

[Jeff P.]

If you still think commercial radio has any integrity, go ask one hundred people if they honestly like the Lenny Kravitz cover of American Woman. The answer will be, without exception, "no."
Now how many times have you heard that goddamned song?

I swore off just about all radio years ago, but when I'm near boston I scan for college stations. If you can stomach the indy hipster crap you'll hear a few decent new tunes.

[mediageek]

You know, for the last few months, the two radio stations I've gravitated towards have been NPR and the local college radio station.

The promos on the commercial rock station here yammer on endlessly about variety, but their repetition of System of a Down's ear-bleedingly awful "BYOB" says otherwise.

Meanwhile, the local college station plays all sorts of peculiar stuff, and if I don't like it, well, all I have to do is wait for the next DJ to come on, who's sure to play something completely different.

[Todd Fletcher]

Years ago I thought internet radio would take up the torch from college radio, but it doesn't seem to have happened.

[smacky]

If you stream internet radio, here are two amazing college radio stations in Cleveland:

WCSB Cleveland State University

WRUW Case Western Reserve University

Also, WJCU is hit or miss:

WJCU John Carroll University

I don't really ever listen to this college station, since it has a low broadcast range, but they also stream via internet:

WBWC Baldwin Wallace

I previewed this post and I'm not sure my links are working...but if you have trouble getting to any of their sites, just ask me and I can repost the links.

[Jesse Walker]

Smacky: You need to include an http:// at the beginning of the web address for the link to work. But if you include more than one link, our spam-vigilant server will reject your post. So you might just want to list the urls and let us cut'n'paste.

[Bryon]

As an ex-college radio PD (at Clemson's WSBF - http://www.wsbf.net - ugly website but great live stream) this is a subject near to my heart. I take issue with the claim that college radio is essentially unchanged. In the early 90s when college radio heroes began to find commercial success, too many college stations went chasing after them blurring the lines between commercial rock stations and college stations. Broadcasting and journalism departments have also been seizing control over college stations and turning them into lousy top 40 clones in the interest of "training future radio talent." I think that half of college radio has been lost in the last 15 years.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to Gary Parsons, the founder and chairman of XM Satellite radio (and WSBF alum), and he said the overwhelming reason XM subscribers gave for signing up was the variety of music available. This gives me some hope in that maybe the average radio listeners aren?t as stupid as commercial stations think they are.

Although Wolk seems to find that college radio is again relevant because of its irrelevance, I fear they may be replaced by satellite services. The only reason the internet hasn't replaced it is because it isn't readily available in your car. The only encouraging thing is that college radio really won't care. It was never about how many people were listening anyway.

[Jeff P.]

Quite frankly, I don't find radio (commercial or college) worth preserving in it's present state. Podcasts and iPod playlists and sat radio and the like will hopefully kill it soon. Then maybe I can visit the nearby bowling alley without the local morning show DJs showing up to host yet another "Freak Fest," holding a "Biggest Tits" contest, and playing Clear Channel compliant Rap Metal.
I'd also like the 18-34 demographic officially designated as "Damned Kids!"

[smacky]

Quite frankly, I don't find radio (commercial or college) worth preserving in it's present state. Podcasts and iPod playlists and sat radio and the like will hopefully kill it soon.

I guess the reason I like college radio is that

a.) I hear things I very well may have never heard if I hadn't tuned in.
b.) I've gotten into many musicians this way.
c.) It's less work and preparation for me. (i.e. I don't have to make mix CDs all the time or lug around my precious personal music collection)
d.) I hear things I will never hear anywhere else, unless I become a rare record and vinyl collector. Some of the stuff I hear is absolutely impossible to hear elsewhere. (Ok, maybe if I want to spend $500 chasing down a rare vinyl, but come on, let's be realistic).

I must add, that this is all under the premise that the college radio station is good. When college radio is good, it's amazing. When it's bad, it's borderline torturous.

I am lucky because WRUW and WCSB are in Cleveland. They are truly two of the excellent things about Cleveland, which is great because Cleveland really doesn't have much else going for it (in my unbridled opinion).

[Phil]

I don't really ever listen to this college station, since it has a low broadcast range, but they also stream via internet:

WBWC Baldwin Wallace

Friday Fun Trivia: Yours truly was a DJ on this station for three years, and served as its general manager for one.

(During this time we had a construction permit to increase power from 100w to 5,000w [yes, you read that right], which would entail us switching frequencies with Oberlin College, and their troika of student managers conspired to fuck us on the deal. Which they proceeded to do.)

[smacky]

Thanks for the tip, Jesse.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Jeff:

I second your designation. Most of the music "these kids" listen to is heavy on the anger and aggression, but zero substance. Zero.

[Jeff P.]

I wouldn't say rarities are impossible, dear Smacky. There are entire newsboards on the web where audiophiles make high-bitrate files of their rare vinyl and post them. I find file sharing, especially among fans of the obscure, to be far more rewarding than radio.

[AnonCowherd]

I have to agree on the props to xm radio. I was an early adopter and I'm always amazed at the variety of music they offer. The blues channel alone (74) is worth the fee, but they have a really good selection of rock stations - including their "unsigned artists" channel.

[smacky]

Phil,

Ha! I know all about college radio stations fucking each other over. I myself have been and (still somewhat am) involved with college radio. I know about their tricky politics. It's funny, too, because none of the stations stand to gain anything monetarily, but there is still plenty of cutthroat competition and schadenfreude there.

[smacky]

There are entire newsboards on the web where audiophiles make high-bitrate files of their rare vinyl and post them.

Really? Do tell! I'm all ears.

So which one of you guys is going to chase me off of your lawn with a cane?

[Douglas Fletcher]

If you can stomach the indy hipster crap

No, can't do it. I do better listening to stuff on the internet -- for instance, you can find all the western swing you'd want at KSEY-FM out of Seymour, Texas. Then again, I'm just an old fuck at this point and pretty much know what I like, though I'm always interested in unexpected quality wherever it may be -- I just never find any of it among the 'indy hipsters crap,' thanks anyway.

[Phil]

To be fair, Mr. Nice Guy, most music is pretty much "without substance." (Sturgeon's Law and all that.) But I don't know that I'd characterize it as angry and aggressive. I mean, to me, the following list of artists that "these kids" enjoy is so aggression-free that it's instead characterized by namby-pamby wussiness. It's like listening to air:

Jason Mraz
John Mayer
Jack Johnson
Note: Those three are actually all the same fucking guy.
Dave Matthews
Sufjan Stevens
Death Cab for Cutie
Devendra Barnhart

I have tried to see what's to like in these artists, but I find them excruciatingly unlistenable.

[temporary k]

Strong Bad has a good rundown of the various radio formats - http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail120.html

...the UT-Austin station has the college radio bit in a few of their promos.

As an ex-college radio DJ, MD and PD, I hope I never have to see the day that something like free-format radio isn't an option for students. But I do find myself listening to my three-weeks-old iPod a lot more than the radio, and I split the remaining radio listening between talk radio and whatever music station is playing something I like. It really is a matter of knowing when the DJs who care about music that I'm interested in are on. Austin sucks for that, since we have to split one frequency between the UT station (7p-9a) and a community station (9a-7p), so it's pretty much amateur news/talk radio all day long. There are good shows on both stations, but two separate frequencies would be a huge improvement.

[Phil]

I should mention that I haven't listened to an actual broadcast radio station in nigh unto a year, since I got Sirius in my car. Best innovation ever.

At work, I keep my entire recorded music collection on a 120GB external hard drive, and just listen from that all day. Or sometimes one of the streaming stations built into iTunes.

[smacky]

Phil,

Take Devendra Banhart off that list. He's not wimpy. True, he has some really quiet songs, but if anything, he sounds a lot like Marc Bolan and T.Rex.

[David Rollins]

Mad props to college radio, from someone who used to DJ the Friday afternoon jazz show at WXDU-Durham (Duke University). The sun was setting, interstate commerce was in the air, and Oscar Peterson and Louis Armstrong were on the turntable.

One of the reasons college radio is still relevant is because you can hear bands that are playing in your hometown (and tickets are still available for under $20). Satellite won't match that.

[Jeff P.]

Smacky, go hook yourself with BitTorrent or Newsbin. Some vinyl junkies still use Kazaa-lite. Find the groups that focus on a given decade or genre and look for "vinyl-rip" posts.
It's a skill to be learned, but I'm a blithering idiot and I mastered it inside of three days.

BTW, the latest free version of Winamp comes bundle with a stream/cast manager that lets you access many (but not all) XM channels.

Making mix discs is the highest possible calling.

[Jesse Walker]

That's a fine station, David. I grew up listening to WXDU and WXYC.

[andy]

I'm with Smacky on the reasons to like college radio (and, I would also argue, strong public radio music stations like WXPN in Philly or WFUV in NY, or the Current in Mpls). Here in Minneapolis, the thing that really argues for keeping good old broadcast radio around, is KFAI, Fresh Air Radio: http://www.kfai.org. Want your news in Somali or Vietnamese? Live, on-air hip-hop? Want to satisfy your out-and-proud queer current events jones AND your Hmong news and music needs on a single evening? As the old commercial use to say, It's in there.

The whole station has 6 full time employees and the rest (DJs, music library, promos, publicity, governance, you name it) is done by a few hundred volunteers. So the DJ are mostly local volunteers with day jobs who do it for the love of it, with personality to spare, and connections to the community. The music shows run from Blues to African to Punk to freeform, and the DJs and volunteers are generally too old to be classified as trendy hipsters. This, plus all the news and music for the immigrant communities makes for a pretty eclectic and inspiring mix, and, I think, a pretty unique one. I don't think a station like this would ever get on the niche-heavy satellite radio lineups, to say nothing of the vast commercial wasteland, and I suspect most of the new immigrants served by the non-English language shows are not spending their days in a cubicle with a T1 connection.

All this stuff is streamable from the program grid at http://www.kfai.org/schedule.htm

[Ed]

Music, music everywhere, and not a note to listen to.

[rafuzo]

I find it utterly baffling that given the number and density of colleges here in Boston, there's only two worth listening to (Emerson's WERS and Brown's WBRU), and one of them is fuzzy and staticky from downtown. When I got to school at BU I was excited to get with the radio station, until I realized that the equipment sucks and the broadcast power is ridiculous (case in point: my senior year they were forced to temporarily move up the band because they were getting drowned out by a pirate techno radio station nearby).

[Rhywun]

Jeff P.,

I wouldn't recommend Kazaa (lite or otherwise) to anyone. I used to use Kazaa-Lite but I stopped when it became impossible to find any files that weren't loaded up with viruses and spyware.

[Rhywun]

I'm wondering what counts as "indy hipster crap".

[Mr. Nice Guy]

smacky:

I don't have a lawn since I live in a condo-centric "joeville", but if I DID have a lawn, you would be welcomed to come and go as you see fit 🙂

Phil:

I draw my conclusion from taking two kids to a rock festival a year ago. A vast majority of that rap-metal crap I listened to all sounded the same. And I found myself asking "What the fuck are you kids angry about? What is your point?"

Now compare that to the 80s.. we had bands like "A-ha" and "Wham". That shit had substance!

[Jeff P.]

Rhywun: It's pretty easy to detect tainted Kazaa files by checking the file size and running Ad Aware. Agreed, it's not what it used to be, but a few dedicated folks still use it.
Also, it's a great way to fileshare. If I need to send you a very large file (say, an episode of a show) and don't want to email it, I can put it in my share folder and rename it a random string of numbers and letters. I email the new name to you and you can pull it down on Kazaa straight from my computer without choking up your inbox.

[saw-whet]

Mr. Nice Guy - The 80s were the high point for (oh what the heck) Rock music. And that's coming from someone who really did live through the 60s and 70s.

I don't want to hear any more heavy-metal-screaming-evil-monster-type musack. It really does all sound the same and it really is pointless. But I feel the good old days began fading away when REM and Nirvana were being marketed as Alternative.

I was listening to everything back then, Ricky Scaggs to the Cocteau Twins, and there's a lot of distance between those two groups. The listener's mantra back then was, "I'll listen to anything as long as it's good."

Just thought I'd post all this for those who may have missed out on the early 80s. For the children, that is.

[Phil]

Rhywun: Try anything here for indy hipster crap. Ha ha.

saw-whet: I love me some 80s, but there's still a lot of good stuff out there. From albums I've purchased this year:

Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous
Fiery Furnaces, Blueberry Boat
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Shake the Sheets
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
The Go-Betweens, Oceans Apart
New Pornographers, Twin Cinema

I think you would dig some of this stuff. If you're interested in, um, previewing any of it, email me.

PS: At the time Murmur came out, REM was pretty "alternative." And still were up through . . . hmmm, Life's Rich Pageant, maybe. Or Document.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Yeah.. my college years wouldn't have been the same without early REM. It was great.

When they started pushing bands like Limp Biscuit as being "alternative", that's when I completely gave up. And when the legendary WHFS switched to latin pop, it was only a bitter footnote at that point.

Now excuse me as I fixident my dentures..

[saw-whet]

Phil - Can't take you up on that just yet, but I will one of these days. That web site you linked to, holy shit I forgot all about The Flaming Lips. And those worst of album covers, I had the Martin Mull one. Used to buy all sorts of wierd shit at the Harvard Coop.

[saw-whet]

I think the Meat Puppets were truly Alternative. The Butthole Surfers were close. And what the fuck was up with Skinny Puppy. I think they played at the New York State Fair 10 years ago. I got that information second hand, though.

[Jesse Walker]

Hell, I remember when U2 was alternative. From college radio to Davos in just two decades!

[Eric the .5b]

I must plug WOXY.com if we're talking about internet radio. It was actually a terrestrial station (and the largest independent radio station in the country) until last year. There are regular and "vintage" feed.

If indie stuff gives you hives, though, stay clear.

[slightlybad]

I live in a small town with a big university, and college radio is absolutely the only thing worth listening to hear. Otherwise, I've got 6 stations playing Rascal Flatts, Shania Twain, and all that other shitty pop country stuff thats not even close to real country, one station that plays "classic rock" consisting completely of the "Dazed and Confused" soundtrack, and one that plays "new rock" that is heavy on the above mentioned Limp Bizkit and System of a Down (who may be the worst band ever imho).

Having said that, independent doesn't mean good. My freshman year in college, I saw Dave Matthews in Charlottesville a couple of times when he was just a local. I thought he sucked then and was (and still am) completely mystified with his success since then. I think I went through a year period where every sorority girl that I slept with cued up "Ants Marching" as mood music. As attractive as meaningless sex with some hot and vapid girls still is, I just don't think I could do it again.

[Trey]

Douglas, thanks for the tip on KSEY. I'm really enjoying it!

It's not just Western Swing, I'm listening to Doug Sahm right now.

[Gonzoide]

I had a show in college that ran from midnight to 3 a.m. on KUMM. "The only station that puts Kumm in your ear" was a promo. We had a limited FCC non-commercial license so we could play anything we wanted as long as it hadn't been top 40 in the last 10 years. After midnight FCC rules no longer applied so I could literally play or say anything I wanted. No one was listening but at least all the songs that weren't radio friendly got a spin. NOFX had a song called "can't play this song on the radio" so of course I played it every show. Are there still such stations that the FCC can't touch?

[dead_elvis]

Coincidentally over at grylliade a few days ago, I posted a similar sentiment- that I don't file trade simply because I don't know enough about contemporary music to know what to get, but the college stations I listen to over the internet allow me to hear stuff that I didn't know I would like. And while we're at it another shout out to two alma maters where I had brief DJ stints:

KUOI
and
WCBN

[dead_elvis]

Oops. As pointed out above there is an issue here with links.

http://www.kuoi.com

http://www.wcbn.org

[Wild Pegasus]

College radio? Didn't we just get done a thread making fun of Arrested Development for being ungodly pretentious?

(oh yeah WRUW sucks)

- Josh

[kalimba]

I'm still hooked on college radio, since my days at wcbn/ann arbor in the 70's, to my days here in Boston which has the best variety of college radio in the country, despite the post above from a BU alum. At its best I get a local perspective, and someone else's taste in music that just might intersect with mine. On my car I have 6 college radio presets, and there's always something worth listening to.