Thursday, June 19, 2008

College Radio DJs Obnoxious, Vacuous and Self-Important?

It's funny, I hear that in radio what draws in the listener is often the over-the-top DJ personality. In college radio we often mock that and many DJs respond by having a mellower on-air persona. A former college radio DJ wrote on his blog World Without End about a variety of things he can't stand, including radio DJs. He writes:

"There are
maybe two or three voices on KCRW that don't make me want to jam a ball pein hammer through my temples (Tom Schnabel and Chris Douridas are the only ones that come quickly to mind), but I can't name a single other radio DJ on that station or any other that I can even kinda stand. What I fail to understand is how folks with such grating, irritating, awful voices and personalities get hired to speak on the air. Even more surprising to me is that people listen! I was a DJ on my college radio station for three years, and when I was on the air, I tried to speak as little as possible. I even avoided the legally required station IDs a lot of the time. Partly because my show was on early in the morning and I was tired, but also because radio DJs (even, almost especially, college radio DJs) are too often obnoxious, vacuous, and self-important. And that, Gentle Reader, I cannot get behind."

What do you think? Do college DJs take themselves too seriously? Are we all obnoxious, vacuous and self-important? I agree that there are some that I can't stand, but I have many favorite college radio DJs on a number of different stations who I think do a fine job without being obnoxious or cheesy.

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