College Radio and Twitter

I signed up with Twitter (@SpinningIndie) nearly a year ago, but am only just starting to do any sort of posting on it. Clearly it's becoming mainstream (the recent multi-page feature in Star magazine about celebrities on Twitter was kind of a clue) and is no doubt the next Facebook.

I'm curious how radio stations are using Twitter, so I've started to follow a bunch of them. Now, I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to filter all the posts, but one of my first reactions is that I'm not super interested in getting updates on every single song played on a particular station. I think if that's a station's sole purpose in using Twitter, it's kind of a missed opportunity.

Several stations that I follow have separate accounts for station updates (contests, events, promotions, random thoughts, etc.) and for playlists (KEXP Playlist, XPN Playlist). That seems like a great way to do it. If you're desperate for real-time playlist information, then Twitter can be a nice tool for that. In fact, some of these stations may not have any other methods for reporting that information. For example, satellite station Sirius XMU sends out tweets for the songs they play, which is useful since their website doesn't offer archived playlists.

However, if you're someone like me who is interested in updates from lots and lots of stations, then bits of news get hopelessly lost amid the pages and pages of real-time playlist tweets.

I'm sure there's a way for me to filter through all of this in a better way (any suggestions?), but I'm probably not alone in this frustration as a relative newcomer to the whole Twitter scene.

So, as I venture into my investigation of college radio stations on Twitter, I'm curious about a few things:

1) Does your station use Twitter?
2) How often does your station post and who does the posting?
3) Do you follow stations on Twitter?
4) Do you want to see tweets relaying real-time playlists?
5) Which college radio stations are worth following on Twitter


Here are some college radio tweets that express the range of uses of Twitter:

@KZSC: Looks like our site and phones are down due to hooligans in San Jose. We're still broadcasting on 88.1fm though! Listen in! 12:56 PM Apr 9th from web

@WREK: Our programming formula: integral(0, 'Merzbow', ((sqrt(good)/'non-FCC conent')*NOISE), dWRAS/dDaveFM) 11:38 AM Jan 23rd from web

@WTUL: http://twitpic.com/24exm - Sunday rises as DJ Bear enters her 18th hour on the air during Hour 42 of the 2009 WTUL Rock On Survival Mara ...6:52 AM Mar 15th from TwitPic

@WXUT: next big thing in music (a college radio prediction): http://tinyurl.com/5m9tct 12:04 PM Mar 26th from web

@KJHK: Get at @thegirlgray for requests for her 8-10 p.m. show. What do you want to hear?! 2:57 PM Apr 9th from web

@WRFL: so very excited for Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti / Vivian Girls tonight @ Al's Bar (corner of 6th & Limestone). All Ages. $5. Doors @ 8:30. 8:56 AM Apr 6th from web