QRD Music Director Interviews Part 9 - North Carolina Station WNCW

This is the 9th (and final) installment of my weekly series of excerpts from the excellent Music Director interviews conducted by Brian John Mitchell for his 'zine QRD. For his "Radio Special" issue he tracked down MDs from a variety of U.S. and Canadian college and community radio stations. To learn more about the publication and Brian's connection with college radio, see my interview with him in which he details the project and some of the big insights that he gained from his discussions with radio MDs.

This week, I'm presenting excerpts from Brian's interview with Joe Kendrick, Music Director of Isothermal Community College station WNCW (Spindale, North Carolina). WNCW is an NPR-affiliated station, but the overnight hours are devoted to alternative music programming. The programming block, Alternative Radio Coalition, is overseen by Joe Kendrick. According to the WNCW website, "A variety of hosts. A variety of music. WNCW's Alternative Radio Coalition (ARC) - made up of dedicated volunteers and students from Isothermal Community College - reaches out to the night owl in us all, exploring the familiar, the unfamiliar and the unexpected...guiding the third-shifters, up-all-nighters and insomniacs though the wee hours."

In the interview he talks about how he got the Music Director gig, discusses his take on digital releases and DJ automation, expresses his displeasure about theft from the music library, and his feelings about the future of the music biz.

Thanks again to Brian John Mitchell for his fantastic interviews AND for allowing me to repurpose them for Spinning Indie!


QRD – Why did you want the position of music director & why do you think you got it over all the other applicants?

Joe – In 1997, I had time on my hands & was on the air at WNCW many overnights. Previous music director Emerson Dameron (who went on to work at WUOG & write for Dusted) stepped down & I was the only obvious choice, having six years of radio under my belt.


QRD – How much do you let your personal taste in music effect your station’s music?

Joe – It has to be front & center when selecting new music, without excluding obvious choices that have broad appeal. For example, I care little for Thom Yorke or Radiohead, but would never keep them from the control room. Same goes for latter day Moby, Bob Mould, Mike Doughty, & Stephen Malkmus. If I were to be programming a format that was distasteful, then there would have to be many times more the salary involved!

QRD – How have streaming online radio stations affected the purpose & competition for your station?

Joe – We stream as well, but so far haven’t offered an archive of our broadcasts. The future is here as far as the internet taking the lead from terrestrial radio. Many people now don’t even listen to radio in their car, one of the last bastions of FM. We still meet our goals during fundraising time, however, so our appeal remains quite strong even though our overall listenership is down just as all of radio’s listenership is down.

QRD – Do you read the charts of other stations & if so how do they affect your charts?

Joe – I keep tabs on stations like WXYC & WPVM periodically to get an idea of what we may have missed, either from not getting a copy or having passed it over. It is good to know a little bit about what is popular here versus the outside world.


QRD – How much control do you let individual DJs have over what they play & how do they deal with requests?

Joe – We ask that they play four cuts per hour of heavy rotation discs. Being volunteers on an overnight broadcast, they pretty much do what they want. The best hosts challenge themselves & the listeners with unfamiliar material both new & old while keeping an eclectic but entertaining mix going.

QRD – What’s the importance of specialty shows at your station?

Joe – Weekends on WNCW feature some of our highest rated shows with the most loyalty: Jazz & Beyond, Going Across the Mountain, Saturday Night House Party, Celtic Winds, Dubatomic Particles, Local Color, & This Old Porch.


QRD – With your experience in radio, are you jaded or hopeful for the music industry?

Joe – Music will always be with us & my hope is that the industry remains viable. While many harbor hard feelings toward the major labels, the possibility of ISPs & tech companies inheriting their role is disquieting.

QRD – How do you feel about automation for overnight or unfilled DJ slots? What program do you use for automation & how does it decide what to play?

Joe – Getting live bodies to volunteer in such an out-of-the-way place as Spindale has always been a challenge. At least nowadays we don’t have to shut off our transmitter when no one is here. We use Audiovault to automate those nights & for syndicated programs like The World Cafe.

QRD – I know that some labels & promotional teams are pushing towards digital download links over physical copies. How do you feel about this?

Joe – I pay little attention to them as I still have 50 discs a week to deal with, however I make them available to our hosts, who often use them in their shows. When something like St. Vincent rises to the top, I get a copy or make one & put it into rotation.

QRD – When I worked in radio, there was a big problem with theft at the station. Since so many people these days just use MP3 players, do they just steal the music rather than the physical disc & do you feel as a DJ they have a right to personally access any music from the station library at any time?

Joe – Last year the Led Zeppelin Mothership comp & Joy Division live double disc went missing within a week of being put in the control room, even with “WNCW” plainly Sharpied all over them. I don’t mind people ripping a disc or three, but theft is still as much of a headache as ever. Honestly, it makes me think twice about pointing out music to people. In the past two weeks I lead a trainee towards Masters of Reality’s Sunrise On The Sufferbus & although he says he re-filed it, I’ve not seen it since.


Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio MD Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 4 - University of Georgia's WUOG

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 5 - Stony Brook's WUSB

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 6 - University of Victoria's CFUV

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 7 - Foothill College Station KFJC

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 8 - Thompson Rivers University Station CFBX

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 8 - Thompson Rivers University Station CFBX

This is the 8th installment of my weekly series of excerpts from Brian John Mitchell's radio-themed edition of his QRD 'zine. Brian conducted interviews with Music Directors from a number of college radio stations in the U.S. and Canada for his "Radio Special" issue. To learn more about the publication and Brian's connection with college radio, see my interview with him in which he details the project and some of the big insights that he gained from his discussions with radio MDs.

This week, I'm highlighting tidbits from Brian's interview with Steve Marlow, Music Director of Canadian station CFBX ("the X") out of Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in British Columbia.

CFBX is a campus/community radio station in Kamloops, British Columbia. The station began broadcasting over campus cable networks in 2000 and hit the FM airwaves in 2001.

According to their website, "CFBX is an alternative radio station that specializes in local programming and offers music and spoken-word shows that are normally not heard on private stations. We offer programming that ranges from classical to industrial, with plenty of international and unique shows added to the mix."

In the interview Steve talks about the best and worst parts of the MD job, why digital releases can be "dispassionate," his take on DJ automation, his devotion to indie music, and why he hates small talk with record promoters. Here's a bit of the interview:


QRD – Why did you want the position of music director & why do you think you got it over all the other applicants?

Steve – I was the only person interested in the position at my current station. CFBX was just starting up in 2000 & didn’t have any organized library or music system at all. I was coming in to the school here with five years experience as a DJ/MD/all around radio person from CKUL in Lethbridge & offered to set up the library, which I did, over the next year or so. I took on the music director position as a volunteer & eventually became indispensable; they had to hire me.

QRD – What did you initially think you could accomplish as music director that having obtained the position became obviously impossible?

Steve – Championing independent music. Getting rid of the fratboy mentality of “I have a radio show! Cool! Let’s play Dave Matthews every single hour!” Letting our audiences know that there is intelligent, non-repetitive radio that doesn’t insult your intelligence.

QRD – How have streaming online radio stations affected the purpose & competition for your station?

Steve – We do stream, but it doesn’t really affect us. Only a handful of listeners use it. Our main audience is in town, not on the internet.

QRD – How much control do you let individual DJ’s have over what they play & how do they deal with requests?

Steve – They have pretty much total control over that. Naturally, we have Cancon (Canadian content. In Canada a certain percentage of airtime must be Canadian artists.) & rotation requirements; but there’s a vast selection for both of those, so it’s never a burden. We rarely get requests, but they have discretion to play them if they want.

QRD – What are the best & worst parts of your job?

Steve – Best, getting paid to listen to music all day. Discovering a band that makes me say, “Wow!” Working with enthusiastic & knowledgeable volunteers willing to explore & letting me give them the tools to do so. Worst: Pushy record label & distro types.

QRD – I imagine a lot of the younger generation of DJs pretty much exclusively use MP3s over CDs (much less vinyl). How do you feel about the situation?

Steve – I have mixed feelings. I think that the electronic distribution of music gives more people an opportunity to hear music, but it’s over shined by both the low quality of electronically distributed music & the lack of music being a tactile thing. If you have a burn or an MP3 version of an album, you lack the tactile “artifact” quality an album has. With a CD or a piece of vinyl, you can hold it in your hand, you can look at the artwork, you can read the liner notes. You can feel the effort & love that went into creating the album. You don’t get that with an electronically distributed, it’s anonymous & dispassionate.

QRD – Do you try to get your entire catalog digitally encoded on a hard drive for radio play?

Steve – Why bother? I just bring in the CDs. I have my collection on my iPod, but it’s for personal use. Compressed music sounds like crap anyway, I’d never put it on the air.

QRD – How do you feel about automation for overnight or unfilled DJ slots?

Steve – Totally against it. It’s live or nothing. We go off the air if there’s no one in the booth doing live programming. If it’s during the day, we have pre-recorded shows to fill in unfilled spots.


Coming up next week, in the final edition of this series, I'll provide excerpts from Brian John Mitchell's interview with the Music Director of North Carolina station WNCW.

Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio MD Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 4 - University of Georgia's WUOG

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 5 - Stony Brook's WUSB

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 6 - University of Victoria's CFUV

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 7 - Foothill College Station KFJC

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 7 - Foothill College Station KFJC

This is part 7 of my weekly series of excerpts from a special radio-themed edition of the QRD 'zine, published by Silber Records chief Brian John Mitchell. In his "Radio Special" issue, which came out earlier this year, Brian conducted interviews with Music Directors from a number of college radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. To learn more about the publication and Brian's connection with college radio, see my interview with him in which he details the project and some of the big insights that he gained from his discussions with radio MDs.

I first learned about the "Radio Special" edition of QRD when I ran across Brian's interview with the former Music Director of my home radio station: Foothill College's KFJC.

KFJC, a nearly 50-year-old college radio station in Los Altos Hills, California, is an eclectic station that is devoted to unearthing underexposed music, but is also home to a large number of long-time DJs and specialty shows. KFJC got some buzz a few months back (including a write-up in CMJ) when the station organized an underground music festival in Japan and broadcast it live over FM and over the Internet (along with a video feed).

In his QRD interview, former KFJC Music Director Thurston Hunger talks about both the joys and stresses of being MD. He also discusses the station's love for music from all over the world and the lengths they've taken to present that music, his varying takes on technology (from digitial releases to show archives to DJ automation), KFJC's relationship with other like-minded stations, and his feeling that a music library is museum worthy of respect. The following are some choice tidbits:


QRD – Did you read the charts of other stations & if so how did they affect your charts?

Thurston – Before, during, & after my tenure as KFJC’s MD, I’ve enjoyed an excellent friendship with Brian Turner at WFMU. I always welcomed input from him, & in turn would be pleased if I turned him on to a band or project that he had not come across yet. WFMU gets a lot of deserving accolades, but KFJC ain’t too shabby. WFMU was honestly the only other station that I would watch the tops of... & loosely so. CMJ has gotten to the point that a hit there almost works against a band at KFJC.

There are some fine stations in the Bay Area, KZSU, KALX, KUSF, & others. Don’t get to check them out too often personally, but have enjoyed them over the years. I’d also put a plug in for Aquarius Records, Andee & his team run their store with the passion of a radio station! Should be more like them.… [Jennifer writes: See QRD's interview with Andee from Aquarius in their most recent "Record Store Special" issue]

QRD – What’s the longest time you felt comfortable keeping a record in rotation?

Thurston – KFJC had a long-standing policy of 8 weeks in rotation, we were adding about 45 items a week, which led us to consider 6 weeks ins, but there is something about having a record get a splash, & then work its way back into the sound stream that 8 weeks was conducive towards.

QRD – How much control did you let individual DJs have over what they play & how did they deal with requests?

Thurston – At KFJC DJs call the shots. There is a 35% “rotation” requirement for most shows; but with roughly 360 items to choose from, I don’t think anyone had any problems with putting their own sonic signature on their own show. As for requests... connecting with the audience is a fantastic thing, but the mighty majority don’t pick up the phone; they don’t want to miss the trip you are taking them on. Requests again are ultimately at the DJ’s discretion.

QRD – What’s the importance of specialty shows at your station?

Thurston – Very important, often these are listener favorites. I loved (& miss) KFJC’s Spiderman for being a hip-hop show that could also drop the Flying Luttenbachers or Jimmy Castor into the mix. Any time a noted specialty DJ at KFJC, like Robert Emmett or Jo Ed showcases an idiosyncrasy into their show, it can really open a window for listeners.

QRD – How is your station involved in the local music scene?

Thurston – I think at one point, there was a stigma of playing local music at KFJC, I’m talking over a decade ago. But the creativity of the Bay Area is an unstoppable force, & KFJC has certainly helped to champion a lot of local artists. I’ll forever fawn over Faun Fables! Again it’s one of those things you wish you could do more... Mills College is the great resource that KFJC sort of bats earlashes with.

On the flip side, many at KFJC consider the world our music scene. We love having bands from remote places come & play live in our pit. & if they cannot make it, we’ve journeyed abroad to send back live performances from New Zealand, the UK, as well as domestically a Terrastock or two! I’d like to see us do more distant remotes... there’s talk of a jaunt to Japan. Noise summit from China, punk rock explosion from Mexico, folk freak out in Finland, Bhutanese pop... contact us!

QRD – What were the best & worst parts of your job?

Thurston – By & large I loved being KFJC’s MD, but doing it on top of a paying job & raising kids was a study in sleep deprivation. Still, at 3am hearing something amazing that you cannot wait to share with your fellow DJs & listeners is the best. Also hearing people take stuff you’ve added & fit it into a musical mosaic that blows you away, that too is quite a reward. Encouraging artists, labels, & DJs is something I enjoyed, & strived to do. Being inundated with inadequate stuff, & trying to listen to it all, that wears the soul & ears down. & the obscured tragedy is that underneath the bad packaging, sonic clichés, & hackneyed lyrics lies a true love of music, that kind of got to me. For the people who sent KFJC music that did not make it: the hell with us, keep on doing what you love. It is its own reward... right?

QRD – I imagine a lot of the younger generation of DJs pretty much exclusively use MP3s over CDs (much less vinyl). How do you feel about the situation?

Thurston – Music wants to be free, & not just jazz. Musicians, however, are not nourished by the starving artist syndrome. If it can work out that musicians get their due, & less raw materials are consumed with packaging & stuff; MP3s work for me. That being said, I do enjoy the totem... sprawling out with a gatefold record will be missed. I sometimes dream of wearable music, earrings that pop into an MP3 player, or a necklace of nanodiscs?? People identify so much with music; let them wear it on their sleeves?

QRD – Did you try to get your entire catalog digitally encoded on a hard drive for radio play?

Thurston – We’ve done some encoding, went with MP3 just as a diving-in point. Rarely do we play from that archive live to air at this point. Having the catalog online helps with show prep & discovery by DJs; it also serves as insurance against !@#!@$ theft...Honestly, I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t followed the varying formats that well & frequently flirt with sonic infidelity, blame it on Guided by Voices??

QRD – How do you feel about automation for overnight or unfilled DJ slots?

Thurston – We are 24x7 with human beings (or reasonable facsimiles) manning the controls at all times. I’ll take a KFJC graveyard over an autobot any time. I’d actually like to see KFJC grow to have 100 active staffers & two shows on at any time... one to the air (& web) & one to the web alone.…

QRD – I know that some labels & promotional teams are pushing towards digital download links over physical copies. How do you feel about this?

Thurston – This was just happening at the end of my tenure, & at that point they realized that us dinosaurs do treasure our totems. Again, I guess it makes sense from the point of view of environmental impact, & 47 years of age make the KFJC library bust at the seams of storage, still... I like KFJC’s library as a museum, with artifacts!! What happens to Christian Marclay’s Record with No Cover in such a world??



Coming up next week will be excerpts from Brian John Mitchell's interview with the Music Director of Canadian station CFBX.

Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio Music Director Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 4 - University of Georgia's WUOG

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 5 - Stony Brook University's WUSB

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 6 - University of Victoria's CFUV

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 6 - University of Victoria's CFUV

Now that I've gotten caught up on all of my CMJ Music Marathon coverage, I can finally get back to some of my regular features, including the ongoing series of excerpts from the QRD "Radio Special" issue. What's so interesting to me now is that I actually saw many of the folks that Brian John Mitchell interviewed for the issue on panels at CMJ a few weeks back. Small world. Thanks again to Brian for giving me permission to share bits of these interviews. To read more about his process for selecting MDs for this special issue of his 'zine, see my interview with him in which his gives an overview of his connection to college radio and what he learned from the project.

Back in April 2008, Brian interviewed Justin Lanoue of University of Victoria station CFUV about the ins and outs of doing the Music Director role there. Coincidentally, Justin was also on the "Music Directors' Summit" panel along with fellow QRD-interviewee Keri Fico during "College Day" at the CMJ Music Marathon this year. I was super impressed with what he had to say in person, so it's great to be presenting some of his interview with Brian John Mitchell.

CFUV is a Canadian campus and community radio station that has been broadcasting over FM since 1984. They have a freeform format, with an eclectic mix of specialty shows focused on a wide range of international sounds as well as bluegrass, country, hip hop, metal, ska, rock, blues, salsa, Hawaiian music, and more. They also air public affairs and sports programming.

In his QRD interview, Justin talks about why he got involved with college radio, his perspective about the role of Music Director, why he prefers vinyl over mp3s, and his take on digital releases. When the interview was conducted, Justin had just left CFUV to move to a new city. However, based on his presence at CMJ this year, he must have only been away from his MD role for a short period of time. Based on his passion for the job, I'm sure his station is thrilled to have him back.


QRD – Why did you want the position of music director & why do you think you got it over all the other applicants?

Justin – I had always had a near obsession with new music & finding new bands, which led me into radio. Once I started getting involved in campus radio I was hooked because I would get a chance to listen to more new bands than I ever even thought existed. That led me to exploring different genres & from there it grew even more. I think that one of the main reasons that I was chosen as music director was because I was open-minded about everything coming into the station & was always learning about new music whether it was from fellow DJs, magazines, the internet, etc. I was always seeking out something new & different for my show & the staff noticed.


QRD – What do you think the job of a good music director is?

Justin – ...Open-mindedness is a vital quality to find in a music director. A good music director doesn't focus on one genre or one era of music. They should know the history behind the music & older bands that influenced the newer stuff, but at the same time respect & seek out the new bands that are making something new & groundbreaking...

A great campus music director needs to balance their love of the old with an appreciation of the new, because they’re going to be inundated with literally hundreds of new CDs every week. A good campus music director should also be open-minded in the sense that they realize they do not & cannot know everything. It is a constant learning process. When I was music director I learned so much by talking to the DJs at my station & other staff members...

A good campus music director also needs to be approachable & also learn to approach those within the industry in order to get CDs that other stations might not have. I found that some record labels wouldn’t focus a lot on radio campaigns. I also discovered that it never hurt to ask for a promo copy from them. Not only does getting these extra CDs make your station sound better & more eclectic to the listener, but it also sets your station apart from other campus stations. I remember at one point about a third of my station’s top thirty consisted of CDs that were not serviced to most other stations. It took a lot of work; but it set us apart, made us sound better, & hopefully gave these artists some extra exposure.


QRD – How have streaming online radio stations affected the purpose & competition for your station?

Justin – I honestly didn’t think much about online stations. We had our own niche pretty well established, so I didn’t think of other stations as competition or anything like that. Plus, I doubt that many people actually sit at their computers to listen to the radio. I rarely do. The sound of an internet station is low quality & pales in comparison to an FM or satellite signal. Maybe I am just a geek in that way.


QRD – I imagine a lot of the younger generation of DJs pretty much exclusively use MP3s over CDs (much less vinyl). How do you feel about the situation?

Justin – I always grumbled to myself when a DJ would plug in their laptop, open a playlist & be done with it. There’s no fun in that. Plus, sometimes the sound of the MP3s was atrocious. I always encouraged people to play the CD or vinyl copies of something over MP3s.


QRD – Did you try to get your entire catalog digitally encoded on a hard drive for radio play?

Justin – We didn’t try it. We had way too many CDs & vinyl to even attempt to digitize it all. Plus, again there is the sound quality issue. Some MP3s just sound bad.


QRD – I know that some labels & promotional teams are pushing towards digital download links over physical copies. How do you feel about this?

Justin – Conflicted. Hard copies have been & always will be ideal for campus radio, but I understand the move to digital submissions. For a tiny indie label it saves them thousands of promo copies & the costs to mail them, which can mean a lot to a struggling label. It can mean life or death for some of them. On my end, as a music director, some digital delivery systems were easy to use & some were a nightmare to use.

A positive thing about digital submissions is that it allowed me to get my station serviced albums that otherwise we never would have gotten. I would ask labels for digital copies of something that they might have only been releasing on vinyl in limited numbers & they would send the links right over. Otherwise, there would have been no chance of getting it into the station at all. A digital submission is better than no submission is what I would keep telling myself.


Coming up next week will be excerpts from Brian John Mitchell's interview with the former Music Director from Foothill College station KFJC.

Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio Music Director Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 4 - University of Georgia's WUOG

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 5 - Stony Brook University's WUSB

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 5 - Stony Brook University's WUSB

Welcome to part five of my series of college radio music director interview excerpts from the QRD "Radio Special" issue.

Much thanks to QRD founder (and Silber Records chief) Brian John Mitchell for giving me permission to share bits of his fine interviews. For more on the background of this project, see my interview with Brian, which goes into detail about his process for selecting stations and about his connection with college radio.

This week, I'm covering highlights from Brian's interview with Keri Fico, Music Director of Stony Brook University (New York) station WUSB-FM. Around since 1977, WUSB is a freeform station broadcasting over FM, campus television, and the Internet. Their volunteer staff of DJs is made up of students, faculty, university staff, alumni, and community residents. In addition to locally-produced programming, they also air nationally syndicated shows like "Democracy Now."

In her interview with Brian John Mitchell, Music Director Keri Fico talks about what it takes to be a good MD, how much she enjoys interacting with labels and promoters, her thoughts about digital releases, and her feeling that the "younger generation" of DJs is actually underestimated. She mentions that DJs at WUSB have complete control to play what they want, including vinyl, CDs and MP3s. The station doesn't have a rotation system for new releases and most shows are "specialty" shows.

Keri also talks about the Music Director fantasy that she had before taking the position (getting mail with her name on it!) and how the job still fulfilled her expectations:


QRD – Why did you want the position of music director & why do you think got it over other applicants?


Keri – I wanted the position of music director because I wanted mail to come in with my name on it… honestly. I thought that would be really cool & it was. I wanted to talk to record labels & be the first to hear all the new music. I think I got the job because I was overly excited about it. My enthusiasm seriously proved how much I wanted the position.

QRD – What are the best & worst parts of your job?


Keri – The best part of being music director is feeling cool. It’s really awesome to say I talk to labels. It’s awesome to get CDs. It’s awesome to be a part of CMJ. It’s awesome to go to shows for free. I get to be the first to hear the newest music. The worst part of the job is that it is life consuming. All my free time is spent doing radio work.


She goes on to discuss the role that both vinyl and MP3s play at the station and her thoughts about digitizing the station library:


QRD – I imagine a lot of the younger generation of DJs pretty much exclusively use MP3s over CDs (much less vinyl). How do you feel about the situation?


Keri – I think the younger generation is underestimated. Vinyl is still highly used & valued at WUSB. A lot of people have an intense CD collection as well. MP3s are definitely taking over & I think that’s fine. DJs can hook up their Ipod or MP3 player & play their tunes from there.


QRD – Do you try to get your entire catalog digitally encoded on a hard drive for radio play?


Keri – No way. There’s been discussion about digitally cataloging our music library, but those are plans for the future. There is some music available on the hard drive, but everything can be found in the new music rack or the CD cabinets.


Coming up next week will be excerpts from Brian John Mitchell's interview with the Music Director from University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) campus and community radio station CFUV-FM.

Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio Music Director Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 4 - University of Georgia's WUOG

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 4 - University of Georgia's WUOG

I'm pleased to be presenting part four of my series of excerpts from the QRD "Radio Special" issue full of interviews conducted with college radio music directors.

Thanks again to Silber Records head honcho and QRD founder Brian John Mitchell for allowing me to share his excellent interviews. My interview with Brian goes into detail about his process for selecting stations and about his connection with college radio.

This week, I'm covering highlights from Brian's interview with Max Martin, Music Director from University of Georgia radio station WUOG. The nearly 36-year-old station (their anniversary is Oct. 16th) has a massive listening range, broadcasting at 26,000 watts. They also have some interesting lore about their history, including an infamous shut-down of the station in 1981 under mysterious circumstances. Coming up, WUOG celebrates Alumni weekend November 7-9th and former staff members are invited to apply to do a weekend fill-in shift.

Max Martin of WUOG provides some great insight about the not always glamorous job of being a Music Director, saying,


"Mostly it requires a willingness to do gruelingly boring things (checking the mail three times a week, talking to promoters about crappy albums, listening to awful music 90% of the time) & the ability to convince others that you can do it well. The only reason anyone would ever want to do this job is if they love music & their radio station. A lot."


Max also discusses the station's music philosophy and his take on charts, labels and promoters. He said that he tends to think more favorably about self-releases than about releases on "vanity" labels. Max says he's dubious about a lot of the marketing in the music biz, and is quite skeptical about the word of promoters and the value of charts. According to the interview:


QRD – Do you like to deal directly with labels or do you prefer to deal with some sort of radio promotional team about what is going into the station library & rotation?

Max – Direct with the label is ideal. Promoters are paid to hype up every release, regardless of quality. They are not trustworthy in terms of quality of music. There are (maybe) 2 or 3 people I have talked to from promotional companies who seemed honestly concerned with music, rather than what chart position I was giving their albums. People who work for labels tend to care more about the actual music.


He also talks about the role that DJs have in programming their shows at WUOG. One really interesting rule they have is that DJs can't play a track that's been played in the prior 3 days.


QRD – How much control do you let individual DJs have over what they play...?

Max – DJs are required to play a certain number of rotation cuts during a 2-hour shift, but we let them choose which albums. The only other guidelines are that DJs cannot play any song that has been played in the last three days, & they cannot play more than 4 cuts from the "Big Releases" category (which is where we put big-name indie releases & albums that received 10 or more plays the previous week so that they don't get overplayed). Within this minimal structure, DJs have complete control over their shift.


To warm my old school indie heart, WUOG still has a big vinyl collection, broadcasts 24 hours a day using live DJs (no automation), and eschews digital releases. They are really involved with the vibrant Athens, Georgia music scene and even have a music director devoted to local music. Visit QRD's website for the complete interview with Max Martin.

Coming up next Tuesday, October 14th, I'll present excerpts from Brian John Mitchell's interview with the Music Director from Stony Brook University (New York) station WUSB.


Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio Music Director Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 3 - UMass Dartmouth's WUMD

This is the third installment of my series of excerpts from the QRD "Radio Special" issue full of interviews with college radio music directors. Thanks again to Silber Records head honcho and QRD founder Brian John Mitchell for allowing me to share his excellent interviews. My interview with Brian goes into detail about his process for selecting stations and about his connection with college radio.

This week, I'm presenting a bit of Brian's interview with the Music Director of WUMD-FM from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. According to WUMD's website:


"WUMD Radio is a public service of UMASS Dartmouth and has been bringing listeners a world of music and information for over 25 years. WUMD is a non-commercial student organization serving the campus and community with in-depth public affairs programming, and an endless variety of musical alternatives."


MD Geary Kaczorowski is a radio veteran, having been involved since the 1970s. He chats about the station format, digitization, vinyl, DJ automation, and specialty programming. According to the interview:


QRD – How much control do you let individual DJs have over what they play & how do they deal with requests?

Geary – Our DJs have complete control over their shows. We don’t tell them what to play at all.


QRD – What’s the importance of specialty shows at your station?

Geary – Very important. They bring in a huge audience.


QRD – With your experience in radio, are you jaded or hopeful for the music industry?

Geary – I have been in the music industry since the late 70’s so I’m completely jaded about it.


QRD – What are the best & worst parts of your job?

Geary – Worst part: dealing with the childish nature & irresponsibleness of the DJs. Best part: the music.


QRD – I imagine a lot of the younger generation of DJs pretty much exclusively use MP3s over CDs (much less vinyl). How do you feel about the situation?

Geary – I’m all for it. But I still love spinning vinyl. Our station has a very extensive vinyl & CD collection.


QRD – How do you feel about automation for overnight or unfilled DJ slots? What program do you use for automation & how does it decide what to play?

Geary – We use automation for all open slots. Our automation programmer has done a great job with placing very interesting songs into the rotation. It’s set at random with IDs, PSAs & promos slotted in at the appropriate moments. I think we’re using I-Tunes for our automation.


You can read the complete interview with Geary over on QRD. Next Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 I'll write about QRD's interview with the MD from University of Georgia station WUOG.

Previous QRD MD Interviews:

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio Music Director Issue

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 2 - McGill's CKUT

I'm really happy to be presenting the second installment in my ongoing series of excerpts from Music Director interviews conducted by Brian John Mitchell of Silber Records. Earlier this year Brian did a "Radio Special" issue of his music 'zine QRD, in which he interviewed music directors from a variety of college radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. Be sure to take a look at my interview with Brian to get more background on this project.

For the next 8 weeks I will be excerpting a bit of each of the MD interviews. Last week Hunter King from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) station WESU 88.1 FM was featured, and this week it's Andrea-Jane Cornell, the Music Director of McGill University's campus-community radio station CKUT-FM.

In her interview with QRD, Andrea-Jane Cornell, MD of CKUT-FM, talks about the freeform station in Montreal, Canada. In the lengthy interview she discusses her music taste, her role at the station, and how she works with labels. She's got a great list of personal dislikes related to promo material (confetti in the envelope, distasteful naked cover art, digital releases, phone pestering, etc.) that's definitely worth a read. CKUT also seems to have a really great relationship with the music community of Montreal as you can see from this interview excerpt:


QRD – How is your station involved in the local music scene?


Andrea-Jane – ...We currently have an artist in residence program where a producer/musician gets the Tuesday 2 to 5 slot for a month, the show is called The Montreal Sessions & during the course of each show the host must perform or diffuse one of their original compositions/projects, & they have to have a local musician or band in for a live performance.

We do remote broadcasts of bands where we set up at the venue & broadcast the concert live on the air. One of our hip-hop shows has the rap hour half hour where people can call in & freestyle along to a live DJ mix; it’s a really popular segment. We do a whole lot of co-presentations where we run ads for local events for a ridiculously cheap rate. & then a lot of shows have live guests in for in studio performances & interviews - folk musicians, steel bands, noise makers, reverberators, 11 piece bands, keytar players, we’ve had ‘em all!...


That's awesome that they are so devoted to live performances and local music. I also found it interesting to read how the station deals preventing the theft of special releases:


QRD – When I worked in radio, there was a big problem with theft at the station. Since so many people these days just use MP3 players, do they just steal the music rather than the physical disc & do you feel as a DJ they have a right to personally access any music from the station library at any time?


Andrea-Jane – ...Theft or “borrowing” is still common, it’s frowned upon & puts me in a bit of a rage that passes after a few days, & pisses off some of the programmers who rely on our library to have the releases that they need to program their show. All members have access to the library around the clock, I think that it is important that programmers be able to access the music library at all times; it’s the station’s greatest asset & belongs to everyone, if we start making it off bounds the releases will just sit & collect dust.

There are some selections that are under lock & key which need to be signed out because they are worth a lot of money, but this is only about 200 or so releases & box sets.


Radio began at McGill Univesity in the 1960s, with CKUT's predecessor CFRM going on the air in 1966. In 1987, CKUT began broadcasting on FM. According to their website, "CKUT's programming adds up to nearly a quarter million hours of independent, freeform broadcast programming: no playlists, no corporate sponsorships, no traffic reports, no political pundits, no ads for home security, no marketing demographic..."


Another cool thing about CKUT is that they provide archives of many of the shows on their website. It also says a lot about the spirit of the station, that they performed a special Sun Ra-influenced ceremony to christen their new studios. According to the list of station milestones on the CKUT website:


"June 14, 2008: CKUT Intergalactic Studio Chrissening. CKUT welcomes its newly renovated studios into the world with an interview with Marshall Allen, Michael Ray and Ray Scott of the Sun Ra Arkestra on Funky Revolutions. We feel that the Sun Ra experience was an important one to imbue our new studios with. The CKUT High Programmers (Sarah Fahie, Meghan, and Shelagh) performed a grand ceremony to welcome the new space and purge it of any lingering evil radio spirits, specifically the spirits of "technical mishaps," "radio feedback," and "awkward radio babble." A small gathering of garden partiers congregated outside over beverages and snacks."


Stay tuned. Next Tuesday, September 30th I'll be featuring an excerpt from Brian John Mitchell's interview with Geary Kaczorowski from University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth station WUMD.

Thanks again to Brian for allowing me to share portions of his excellent QRD interviews!

QRD Music Director Interviews Part 1 - Wesleyan's WESU

As I wrote last week, I'm excited to be presenting excerpts from Silber Records' chief Brian John Mitchell's "Radio Special" issue of his music 'zine QRD, in which he interviewed music directors from a variety of college radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. Be sure to take a look at my interview with Brian to get more background on this project.

For the next 9 weeks I will be excerpting a bit of each of the MD interviews. First up is Hunter King from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut) station WESU 88.1 FM.

MD Hunter King talks about the station's devotion to freeform and that DJs are allowed to pretty much play whatever they want, but are asked to play 5 new releases an hour (unless they have a specialty show). He also mentions the makeup of the station staff, saying,

"We're a 50-50 student/community member mix & though we have some really strong student shows, some community members have been with us for 20+ years & have really built up a following. We have dedicated shows for oldies, funk, Caribbean, gospel, doom metal, psychedelia, surf, girl groups, blues, Latin music; & specifically Columbian music, Balkan music, & others & they really help define our station. We straddle a ton of very niche groups & I think all of our DJs, even if they’re spinning top 200, are very proud to be a part of it. Often as they become more acquainted with other shows & DJs, they even start to diversify their own shows."

He also has some interesting insight about how music format (CD, vinyl, or mp3) can end up altering the entire vibe and energy level of a radio show and gives the example of playing 2 minute surf songs that need to be cued vs. just sitting down for an entire show toggling through iPod tracks. According to the interview:

QRD – I imagine a lot of the younger generation of DJs pretty much exclusively use MP3s over CDs (much less vinyl). How do you feel about the situation?


Hunter – Oddly enough, our DJs play their own songs off iPods, but ignore digital adds in favor of CDs. I've done an MP3 player show before & it’s so much less involved. These kids sit on their ass & just wait for the song to end so they can mumble about nothing during their next voice break. Not only do I think the frantic pace of cueing songs (especially on my surf show where your average song is 2:30) gets your head more in the game, but it builds up an energy that you can't get sitting down, which I never do on my show. & the listeners notice, I get a lot of calls saying, "You must be dancing up a storm in there," & usually they're correct. As for the mediums themselves, I play a lot of scratchy 45s & I find that nobody cares about the quality (well, I already knew that given the crappy MP3s our DJs play), but the older crowd really appreciates that authenticity, & the older crowd listens to a lot more terrestrial radio than the younger crowd these days.


I would imagine this is a huge issue. When I visited WECB, it seemed that iPods were regularly used by DJs. Yet during my visit to KCPR I learned that regular format DJs aren't allowed to play music from their iPods (or any music from their home collections), but that specialty show DJs were allowed to (along with music from home). I'm sure policies on this vary tremendously, but count me in the "old school" camp that likes the energy of playing music on vinyl and CD.

Coincidentally, there was an article in the Wesleyan Argus last week about WESU. The piece,"WESU Expands Programming," talks about the large number of community member DJs at the station and discusses the goal of increasing the broadcast range of the station. By the way, WESU claims to be the 2nd oldest college radio station in the country and the history section of their website has some great anecdotes about the early DIY days of the station, including:

"WESU began its life as a mischievous idea in the minds of our founders, two young men living in Clark Hall in 1939. Inspired by the first college radio station in the nation (which, anecdotally, was at Brown University, though this hasn’t been confirmed), they hooked a small transmitter up to a phonograph. In order to broadcast to the whole of Clark Hall, the two broke into Wesleyan University’s maintenance tunnels through the Clark Basement, and hooked the transmitter up to the water pipes. The old dormitory effectively became an antenna for their 2-4 hour broadcast day..."

Stay tuned next Tuesday, for an excerpt from Brian's interview with the Music Director of McGill University's campus-community radio station CKUT-FM.

Interview with Brian of Silber Records about QRD Radio Music Director Issue

Being the college radio geek that I am, I was thrilled to have just found a treasure-trove of college radio morsels in the April 2008 edition of music 'zine QRD. The editor, Silber Records' Brian John Mitchell, did an entire issue focused on interviews with radio music directors.

I'm going to do a series of posts highlighting his fine interviews since it's a great opportunity to explore 9 different stations and learn about issues facing college radio today.

I also had a conversation with Brian over email about what he learned from the project and his thoughts about the state of college radio:

Spinning Indie: How did you select the station MDs to profile? Did you already have relationships with them through the label?

QRD: I had sent a general email out to the hundred or so American radio stations that I normally service & get airplay with for the Silber Records catalog. One of the things that makes Silber a little different than other indies is that I do all the promo work myself & do in fact try to build personal relationships with the music directors. Over the years there have been several music directors that I’ve had friendships with & stayed in touch with for a while when they went to other employment.

Spinning Indie: How many MDs did you contact?

QRD: I’d guess around 100. There were a few who were supposed to do it & ran out of time or whatnot & some whom I really wanted that didn’t work out for whatever reason. There were also some people who I really didn’t know so well & it was nice to feel like I knew them afterwards.

Spinning Indie: How did your college station experience compare to other stations you've encountered through your work/interviews?

QRD: Well, my college radio experience was that I grew up in an area (Raleigh, NC) with some pretty well listened to stations with pretty big broadcast radiuses. So I thought that was the way college radio worked, but when I got to college (Boone, NC) I found that not to be the case. No one in Boone knew there was a college radio station & you couldn’t pick it up on the entire campus.

I was in college in 1994 and the station had just made a major format change from essentially pop to alternative (when that was still a semi-legitimate term). It was pretty exciting & there was a lot of energy at the station like something was about to happen. Of course nothing did change the world. I was a bit surprised by how "rotation" worked & that I didn’t have 100% say of what was on my daytime non-specialty show. I think most of the good stations still have an energy like something is about to happen. That’s why people like those stations. They want to hear the edge that’s going to be the next big thing & the people working there want to do their part to make those things happen.

Spinning Indie: How do you think college radio has changed since you were a DJ in the 1990s?

QRD: Well, when I was a DJ one big thing was some people not wanting to play vinyl. Now people don’t want to play CDs. One thing I had a problem with then that seems even more prevalent is people coming in with a pre-made playlist, essentially just press play on a mix-tape. Now people hook in their iPod & that’s that. Of course this isn’t true with everyone, but it’s common enough for people to think that an MP3 player on random is as good as a DJ.

So I think it’s true now more than ever that it’s important for a DJ to talk to the audience & connect with them. I love it when DJs play a song & then talk about seeing the band or that they hate playing a song because of an ex-girlfriend but it was a request or doing some kind of a themed show with only cover songs. Of course it goes the other way too with DJs talking too much. It’s a real art.

A thing that has changed really unfortunately is stations as a whole seem to play the same hits more. It used to be that there were a lot of regional college radio stars. The big bands in the charts in Texas were different than North Carolina or California. Now they all read the same. Part of this is the growth of affordable radio servicing & ease of finding stations, but it would be nice if “local bands” didn’t just get spins on the “local music” shows. I actually only attended college three semesters, if I’d gone two more I probably would have gotten into being a music director as I already did help getting some more labels to service the station & reviewing discs for airplay.

Spinning Indie: Are you willing to reveal who your dream interviews were that you didn't get?

QRD: Well, Brian Turner at WFMU would have been nice. Also Brandon at KBOO. Those guys are institutions that have helped shape the musical world & I’m sure neither would admit it. On a personal level I wanted to interview Ryan Kuehn (WCSB) & Matthew Reese (WLJS), because I’m friends with them; but their college course work got in the way. It would have been nice to get closer to twenty interviews than ten.

Spinning Indie: On the whole, what's your feeling about the state of college radio today?

QRD: I think there are some great stations & great DJs, but they’re fighting an uphill battle to make the kids think they’re important. There are so many ways to discover music these days on the internet that you don’t run into people who stay up late at night listening to college radio to hear something new & interesting. I think some of the stations are becoming more important because of their internet presence & it’s unfortunate that smaller stations are starting to only get serviced by major labels. I loved the relationship I had with Will Dodson when he was at WMMT. I did a radio session at midnight in rural Kentucky & high school kids were calling in & that was awesome. There need to be more things like that.

Spinning Indie: What was your favorite piece of learning from the interviews?

QRD: It’s hard to say. A lot of the things I learned reinforced what I suspected (like discs needing to be in jewel cases & the importance of accurate blurb stickers), I was a little surprised to hear no one really seems to look at other stations’ charts anymore. But my favorite thing was maybe Andrea-Jane’s little story about building towers of the same CD from a band pushing servicing from multiple fronts.


Thanks to Brian for the great interview!

Every Tuesday for the next 9 weeks, I'll be posting excerpts from all 9 of Brian's Music Director interviews from QRD. Next week it will be tidbits from his chat with the WESU (Wesleyan University) MD. Stay tuned!