College Radio Woodie Awarded to KUPS

mtvU just announced their 2009 winner for the annual College Radio Woodie Award. After many rounds of voting, KUPS from University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, Washington) was selected by popular vote. According to the article on the MTV website, over 3.1 million votes were cast.

New York DJ Matt Pinfield of WRXP (hey...I just saw him a few weeks ago!) actually showed up at KUPS on Friday to present the staff with their award and there's a great picture of that on the Weekly Volcano's Spew Blog.

The official mtvU Woodies Awards Ceremony takes place tomorrow in New York City and will be broadcast on various MTV outlets on December 4th. Although I've been focusing on their college radio award, the Woodies also include awards for best artists, videos, etc.

Congratulations to KUPS. It's awesome to see a station win this award that hasn't been on the top of some of the other recent college radio award lists and I appreciate that voters helped to mix things up a bit.

Take a look at my previous posts (I was a little OCD in terms of tracking the Woodies this year) about the 2009 College Radio Woodies to find out about the nomination process that began with more than 300 stations and was narrowed down to 100, then 50, then 25, and finally culled to five finalists.

Small Beast Showcase at The Delancey During CMJ: Theremin, David J, and David Lynch Covers

David J at The Delancey in NYC

My all-time favorite show during the CMJ Music Marathon this year was a showcase at The Delancey on Thursday, October 22, 2009. As part of the "Small Beast" series, this collection of acts played in the small bar area on the ground floor of the club. Downstairs one of the most happening shows of CMJ was taking place and a line of people stretched out the door. But I was happy to be inside at a less populated, more experimental, and (can you believe?) free show. Nestled in a velvety booth, I felt like I was transported to a crazy cabaret inhabited by characters from a Wim Wenders film, with Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen orchestrating the soundtrack.

This particular event was the 40th show in the "Small Beast" series, curated by Paul Wallfisch. He was the MC of the evening as well as a performer and even passed a tip jar to collect donations for the musicians between sets.

I was lured to the show by the promise of not only David J, but also musicians incorporating theremin and David Lynch covers into their sets. It seemed like the perfect confluence of performers and sounds for me.

Unfortunately things got going a little bit late (a pain at CMJ when every act is scheduled at precisely timed intervals so that attendees can pop from show to show), owing to a missing musician. As soon as the show began, though, I was entranced.

Pamelia Kurstin at The Delancey

First on the bill was Pete Drungle, featuring Pamelia Kurstin with some loungy, jazzy sounds on theremin. Pete played Wurlitzer piano and another fellow handled percussion using some intriguing box-like contraption that he was sitting on. Overall, it was magical, shimmery instrumental music.

Call me Kat at The Delancey

After that, Call me Kat from Denmark provided some lovely vocalizations over vintage synth. She tantalized with a sophisticated cover of the Britney Spears tune "Toxic."

Spottiswoode was a passionate, singer-songwriter guy with a guitar. His text-focused song about all the ladies he liked included phrases like "girls with glasses and ten dollar asses, that's what I like." I was instantly reminded of the retro Nails classic "88 Lines about 44 Women," although his take on things was way less saucy. Later he moved to piano and I became a lot more interested in the dirgier style that he transitioned into. I bantered a bit with the guy next to me (who turned out to be David J!) and he mentioned that parts of the set reminded him of Randy Newman. I could see that too, with a bit of Billy Bragg thrown in for good measure. For sure he was a storyteller and that was the commonality between all of the influences that I heard in his music.

Thomas Truax at The Delancey
(Spinster Sister to his left)

One of the most intriguing musicians of the night was Thomas Truax. Like a mad professor he came on stage with a collection of fascinating, Rube Goldberg-style contraptions that he used to make music. Crafted with bits and pieces of vintage materials, the Hornicator featured part of an old phonograph horn. The automatic drum kit dubbed Sister Spinster sat perched on a table in front, churning out demonic, heartbeat sounds as well.

Thomas looked a bit like a cross between David Byrne and Harry Dean Stanton and was just plain creepy cool. At one point he jumped up on the bar and crouched down playing his guitar while singing to each and every member of the crowd, weaving in and out of booths while he sang. He's done an album of songs from the films of David Lynch and included a few in the set at Delancey as well.

Paul Wallfisch and Little Annie

Our host for the evening, Botanica's Paul Wallfisch then hit the stage. I was fascinated by him in part because he bears an uncanny resemblance to a DJ at my station (appropriately named Mitch LeMay). Perhaps he's his doppelganger. Paul played piano and was quite the lounge lizard, making the old time, variety show vibe of the evening even more apparent.

I kept wondering what the 20-year-old CMJ hipsters must be thinking as they crossed through the room to get to the Antlers show downstairs. Did they run screaming thinking "oh my god, this is cheesy old people music" (like I used to think about Barry Manilow), or did they recognize the camp aspect of it all? Special guest Little Annie joined in and she was definitely the glamorous diva of the night. Dressed to the nines in head-to-toe black, she looked classic and classy, but her lyrics were biting and sassy.

David J with members of Botanica at The Delancey

Then, the star attraction for the night was Bauhaus and Love and Rockets luminary David J. Halloween songs were promised and he definitely delivered with some creepy-themed songs about murder and death. He performed a lot of covers, including songs by LCD Soundsystem and Tom Waits and premiered a new song of his called "Blood Sucker Blues" about a strung-out vampire.

I was a bit star-struck as it took me awhile to realize that I'd been sitting next to David J. for much of the evening. It was pretty cool to just chat about the music with a fellow music-lover who turned out to be one of the main reasons I was at the show in the first place.

I'm also 90% sure that I spotted another celebrity that evening. If you look closely at the pictures I took during the David J. set you might just spot a shadowy figure who I think is the hilarious actor/comedian Clark Duke (he plays the geeky cool Dale on the TV show Greek). If it wasn't him it was just some CMJ hipster who could have been his twin.

David J was spinning a DJ set at Small Beast later, but as it was nearing 2am, I had to split to get some sustenance (late night S'mores crepe, anyone?!) after a very long day of CMJing it.

If I'm back in New York, though, I'll definitely be checking out Small Beast again because if this show's lineup was any indication, the booking philosophy is simply inspired.

Thomas Truax with his Hornicator

Previous Posts about the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon:

CMJ 2009 Band Name Trends Revealed
Radio is Alive and Well at the CMJ Music Marathon (for Radio Survivor)
Radio's Presence at CMJ
CMJ 2009 Music Marathon Recap Part Two (10/20/09)
Social Networking, Metal Radio & Digital Music, and Miles Davis in 1959 (10/21/09)
CMJ 2009 College Day Part One- College Radio and Competition
CMJ 2009 College Day Part Two: Music Directors' Summit
CMJ 2009 College Day Part Three: Making Executive Decisions Panel
CMJ 2009 College Day Part Four: College Radio Awards

mtvU College Radio Finalists Announced

We're now down to 5 finalists in mtvU's contest for the "College Radio Woodie" award. I've been following the ins and outs of the nomination process since it began back in August and am actually kind of intrigued to see which stations got the most votes. It's interesting to note than none of these stations were even in the Top 20 list last year for the Woodies. In that respect, it's kind of cool to see that things are getting mixed up a bit and that the winner this year will be a station that wasn't previously recognized.

One can vote among these 5 finalists through November 9th. The winner will be announced online on November 18th and will be celebrated in a ceremony to air on MTV on December 4th. Here are the finalists:


Coyote Radio (California State University, San Bernardino, CA)
KUPS (University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA)
KCOU (University of Missouri)
WCRD (Ball State University, Muncie, IN)
WPTS (University of Pittsburgh, PA)

College Radio Tidbits: Titan Radio Recuiting DJs, Secret Station in Maryland, and WIUX's Woodie Nomination

Many college campuses are in the early weeks of fall semester, so recruitment is in full-swing at many college radio stations. A few recent articles profiling campus stations have been helping to get the word out about volunteer opportunities for student DJs.

Titan Radio at California State University, Fullerton

According to a piece in the Daily Titan, the student-run Internet radio station at Cal State Fullerton, Titan Radio, has been around since 2001:

"The student-run, non-profit operation is a torrent of divergent, alternative programming you won’t find on your FM dial...

'We have a wide selection of stuff but there’s an order to it,' Chadwick Vargas, Titan Radio’s promotions director, said. 'Where else would you find a disco-cooking or exercise show but college radio? We are open to pretty much anything.'

Vargas, who has been with the station since January 2008, has his own show called 'Asian Persuasion.' It highlights Asian and Pacific Islander artists both locally and nationwide."

Campus-Only Online Radio XFSR at Frostburg State

Another article describes the opportunities that students at Frostburg State (Maryland) have to get involved with radio by joining up with campus public radio station WFWM's student broadcasting project XFSR Intranet Radio. I had no idea that there were campus-only Intranet stations. I wonder why they are keeping such a low profile?

WIUX is Psyched about mtvU Woodie Competition

A profile of Indiana University LP-FM radio station WIUX rattles off a list of recent accolades, including a spot in mtvU's top 50 college radio stations listing in the College Radio Woodie Award competition. According to the article:

"The nomination for the mtvU award could open up a lot of doors for the station by gaining the support of people interested in working with the best of the best, [DJ Madeline] Dowling said, as well as catch the attention of employers.

'We have the highest level of interest from students this year,' [General Manager Ryan] Patena said. 'We had over 200 applicants for 120 to 150 time slots. We have a completely full 24-hour-a-day live DJ schedule for the first time in the past few years.'"

Off the Bus and on the Record: Teen Journalists of "Rock Star Stories" chat about their new Book

I have an equal amount of passion for teen culture and indie music culture; so when the two worlds collide it's a safe bet that I will be seek out whatever book, movie, website, 'zine, or piece of music is the resulting product.

As a former teen journalist, I was super psyched to check out the new book Off the Bus and On the Record: 22 Candid Interviews by the Teen Journalists of the Rock Star Stories. I love it when teens create their own media and it must have been a dream come true for these teens to make a mission out of interviewing some of their musical idols.

The book collects interviews conducted by the young journalists of the TV show The Rock Star Stories. The program began when siblings Amanda and Jaime Rich were asked to host a teen-oriented music TV show in Florida called Swept Away TV. They invited their other siblings Zac and Brittany to help out behind the scenes and the show grew from there, ultimately airing around the country, online, and on college campuses. Eventually they started a non-profit that works to help train other young people in media creation.

Their book collects some of their favorite band interviews (including The Donnas, All-American Rejects, Fat Mike from NOFX, and Fall Out Boy), many of which were conducted when some of the journalists were young teens. I was curious how this group of young music fans discovered new music and if radio (especially college radio) played any part in their lives.

To learn more about their take on music discovery, music journalism, and what it's like to be young and interviewing rock stars; I had an email chat with Brittany and Zac Rich. I also got some perspective from the author of the book's foreward: Aaron Burgess. Aaron used to be the editor of indie music staple Alternative Press and he sheds some light on rock journalism across the generations.

The Rich Siblings

Spinning Indie: How do you learn about new music?

Brittany Rich: I listen to some of the obscure channels on satellite radio and listen to all kinds of music on Myspace. I also get recommendations from my friends who have all kinds of musical interests.

Zac Rich: A lot of ways. I tune into Pandora and Sirius radio. But also from other bands during interviews [who] will tell you "oh you have to check out this new band, they're really good."

Aaron Burgess: Even though working in this industry for a while has allowed me to get on a lot of mailing lists to hear advance music, I still discover most of the really good stuff the same way I always have: through word of mouth. Granted, the concept of “word of mouth” has changed a little since I first started getting serious about music. These days, I find out about new music primarily online, but I still go after the music that really grabs me in pretty much the same way I did before the Internet. (Yep, I’m officially old enough to be considered “pre-Internet.”)

Thanks to the Web, it’s just gotten a lot easier to learn more, faster, about new bands, and to go deeper than that to learn about things like the bands that inspired them and the genres, concepts and other big ideas that tie everything together. All that said, I still like having to work to learn more about bands that interest me, and I love to be surprised when a band I never could’ve imagined existing comes completely out of left field and sets me off on another tangent.

Aaron Burgess

Spinning Indie: Do you listen to radio? college radio?

Brittany: I listen to Sirius radio in the car and some local rock radio but we don't have a lot of alternative or even rock on the radio in our area. When I move into the dorms this year at college I will probably start listening to college radio.

Zac: Sirius Radio and Internet Radio.

Aaron: I don’t actively listen to commercial radio at all, and I listen to college radio primarily online while I’m at work. I love being able to sit at my desk in Texas and listen to a station in Ithaca or Pittsburgh or Washington—although I have to admit, I don’t listen to college radio as much for discovery as I do to affirm whatever tastes I might be pursuing at the moment.

When it comes to discovering new music, I visit a lot of music blogs and MP3 blogs, and I really like reading customer reviews at sites like Amazon and staff write-ups at stores like Aquarius and Amoeba. I’ve been relying on Twitter for new-music recommendations a lot lately, too. I’m aware of the irony here, but even though I review music professionally, I hardly ever look to professionally written reviews to give me the best insight into whether I’ll like a new record.

Spinning Indie: How do you think being an on-air (TV, video) journalist different from being a print journalist? Have you guys done both?

Brittany: I have done both but on air is much harder because you have to react in the moment to what the interviewee is saying. You also have to keep focused in spite of what may be going on around you. Your body language also is important on air. You want to give the same impression with your words and your actions.

Zac: Being on air makes you have to think really quick on your feet. You have X amount of time on camera and every move you make [and] question you ask gets shown on the tape. So you have to be really focused and able to think quick on your feet. No matter how much you get ready for an interview it won't have any effect if you lock up on camera and forget everything.

Aaron: I have a lot of respect for the Swept Away crew for having the guts to hone their chops on-air. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that anyone can do print journalism – interviews full of social awkwardness and dead air can be just as painful to experience when they’re not being broadcast live. But I do think that you have a tougher job as a TV or video journalist because you have to be totally present while your subject is in the spotlight.

You have to be ready for anything in ways that a print journalist doesn’t, and you have to be hyper-aware of things like timing, appearance, composure and rapport in ways that you don’t have to when you’re interviewing someone for print. With print, you can edit a terrible interview to look like something that flows. On video or TV (or even radio), the camera won’t let you lie quite as easily.

Spinning Indie: I see that your ventures now include radio. Is that relatively new and how do you like doing a radio show compared with TV?

Zac: I been doing Internet radio for the last 5 years, it's a uncensored talk show aimed at college students. It's nice to be on the Internet because of the freedom of being uncensored and being able to say whatever we want.

Spinning Indie: Do you think teens and young adults are better interviewers/journalists than older folks? Why?

Zac: Yes! for starters we care more about who and what we're interviewing because most of the time the band plays a role in our lives. Either we hear their music every day or we [or] our friends talk about them every day. Also because a teen or young adult journalist isn't as threatening to a band as a someone from NBC or ABC or MTV. To them we are just fans, but with a great job! This makes most bands open up more and tells us some really great stories.

Aaron: I really think it depends on the interviewer more than the age of the interviewer. In order to be a great interviewer, you really need to understand people—what makes them tick, how to unlock them—and for a lot of us, this sort of empathy a skill that only comes with time, experience and a lot of personal ups and downs.

That said, I’ve met a lot of teens who are wiser beyond their years than I ever was at that age, and I’ve met a lot of adults who continue to act like the stereotype of a dumb teenager. As one of those “old folks” myself, I can attest to the fact that age has brought wisdom and a wider sense of empathy for the people on the other side of the microphone that I might not have had when I was a 16-year-old doing my first interview. Knowing what I do now, I can only imagine how much better some of those early interviews would’ve been.

Spinning Indie: What do you love about music journalism?

Brittany: I love the excitement of discovering a new artist and telling everyone about him or her. I really like when other people discover an artist that I really enjoy listening to. I like to share!!!

Zac: Being able to say, "hey you know that band we interviewed like a year ago when no one else would give them the time of day?", and now they're the hottest thing on MTV and on the radio. That's the greatest part :-)

Aaron: I love getting beyond the music to understand more about the people who make it: their ups, downs, strengths and flaws. I love learning what makes people tick and being able to get insight into how great musicians become great. I love learning that my favorite artists are people, too, and I love it when I can get someone to open up about not just how they got from point A to point B in their craft, but how there were all these other factors that allowed them just to find where point A was in the first place. Beyond all this, though, I love being able to come back from an interview or assignment and have the chance to share what I find with other people.

Spinning Indie: What has it been like being a young female journalist interviewing mainly male musicians. Have you found the indie music scene to be welcoming?

Brittany: It can get weird and the guys can get really sexist but for the most part everyone has always been totally cool and nice. We keep it professional and music related or least we try to. Most indie artists are so appreciative of us trying to promote their music and it shows in their interviews. I started doing this when I was in 6th grade and back then I felt very self conscious and shy. After so many years nothing phases me anymore-even weird Jeffree Star!


Thanks to the crew from The Rock Star Stories for sharing their passion for music with me!

Farewell to Michael Jackson

San Francisco Chronicle Coverage of Michael Jackson's Death
from Today's Paper

Like many people, I'm still reeling from Michael Jackson's death on Thursday. I found out on email and immediately jumped on to Facebook to share my shock and get some consolation from friends. Status updates became message boards, full of conversation about various reactions to Michael Jackson's death. The same thing happened on blogs and Twitter. And people quickly drafted posts to chime in with their reactions (myself included).

It was fascinating to see people learning of the news via Facebook and hearing their immediate responses. Many, like me, were sad and shocked and immediately called upon personal memories of Michael Jackson's music. Every time I hear "Rock with You," I can't avoid thinking about junior high school years, roller skating parties, and school dances. I would imagine that people of my generation in particular have strong associations with the music (discussed nicely in this piece in the Miami Herald), as it was ubiquitous in the early 1980s and grew in popularity along with the rise of music videos and MTV.

Yet, at the same time, even in the minutes following the announcement of his death, I heard commentary from detractors who were quick to discount Jackson's influence (it's just good producers and choreographers) and felt that his misdeeds overshadowed his music. This line of commentary is what's been gnawing at me since I first heard of his death. Although I'm very disturbed by the child abuse allegations against Jackson and continue to be alarmed by some of his questionable parenting choices (dangling a baby off a balcony); there's no way for me to separate Michael Jackson's music from my youth.

Jackson 5 on American Bandstand

So, yes, I am sad. And, I did immediately want to turn on the TV to watch video after video so that I could reminiscence about a period in his career when he was at his peak and when I was still a kid and teen. Thank goodness for MTV and especially BET for its hours and hours of non-stop Michael Jackson videos on Thursday and Friday (and today FUSE is doing the same). He was so defined by his videos, so it was awesome to see iconic videos like "Beat It," "Thriller," and "Black or White" on channels that don't often play videos anymore.

Particularly heart-breaking to see were the pre-video performances from the Jackson 5. My 3-year-old daughter was rivetted by his singing and dance moves and was particularly charmed when the Jackson 5's very first American Bandstand appearance hit the screen on MTV. That's the real tragedy, seeing Michael as a cute talented little kid and knowing how his life ultimately turned out.

But, even as that example shows, one of the best ways to deal with death is by cherishing positive memories of the departed. So everyone embraced the music. It was cool to see some of my local record shops getting TV coverage, as customers flocked in to pick up Michael Jackson CDs and records.

ABC Shows DJ Playing Michael Jackson

And, as I had hoped, radio responded as well. A DJ at my station did a Michael Jackson themed show Thursday night (even playing some Weird Al), KCRW quickly assembled a tribute page on their website and aired special programming, and Sirius XM radio had a number of tributes across various channels (including one hosted by former MTV VJ Nina Blackwood on the 1980s channel) and it's devoting an entire channel to a Michael Jackson tribute today through June 29th on Heart & Soul (Sirius 51 and XM 62). As Tom Taylor of Radio-Info pointed out in his newsletter, "...Michael Jackson and radio made a lot of very good times and very good business together." The Radio-Info website has a bunch of stats to back that up, including reports on the increased Michael Jackson airplay on radio following his death.

Michael Jackson's Death Came Too Late for Streetlight's San Francisco Store on 24th Street
(but their San Jose branch was all over the news)

ABC World News Tonight showed clips of radio stations around the globe playing Michael Jackson songs and I found reports about special programming in Colorado (community station KAFM), North Carolina, and Boston in addition to a number of interesting tributes on college radio stations like WRMC, WICB and WUOG (just a sampling!).

Ben Fong-Torres has a really nice front page story about Michael Jackson in the San Francisco Chronicle today, outlining both his influence on music and his complicated persona. Ben's been in an interesting position the past few days, as he's been fielding non-stop calls from the media, asking for his commentary about the King of Pop. Ben interviewed a teen-aged Jackson, so it's got to be sad and surreal for him how things played out for Michael.

It's also bittersweet to think that a tragic death of a music superstar can potentially be so lucrative for the music industry. But, hey, I'm pleased that it may cause more people to buy physical music, patronize record shops, and turn the radio back on again. It makes us all remember just how powerful music can be.

Radio Survivor Launches

Obviously I'm pretty passionate about radio and it's always fun to meet like-minded folks who share my mission to spread the gospel about radio's continued relevance.

So, it's awesome to announce that I'm helping to launch a new website called Radio Survivor. I've joined up with radio gurus Matthew Lasar (an academic and contributor to Ars Technica who writes extensively about radio, the FCC and policy issues and has authored several books and articles about Pacifica Radio) and Paul Riismandel (champion of indie media, adviser to Northwestern University radio station WNUR and the man behind the "Mediageek" blog and radio show).

Radio Survivor will report on the past, present and future of radio; with a bit of a broader perspective than Spinning Indie. Since this is a new endeavor, it might take awhile to figure out which posts are more "Spinning Indie" and which are more "Radio Survivor," so I'll do my best to provide links when appropriate.

My first two posts for Radio Survivor were college radio-related:

Is Twitter the New College Radio?
College Radio DJ Archetypes

Additionally, Paul and Matthew have written up some interesting posts related to satellite radio, policy issues, and the mysterious presence of TV audio on the FM band after the analog to digital conversion Here are a couple:

Analog TV is Alive. It's Radio
The Holy Grail: Getting Internet Radio into Your Car (Part 1)

Ypulse Mashup in June for Youth Culture Geeks Like Me

In addition to my passion for music and college radio, I'm also hugely obsessed with pop culture (it's even what I got my graduate degree in). In particular I love teen media and would happily spend an entire weekend watching teen movies and high school-themed TV shows.

So, it's no surprise that when youth culture blog Ypulse started up in 2004, I was smitten. I remember running across the blog one day at work and immediately shooting off an email to editor Anastasia Goodstein, telling her how much I loved the blog and how similar our interests were. We'd both worked at some teen-related start ups and nearly crossed paths at the much heralded teen girl site Kibu back in the Internet boom years. I ended up doing some guest posts and conference reports for Ypulse and for awhile was one of their contributing editors. Writing for Ypulse was a blast because sometimes you really really need to review the latest crop of teen/college-themed TV shows or reminisce about the power of high school journalism.

Even in the early years, Anastasia loved the idea of connecting people who shared her passion for the intersection of youth culture, teen media, and technology. She started out hosting small mixers and eventually grew her idea into a conference that she calls the Ypulse Mashup, since it brings together folks with wide ranging interests in youth media (tween, teen, and college), from school librarians and youth ministers to non-profits like 826 Valencia and Youth Radio to major media companies like MTV, Disney, MySpace and ABC.

I attended the Mashup the last two years in San Francisco (got to hear about teen tech trends, some Go-Go's related teen music trends and about some amazing hip hop-related projects last year and in 2007 both danah boyd and Henry Jenkins graced the stage, chatting about technology) and am excited to be going again this year (June 1st and 2nd in SF).

Spinning Indie readers can get 10% off the conference cost by using the code SI during registration. Some early-bird discounts are available until tomorrow and there are also lower fees if you're a student or at a non-profit.

If you're planning to go, let me know. It should be a blast.

Nic Harcourt Leaving KCRW Music Director Role

In the L.A. Times today there's word that KCRW Music Director Nic Harcourt is stepping down November 30th. He'll continue to DJ at the L.A. public radio station, doing a 3-hour show on Sundays.

Nic is quoted in a press release on the KCRW blog:

"'As a parent of two young children, I believe it’s time for me to explore new career opportunities and expand upon my other activities in movie, television, voice over work, advertising and the Internet.'

'My heartfelt thanks and gratitude go to KCRW, the staff and volunteers who have supported my work through the years, but most of all to the listeners. I’ve always said that I couldn’t do what I do without them and I hope they will join me on Sunday nights,' said Harcourt.

KCRW’s General Manager Ruth Seymour said 'Nic has enhanced KCRW’s reputation for introducing new artists to listeners in Southern California and beyond on radio and the Internet. His singular gifts as a radio deejay and his ability to spot new talent attracted major media attention from both national and international press.'"

Nic's definitely got a presence outside of the station in the music and entertainment biz. In fact, I just saw a TV promo for him during 90210, for which he's the music supervisor. You can hear Nic talk about the music on 90210 on the CW's website for the show.

mtvU College Radio Channel Features Rotating Trio of Campus Stations

Well, clearly I'm not the target market for this, since I'm only now discovering that mtvU (the on-campus TV network and website) has been featuring and streaming selections from a variety of different college radio stations for 3 years!

According to mtvU's description of mtvU College Radio ("somewhere under the radar"):

"Think of mtvU College Radio as the strainer that separates the delicious noodles from that dirty Ramen water. It's a place where the best new music from the underground (and not so underground) is served up hot by three of the country's top college stations. None of that top 40 filler. Not only will it hip you up and keep you happy, it'll microwave your popcorn. Let's go."

Currently the featured stations in the "Enjoy the Summer" edition are KCSU-FM (Colorado State University), Radio X-FM (Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL), and WMUC-FM (University of Maryland, College Park, MD). The mtvU website includes descriptions of each station, along with some "tops" lists of favorite tracks, albums, etc.

There's also a streaming station on the website called mtvU College Radio. You can jump from track to track and I didn't hear any DJ commentary, so it would seem that perhaps the 3 selected stations have a hand in contributing tracks to the playlist, but that their stations are not actually streamed on the website.

The college radio feature on mtvU began in the summer of 2005, when mtvU started to promote a collection of college radio stations on their website. According to a 2005 article in the Drexel student newspaper, The Triangle:


"The inspiration for streaming excellent college radio stations came from MTVU's desire to increase the value of the relationship that it has with its affiliate colleges, according to Senior Director of Marketing for MTVU Lori Raimondo. 'We are all about college and we are a music network, so it just made perfect sense to partner with college radio stations,' said Raimondo."


The September 2005 article discussed Drexel University station WKDU's appearance on MTVu:


"WKDU is among the second group of radio stations recognized by MTVU. The practice of streaming college radio stations began early this summer. Every month, a new group of stations will be available at the MTVU Web site.

Radio stations must meet certain criteria in order to be under consideration for the nationwide exposure that this recognition grants. First, the college that the station serves must be affiliated with MTVU. The station must also be programmed by students for a predominate student audience. Out of that pool of possible stations, MTVU selects a few of the best.

'Our whole goal is to serve [the] college audience,' Raimondo said. MTVU hopes to provide a local feel and to present students with music that might be popular locally but relatively unknown elsewhere. 'This is a way to provide students with another way to hear music being played at colleges other than their own.'"


It's hard to tell how this whole program has evolved and how often the list of stations changes. On mtvU you can go back in time a bit to see the most recent stations that have been featured (by the way, many are also nominees for this year's mtvU College Radio Woodie Award). The stations below are grouped by the edition that they appeared on, although I'm not sure when each edition was featured.

mtvU College Radio Featured Stations:

Fourth Edition: Knoxville (and elsewhere) Rocks!

WUTK-FM (University of Tennessee-Knoxville, TN)
WSOU-FM (Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ)
KCOU-FM (University of Missouri-Columbia, MO)

Fifth Edition: School's Out For Summer

WVPH-FM "The Core" (Rutgers University & Piscataway High School, NJ)
KDWG-FM (University of Montana-Western, Dillon, MT)
WMTS-FM (Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN)

Sixth Edition: The Thirteenth Floor Edition
(be sure to view each station's short promo video, where staff members/DJs talk about their shows in this edition)

WCRD-FM (Ball State University, Muncie, IN)
WZND-FM (Illinois State University, Normal, IL)
WPIR (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY)

Happy New Year! (7th edition?)

WRGP-Radiate FM (Florida International University, Miami, FL)
WSOU-FM (Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ)
WXYC-FM (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

New Zealand College Radio DJ's World Tour

I was reading a profile in the Sunday Star Times about Nick Dwyer, a long-time college radio DJ in New Zealand who has embarked on a world tour exposing New Zealand music in unlikely places. Not only is he a college radio DJ, but he's also on C4, the MTV-like music network in New Zealand, for whom he's doing the world tour themed show "Making Tracks."

According to the article:

"Making Tracks is part travel show, part music documentary, and rests on a premise so simple it's surprising no one's come up with it before: take several legendary songs from home to some of the world's most interesting places and get the local musicians to make their own versions of them. Dwyer visits Brazil, Jamaica, South Africa, Israel, India and China; he brings songs like Bic Runga's Sway to Bollywood, The Mint Chicks' Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! to a Chinese jazz group, and Shihad's You Again to the baile funk stars of the Brazilian favelas. In between these surprising, hit-and-miss remixes, he does everything he can to get our songs played - blasting his boombox while walking around the streets, and hijacking radio stations and television music shows wherever he goes."

In his other life, he's on college station 95bFM, DJing 5 afternoons a week as Nick D (you can see his profile and a sample playlist here). According to the 95bFM website:

"In 1969 when students did crazy stuff, radio Bosom was born as a capping stunt. It was set up in a boat – which ran aground somewhere in Auckland's Waitemata harbour – and broadcast illegally on speakers around the Auckland University student union. Over the next few decades the Bosom morphed into the mighty 95bFM, a sizzling casserole of New Zealand music, news and views...It’s run on the sounds, sweat and tantrums of volunteers (technical term: vollies), and a core full time crew. 95bFM is a compilation of dedicated people from all walks of musical genre and political opinion. This makes for a fiery world of independent news and views and Auckland’s most vibrant musical injection."

The show and the station sound like fun. I'm particularly impressed that Nick's got one foot in the college radio world and another in mainstream media. I wonder how many MTV DJs are still doing college radio?

College Radio on TV

I keep thinking about writing about depictions of college radio stations on television (90210 and Felicity are the first shows that come to mind) since I'm a huge fan of teen and college-themed shows.

Who can forget all the radio drama experienced by David Silver and Donna Martin during their stint on CU's radio station on Beverly Hills, 90210? The initial story lines revolved around their witty (?!) on-air banter when they did a team show. Then, when David went solo, the plot centered around his off-air drug abuse, spawned by the station manager offering him speed to help him stay awake after graveyard shifts.

Imagine my surprise when today I ran across the blog of a writer (and former college radio staff member) who is working on a script for a television pilot about college radio. Here's her initial idea:

"So, I'm writing an original pilot now, a half-hour dramedy about my experience working for a college radio station. Originally I wanted it to be a mockumentary a la The Office, but I think it would be kind of a pain to write it that way..." (July 2007 post)

And here she is a bit further along in the process:

"Before I left Ithaca, I started working on a pilot about my experience with college radio. The problem: I couldn't think of any good plots...lots of fun characters using cool radio jargon with not much else happening..." (August 2007 post)

And, her post from yesterday:

"So for my next pilot I said screw research, I'm going to write something I know completely: college radio. And though I'm still struggling with rewriting, it's kind of nice to write something I feel that I'm an expert about. In a way my challenge is that I have so many ideas, so many directions to go in, so many real-life experiences that I can pull from." (May 2008 post)

So, aren't you dying to hear more about this script? What kinds of tales from your own college radio experiences would make for good television?

Can you think of any other college radio stories that have been on television before? And were they realistic? Personally, every time I saw 90210's take on radio (whether high school or college) I was always yelling at the screen, taking issue with the most minor details (HE ISN'T EVEN TALKING INTO THE MIC!) and inane (and unrealistic) mic breaks.

NOFX Backstage Passport on Fuse TV

I've gotten addicted to the new reality show "NOFX: Backstage Passport" on Fuse TV in which NOFX documented their world-tour of out of the way places from Peru to Korea. The week's episode featured a concert in mainland China that was apparently the first show there by a U.S. punk band. Much of what I've seen so far portrays wacky band antics and (more interesting to me) the travails of booking a tour in places that don't typically hold shows. On the series, the band is shown dealing with questionable promoters and sometimes unsecured/unlicensed venues, often with very dramatic results (especially in the fantastic second episode).

NOFX is still independent after 25 years and from what we see on TV it appears that their manager was the primary liaison with bookers and promoters, making for a tour that they were all very personally invested in. It's a great glimpse into punk rock, DIY and how American bands are greeted in far-away places.

Here's Fuse's blurb about NOFX:

"A staple on the Warped Tour, they somehow straddle the mainstream and the underground more successfully than almost any other band by releasing records on their own label and by snubbing mainstream radio and MTV. They manage to keep their fan base at a comfortable size, pay the rent, and still retain a serious amount of punk credibility."

If you've seen the show, what do you think? Are there other great indie-music themed TV shows worth tuning in for?