Programming at Bellingham, Washington Station KUGS

The Western Washington University (Bellingham, Washington) radio station KUGS 89.3 FM was profiled today in the campus paper The Western Front. According to the piece, the station receives between 30 and 50 CDs a week and adds about 20 items to the library weekly.

The article quotes the station Music Director Chris Kazuo Mak, who says:

"'When I pick music, I try to find stuff that will be challenging to our listeners,' Mak said. 'Our niche is not to play "Top 40" music. We get to promote artists that don’t get a lot of airtime on commercial stations.'"

As the article continues, there's a discussion about how music is archived:

"Most music that doesn’t immediately receive airtime on KUGS gets archived in the music library, a series of shelves loaded with CDs from ceiling to floor in the station’s hallway.

But the station can’t store every album it receives, so KUGS volunteers and DJs sometimes end up taking home rejected music, Mak said."

In terms of programming rules, the station does ask DJs doing 2-hour non-specialty shows to play music that's designated to be in "current rotation," with some flexibility. The article states:

Jamie Hoover, general manager at KUGS, said DJs have ample opportunity to design their own playlists for both specialty shows and the more mainstream 'Music for the Masses' broadcasts...

DJs design their own playlist around the large selection of albums in rotation. Twice during a 'Music for the Masses' show, DJs are allowed to play any song they want.

'We don’t have those prescribed setlists that some stations have,' Hoover said. 'College radio can take more chances on artists, which allows for more breakthroughs.'...

A DJ has more freedom when planning a specialty show, but doing so can consume much more time than mapping out a 'Music for the Masses' playlist."

If I understand the policy correctly, non-specialty DJs are essentially only allowed to play one song an hour that's not in the current rotation library. I'm not sure how large the library of albums in current rotation is, but I wonder if DJs feel limited in that they can only choose a few tracks outside of that library. What do you think of this policy and how does it compare to your station? What other sorts of programming rules do you have?

Fun Historical Tidbits: KUGS, which has been around since 1974, was apparently the 2nd station in the U.S. to broadcast over the Internet (in 1997).

College Radio in Iowa City - IASPM Conference Paper

A few weeks back I wrote about Nick Rubin's college radio-themed paper that he presented at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) conference held in Iowa City in late April. Well, I got my hands on the other radio paper from the conference. On April 26, 2008, Brian Goedde presented his paper "Selling College Radio in the Geographical Place and Conceptual Space of the University, the City, and Beyond," about KRUI 89.7 FM, the radio station at University of Iowa.

It's a nicely written overview of the campus radio station. In particular I like his discussion of who the listening audience is and his tales of DJ foibles. He writes:

"The roles of KRUI are as individual as those who comprise its staff and— I would like to say its listeners, but neither I nor they really know who these listeners are. 'It’s hard to say who the listeners are unless they call in,' [Programming Director] Erica said. There were surveys done years ago, I’m told, but the station has changed substantially since then...


'You ask about my audience,' said...a Pathology MA student...whose KRUI alias, on Fridays between 7 and 9 pm, is 'Frosty.' As Frosty talked his hands hovered over the boards, absently rehearsing his next series of buttons to push. 'I always joke that the number one audience has got to be Micky’s kitchen crew. I’ll get requests like, "I got the shittiest job in the world, I deliver pizzas every Friday night. It’s a lot to do after school, but having Funk music gets me through." Or a kitchen crew will call—"we like what you’re playing" "Well what do you want to hear?" "Nothing, just keep playing it." That makes a guy feel good.'...


'My first show was at was a Tuesday night, 4 am,' he said. 'Errors are more forgivable at that hour. I stayed up all night, then came in here and talked about 150 words per minute when I hit the microphone. It was atrocious. [The station manager] called me after my very first air break at 4:15 and said, "You’re doing a really good job, I’m up late working on a term paper, could you play some Public Enemy for me, and otherwise just slow down a little when you’re talking on the mic." I was convinced this guy never slept and listened to every show. I lived in fear. A terrible show is a lot of mistakes. We’re all learning here; mistakes happen. The board is pretty complex. Just before my show someone hit a button that turned off the mic so I spent fifteen seconds of dead air. That was frustrating.'"


I was also intrigued to read about a show at the station where the DJs don't consider themselves to be all that knowledgeable about music. Instead, they pick their music selections based on the album art. Brian writes:


"In the case of Allison and Derek...co-hosts of the Tuesday mid-day show Grumpy Old Grad Students, KRUI presents music that they themselves are curious to hear for the first time.

'One thing to qualify right away is that we’re not big music buffs,' Allison said...'I have friends who say, "the music you listen to is really interesting" and I’m like, "Well, it’s randomly selected."'

Derek: 'We choose the songs by album cover art.'
Allison: 'And interesting names.'
Derek: 'We get there 10 minutes early and grab some CDs, some that we’ve played before that we like. But I would say 60-70% we’ve never heard.'
Allison: 'But we do good, we played Vampire Weekend and they’re the top indie band. That was a random selection.'"

I don't think these DJs are alone in using album art and band names as indicators of whether or not they might be interested in a release. I wonder if they are truly playing things at random or if they preview the albums right before playing them. If it's totally random, I'm curious how the flow of the show works and if the selections make sense during segue ways.

I definitely play music that I've never heard before, but I always read DJ reviews and preview a bit before playing anything so that I have a good sense of whether or not I like the track. But, I'm pretty focused on creating a specific flow to my show and not every DJ has the same perspective on what the perfect "flow" is.

By the way, KRUI has a nice blog and pretty impressive list of bands and in-studio guests who've come by, including The Pines (coming up this Saturday), Brother Ali, Film School, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. There are also links to many specialty show blogs from the website, including a metal show, a south Asian music show East India Rock Company, and eclectic post-rock, math rock, ambient, drone metal, etc show Room Temperature Lounge.

Indie Irish College Radio Show and Squeaky Doors

Something that I love about college radio are the unique shows that reflect the specific passions of music-obsessed DJs. Today I ran across the website for Paddy-Whacked Radio, a college radio show at WQFS-FM (Guilford College, North Carolina) that focuses on Irish indie music. Recently they hosted a live performer and had quite the college radio moment:

"Paul Noonan and David Geraghty of Bell X1 were very kind in stopping by...to chat with Paddy-Whacked Radio™ on WQFS in Greensboro...Please know that the fidelity of the recording is limited to studio equipment (it’s college radio, eh?). Also, please forgive the squeaky door during the final live song. Someone decided it was a good idea to walk in and out of the studio at that particular time. (grumble grumble)."

D'oh! Have any of you had some crazy interruption like this during a performance? I certainly have. I've also had microphones fall down while I was talking over the air.

Speaking of indie Irish music, my brother-in-law had an indie Irish college radio show back in the day at KSCU-FM (Santa Clara University) and told me that he primarily played imported music that was very difficult to find in the U.S. I wonder if this is still the case or if mp3s have changed everything in terms of access to international music.

KCRW's Record Library Digitization Project

It's pretty astonishing to me that Los Angeles-area college/public radio station KCRW (Santa Monica College) has made so much progress in digitizing its music library. So far they've digitized 50,000 CDs, 15,000 vinyl albums (including material from as far back as the 1940s), and 1200 live KCRW performances. Not only is KCRW lucky to have funding and sponsors for its digitization project, but they also employ a music librarian to oversee the collection. Starting this month they will be highlighting special selections from the music library over the air and on their website. You can also see a short documentary about their record library (used to help them pitch for funds to preserve it) on their website.

Like many stations, KCRW has rare recordings that they would like to preserve for the future. No doubt some of these are on dying formats like reel-to-reel tape, cassettes, DAT and carts (not all that long ago my current station still played the 8-trackesque cart), which may not even have playback equipment in studios anymore.

Additionally, KCRW encounters the same space issues that most college stations have to deal with: too many records, not enough storage. I've worked at places with an appreciation for vinyl and CDs, which means that with each passing week more and more material has to somehow get squeezed into shelves that are already jam-packed with material. Other stations probably address the space issue by just not adding CDs or vinyl, instead acquiring music primarily in digital formats. At some stations there may even be DJs who do entire shows without touching CDs or vinyl records.

How does your station archive its music? Do you purge things from your record library to make room for new items? Do you digitize music? Do you regularly acquire mp3s for DJs to play or do you primarily play vinyl and CD recordings? How would you feel about switching to an all-digital format?

Sonic Youth and The Feelies Play NY July 4th

I was just catching up on the latest from New Jersey community radio station WFMU and was alerted to the Sonic Youth and reunited Feelies show that they are helping to sponsor in NY on July 4th. It's part of WFMU's 50th birthday celebration and I am sure jealous. I saw the Feelies play at my college in the 1980s and I thought they were some of the most amazing performers ever.

If you want to catch the free July 4th show, you can reserve your tickets on June 12th at noon (Eastern time, I assume). Read the WFMU blog for more details.

While you're over at WFMU's blog, be sure to read some of their "Great Moments in WFMU History," including this one about a DJ hit man (really).

Also, word has it that you can listen to WFMU on iPhones and other web-enabled mobile devices. Has anyone tried this?

Is Radio Overplaying Specific Songs?

It's a common complaint that commercial radio plays the same songs over and over again. Addressing this perspective, Ben Fong-Torres wrote an interesting column yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle. He talks about a letter sent in by a reader who complained about hearing the same song repeatedly on her favorite stations. After doing a bit of research, Fong-Torres found out that the song in question wasn't played nearly as often as the listener thought. In "Radio Waves" he quotes KFOG Program Director Dave Benson, who says:

"'I often try to point out to listeners that everybody has an artist or two, or a song or two, that just get stuck in their craw. If it comes up, it's an irritant, and every time you hear it is too many times'...

Mike Preston, VP of programming for CBS stations Live 105, KLLC (Alice@97.3) and KFRC (106.9 FM), echoes Benson.

'Listeners tend to say a station repeats songs too much when they are playing the wrong songs,' he says. 'You can never play their favorite song too much, but if it's something they don't like, then only one play is too many.'

Chris Mays, former PD at Alice, believes that every radio station, regardless of format, gets that complaint.

'And it's from your most loyal listeners, who listen the most, and they hear the repetition,' he says. 'It's a really tough line, because the people who get the most tired of the repetition are your best customers. But if you were to solely serve them, your library would need to be vast, and you'd be playing relatively unfamiliar music for people who listen on a more casual basis.'"

Fong-Torres goes on to provide statistics on how often new tracks are played on commercial stations. It varies tremendously by station, from 3-5 times a day for a new song, to up to 19 times a day (at a station in Houston). In discussing a few San Francisco Bay Area commercial radio stations he writes:

"Rock stations such as Live 105 and Alice, Mediabase shows, play new tracks six or seven times a day. So does country station KBWF (the Wolf, 95.7 FM). KIOI (Star 101.3) spins its most popular newer songs five or six times a day.

And then there's KFOG, whose most-played new track, Coldplay's 'Violet Hill,' got five spins over 24 hours. Most other newer tunes maxed out at three airings a day. Older tunes pop up about once a day.

KOIT plays its most popular artists' current songs three times a day, while KFRC rotates even less often, with no one 'classic hit' getting played more than twice a day.

And still listeners complain. And the stations conduct research, hoping to learn when listeners are beginning to tire of songs. It's an art - and a science."

I'm curious how often new tracks are getting played at college radio stations. Back when I was tallying playlists at WBGU to compile our "tops charts" to submit to CMJ and record labels, I remember that our top albums for the WEEK got maybe 10 plays if we were lucky (meaning that one track was played even less). For the most part, the top 30 list was made up of albums that were played around 5 times a week. (Additionally, I remember struggling to come up with the list in weeks where 10 albums were tied with 5 plays each, for example)

Similarly, I've had conversations with DJs who believe that one should not play the same song on one's radio show more than once a year, as many DJs strive for more music diversity, shying away from playing the same artists/tracks week after week. What kinds of guidelines does your station have? Do you pay attention to whether or not you are playing the same artists and tracks repeatedly? As a radio listener, how often do you want to hear the same songs?

KCSC Playlist from XMU Student Exchange Show

Yesterday Chico State radio station KCSC provided another fine set of music to satellite station XMU's "The Student Exchange Show." Coming up next week is another repeat visitor to the show, college radio station KSLU (St. Louis University).

Here's KCSC's playlist:

KCSC – CHICO STATE
XMU Student Exchange Show Playlist 06/01/08


Mates of State – The Re-arranger – Re-arrange Us
Tilly and the Wall – Jumbler – O
The Kills – Cheap and Cheerful – Midnight Boom
The Black Keys – I Got Mine – Attack & Release
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – You Could Write a Book – Pershing
A.A. Bondy– Rapture (Sweet Rapture) – American Hearts

Clare & the Reasons – Pluto – The Movie
The Jealous Girlfriends – Hieroglyphics – The Jealous Girlfriends
No Kids – For Halloween – Come Into My House
Joan of Arc – Insects Don't Eat Bananas – Boo! Human

Colin Meloy- Barbara Allen – Colin Meloy Sings Live!
Born Ruffians – Kurt Vonnegut – Red Yellow & Blue
Flight of the Conchords – Bowie – Flight of the Conchords
Islands – The Arm – Arm's Way

MGMT – Electric Feel – Oracular Spectacular
The Ting Tings – Great DJ – We Started Nothing
Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Battle Royale – You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
Foals – Cassius – Antidotes
Cut Copy – Lights & Music – In Ghost Colours

Calling in Sick – Disco Sirens – Demo
Cary Brothers – Ride (Tiesto Remix) – Who You Are
Morgan Page – The Longest Road (Deadmau5 Remix) – Elevate
Braille – Counter Attack (ft. Theory Hazit and DJ Idull) – The IV Edition
James Pants – Good Things – Welcome

J-Live – The Upgrade ft. Oddisee & Posdanous – Then What Happened?
Dave Gahan – Kingdom (Digitalism Remix) – Hourglass Remixes
Neon Neon – Tricks for Treat (Hot Chip Remix) – Raquel

M83 – Couleurs – Saturdays = Youth


Coming up next Sunday, June 8th (1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern) is KSLU (St. Louis University) on XMU, channel 43. You can read an interview with KSLU's Music Director, in which she discusses a previous stint on XMU's Student Exchange Show, on the CMJ blog.