00:00:18.700 --> 00:00:22.120
Imagine you're in rural Ohio in the early 1970s.

00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:24.580
You're driving around,  scanning through the FM

00:00:24.700 --> 00:00:26.450
radio dial, just trying to find a good song.

00:00:26.580 --> 00:00:30.080
And just by chance, you stumble across a milestone

00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:31.250
in music history.

00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.290
It must have been 73 or 74.

00:00:44.410 --> 00:00:48.370
We took this demo tape and we  gave it to this guy that had a

00:00:48.540 --> 00:00:51.620
show on Akron University.

00:00:51.750 --> 00:00:55.950
And so we sent this in and he  played Devo songs on the radio

00:00:56.080 --> 00:00:57.000
for the first time.

00:00:57.120 --> 00:00:58.330
It was the first time we ever

00:00:58.330 --> 00:00:59.540
heard Devo on the radio

00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.790
That kind of thing was starting  to happen more and more on

00:01:02.910 --> 00:01:05.160
college radio stations  across the country.

00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:08.750
Kids barely old enough to vote  were heading off to college and

00:01:08.870 --> 00:01:10.290
suddenly becoming tastemakers  overnight.

00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:13.950
The left side of the  FM dial was about to become the

00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:15.950
home of a musical revolution.

00:01:16.620 --> 00:01:21.370
I mean, how many careers were  launched because of college

00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:21.950
radio?

00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:23.200
Because of you know

00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:24.330
a bunch of knuckleheads

00:01:24.620 --> 00:01:26.250
spinning records

00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:28.000
For no money.

00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:32.290
A very simple question with a very definitive answer.

00:01:32.410 --> 00:01:35.500
Would R.E.M. have been R.E.M.  without college radio?

00:01:35.620 --> 00:01:36.790
The answer is no.

00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:38.620
College radio was essential.

00:01:38.750 --> 00:01:42.450
If college radio didn't exist  back then, and we just had to

00:01:42.580 --> 00:01:44.500
rely on word of mouth.

00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:45.580
It would have been hard.

00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:47.500
College radio  definitely helped.

00:01:48.410 --> 00:01:48.870
Yeah.

00:01:48.950 --> 00:01:49.620
We couldn't have done

00:01:49.620 --> 00:01:50.580
it without college radio airplay

00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:52.950
It's not like the mainstream  radio stations were going to

00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:55.620
play that that. College radio was it.

00:01:55.750 --> 00:01:59.540
College radio was thankfully  the one thing that

00:01:59.660 --> 00:02:02.200
embraced us, but it was also  the one thing that we wanted to

00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:03.200
be embraced by.

00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:05.200
Without college radio,  for sure, it would

00:02:05.290 --> 00:02:05.750
have been different.

00:02:05.870 --> 00:02:07.200
Yeah, we would have been

00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:08.290
doing Taco Bell commercials.

00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:09.450
Right.

00:02:09.580 --> 00:02:11.160
College radio was a dominant

00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:12.330
force in the music industry

00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:15.370
for decades, and it also  launched the careers of

00:02:15.450 --> 00:02:17.950
innumerable  entertainers and journalists.

00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:21.370
It was the perfect platform for  young and up and coming talent

00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:23.580
to master the  art of broadcasting.

00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:26.950
But with diminishing influence  due to the rise

00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:28.250
of online streaming.

00:02:28.370 --> 00:02:31.250
College radio is threatened by  shortsighted university

00:02:31.330 --> 00:02:33.540
administrators who no longer  see the value in

00:02:33.660 --> 00:02:35.080
student run broadcasting.

00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:39.410
Is there a future for college radio?

00:02:40.870 --> 00:02:43.080
For now, let's go back in time.

00:02:43.580 --> 00:02:47.040
College radio was about to  change my world, and thousands

00:02:47.160 --> 00:02:49.750
of kids like me were about to change yours.

00:03:01.910 --> 00:03:03.790
We've been listening to "It's a  Gas"  by Mad, "Train of

00:03:03.910 --> 00:03:06.160
Thought" by Embarrassment,  Opus Four  by the Art of Noise,

00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:09.330
Gigantic by the Pixies, Dig It  by Libbok and Bugs Bunny and

00:03:09.410 --> 00:03:10.540
the Grow Small Juice.

00:03:11.910 --> 00:03:15.540
I first discovered college  radio in 1990, when my car

00:03:15.660 --> 00:03:19.120
battery died and the radio  reset itself to 88.1 FM.

00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:22.830
I didn't really notice it first  until I heard the DJs, and I

00:03:22.910 --> 00:03:25.660
realized they were definitely  not the usual top 40

00:03:25.790 --> 00:03:26.830
morning show jocks.

00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:30.200
I heard a lot of unfamiliar music that day.

00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:33.120
One song was about going to your grandma's house

00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:33.750
from a band

00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:35.290
not many people knew at

00:03:35.290 --> 00:03:36.620
at the time, but everyone would

00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:37.620
know soon enough.

00:03:37.910 --> 00:03:38.660
There's a song by

00:03:38.830 --> 00:03:40.370
Nirvana called Sliver and the

00:03:40.370 --> 00:03:41.910
you know, it's the song that

00:03:42.290 --> 00:03:44.700
Kurt used to sing about being  stuck with his grandma.

00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:49.370
You know that "grandma, take me home" song?

00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:50.080
You know that song?

00:03:50.200 --> 00:03:50.660
Yeah.

00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:51.200
I love that song.

00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:51.790
Yeah.

00:03:51.910 --> 00:03:53.290
Well they got this new thing

00:03:53.290 --> 00:03:55.700
We played it in the  offices before, and it was

00:03:55.870 --> 00:03:56.620
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"

00:03:56.870 --> 00:03:59.870
And we sat there and our heads just exploded

00:04:07.290 --> 00:04:08.040
What do we do?

00:04:08.160 --> 00:04:08.620
Can we play this?

00:04:08.750 --> 00:04:09.200
What's he saying?

00:04:09.290 --> 00:04:09.790
Is it cuss words?

00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:11.200
I don't know we should just play it

00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:12.830
We didn't wait to get  it in rotation.

00:04:12.910 --> 00:04:15.160
We just went in to the DJ on  the on the air at the time

00:04:15.250 --> 00:04:16.250
and said, hey, play this.

00:04:16.370 --> 00:04:18.450
And I knew instantly at that  moment they were going

00:04:18.580 --> 00:04:19.660
to be huge.

00:04:20.080 --> 00:04:23.000
But I also was really proud of  the fact that we had been

00:04:23.080 --> 00:04:26.830
playing them at least two  years earlier on KTXT.

00:04:26.830 --> 00:04:29.660
Before Nirvana videos were  playing on MTV every hour,

00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:31.620
the only place you would have  heard them in the Texas

00:04:31.750 --> 00:04:34.950
Panhandle was KTXT, a radio  station on the campus of

00:04:35.080 --> 00:04:36.290
Texas Tech University.

00:04:36.830 --> 00:04:40.790
With 35,000W of power and  virtually nothing to block

00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:43.410
the signal, it could be heard  for over 75 miles

00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:44.790
in every direction.

00:04:45.540 --> 00:04:46.370
They covered a lot

00:04:46.790 --> 00:04:49.950
of territory, and we were just  as powerful and as impactful as

00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:51.620
a signal as any  other station in town.

00:04:52.080 --> 00:04:54.200
I'm sitting here listening to  this college radio station,

00:04:54.290 --> 00:04:55.660
which, by the way, at the time  I didn't know it was

00:04:55.750 --> 00:04:57.750
35,000W of power.

00:04:57.910 --> 00:05:00.370
I didn't know that it competed  with the other FM stations.

00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:02.160
I'm like, this is  just a student.

00:05:02.250 --> 00:05:02.870
What's it going to sound like?

00:05:03.080 --> 00:05:05.330
It's going to sound like, you know.

00:05:05.450 --> 00:05:08.370
It reached out to New Mexico,  went up closer to Amarillo,

00:05:08.450 --> 00:05:11.910
down south towards Abilene,  and it was reaching people that

00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:14.580
never had access to this type of music before.

00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:18.080
Having KTXT in a town  like Lubbock, Texas.

00:05:18.200 --> 00:05:20.620
It meant a lot, not just to the  kids that were coming there

00:05:20.700 --> 00:05:22.790
from all over the world to go  to school there, but to the

00:05:22.910 --> 00:05:24.040
kids that were already there.

00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:25.870
You're building a music  community of people that felt

00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.000
like they were outsiders.

00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:30.660
The idea that maybe there was a, you know, a gay kid or

00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:33.660
somebody that was into goth or  something they were only

00:05:33.750 --> 00:05:37.250
getting access to in very small  bits and pieces to be kind of

00:05:37.370 --> 00:05:39.950
exposed to this whole  other world, I think was really

00:05:40.080 --> 00:05:42.910
special and unique in  that particular time and moment.

00:05:42.910 --> 00:05:45.290
I was just a junior in  high school, that fateful day

00:05:45.370 --> 00:05:46.790
when I first heard KTXT.

00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:50.040
I'm the one on the left, unfortunately.

00:05:50.910 --> 00:05:54.330
Little did I know that within a  couple of years I would be a DJ

00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:57.370
broadcasting to thousands of  people every week on that

00:05:57.500 --> 00:05:59.000
very same station.

00:05:59.830 --> 00:06:03.290
And eventually they even let me  run the entire thing,

00:06:03.410 --> 00:06:07.200
despite my decision making  skills being mediocre at best.

00:06:07.580 --> 00:06:09.830
I mean, this picture was  taken at night.

00:06:10.870 --> 00:06:13.750
Anyway, I'd been on the tech  campus a few months when a

00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:16.700
friend mentioned that the radio  station was hiring DJs.

00:06:17.370 --> 00:06:19.950
For the first time in my life, I actually took

00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:20.870
some initiative.

00:06:21.080 --> 00:06:23.410
I walked across campus,  through the doors of the

00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:26.370
journalism building and into  the offices of NXT.

00:06:27.580 --> 00:06:30.410
My story wasn't all that  different from most people who

00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:31.910
got involved with  college radio.

00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.580
Most of us just kind  of found it.

00:06:34.700 --> 00:06:37.080
Somewhere along one of the  little introductory courses,

00:06:37.200 --> 00:06:40.410
they were walking us  around campus, and they pointed

00:06:40.540 --> 00:06:41.950
to the journalism building  and said, hey, we have a

00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:43.290
college radio station.

00:06:43.950 --> 00:06:45.540
Um, I thought, man,  that sounds like fun.

00:06:45.620 --> 00:06:46.540
I would love to do that.

00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:48.950
And they said, well, you know,  you can actually get a shift

00:06:48.950 --> 00:06:50.370
there even as a freshman.

00:06:51.250 --> 00:06:53.750
And that's when I decided to go  to Lubbock to go to schools,

00:06:53.910 --> 00:06:56.160
because I had no idea what I  wanted to do for a career.

00:06:56.250 --> 00:06:58.160
I never thought about doing  radio for a career.

00:06:58.250 --> 00:06:59.830
I signed up and they gave me a shift.

00:06:59.910 --> 00:07:01.830
And 30 something years later,  here I am.

00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:06.250
I decided that communications  was was my my major, and where

00:07:06.330 --> 00:07:09.660
I wanted to go within  communications was radio and

00:07:09.790 --> 00:07:11.540
discovered that there was a  station

00:07:11.540 --> 00:07:14.000
at the school and that was it

00:07:14.330 --> 00:07:18.000
Just walked in one day and said  I wanted to do it, and it took

00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:18.620
off from there.

00:07:19.200 --> 00:07:23.750
One of my dorm mates was like,  I'm on my way to the radio

00:07:23.870 --> 00:07:25.540
station to  see about volunteering.

00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:28.120
And I was just like, are what?

00:07:28.330 --> 00:07:30.450
Because I had been listening to  it because the music that was

00:07:30.580 --> 00:07:34.290
coming out of my little radio  was amazing, and I had no idea

00:07:34.410 --> 00:07:36.540
that anything like  that was possible.

00:07:36.620 --> 00:07:39.620
I didn't know that anybody  could be a DJ.

00:07:39.790 --> 00:07:43.620
One day, um, a friend of mine  in a class I was taking said,

00:07:43.750 --> 00:07:44.500
No, I'm a DJ over there.

00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:45.500
I'm a sports guy, too.

00:07:45.620 --> 00:07:46.200
What are you talking about?

00:07:46.580 --> 00:07:48.120
You just go, yeah, they have a big meeting.

00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:50.950
You come down and you just sign  up and they tell you what

00:07:51.080 --> 00:07:53.160
to do, and you go and you train and well shit.

00:07:53.250 --> 00:07:54.000
I can do that.

00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:57.950
I met somebody like a freshman  who had a show at the station

00:07:57.950 --> 00:08:00.000
and he would oversleep.

00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.000
So sometimes I'd just go in and  do a show for him.

00:08:03.080 --> 00:08:05.620
My sophomore, end of my  sophomore year, I went to the

00:08:05.750 --> 00:08:08.000
college radio and said, can I work here?

00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:09.000
I don't really have  that many friends.

00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:11.200
They said sure, it was like, wow.

00:08:11.830 --> 00:08:14.580
Regardless of how we  got there, once we did,

00:08:14.700 --> 00:08:17.620
we found ourselves surrounded  by like minded people from

00:08:17.700 --> 00:08:19.250
very different backgrounds.

00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:22.410
Sure, some people came from  large cities with vibrant

00:08:22.540 --> 00:08:26.000
music scenes, but most of us definitely did not.

00:08:26.450 --> 00:08:28.040
I came from a really small town.

00:08:28.200 --> 00:08:28.750
I grew up in a.

00:08:28.830 --> 00:08:30.250
Small town in Pennsylvania.

00:08:30.330 --> 00:08:33.080
I grew up in a really small  town in North Georgia.

00:08:33.250 --> 00:08:35.910
I showed up in Athens and it was culture shock.

00:08:36.410 --> 00:08:39.450
So for the first two quarters,  I didn't really know anybody,

00:08:39.580 --> 00:08:41.660
and it was the end of the second quarter.

00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:46.120
I went up to the radio station and I never left.

00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:50.080
You know, there were a lot of  people that the radio bug bit

00:08:50.330 --> 00:08:52.910
pretty hard, and you could  always tell, you know,

00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:55.790
pretty quickly who those  were because, you know,

00:08:55.870 --> 00:08:58.450
they're they're not just at the station when they're

00:08:58.450 --> 00:08:58.910
supposed to be.

00:08:59.580 --> 00:09:00.660
They're there when they're not  supposed to be.

00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:04.200
I really did feel like I found  a community when I went up

00:09:04.370 --> 00:09:07.950
those five flights of stairs in  Memorial Hall, because suddenly

00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:10.870
I was meeting people who felt more like me.

00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.830
For those of us who felt like  an an outcast, college radio

00:09:14.950 --> 00:09:16.500
kind of provided a platform where we

00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:17.870
could express ourselves

00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:21.450
with people that  understood us.

00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:24.500
And I think a lot of us,  especially from a small town,

00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:27.540
we needed that and it  became a sanctuary.

00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:33.080
To this day, the oldest people  I know in terms of not age,

00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:36.450
but how long I've known them,  are people that I met on the

00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:40.000
fifth floor of Memorial Hall,  at the top of those 96 steps,

00:09:40.540 --> 00:09:42.790
you know, and that includes  my my wife.

00:09:43.290 --> 00:09:45.370
It was very, very important to  me like it had

00:09:45.450 --> 00:09:46.250
started my career.

00:09:46.410 --> 00:09:48.700
It was my I had met my wife there.

00:09:48.830 --> 00:09:51.620
There have been some,  you know, marriages and

00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:52.660
things like that.

00:09:52.790 --> 00:09:55.450
But post graduation.

00:09:55.580 --> 00:09:57.040
Just a riot of people.

00:09:57.160 --> 00:10:02.250
It was just the  geekiest funniest, most devoted

00:10:02.370 --> 00:10:03.450
group of people.

00:10:03.540 --> 00:10:07.290
That camaraderie of all those  people that came and went

00:10:07.410 --> 00:10:08.950
was really strong.

00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:12.410
The tribe that we created at that little college

00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:14.660
radio station,  those relationships and those

00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:17.750
friendships have carried me  through for the rest of

00:10:17.910 --> 00:10:18.370
my life.

00:10:18.950 --> 00:10:22.540
Some of the best friends I've  ever made were my

00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:23.200
friends I made.

00:10:23.330 --> 00:10:24.580
It would be.

00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:36.580
That tight knit community that  developed around campus radio

00:10:36.700 --> 00:10:38.500
stations was not  a new phenomenon.

00:10:38.750 --> 00:10:41.700
We were all part of something  that stretched back to the

00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:43.410
earliest days of radio.

00:10:44.450 --> 00:10:48.200
I can't understand what that  boy does with all his time

00:10:48.330 --> 00:10:51.540
fooling with wires and that  silly thing on his head.

00:10:51.660 --> 00:10:52.120
Mom!

00:10:52.250 --> 00:10:52.700
Dad!

00:10:52.790 --> 00:10:53.250
Come quick!

00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:55.790
Dad, quick!

00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:57.290
Listen, there's music  on the air.

00:10:57.870 --> 00:10:59.290
Well, if that don't beat the...

00:10:59.870 --> 00:11:03.040
So most people seem to think  that college radio started in

00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:05.750
the 1980s, because that's this perceived heyday

00:11:05.910 --> 00:11:06.870
of college radio.

00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:08.700
And a lot of people have  nostalgia around that

00:11:08.830 --> 00:11:09.750
period of time.

00:11:09.950 --> 00:11:13.410
So I really like to remind  everyone that college radio

00:11:13.410 --> 00:11:16.200
began in the very earliest  days of radio.

00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:19.750
So when you have the first  licensed radio stations in the

00:11:19.870 --> 00:11:22.540
United States, you also had  colleges and universities who

00:11:22.620 --> 00:11:24.290
were doing radio at that time.

00:11:31.700 --> 00:11:35.120
Experiments with radio started  first in the science building.

00:11:35.580 --> 00:11:39.080
As the technology became more  common and less expensive.

00:11:39.160 --> 00:11:42.910
Students often participated in  radio as a hobby, joining radio

00:11:43.040 --> 00:11:46.250
clubs and building their own  radios and transmitters.

00:11:46.660 --> 00:11:50.160
They were using things like gas  pipes and radiators as the

00:11:50.250 --> 00:11:54.200
antenna for the radio station,  and so anybody within a small

00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:57.660
area within that antenna could  pick up a radio station on

00:11:57.790 --> 00:11:58.700
their Am dial.

00:11:58.830 --> 00:12:00.160
So that was carrier current.

00:12:00.290 --> 00:12:03.200
And that was a huge turning  point for college radio,

00:12:03.330 --> 00:12:06.250
because suddenly kids all over  the country could start up

00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:08.620
their own  unlicensed radio stations.

00:12:08.750 --> 00:12:11.120
All right, Charlie, you're the  chief engineer here at WMUC.

00:12:11.250 --> 00:12:12.250
Maryland University.

00:12:12.330 --> 00:12:14.410
Now, listen, as one of your  disc jockeys, I got a

00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:15.450
complaint to make.

00:12:15.660 --> 00:12:18.250
I come in here every night,  I do a two hour record show,

00:12:18.330 --> 00:12:19.160
work my heart out.

00:12:19.290 --> 00:12:20.370
I asked for a  telephone request,

00:12:20.540 --> 00:12:21.250
and nobody calls up.

00:12:21.330 --> 00:12:22.750
But you know why  nobody calls up.

00:12:22.910 --> 00:12:24.290
Look at this  crummy old microphone.

00:12:24.370 --> 00:12:25.080
This was a microphone.

00:12:25.540 --> 00:12:27.870
I'll bet they used at Union  Station to call trains and as

00:12:27.950 --> 00:12:31.540
phonograph like, you wind it up  and the control panel over

00:12:31.700 --> 00:12:33.330
there looks like  a pinball machine.

00:12:33.410 --> 00:12:35.200
That's why nobody hears us  on the air.

00:12:35.370 --> 00:12:35.910
No, man, that's

00:12:36.160 --> 00:12:37.410
not why nobody hears us  on the air.

00:12:37.410 --> 00:12:39.160
Well, why doesn't anybody ever  hear us on the air?

00:12:39.250 --> 00:12:40.450
We ain't got no transmitter

00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:44.830
Carrier current broadcasting  led to a proliferation of

00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:48.500
campus radio stations in the  1940s and 50s, and more college

00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:50.040
students were getting their  first taste of

00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:51.620
broadcasting every day.

00:12:51.870 --> 00:12:54.660
But the listening audience was  generally pretty small,

00:12:54.790 --> 00:12:57.500
and music didn't sound all that  great on AM radio.

00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.200
All the pieces weren't quite yet in place for the revolution

00:13:01.290 --> 00:13:02.290
that was to come.

00:13:02.540 --> 00:13:09.540
Legend has it that the students  that were running KPCR were

00:13:09.750 --> 00:13:14.750
trying to see if they could get  beyond carrier current. Cables

00:13:14.910 --> 00:13:18.000
may or may not have been  connected to the local railroad

00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:22.330
tracks to expand the the  signal beyond campus.

00:13:22.500 --> 00:13:25.950
Ultimately, what happened is  the the story is the FCC  inspector

00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.830
came out and said, you know,  if you're going to do this,

00:13:28.910 --> 00:13:32.000
you really should get an FM  license and do it properly.

00:13:32.790 --> 00:13:34.290
Good evening,  ladies and gentlemen.

00:13:34.410 --> 00:13:39.200
Welcome to the formal opening  of WGRE, DePauw University's

00:13:39.330 --> 00:13:42.500
own FM radio station, here on the campus at

00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:43.910
Greencastle, Indiana.

00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:47.370
Our opening night tonight is an  event to be remembered in

00:13:47.370 --> 00:13:48.250
the history of DePauw

00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:52.910
In fact, in the history of  radio itself for WGRE is the

00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:56.410
first ten watt educational  station in the country.

00:13:57.620 --> 00:14:00.950
When the FCC began granting ten- watt FM licenses to colleges

00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:04.540
and universities, the door was  open for campus radio stations

00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:06.080
to take to the airwaves.

00:14:06.450 --> 00:14:09.450
These relatively inexpensive,  ten-watt FM stations couldn't

00:14:09.580 --> 00:14:12.000
broadcast very far, but it was  usually enough to cover the

00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:14.950
campus and a few  nearby neighborhoods, and music

00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:17.200
sounded much better than  on AM radio.

00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.160
This was important because  music was also a major part of

00:14:21.250 --> 00:14:23.370
the youth driven counterculture  that was starting to flourish

00:14:23.540 --> 00:14:25.450
in college campuses,  coast to coast.

00:14:25.910 --> 00:14:29.000
Artists were recording albums  that were too weird,

00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.700
too experimental for  commercial radio, but they were

00:14:32.830 --> 00:14:35.330
perfect for college DJs who  wanted nothing to do

00:14:35.410 --> 00:14:36.410
with the mainstream.

00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:41.700
Every person that walks into a  college radio station who's new

00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:43.370
becomes a guard.

00:14:43.750 --> 00:14:48.660
They become this sentry that's  walking around the

00:14:48.750 --> 00:14:52.790
radio station, making sure that  the music that you hear on

00:14:52.910 --> 00:14:57.290
commercial radio doesn't  get played, that the sameness

00:14:57.410 --> 00:15:03.660
and mayonnaise middle that  defines 95% of our culture does

00:15:03.750 --> 00:15:06.450
not enter their zone.

00:15:06.580 --> 00:15:08.700
As commercial radio stations  tried to appeal to

00:15:08.830 --> 00:15:12.000
that mayonnaise middle,  programmers developed formats

00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:16.500
like top 40 and MOR for middle  of the road, both designed to

00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:18.910
minimize the risk of losing  listeners by playing

00:15:19.040 --> 00:15:20.450
anything too challenging.

00:15:20.870 --> 00:15:23.620
Commercial radio in the 1970s was becoming

00:15:23.750 --> 00:15:25.040
increasingly safe.

00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:26.410
It was bland.

00:15:26.540 --> 00:15:28.580
It was not cool.

00:15:30.950 --> 00:15:33.790
I'm in my little beat up Volkswagen Beetle with

00:15:33.910 --> 00:15:34.790
a mono speaker.

00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:39.160
And and I was listening to  radio and, you know, there was

00:15:39.250 --> 00:15:41.500
local radio that I  wasn't that into.

00:15:41.750 --> 00:15:43.620
It was the kind of thing where  you would hear the Beatles and

00:15:43.750 --> 00:15:46.040
you would hear Dinah Shore,  and then you would hear Dave

00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:48.500
Clark Five, you know, it was  just a mix of stuff

00:15:48.620 --> 00:15:49.200
for the parents.

00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:51.790
And and then there was the  grandparent's station that

00:15:51.790 --> 00:15:52.500
nobody listened to.

00:15:52.580 --> 00:15:53.290
I didn't want to hear that.

00:15:53.410 --> 00:15:54.750
I wanted to hear this new stuff.

00:15:54.830 --> 00:15:59.000
And so the only place I could  find it was on, um,

00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.330
Akron University had a radio  station when somebody said,

00:16:02.450 --> 00:16:05.080
I'm going to play you the whole  Jimi Hendrix album, you went,

00:16:05.790 --> 00:16:07.830
you know, and you heard a whole Jimi Hendrix album.

00:16:07.910 --> 00:16:08.700
And that was amazing.

00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.250
I turned on the college station  from Winston-Salem,

00:16:11.250 --> 00:16:13.830
where I'm from,  not expecting much, and heard

00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:16.910
way more like Buzzcocks and  Clash and stuff like that.

00:16:26.160 --> 00:16:30.120
We would go out on the roof and throw the albums

00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:33.750
like frisbees, and that was our  way of saying, we're not going

00:16:33.870 --> 00:16:36.830
to play Boston, we're not going  to play Journey, you know,

00:16:36.950 --> 00:16:38.500
where's the new Buzzcocks?

00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:39.580
We'll play that.

00:16:39.750 --> 00:16:42.200
That was when Journey and  Boston and all that terrible

00:16:42.290 --> 00:16:43.580
music was happening.

00:16:43.700 --> 00:16:47.290
Devo was kind of my salvation,  so I wanted to go be able to

00:16:47.410 --> 00:16:49.370
play those kinds of bands  on the radio.

00:16:58.330 --> 00:17:03.000
Devo specifically, obviously,  college radio was integral.

00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:04.040
Nobody knew who we were.

00:17:04.120 --> 00:17:05.160
We weren't on the radio.

00:17:05.250 --> 00:17:06.790
We weren't on pop radio.

00:17:06.910 --> 00:17:08.790
We weren't on the Billboard  charts at all.

00:17:08.910 --> 00:17:12.500
But college radio definitely  were there for us.

00:17:12.620 --> 00:17:15.250
The students in college radio  were more than willing to play

00:17:15.410 --> 00:17:17.000
whatever music turned them on.

00:17:17.410 --> 00:17:19.290
They didn't have to  worry about ratings.

00:17:19.370 --> 00:17:21.750
They didn't have to worry about  losing advertisers, and they

00:17:21.870 --> 00:17:24.500
didn't have anyone outside the  station walls telling them

00:17:24.620 --> 00:17:25.410
what to play.

00:17:25.750 --> 00:17:29.200
They were kind of willing to  try all these weird things,

00:17:29.330 --> 00:17:31.620
you know, and just have weird  random bands on there

00:17:31.750 --> 00:17:32.200
and stuff.

00:17:32.450 --> 00:17:34.120
College radio was the  open book.

00:17:34.250 --> 00:17:35.450
They could write their names.

00:17:35.580 --> 00:17:39.000
They could write their chapters  in that book without any

00:17:39.450 --> 00:17:41.040
obstruction or interference.

00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:43.370
I think that is one of the real strong points of

00:17:43.450 --> 00:17:47.540
college radio, is that it  allowed those bands to be

00:17:47.620 --> 00:17:48.540
who they were.

00:17:49.620 --> 00:17:52.080
This was the essence  of college radio.

00:17:52.290 --> 00:17:55.120
If you'd like the song,  you played it on the air.

00:17:55.250 --> 00:17:57.830
It didn't matter who it was or what record label they

00:17:57.950 --> 00:17:58.410
were on.

00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:01.950
In fact, sometimes they weren't  on a record label at all.

00:18:02.080 --> 00:18:05.370
The standard was always, hey,  here's my cassette.

00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:07.330
I hope you like my tunes.

00:18:07.540 --> 00:18:10.290
Lo and behold, you get  a call back.

00:18:10.410 --> 00:18:14.500
Hey man, they're playing your  song off of a cassette on

00:18:14.580 --> 00:18:15.660
a radio station.

00:18:17.290 --> 00:18:19.870
That's not...That's not a  Clear Channel story.

00:18:20.290 --> 00:18:23.700
Squalls would not have existed  if it hadn't been for

00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:26.500
college radio,  specifically UOG.

00:18:26.620 --> 00:18:28.250
We had a song called Crickets.

00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:38.250
We took the cassette and  transferred it to a cart,

00:18:38.580 --> 00:18:41.450
which is what they used at  the time, the radio stations.

00:18:41.580 --> 00:18:44.040
And I remember listening to  WUOG and all of a sudden

00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:46.080
Crickets comes on in.

00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:48.910
In the Squalls hometown  of Athens, Georgia, the local

00:18:49.040 --> 00:18:51.870
radio station was always  willing to give airtime to new

00:18:51.950 --> 00:18:53.290
and unknown artists.

00:18:53.660 --> 00:18:57.500
WUOG became an essential part  of what would soon be an

00:18:57.620 --> 00:18:59.040
iconic music scene.

00:18:59.450 --> 00:19:04.540
It was really easy to program  WUOG in 1981 1982.

00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:07.620
It was an  embarrassment of riches.

00:19:07.750 --> 00:19:09.750
When we were at WUOG.

00:19:09.870 --> 00:19:13.950
We thought we were the radio  station for the community.

00:19:14.080 --> 00:19:17.500
We were the radio station for  the local music scene.

00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:21.330
I think we helped the bands and  we wanted to do it.

00:19:21.410 --> 00:19:24.750
I mean, we loved them,  especially the local people.

00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:28.830
The B-52's were obviously the  band that sort of broke the

00:19:28.910 --> 00:19:30.080
Athens music scene.

00:19:35.750 --> 00:19:39.200
To me, the first three bands  that kind of followed them were

00:19:39.330 --> 00:19:41.580
Love Tractor, Pylon and R.E.M.

00:19:41.870 --> 00:19:45.160
I loved Pylon,  Love Tractor.

00:19:45.290 --> 00:19:46.370
Oh-OK.

00:19:46.450 --> 00:19:47.290
The Side Effects.

00:19:47.660 --> 00:19:49.950
There were some bands who  didn't have the global acclaim

00:19:49.950 --> 00:19:54.290
that R.E.M. and the B-52s got,  but my God, they were good and

00:19:54.410 --> 00:19:58.660
they were pure and raw and  unabashedly proud of the kind

00:19:58.790 --> 00:19:59.870
of music they played.

00:19:59.950 --> 00:20:03.830
And that, in many ways was the philosophy that we had

00:20:03.910 --> 00:20:05.000
at WUOG.

00:20:10.700 --> 00:20:13.250
College radio was huge  for Love Tractor.

00:20:13.330 --> 00:20:18.540
I mean, we, you know, we would  not have gotten airplay and

00:20:18.660 --> 00:20:19.330
we still don't.

00:20:19.450 --> 00:20:21.620
College radio did have  a huge impact.

00:20:21.750 --> 00:20:23.160
There was no internet.

00:20:23.250 --> 00:20:26.830
So I mean, if people in some of  these towns, we're going to

00:20:27.040 --> 00:20:28.160
we're going to hear us.

00:20:28.250 --> 00:20:30.830
It was more than likely going  to be from the radio.

00:20:39.080 --> 00:20:42.250
Following Pylons lead,  R.E.M. found a welcoming home

00:20:42.330 --> 00:20:44.790
on campus airwaves,  extending their fan base far

00:20:44.910 --> 00:20:46.660
beyond their Athens,  Georgia roots.

00:20:47.250 --> 00:20:50.660
They became the quintessential  college radio band, creating a

00:20:50.750 --> 00:20:53.370
blueprint for hundreds of other  indie bands that would follow.

00:20:53.750 --> 00:20:56.410
We don't have scientific  evidence of this, but we

00:20:56.540 --> 00:20:59.540
believe that we were the first  radio station to play R.E.M..

00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:02.580
We had Radio Free Europe on  a cart, and we

00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:03.870
were playing that.

00:21:03.950 --> 00:21:06.450
We played that probably 40  times a day.

00:21:06.580 --> 00:21:09.620
So everybody who was on  the air, I got to play

00:21:09.750 --> 00:21:11.120
this song, got to  play this song.

00:21:20.040 --> 00:21:24.290
To me, what separated them out  made them more likely to be

00:21:24.750 --> 00:21:27.410
championed by college radio,  made them like

00:21:27.500 --> 00:21:28.450
worth fighting for.

00:21:28.580 --> 00:21:31.910
I think just that they were  really doing what they loved

00:21:32.040 --> 00:21:32.950
for the love of the game.

00:21:33.080 --> 00:21:34.660
They weren't doing it  for commercial purposes.

00:21:34.750 --> 00:21:36.160
They weren't doing it to  fit a format.

00:21:36.250 --> 00:21:38.200
They were just trying to to make their art.

00:21:38.330 --> 00:21:39.500
They were trying to  make their statement.

00:21:39.660 --> 00:21:43.370
R.E.M. never, um, they were  not boastful people.

00:21:43.450 --> 00:21:46.370
And so we just had no idea,  like, how popular they were

00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:48.910
across the country until we  started working for them.

00:21:49.080 --> 00:21:50.290
And we're like, wow.

00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:54.000
The goal was to get people to  hear your music and then go buy

00:21:54.080 --> 00:21:56.580
your music, because if they  heard it and they liked it,

00:21:56.700 --> 00:21:58.120
they'd have to go buy it.

00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:00.950
It was, you know,  a pretty simple concept.

00:22:01.080 --> 00:22:03.620
The record would get airplay on  the college radio station,

00:22:03.700 --> 00:22:05.950
the students would hear it and  they would come and see us.

00:22:06.910 --> 00:22:08.370
Pretty simple formula.

00:22:08.580 --> 00:22:11.370
It was a simple formula and one that could help bands

00:22:11.450 --> 00:22:12.410
find new audiences

00:22:12.540 --> 00:22:15.000
as they got in their van and headed out on tour.

00:22:15.450 --> 00:22:18.700
College radio airplay enabled  local indie favorites to hit

00:22:18.830 --> 00:22:21.290
the road and fill clubs and  towns where they otherwise

00:22:21.410 --> 00:22:23.250
would have  been completely unknown.

00:22:23.750 --> 00:22:25.870
That's what college radio  did for us.

00:22:26.040 --> 00:22:29.330
It didn't have to be a major  city for the crowd to

00:22:29.410 --> 00:22:30.910
really be there.

00:22:31.080 --> 00:22:34.500
All those gaps that we couldn't  fill in, those long

00:22:34.580 --> 00:22:36.200
ass drives,  it would take forever.

00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:40.750
We all of a sudden had a show  in Lubbock, and it was packed.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:44.370
One time in Chapel Hill, and we  played and was a line out the

00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:45.410
around the block.

00:22:45.540 --> 00:22:46.330
And we're like, why?

00:22:46.660 --> 00:22:47.540
What are they coming to see?

00:22:47.750 --> 00:22:50.040
And they were coming to see us  and we had it had to

00:22:50.040 --> 00:22:50.790
be college radio.

00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:53.250
I don't know how they would  know any other way.

00:22:54.410 --> 00:22:55.200
That's the surprise.

00:22:55.540 --> 00:22:57.790
You get when you get into a  town and people actually know

00:22:57.790 --> 00:23:00.700
the lyrics and you're like,  how do people know us here?

00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:04.040
You can't believe that that  that's really possible.

00:23:04.120 --> 00:23:06.040
But, uh, it's radio.

00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:09.410
That's radio is everything for  a band touring.

00:23:09.580 --> 00:23:12.910
I think we're all a little bit  surprised how much airplay we

00:23:13.080 --> 00:23:16.250
were getting from these college  radio stations and, um,

00:23:16.330 --> 00:23:18.290
pleasantly surprised about it you know?

00:23:18.290 --> 00:23:20.620
I guess it surprised me because  I've been  playing long enough to have,

00:23:20.750 --> 00:23:21.660
like, no hope, you know?

00:23:21.950 --> 00:23:24.160
And then all of a sudden there  was hope, you know, because it

00:23:24.250 --> 00:23:26.410
was working and it  was so humble.

00:23:26.500 --> 00:23:29.660
I mean, it was like a poster  big enough to be noticed over

00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:32.000
the cash register and a couple  of plays on the

00:23:32.120 --> 00:23:34.120
college station, and the club  would be sold out.

00:23:35.250 --> 00:23:38.120
To a lot of listeners, it may  have seemed like college radio

00:23:38.290 --> 00:23:41.700
DJs were musical savants,  but most of us were kind of

00:23:41.830 --> 00:23:42.790
learning on the fly.

00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:46.120
We were discovering new bands  and sometimes entire genres on

00:23:46.250 --> 00:23:47.330
a daily basis.

00:23:47.660 --> 00:23:51.200
When I got to Pitt, I didn't  even understand the music that

00:23:51.330 --> 00:23:52.370
that station was playing.

00:23:52.620 --> 00:23:54.330
It was rock, you know?

00:23:54.410 --> 00:23:57.330
And bottom line, I'm this black  kid from New York coming in.

00:23:57.500 --> 00:24:00.620
It's been listening to urban  contemporary was the format.

00:24:01.250 --> 00:24:04.330
Soul music, rap music's  making its ascension and coming

00:24:04.450 --> 00:24:05.500
into play now.

00:24:05.830 --> 00:24:06.830
You know, that's what I dug.

00:24:06.910 --> 00:24:09.200
So I don't know what the hell this is.

00:24:09.370 --> 00:24:10.450
I have no clue what it is.

00:24:10.580 --> 00:24:14.660
My roommate was very helpful in me discovering

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.580
alternative music, rock music,  you know, and realizing, like,

00:24:19.750 --> 00:24:20.870
you know,  that sounds pretty good.

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:23.250
You gonna find something,  you don't think you're gonna

00:24:23.370 --> 00:24:28.000
like it, and you're going to  be like, yo, this is hot.

00:24:28.080 --> 00:24:31.660
That was just kind of a  milquetoast vanilla music guy,

00:24:31.830 --> 00:24:32.330
right?

00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:36.410
I ended up with a real diverse  music love of all different

00:24:36.410 --> 00:24:38.950
kinds of things, and it lives  with me to this day.

00:24:39.040 --> 00:24:43.790
Almost 100% of it is because of  KTXT and how incredibly diverse

00:24:43.910 --> 00:24:45.450
the music selection was.

00:24:45.660 --> 00:24:47.910
When I was in high school,  I mean, I was all about Run-DMC

00:24:48.040 --> 00:24:50.620
and Jazzy Jeff, and I  mean that, and that

00:24:50.750 --> 00:24:51.370
was my world.

00:24:51.950 --> 00:24:54.500
I get to KTXT and this  alternative  things just kicking off.

00:24:54.500 --> 00:24:55.120
I don't know any of these.

00:24:55.250 --> 00:24:56.330
Who the hell is Uncle Tupelo?

00:24:56.410 --> 00:24:58.200
I mean, it's like there's all  these bands and things,

00:24:58.370 --> 00:25:01.160
I don't know, and it just keeps  hitting me like I knew U2

00:25:01.160 --> 00:25:02.410
But all of a sudden,  there's every U2

00:25:02.540 --> 00:25:03.250
album right there.

00:25:03.450 --> 00:25:06.040
I'm like, oh, it was more like music school.

00:25:06.750 --> 00:25:08.910
It was like taking a class the  whole time I worked there,

00:25:09.040 --> 00:25:10.660
because I was  always learning something.

00:25:10.750 --> 00:25:15.000
And again, the people that I  was working with were so nice

00:25:15.080 --> 00:25:16.500
and taking me under  their wing.

00:25:16.620 --> 00:25:18.040
They helped me learn things.

00:25:18.250 --> 00:25:20.700
College radio became part of an impressive cycle

00:25:20.830 --> 00:25:21.700
of creativity.

00:25:22.330 --> 00:25:24.540
Listeners would discover  inspiration for their

00:25:24.620 --> 00:25:25.250
own music.

00:25:25.750 --> 00:25:27.660
They'd record an album,  and then that album would get

00:25:27.750 --> 00:25:29.620
played on college radio and the cycle would repeat.

00:25:30.120 --> 00:25:32.540
I think Ramones were actually  one of the first bands I ever

00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:36.830
heard on college radio, and it  made so much more sense than

00:25:36.910 --> 00:25:38.410
all the stuff I'd  been listening to.

00:25:38.580 --> 00:25:40.370
I remember our first hearing  the Ramones there.

00:25:40.370 --> 00:25:41.370
To hear, like

00:25:41.500 --> 00:25:43.370
The Ramones record was  like just, you know, the clouds

00:25:43.500 --> 00:25:46.000
parted and I didn't really want  to do what the Ramones did,

00:25:46.080 --> 00:25:47.080
but I was like, okay, great,

00:25:48.910 --> 00:25:50.910
Jerry goes, they have a song that's under 60s,

00:25:51.040 --> 00:25:53.120
and I'm like, okay,  that's awesome.

00:25:53.540 --> 00:25:56.160
It was amazing that they  managed to say everything

00:25:56.250 --> 00:25:57.000
in 60 seconds.

00:25:57.160 --> 00:25:57.950
That's impressive.

00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:03.330
If you can, you know,  have songs that are 50s long

00:26:03.450 --> 00:26:03.950
and that's it.

00:26:04.700 --> 00:26:07.750
And you think, well, you know,  that's it doesn't matter.

00:26:07.750 --> 00:26:08.160
It's art.

00:26:15.870 --> 00:26:17.370
Listening to college radio.

00:26:17.500 --> 00:26:20.410
There was so, you know,  in the early, late 70s,

00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:25.250
early 80s was such a exciting  time for new music.

00:26:25.540 --> 00:26:28.500
I had grown up listening to  progressive rock, and now it

00:26:28.620 --> 00:26:32.870
was like all these bands  from England, like Public Image

00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:35.160
and The Fall and Wire.

00:26:47.370 --> 00:26:50.450
Punk and new wave would fill  college radio airwaves in the

00:26:50.540 --> 00:26:52.370
late 70s and early 80s.

00:26:52.500 --> 00:26:56.000
But another genre of music was  also on the rise hip hop.

00:26:56.500 --> 00:26:59.830
At that time, no commercial  radio stations were playing

00:26:59.950 --> 00:27:02.450
both rock and hip hop,  but college radio had

00:27:02.580 --> 00:27:03.620
no such qualms.

00:27:04.120 --> 00:27:07.580
When Sugarhill Gang started,  or any of those records on

00:27:07.700 --> 00:27:11.040
that label, we go crazy  for those records.

00:27:19.250 --> 00:27:22.540
And I remember the Sugarhill  Gang playing a CMJ convention

00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:25.910
and being that  so unbelievably massive.

00:27:26.040 --> 00:27:28.660
Different DJs could play  whatever they wanted.

00:27:28.750 --> 00:27:32.370
So like, we had a guy that  would play like rap music,

00:27:32.540 --> 00:27:34.950
and that was the first time I'd  heard some of that stuff, like,

00:27:35.040 --> 00:27:37.250
like Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC.

00:27:47.080 --> 00:27:49.160
That was it was  a perfect platform.

00:27:49.250 --> 00:27:51.000
You know, I'm, in a sense, the boss.

00:27:51.120 --> 00:27:55.200
I have a very big latitude for  calling shots, showing people

00:27:55.370 --> 00:27:57.870
if we do this,  meaning incorporate more black

00:27:57.950 --> 00:28:01.160
music into the format,  it can work.

00:28:01.250 --> 00:28:05.040
It sounded great, like if  you heard, um, something from

00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:08.910
Joy Division and then you heard  KRS one back to back, that was

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:10.580
such a cool sound and you weren't hearing

00:28:10.700 --> 00:28:11.620
that anywhere else.

00:28:11.700 --> 00:28:13.580
That's what you have to be in that space.

00:28:13.700 --> 00:28:15.450
Eclectic,  contemporary, progressive.

00:28:15.540 --> 00:28:17.450
We're not just going to  play country, we're not just

00:28:17.580 --> 00:28:18.580
going to play R&B.

00:28:18.790 --> 00:28:22.120
We're not just going to play  hard rock or alternative rock.

00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:25.910
We're going to meld all of this  and make it sound good.

00:28:27.120 --> 00:28:30.870
Hi this is Mitch Easter, from  noted Delta blues band Let's  Active

00:28:30.870 --> 00:28:34.620
reminding you that you have to  listen to KRUI 89.7

00:28:34.620 --> 00:28:37.160
Iowa City's sound alternative

00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:39.160
Hey this is John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants

00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.540
and you're listening to WRFL 88.1 in Lexington

00:28:43.160 --> 00:28:44.580
In stereo

00:28:44.580 --> 00:28:46.250
Radio station

00:28:47.040 --> 00:28:48.950
Hi I'm Amy, I'm Emily and we're the Indigo Girls

00:28:48.950 --> 00:28:52.870
You're listening to WMWC 91.5 FM

00:28:52.870 --> 00:28:53.790
We love it

00:28:54.750 --> 00:28:58.500
The college radio phenomenon  was in full effect when the

00:28:58.580 --> 00:28:59.910
Violent Femmes came around.

00:29:00.410 --> 00:29:04.370
That was, besides R.E.M.,  the Violent Femmes were the

00:29:04.540 --> 00:29:08.290
first band that really captured  the hearts and minds

00:29:08.410 --> 00:29:09.250
of college radio.

00:29:19.290 --> 00:29:22.290
At the time we were playing  the first, uh, well,

00:29:22.410 --> 00:29:23.910
the Daniel Johnston LP.

00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:25.200
Hi, how are you?

00:29:25.330 --> 00:29:27.870
And when I finally got down  here and got into the bins,

00:29:27.950 --> 00:29:30.120
I found out, figured out what  it was because I couldn't even

00:29:30.250 --> 00:29:32.160
interpret the voice  or whatever.

00:29:32.250 --> 00:29:35.500
I'm sure I played Daniel  Johnston during my

00:29:35.620 --> 00:29:37.040
first show ever.

00:29:45.250 --> 00:29:47.040
Daniel Johnson was one that I wanted to say.

00:29:47.120 --> 00:29:50.040
Yeah, because we had one at the radio station.

00:29:50.660 --> 00:29:53.120
Um, they put out, hi, how are you on vinyl?

00:29:53.540 --> 00:29:54.830
And so I was playing.

00:29:54.910 --> 00:29:56.910
I was like, wait,  he makes these tapes you can  get.

00:29:56.910 --> 00:29:59.160
There are so many, you know, they're so powerful.

00:29:59.250 --> 00:30:00.830
Like smile, Beach Boys smile.

00:30:01.040 --> 00:30:02.910
You know, I don't want to hear  that as a background record,

00:30:03.040 --> 00:30:03.500
you know?

00:30:04.120 --> 00:30:06.410
I mean, really, it's to  me it's, you know, sacred.

00:30:06.410 --> 00:30:08.160
And I feel the same way about Daniel Johnston.

00:30:08.410 --> 00:30:12.120
Musically and stylistically and  vibe wise, the Pixies

00:30:12.250 --> 00:30:13.000
all the way.

00:30:13.450 --> 00:30:18.500
The Pixies are just kind of our  ideal of what a cool band is.

00:30:27.750 --> 00:30:31.950
We didn't know the momentum we  were getting on the road

00:30:32.080 --> 00:30:32.870
at all.

00:30:33.250 --> 00:30:37.290
We would enter those radio  stations and the DJs would just

00:30:37.410 --> 00:30:40.540
be gaga over us and we  would say, what the what?

00:30:40.660 --> 00:30:41.830
What's the big deal?

00:30:41.910 --> 00:30:43.700
We just played a crappy club.

00:30:43.870 --> 00:30:46.790
We were still like in a van loading our gear.

00:30:47.620 --> 00:30:49.370
No doubt I'm just a girl.

00:30:56.870 --> 00:30:59.620
And I remember putting it on and hearing

00:30:59.700 --> 00:31:01.040
Gwen Stefani's voice.

00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:04.500
First of all, female rocker  were like, oh my God, what is

00:31:04.620 --> 00:31:06.450
this talk about a world opening up

00:31:06.580 --> 00:31:07.950
Einstürzende Neubauten.

00:31:14.830 --> 00:31:17.080
They changed my life when  I was 15.

00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:19.450
That was like,  broke my skull open.

00:31:19.580 --> 00:31:21.370
I was like, what music  could be like.

00:31:21.500 --> 00:31:23.450
I don't know where else you could play them

00:31:23.580 --> 00:31:25.870
but college radio.

00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:37.750
KCPR is proud to present the  concert of the summer.

00:31:37.750 --> 00:31:40.950
Live in Santa Barbara on  Thursday,  the 25th of June.

00:31:41.040 --> 00:31:42.120
That's The Replacements.

00:31:42.870 --> 00:31:46.120
Don't miss the concert event of  the year, The Alarm and the

00:31:46.250 --> 00:31:48.830
Long Riders together at Cal  Poly's main gym

00:31:48.910 --> 00:31:50.080
this Friday night.

00:31:51.370 --> 00:31:53.450
Your worst nightmare  come true.

00:31:53.660 --> 00:31:57.000
Live at the Oxnard  Skate Palace.

00:31:57.120 --> 00:31:59.160
The Butthole Surfers.

00:32:00.660 --> 00:32:03.120
Record labels and concert  promoters couldn't help but

00:32:03.250 --> 00:32:05.250
notice the effect college radio  airplay had on

00:32:05.370 --> 00:32:06.330
their bottom lines.

00:32:06.450 --> 00:32:08.540
But they  needed more information.

00:32:08.660 --> 00:32:10.580
Which of their artists were  being added to college

00:32:10.750 --> 00:32:13.370
radio playlists, and where were  they getting the most airplay?

00:32:13.580 --> 00:32:15.870
The thing about being in the  business is that you have to

00:32:15.950 --> 00:32:18.200
have a report  card. For promotion

00:32:18.330 --> 00:32:19.660
people it's every Tuesday,

00:32:19.660 --> 00:32:22.330
you know what radio stations add your records, and all of a

00:32:22.410 --> 00:32:24.000
sudden there are  these CMJ charts.

00:32:24.120 --> 00:32:26.870
It was a really big deal to have a number one

00:32:26.950 --> 00:32:29.660
college record, because it  would give the label the reason

00:32:29.790 --> 00:32:32.080
to go,  then chase another format.

00:32:32.250 --> 00:32:35.160
The CMJ was like a Bible for  college radio stations, so we

00:32:35.330 --> 00:32:39.080
would get this publication and  see what bands were being

00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:40.580
played at other  radio stations.

00:32:40.660 --> 00:32:43.200
We also reported our charts  to CMJ, so it was

00:32:43.290 --> 00:32:44.200
kind of exciting.

00:32:44.330 --> 00:32:46.620
And I think for a lot of college radio stations,

00:32:46.750 --> 00:32:49.620
you know, even through the 90s, they would look to CMJ

00:32:49.750 --> 00:32:52.120
to kind of figure out how to  program their station and

00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:52.950
what to play.

00:32:53.080 --> 00:32:56.330
CMJ, the College  Music Journal.

00:32:56.450 --> 00:33:00.330
We just started seeing our  records on the charts like,

00:33:00.450 --> 00:33:03.370
I think a few times we even  made it to number one on there

00:33:03.540 --> 00:33:05.120
and it's like, wow.

00:33:05.250 --> 00:33:07.290
So they were really  playing us.

00:33:07.410 --> 00:33:11.750
CMJ was the big thing and we  were like, pretty much number

00:33:11.830 --> 00:33:13.870
one on the charts for  a long time.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:18.910
And that really got us the  crowd on our side, not because

00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:19.500
of the chart.

00:33:20.040 --> 00:33:22.370
I mean, we're charted because  the radio stations

00:33:22.370 --> 00:33:23.290
were playing us.

00:33:23.370 --> 00:33:24.540
Within a few short years.

00:33:24.660 --> 00:33:27.410
CMJ was compiling hundreds of  playlists each week from

00:33:27.540 --> 00:33:28.910
stations across the country.

00:33:29.250 --> 00:33:32.290
Armed with that information,  labels and promoters increased

00:33:32.410 --> 00:33:34.580
their efforts to reach the  college students who could make

00:33:34.700 --> 00:33:36.120
or break their latest album.

00:33:36.540 --> 00:33:38.750
You would get boxes  of records.

00:33:38.870 --> 00:33:39.660
It would be vinyl.

00:33:39.790 --> 00:33:41.540
CDs weren't really a  thing yet.

00:33:41.660 --> 00:33:45.870
And every day you'd go to the  mailroom and there'd be stacks

00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:47.580
and stacks and  stacks of records.

00:33:47.660 --> 00:33:50.910
One of my great joys was just  seeing all the stack of records

00:33:51.080 --> 00:33:53.660
that had come in that day and  just sitting down in the record

00:33:53.750 --> 00:33:57.790
library and just popping the  needle on each track and see

00:33:57.870 --> 00:33:58.870
which ones we might like.

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:01.290
It was just absolutely glorious.

00:34:16.870 --> 00:34:20.200
Well, did you ever have labels  pitching stuff for your

00:34:20.330 --> 00:34:21.660
college radio station?

00:34:21.910 --> 00:34:24.790
They would essentially like,  you know, like IRS records,

00:34:24.910 --> 00:34:27.830
for example, would just send us  every month, like a stack

00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:29.200
of new releases.

00:34:29.290 --> 00:34:32.200
I don't remember anybody  contacting me specifically

00:34:32.370 --> 00:34:34.000
and saying, are you playing our

00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:35.870
record that we sent you last week?

00:34:36.410 --> 00:34:38.500
And I bet if they did,  I probably would have made it a

00:34:38.660 --> 00:34:40.330
point to not play that record.

00:34:40.750 --> 00:34:41.660
Well, I was wondering, yeah

00:34:43.080 --> 00:34:45.250
College stations that weren't  getting phone calls from

00:34:45.410 --> 00:34:47.500
promoters in the early 1980s  would be getting

00:34:47.580 --> 00:34:48.700
plenty soon enough.

00:34:49.080 --> 00:34:51.700
Promoting new artists to  college radio was becoming an

00:34:51.830 --> 00:34:54.660
essential part of selling  records and concert tickets.

00:34:55.080 --> 00:34:57.450
Large record labels often had entire college

00:34:57.580 --> 00:35:00.290
radio departments, whereas small indie labels and

00:35:00.410 --> 00:35:02.910
unsigned artists had to be a little more DIY

00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:03.910
with their promotions.

00:35:05.250 --> 00:35:08.250
I remember this is back in  the day, but like hundreds

00:35:08.370 --> 00:35:10.330
of CDs, me stuffing, you know what I mean?

00:35:10.410 --> 00:35:11.700
And sending it out to college, right?

00:35:11.830 --> 00:35:13.500
So I had all the lists.

00:35:13.580 --> 00:35:15.290
I have my little card file here

00:35:16.830 --> 00:35:19.040
and still in  alphabetical order.

00:35:19.410 --> 00:35:20.700
I can't believe I was that organized,

00:35:20.870 --> 00:35:25.250
but so there's, you know, a lot of stations there.

00:35:26.410 --> 00:35:28.330
This is a whole stack.

00:35:28.450 --> 00:35:31.700
And, uh, 90% of them are  college radio stations.

00:35:31.830 --> 00:35:35.040
Alan Restrepo, the guy who  owned Carpe Diem, came in one

00:35:35.120 --> 00:35:37.370
day and said, okay, guys,  your records ready,

00:35:37.500 --> 00:35:40.290
I've printed up these  press kits, and he presented us

00:35:40.410 --> 00:35:43.410
with this list of 300  college radio stations.

00:35:44.330 --> 00:35:45.790
It's like, this is  how this works.

00:35:45.910 --> 00:35:49.830
You're going to send your press  kit and your CD to these 300

00:35:49.950 --> 00:35:51.290
college radio stations.

00:35:51.410 --> 00:35:54.000
And then in another week  or two, you're going to start

00:35:54.080 --> 00:35:57.000
calling all these people,  these program directors,

00:35:57.080 --> 00:35:59.330
people at the station and  trying to introduce yourself.

00:35:59.540 --> 00:36:02.330
And Hadley and I just looked at  each other and I was like,

00:36:02.540 --> 00:36:05.120
oh God, so we have to do work.

00:36:06.160 --> 00:36:08.250
One of the best ways for  artists to promote themselves

00:36:08.410 --> 00:36:10.120
on college radio was showing up for an interview.

00:36:10.250 --> 00:36:11.330
When they came through town.

00:36:11.700 --> 00:36:13.750
For students, it was the chance to interview

00:36:13.870 --> 00:36:15.120
their musical heroes.

00:36:15.250 --> 00:36:18.660
For the artists, well, it could  be a bit of a challenge just

00:36:18.790 --> 00:36:19.620
getting to the station.

00:36:21.910 --> 00:36:25.200
We had lots of adventures  trying to find the radio

00:36:25.330 --> 00:36:26.580
stations on campus.

00:36:26.700 --> 00:36:29.160
It would be stuff like,  you know, you pull around here

00:36:29.250 --> 00:36:32.000
and then you take a left at the  at the dumpster and then,

00:36:32.120 --> 00:36:35.040
you know, there's going to be  like a brick propping open

00:36:35.120 --> 00:36:38.000
a door, like on the back of a nondescript building.

00:36:38.450 --> 00:36:40.750
Yeah, it's very interesting,  like where they put these

00:36:40.870 --> 00:36:43.290
stations at, at the universities, you know

00:36:43.410 --> 00:36:43.870
what I mean?

00:36:43.950 --> 00:36:44.500
Where they get stuck.

00:36:45.120 --> 00:36:46.830
But then once you go there,  it's just like another world.

00:36:46.830 --> 00:36:51.200
First college station I ever  went to was KSYM in San Antonio

00:36:51.330 --> 00:36:52.750
for San Antonio College.

00:36:52.830 --> 00:36:56.330
And when I went, I was like,  oh my God, this is it.

00:36:56.410 --> 00:36:59.450
It was, you know,  it wasn't anything fancy.

00:36:59.580 --> 00:37:01.910
And I hadn't I didn't have  any preconceived notions.

00:37:02.080 --> 00:37:04.000
I didn't think it was going to be some fancy place

00:37:04.080 --> 00:37:05.410
or anything,  but super

00:37:05.540 --> 00:37:06.450
charming nonetheless.

00:37:07.120 --> 00:37:09.540
Yeah, and, and in retrospect,  exactly what it

00:37:09.660 --> 00:37:10.200
should have been.

00:37:10.330 --> 00:37:11.250
You know, of course.

00:37:11.500 --> 00:37:14.580
College radio interviews were  as unpredictable as the music.

00:37:14.910 --> 00:37:17.580
Nervous and inexperienced  students interviewing rock

00:37:17.700 --> 00:37:21.950
bands was a recipe for great radio or disaster.

00:37:22.080 --> 00:37:23.200
Well, they were usually great.

00:37:23.330 --> 00:37:25.620
Usually it was a really nice  person that was

00:37:25.830 --> 00:37:26.290
part of the scene.

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:28.870
And like I say, there was this  sort of like, you know,

00:37:28.870 --> 00:37:31.290
almost like tribal, like you're  one of us kind of thing.

00:37:31.410 --> 00:37:32.080
That was really good.

00:37:32.290 --> 00:37:33.700
And that lasted for a  few years, you know?

00:37:33.910 --> 00:37:37.080
And then sometimes they  were real, you know, um, bombs

00:37:37.830 --> 00:37:40.620
Remember, do you remember doing  TCU,  Texas Christian University,

00:37:40.700 --> 00:37:42.790
that interview, that was  an odd one.

00:37:42.910 --> 00:37:47.830
Well, because we were writing  songs about stuff that you

00:37:47.950 --> 00:37:50.540
wouldn't want to talk about on  a Christian college radio.

00:38:00.580 --> 00:38:05.870
Stephanie from KTCU would have  us in  and just give her show

00:38:05.950 --> 00:38:07.200
over to us.

00:38:07.330 --> 00:38:08.870
I'm not kidding you.

00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:11.750
When I would leave,  there going.

00:38:11.910 --> 00:38:12.370
Yep.

00:38:12.450 --> 00:38:13.120
That's it.

00:38:13.450 --> 00:38:17.410
The FCC is going to burn this place down tomorrow.

00:38:18.120 --> 00:38:21.290
You are going to be flunked  out of communications.

00:38:21.450 --> 00:38:23.040
We have done it.

00:38:23.330 --> 00:38:26.620
The DJ, he was telling me, um,  I just want to make this go

00:38:26.750 --> 00:38:28.410
smooth for you.

00:38:28.540 --> 00:38:31.500
And, uh, because he liked the  record and he was very nice

00:38:31.620 --> 00:38:34.500
and everything, and, uh,  he says, was there anything you

00:38:34.580 --> 00:38:35.790
don't want me to ask?

00:38:35.950 --> 00:38:38.910
And I said, people ask me this all the time.

00:38:39.080 --> 00:38:43.660
Every frickin interview is  Possum Kingdom about vampires.

00:38:43.750 --> 00:38:46.330
And if you ask me that, I will  stand up and I'll walk right

00:38:46.410 --> 00:38:47.200
the fuck out of here.

00:38:47.910 --> 00:38:49.830
And, uh, he goes, okay, cool.

00:38:49.950 --> 00:38:51.040
Then he made a big note.

00:39:00.160 --> 00:39:01.750
He said, can I ask you what the song's about?

00:39:01.870 --> 00:39:03.410
Yeah, I'd love to tell you what the songs about.

00:39:03.910 --> 00:39:07.450
And so we get in the middle of  the interview, and he gets up

00:39:07.580 --> 00:39:10.660
to cues up that song and goes,  before we play this, uh,

00:39:11.040 --> 00:39:12.910
you want to tell me what the, Possum Kingdom is

00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:14.250
the first single you want to tell me

00:39:14.410 --> 00:39:16.120
Uh, tell me what that's about?

00:39:16.200 --> 00:39:17.830
And I said, vampires.

00:39:22.580 --> 00:39:25.950
And his just jaw dropped,  and he just sat there and just

00:39:26.080 --> 00:39:27.450
hit play on the song, I think.

00:39:27.580 --> 00:39:29.290
And that was the end  of the interview.

00:39:29.620 --> 00:39:30.200
Interview over.

00:39:31.910 --> 00:39:34.000
At the same time that there's  people that would never get

00:39:34.160 --> 00:39:36.080
into Devo for anything  other than, you know,

00:39:36.200 --> 00:39:39.540
either kick ass, rock and roll  or bitchin' dance music.

00:39:39.700 --> 00:39:42.830
There's, you know, there's still a group of people

00:39:42.910 --> 00:39:46.450
that that write letters and,  you know, tell stories.

00:39:47.370 --> 00:39:50.250
And we have, uh, Green Day here  in the studio with us.

00:39:50.370 --> 00:39:52.120
Tell us about the record that you're working on.

00:39:52.790 --> 00:39:54.160
You just have a seven inch four songs on it.

00:39:54.250 --> 00:39:55.290
Yeah, we did it in two days.

00:39:55.410 --> 00:39:55.870
We did it.

00:39:55.950 --> 00:39:56.410
It's an album.

00:39:56.540 --> 00:39:57.790
It has 96 songs on it.

00:39:57.910 --> 00:39:59.620
And you recorded that in San Francisco?

00:39:59.750 --> 00:40:01.620
Yeah, we did all, uh,  sticky covers, none of which

00:40:01.700 --> 00:40:03.160
you didn't know.

00:40:03.290 --> 00:40:05.750
It's got ten songs, and it's  the title of the album is

00:40:05.870 --> 00:40:07.000
called 39 smooth.

00:40:07.580 --> 00:40:12.500
And we've got Kim and Thurston  from Sonic Youth here in town.

00:40:12.620 --> 00:40:13.620
They're not playing anywhere.

00:40:13.750 --> 00:40:14.450
They're just here.

00:40:14.660 --> 00:40:17.500
They've got a new record, CD, cassette.

00:40:17.870 --> 00:40:18.410
Oh, Goo

00:40:18.540 --> 00:40:19.330
It's called Goo.

00:40:19.540 --> 00:40:21.910
It's named after this girl  who plays drums.

00:40:22.410 --> 00:40:23.540
Well, let's play the  song then.

00:40:23.620 --> 00:40:24.080
Yeah.

00:40:24.410 --> 00:40:25.750
Let's play that one then.

00:40:25.870 --> 00:40:26.410
Let's go.

00:40:26.830 --> 00:40:28.160
Let's play that song.

00:40:28.250 --> 00:40:28.910
Let's play it.

00:40:30.910 --> 00:40:32.660
To me, it's always the most fun because you.

00:40:32.750 --> 00:40:35.200
You go and you meet these  people that are just as

00:40:35.370 --> 00:40:39.120
obsessed with music as you are  and just as crazy for all

00:40:39.250 --> 00:40:39.700
of it.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:40.580
More or less.

00:40:40.950 --> 00:40:43.750
I just remembered the, uh,  DJs that were, uh,

00:40:43.750 --> 00:40:46.330
playing there, you know,  they were very enthused.

00:40:46.660 --> 00:40:49.040
You know, they were  record geeks,

00:40:49.120 --> 00:40:50.620
really into music.

00:40:50.750 --> 00:40:54.000
They were eager, you know,  they were like, so pleased that

00:40:54.120 --> 00:40:54.580
we were there.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:57.160
We always felt, like,  incredibly welcomed.

00:40:57.250 --> 00:40:59.540
Sometimes they'd let us, like,  read the weather report

00:40:59.620 --> 00:41:01.200
and whatnot, you know, or do some of their

00:41:01.330 --> 00:41:03.040
interstitial  like announcements.

00:41:03.160 --> 00:41:04.700
You immediately have  something in common.

00:41:04.830 --> 00:41:07.080
You walk into a station,  you start looking through their

00:41:07.200 --> 00:41:09.500
playlists or through  all their, you know, records.

00:41:09.750 --> 00:41:12.750
And, uh, yeah, it's just  an immediate bonding.

00:41:12.910 --> 00:41:13.950
But it was mutual energy.

00:41:14.040 --> 00:41:15.910
It was just like, just like you were excited.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:18.830
We were excited and and to be  in that world and actually and

00:41:18.910 --> 00:41:21.120
it gave practice to do other interviews later on.

00:41:21.250 --> 00:41:22.500
You can't tell by this one.

00:41:23.700 --> 00:41:25.290
They didn't look  like rockers either.

00:41:25.410 --> 00:41:26.660
They were just t shirt.

00:41:26.790 --> 00:41:29.250
They looked like us, so like, ah, cool.

00:41:29.450 --> 00:41:32.410
You know, we weren't  intimidated and they didn't

00:41:32.580 --> 00:41:37.160
have the deejay voice, which,  uh, was a relief.

00:41:37.250 --> 00:41:38.870
It was like it wasn't  that kind of.

00:41:39.040 --> 00:41:41.580
But we played a few songs  or something, you know?

00:41:41.700 --> 00:41:43.450
So everybody in the band  maybe picked something.

00:41:43.580 --> 00:41:46.330
And when we did those,  typically there were people who

00:41:46.450 --> 00:41:49.040
wanted to talk to us. Right.

00:41:49.200 --> 00:41:51.750
People who liked our record,  not people who are being forced

00:41:51.830 --> 00:41:53.040
to interview us.

00:41:53.120 --> 00:41:55.370
Well, you know,  mainstream radio, you'd be

00:41:55.500 --> 00:41:57.700
sitting out in the other room  waiting to go in and the

00:41:57.790 --> 00:42:00.370
guy goes, yeah, they got  the song, whip it.

00:42:00.750 --> 00:42:02.660
You know, I whipped it just the other day.

00:42:02.790 --> 00:42:03.500
Ha ha ha.

00:42:03.620 --> 00:42:05.870
And we're like,  you are an asshole.

00:42:06.540 --> 00:42:10.500
Wait for 45 minutes to get, uh,  I don't know, 15 seconds with

00:42:10.580 --> 00:42:12.370
Gator in the morning or  whatever the fuck

00:42:12.540 --> 00:42:13.200
guy was called.

00:42:13.290 --> 00:42:15.250
So sorry, Gator in  the morning.

00:42:15.370 --> 00:42:15.830
Yeah.

00:42:16.080 --> 00:42:16.540
Yeah.

00:42:17.290 --> 00:42:19.410
Something a lot of bands  discovered while visiting

00:42:19.540 --> 00:42:21.580
campus stations was  the secret

00:42:21.700 --> 00:42:24.790
internal debates and opinions  about music held by the staff,

00:42:24.910 --> 00:42:26.950
which were often put into  writing on the album

00:42:27.040 --> 00:42:28.160
covers themselves.

00:42:28.290 --> 00:42:31.250
Back in the day,  conversations would actually

00:42:31.410 --> 00:42:34.500
happen on  the records themselves.

00:42:34.580 --> 00:42:37.790
There'd be commentary written  all over the jacket

00:42:37.910 --> 00:42:38.660
of the record.

00:42:39.120 --> 00:42:41.620
We went to one, I think it was  in Tulane and in Louisiana,

00:42:41.700 --> 00:42:44.000
and we get there and the person  who's supposed to interview us

00:42:44.120 --> 00:42:46.540
isn't there, and they have to  call them like you're supposed

00:42:46.620 --> 00:42:48.200
to talk to this band, and the person shows up and

00:42:48.330 --> 00:42:50.370
they're like, you know,  and they're like half asleep

00:42:50.500 --> 00:42:51.910
and everything, and they don't  know who we are.

00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:54.580
And then they find our record  and somebody else has already

00:42:55.250 --> 00:42:56.950
You know, they started putting  stickers on the records to

00:42:57.080 --> 00:42:59.950
describe them for the DJs to  pull out and see if they wanted

00:43:00.040 --> 00:43:00.500
to play or not.

00:43:00.830 --> 00:43:02.200
And it said,  this is really terrible.

00:43:02.410 --> 00:43:03.330
Don't play this record.

00:43:03.540 --> 00:43:05.700
You know, it's just sort of  went downhill from there.

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:08.620
And one of the funniest things  would be like they would go and

00:43:08.830 --> 00:43:12.790
bring us like their copy of  chomp and say like, you know,

00:43:12.910 --> 00:43:15.250
look at all these notes that  were written on it by,

00:43:15.830 --> 00:43:18.330
like I said, the DJs,  you know, would leave notes for

00:43:18.410 --> 00:43:20.200
other DJs that  worked as station.

00:43:20.370 --> 00:43:21.450
Little comments.

00:43:51.250 --> 00:43:53.370
Good afternoon for the KTXT  sports update,

00:43:53.540 --> 00:43:54.700
I'm Jeff Lillicotch.

00:43:54.830 --> 00:43:57.330
Texas Tech Sports enters the  news once again with another

00:43:57.410 --> 00:43:59.370
award going out to  guard Sheryl Swoopes.

00:43:59.540 --> 00:44:03.450
Swoopes was selected the 1991  92 Southwest Conference Female

00:44:03.580 --> 00:44:04.620
Athlete of the year.

00:44:04.620 --> 00:44:06.540
Pass is gonna go down low.

00:44:06.540 --> 00:44:08.450
Jansen now with it, nice pass  Saunders

00:44:08.580 --> 00:44:11.160
Ohhh! Big dunk there by  Detlinger

00:44:11.160 --> 00:44:13.660
And they give the lead back to the  Wildcats!

00:44:14.910 --> 00:44:15.370
.

00:44:16.660 --> 00:44:19.330
College radio was about much  more than just music.

00:44:19.450 --> 00:44:21.750
Numerous broadcasters who went  on to cover sports

00:44:21.870 --> 00:44:24.160
professionally got their start  at the campus station by

00:44:24.250 --> 00:44:27.200
reading headlines and scores,  hosting call-in talk shows,

00:44:27.330 --> 00:44:29.410
and recording interviews with  local sports figures.

00:44:29.910 --> 00:44:33.790
I learned not to ask the wrong  question to a very, very large

00:44:33.910 --> 00:44:36.910
man who could probably crush my  larynx with his finger.

00:44:37.950 --> 00:44:42.870
On the on the third down  and ten, uh, from our own 25.

00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:44.450
I mean, what were what were you thinking?

00:44:44.580 --> 00:44:47.830
You actually missed, uh,  and got our quarterback sacked,

00:44:47.950 --> 00:44:50.660
and he just looked at me and  said things I don't know if I

00:44:50.750 --> 00:44:53.080
could say here, but he said a  lot of things to me, and I

00:44:53.250 --> 00:44:55.330
remember thinking I could get  killed right here.

00:44:55.450 --> 00:44:56.870
He's going to punch me  in the face.

00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:00.790
I had an interview with the  coach of the football team.

00:45:00.910 --> 00:45:02.660
If I had to be all by myself when recording.

00:45:02.830 --> 00:45:06.790
So I let the tape run and I had  the levels turned down to erase

00:45:06.910 --> 00:45:08.330
it because I didn't  have a degausser.

00:45:08.450 --> 00:45:11.500
So I rewound the tape,  I started the reel to reel,

00:45:11.620 --> 00:45:12.700
went into the other room.

00:45:12.790 --> 00:45:15.700
It was recording and we must  have talked for half an hour.

00:45:15.870 --> 00:45:16.620
He left.

00:45:17.120 --> 00:45:18.620
I thanked him for his time and  I went in there and I'd never

00:45:18.620 --> 00:45:19.540
turned the levels back up.

00:45:19.830 --> 00:45:21.910
45 minutes of blank tape for  this interview with one of the

00:45:21.910 --> 00:45:24.290
most interesting, fun coaches  we ever had at Texas Tech.

00:45:24.370 --> 00:45:26.250
News was another important  component of

00:45:26.370 --> 00:45:27.540
college radio broadcasts

00:45:27.620 --> 00:45:30.540
from the earliest days. Students running campus

00:45:30.660 --> 00:45:33.370
stations were aware of their  influence on campus politics

00:45:33.500 --> 00:45:36.080
and the importance of their  role as an independent voice

00:45:36.160 --> 00:45:38.040
for everyone enrolled  at the school.

00:45:38.120 --> 00:45:41.290
In the 1960s, you had college  radio stations that were

00:45:41.410 --> 00:45:44.080
actively covering  protests on campus.

00:45:44.080 --> 00:45:45.750
WHRB at Harvard

00:45:45.870 --> 00:45:48.950
there's an LP that they  released that is coverage

00:45:49.080 --> 00:45:52.120
of protests, and some of their  reporters were even jailed,

00:45:52.250 --> 00:45:54.160
you know, during a protest on campus that they

00:45:54.250 --> 00:45:54.950
were covering.

00:45:58.160 --> 00:46:02.250
Apparently a confrontation is  in the making between the Board

00:46:02.330 --> 00:46:04.450
of trustees and the students  here,

00:46:04.450 --> 00:46:07.120
it has become  markedly more serious.

00:46:07.250 --> 00:46:10.120
As of this afternoon, what was  already a very serious effort

00:46:10.250 --> 00:46:13.790
has become more serious as it  becomes possible in a

00:46:13.910 --> 00:46:14.580
more real sense.

00:46:14.950 --> 00:46:18.290
Some of the students here may  be putting themselves on

00:46:18.410 --> 00:46:20.500
the line, not just bodily,  but in terms of their standing

00:46:20.620 --> 00:46:21.410
with the university.

00:46:21.910 --> 00:46:23.330
KZSU at Stanford.

00:46:23.410 --> 00:46:26.500
There was a whole article in a college radio publication

00:46:26.660 --> 00:46:28.830
talking about how they did  their protest coverage in

00:46:28.910 --> 00:46:32.000
the 60s, so they talked a lot  about how it was really helpful

00:46:32.120 --> 00:46:34.950
that they already had this  remote broadcast gear that they

00:46:35.080 --> 00:46:36.790
could use for a variety of things,

00:46:36.910 --> 00:46:39.040
including protests on campus.

00:46:39.120 --> 00:46:41.370
We also did other  serious stuff.

00:46:41.660 --> 00:46:45.660
The one and only gubernatorial  debate was broadcast

00:46:45.790 --> 00:46:47.040
live on WUOG.

00:46:47.750 --> 00:46:52.540
The Georgia Radio news service  broadcast that across dozens

00:46:52.660 --> 00:46:55.160
and dozens of radio stations  all across Georgia.

00:46:55.250 --> 00:46:56.040
Oh, it's college radio.

00:46:56.450 --> 00:46:58.620
It's just a bunch of kids that  want to put on these obscure

00:46:58.700 --> 00:47:02.450
albums and just like, no,  it can serve so many purposes.

00:47:02.580 --> 00:47:04.830
And news and journalism was  one of them.

00:47:04.910 --> 00:47:08.750
We weren't just crazy kids  playing whatever we wanted.

00:47:08.870 --> 00:47:13.450
We were also sort of serious  about the business of radio.

00:47:13.540 --> 00:47:17.200
It was through the the news  department at KTXT that I

00:47:17.330 --> 00:47:20.410
actually learned the true  ethics of journalism.

00:47:21.330 --> 00:47:24.410
Um, really learned how to write  my own copy, learned how to get

00:47:24.580 --> 00:47:25.910
over my shaky voice.

00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:28.790
And so to be able to use a  platform to get through all

00:47:28.910 --> 00:47:32.250
that so that when you see  on air, the on air light

00:47:32.370 --> 00:47:35.450
come on, learn how to,  you know, manage your nerves

00:47:35.540 --> 00:47:37.830
and learn how to be a  communicator and a journalist.

00:47:38.200 --> 00:47:40.790
Um, that's a really big part of college radio, too.

00:47:43.040 --> 00:47:44.450
Good morning.

00:47:44.580 --> 00:47:45.830
For KDVS news.

00:47:45.910 --> 00:47:48.410
It's Thursday,  December 1st, 1977.

00:47:48.750 --> 00:47:50.950
The Indian government says  President Carter will visit

00:47:51.080 --> 00:47:53.330
that country January 1st as  part of his six

00:47:53.450 --> 00:47:54.750
nation overseas trip.

00:47:55.750 --> 00:47:58.660
Most stations broadcast short  news reports every few hours

00:47:58.830 --> 00:48:00.910
that consisted of local and  national headlines as well

00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:02.040
as campus news.

00:48:02.200 --> 00:48:05.950
Some, however, dove deeper into  the journalistic side of radio

00:48:06.040 --> 00:48:08.500
with talk shows that allowed  students to examine issues

00:48:08.620 --> 00:48:09.370
in more depth.

00:48:09.870 --> 00:48:14.950
They paired me with this white  guy named Spencer, and they put

00:48:15.040 --> 00:48:18.120
us on a talk show  called Minority Matters.

00:48:18.500 --> 00:48:22.950
And Spencer told me, okay,  so we have this frat house that

00:48:23.080 --> 00:48:26.790
has a huge Confederate flag  hanging out, and they're

00:48:26.870 --> 00:48:28.120
growing cotton in the front.

00:48:28.250 --> 00:48:30.750
And I was just like, yo, okay.

00:48:30.910 --> 00:48:33.700
So we went to go talk to them.

00:48:33.950 --> 00:48:35.790
They weren't feeling  that at all.

00:48:35.910 --> 00:48:37.950
So I was like, all right,  we gave you the opportunity.

00:48:38.080 --> 00:48:39.580
We did the show.

00:48:39.700 --> 00:48:41.580
It was wonderful.

00:48:41.700 --> 00:48:44.620
I'm talking about it was a 180 different from what we

00:48:44.750 --> 00:48:47.790
were doing, really wasn't a  voice for, uh,

00:48:47.950 --> 00:48:49.700
black students on campus.

00:48:49.910 --> 00:48:52.160
We started dealing more  with black issues.

00:48:52.250 --> 00:48:54.160
At one point, there was a party in the projects.

00:48:54.580 --> 00:48:57.950
A sorority and a fraternity had  a party in, uh, where there

00:48:58.040 --> 00:49:01.410
were people in blackface and  wearing Mexican sombreros.

00:49:01.540 --> 00:49:04.450
The pledges were enslaved, uh,  looked like slaves and

00:49:04.540 --> 00:49:05.120
chains and things.

00:49:05.620 --> 00:49:06.910
And somebody caught these  pictures and we wanted to

00:49:06.910 --> 00:49:07.660
report on it.

00:49:08.200 --> 00:49:10.580
There was some pushback like,  hey, you shouldn't be talking

00:49:10.580 --> 00:49:12.620
bad about other  fraternities and everything.

00:49:12.750 --> 00:49:14.160
Like, we're just  reporting the news.

00:49:14.250 --> 00:49:18.500
One night we booked the Grand  Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in

00:49:18.620 --> 00:49:19.410
the state of Georgia.

00:49:19.750 --> 00:49:24.160
I saw this as an opportunity to  let everybody else see how

00:49:24.330 --> 00:49:26.620
wrong this was.

00:49:26.750 --> 00:49:30.660
And he came up with 3 or 4  armed goons who stood in the

00:49:30.750 --> 00:49:32.410
lobby while we  interviewed this guy.

00:49:32.540 --> 00:49:33.620
And they came up.

00:49:33.700 --> 00:49:39.250
The Grand Dragon came up the 96 stairs with his posse.

00:49:40.250 --> 00:49:44.660
Armed rifles,  handguns in their holsters.

00:49:45.580 --> 00:49:49.000
Newspapers came and  covered his appearance.

00:49:49.450 --> 00:49:51.950
And if you ask me now why we did that, I'm not

00:49:52.080 --> 00:49:53.120
exactly sure.

00:49:53.250 --> 00:49:55.910
I thought it was important  that we give.

00:49:56.910 --> 00:50:02.500
The Grand Dragon of the KKK,  a platform to make a complete

00:50:02.660 --> 00:50:05.370
ass of himself on 10,000W.

00:50:05.790 --> 00:50:10.950
And while he was up on the  fifth floor doing the interview

00:50:11.080 --> 00:50:14.660
with the radio station, a crowd built down below.

00:50:14.790 --> 00:50:17.200
And the longer he was on  the air, the bigger

00:50:17.370 --> 00:50:18.160
the crowd got.

00:50:18.500 --> 00:50:23.160
And so when they exited,  they had to exit through a

00:50:23.250 --> 00:50:28.950
very large, heated group of  students who had come there to

00:50:29.080 --> 00:50:32.500
drop F-bombs and call them all  kinds of names as they walk

00:50:32.580 --> 00:50:33.830
through the line.

00:50:33.950 --> 00:50:36.250
And that's exactly what I  wanted to have happen.

00:50:41.700 --> 00:50:42.160
Hello, Sting.

00:50:42.250 --> 00:50:43.000
Thank you for coming up.

00:50:43.410 --> 00:50:47.160
What exactly have you thought  of the WMWC studio thus far is

00:50:47.250 --> 00:50:49.250
among one of the more impressive ones

00:50:49.370 --> 00:50:50.290
that you've seen?

00:50:50.540 --> 00:50:52.120
I really don't like  studios very much.

00:50:52.250 --> 00:50:54.910
I find them sort of prison  like environments, you know,

00:50:55.040 --> 00:50:57.620
you don't see the air or  breathe the air or see sunlight

00:50:57.750 --> 00:50:59.120
for months on end.

00:50:59.450 --> 00:51:03.700
91.5 we never see sunlight.

00:51:05.660 --> 00:51:08.000
Campus radio stations tended to  be tucked in out of

00:51:08.080 --> 00:51:09.000
the way places.

00:51:09.290 --> 00:51:11.910
Apparently we were lucky at  KTXT just have windows.

00:51:12.700 --> 00:51:15.950
A lot of the time, stations are  stuck deep in a basement or on

00:51:16.080 --> 00:51:18.450
a forgotten floor at the top of  several flights of stairs.

00:51:19.080 --> 00:51:22.160
WUOG was like, you know,  just shove them up in the,

00:51:22.290 --> 00:51:23.540
you know, top floor.

00:51:23.700 --> 00:51:25.160
Like nobody wants to  go up there.

00:51:25.250 --> 00:51:28.370
Just give them like one of the  so-called worst places on

00:51:28.500 --> 00:51:30.080
campus to operate out of.

00:51:30.200 --> 00:51:34.450
We were the top of a building  and it was 96 steps to

00:51:34.580 --> 00:51:35.160
the top.

00:51:35.750 --> 00:51:38.410
So every time you go to the  radio station, it was 96 steps

00:51:38.410 --> 00:51:40.120
up and 96 steps down.

00:51:40.250 --> 00:51:44.160
No elevator, five flights of  stairs up, five flights of  stairs down

00:51:44.160 --> 00:51:48.080
The stairs, just getting the  drums and the  amps and all that stuff.

00:51:48.200 --> 00:51:50.250
Especially WUOG we're  just like, oh my God,

00:51:50.370 --> 00:51:51.410
can somebody help us?

00:51:51.580 --> 00:51:53.660
I mean, the people that work  there would say, this is this

00:51:53.750 --> 00:51:56.950
happens a lot where people  might get on the air, like soon

00:51:57.040 --> 00:51:59.540
after arriving and you can kind  of tell they're out of breath

00:51:59.660 --> 00:52:02.540
because they just climbed like  five flights of stairs.

00:52:02.830 --> 00:52:05.370
So they'd be like, you know,  you need to get here a little

00:52:05.450 --> 00:52:09.200
early to kind of, you know,  calm down because it's it's

00:52:09.330 --> 00:52:10.580
quite a hike up there.

00:52:10.700 --> 00:52:13.330
We never saw, you know,  anybody from the university.

00:52:13.450 --> 00:52:15.620
They weren't going to walk up those 96 steps.

00:52:15.750 --> 00:52:20.160
That fact that we were up there  by ourselves gave us this

00:52:20.250 --> 00:52:21.580
sense of freedom.

00:52:21.660 --> 00:52:24.700
You could kind of enjoy,  like being relegated in that

00:52:24.830 --> 00:52:27.580
way at treated that way and  make it into part of

00:52:27.660 --> 00:52:28.450
your lore.

00:52:28.700 --> 00:52:30.540
But it was just this old  building that had been on

00:52:30.540 --> 00:52:34.040
campus forever, and we try to  repaint it once a year, but it

00:52:34.160 --> 00:52:36.750
was kind of a rundown joint,  and we just but it was

00:52:36.870 --> 00:52:37.540
our home.

00:52:38.120 --> 00:52:40.410
Every now and then I would fall  asleep after a late night shift

00:52:40.410 --> 00:52:43.160
at the radio station and just  go to bed on the couch, wake up

00:52:43.250 --> 00:52:46.500
and go to class, come back,  see what the records were that

00:52:46.620 --> 00:52:48.200
had come in that morning,  and listen to them.

00:52:48.330 --> 00:52:49.750
So it was a pretty good gig.

00:52:49.870 --> 00:52:52.160
I visit radio stations all over  the country, and that's

00:52:52.250 --> 00:52:54.540
something that I always keep an  eye out for is the couch,

00:52:54.700 --> 00:52:56.540
because there's always an  interesting couch with

00:52:56.660 --> 00:52:57.870
an interesting story.

00:52:57.950 --> 00:53:01.040
I've had people warn me not to  sit on a particular couch

00:53:01.160 --> 00:53:03.450
because they know what has  really happened on it.

00:53:03.660 --> 00:53:06.660
Everybody who's ever been in DJ  has sex on the air.

00:53:06.790 --> 00:53:10.620
I have had discussions with my alumni friends about

00:53:10.750 --> 00:53:12.830
this like, oh yeah, and they'll  tell you, tell you how

00:53:12.950 --> 00:53:13.790
that went down.

00:53:15.160 --> 00:53:16.790
Four times the  foolishness with four.

00:53:16.910 --> 00:53:19.660
Times the music every Thursday  from 7 to 10 with

00:53:19.750 --> 00:53:20.750
your host James.

00:53:21.370 --> 00:53:22.540
Nice hair, cheesewad.

00:53:22.540 --> 00:53:24.120
and Dennis.

00:53:24.450 --> 00:53:25.700
Up yours, loser

00:53:26.410 --> 00:53:28.500
Come and share the love.

00:53:30.450 --> 00:53:31.620
It is kind of funny.

00:53:31.750 --> 00:53:37.250
I went back to visit KTXT a  number of years ago, and it hit

00:53:37.410 --> 00:53:42.330
me like a ton of bricks walking  in because it smelled just the

00:53:42.410 --> 00:53:44.160
same as it did when I was there.

00:53:44.290 --> 00:53:46.540
And you know, everybody knows  about smell and memory and all

00:53:46.660 --> 00:53:47.120
that kind of stuff.

00:53:47.950 --> 00:53:50.790
But that's one of the few times  in my life where it has really

00:53:50.790 --> 00:53:51.870
hit me that strong.

00:53:52.330 --> 00:53:56.870
WHRC was in the basement of the  dining center, and there's a

00:53:56.950 --> 00:54:00.370
very particular smell as you  approach the radio station.

00:54:00.540 --> 00:54:03.370
I actually smelled the same  smell a few years ago in

00:54:03.450 --> 00:54:06.200
another radio station, and I  think the connection must be

00:54:06.330 --> 00:54:09.040
the smell of industrial  dishwashing must have been

00:54:09.160 --> 00:54:10.660
similar in both places.

00:54:10.750 --> 00:54:15.000
That kind of institutional  paint and and cleaning

00:54:15.120 --> 00:54:16.700
solutions smell that.

00:54:16.790 --> 00:54:17.410
You know, it had.

00:54:17.750 --> 00:54:20.080
First of all, I remember  the smell, you know,

00:54:20.080 --> 00:54:21.160
that was unmistakable.

00:54:21.410 --> 00:54:24.000
And that was obviously the  smell of marijuana.

00:54:24.910 --> 00:54:27.660
Uh, that hit us before we got to the door.

00:54:27.790 --> 00:54:30.080
Being in a booth always  smelled like cigarettes.

00:54:30.200 --> 00:54:34.700
The station itself and into the  booth smelled like vinyl.

00:54:34.910 --> 00:54:36.750
And I've always  loved that smell.

00:54:36.870 --> 00:54:40.000
The smell of...When you would  take an album out and the way

00:54:40.120 --> 00:54:43.700
the sleeve smelled, I don't  even know how to explain that.

00:54:43.830 --> 00:54:49.620
And microphones actually have a  smell to which I came to be very fond of

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:52.910
I know that sounds twisted,  but I love the smell

00:54:53.040 --> 00:54:54.200
of a microphone.

00:54:55.330 --> 00:54:59.790
We had a window that overlooked  the campus, and I would stare

00:54:59.910 --> 00:55:01.870
out as I was listening to the  music that I was playing as a DJ

00:55:02.580 --> 00:55:06.410
I would stare out that window  and realize that you've got

00:55:06.500 --> 00:55:09.370
power in your fingertips,  and you're playing music that

00:55:09.500 --> 00:55:11.000
you know, students are waking  up to, and they're

00:55:11.080 --> 00:55:11.830
listening to it.

00:55:12.250 --> 00:55:15.450
There was a window that was on  the other side of the board

00:55:15.580 --> 00:55:19.290
that looked out on the main  circle of campus, and I just,

00:55:19.410 --> 00:55:22.160
I think about this quite often  about standing there and

00:55:22.250 --> 00:55:25.160
learning how to do radio,  learning to be a broadcaster,

00:55:25.330 --> 00:55:29.660
doing really stupid things on  the air, and just watching all

00:55:29.750 --> 00:55:33.830
the students walk around and  wondering how many of them were

00:55:33.910 --> 00:55:35.330
listening to the  radio station.

00:55:37.370 --> 00:55:40.330
One of the best things about  college radio is that it isn't

00:55:40.410 --> 00:55:42.950
just a phenomenon that happens  in cultural centers like New

00:55:43.080 --> 00:55:44.330
York and Los Angeles.

00:55:44.410 --> 00:55:46.370
In almost every part  of the country.

00:55:46.500 --> 00:55:48.910
You can search the left side of  the dial and find a college

00:55:49.080 --> 00:55:51.370
radio station playing  cutting edge music.

00:55:51.750 --> 00:55:53.660
When you're talking about  college radio stations,

00:55:53.750 --> 00:55:54.910
that had a huge impact.

00:55:55.040 --> 00:55:59.450
Obviously you mentioned WUOG,  WRAS in Atlanta is a100,000,

00:55:59.580 --> 00:56:00.750
watt college station.

00:56:00.870 --> 00:56:03.660
So they were bigger than most  of the commercial stations.

00:56:03.750 --> 00:56:06.500
They were hugely,  hugely influential.

00:56:06.620 --> 00:56:08.250
There was a cluster in Boston.

00:56:08.370 --> 00:56:11.080
So you had Boston College,  you had Emerson WERS,

00:56:11.160 --> 00:56:12.910
you had Harvard WHRB.

00:56:13.040 --> 00:56:14.450
So you had that cluster.

00:56:14.580 --> 00:56:16.830
And they were really, really,  really impactful.

00:56:16.950 --> 00:56:20.950
Cleveland had a whole cluster,  whether it was Case Western or

00:56:21.080 --> 00:56:25.540
John Carroll or Cleveland State  and Oberlin, there was like 5

00:56:25.660 --> 00:56:29.330
or 6 stations that would really  impact the market in terms of

00:56:29.450 --> 00:56:32.040
ticket sales, in terms of  selling records, etc.

00:56:32.200 --> 00:56:32.660
.

00:56:33.160 --> 00:56:36.540
KUSF and San Francisco  was wildly important.

00:56:36.540 --> 00:56:39.160
KALX in Berkeley  also important.

00:56:39.290 --> 00:56:41.500
Luckily, in the San Francisco  Bay area, we have a lot of

00:56:41.580 --> 00:56:43.040
college radio stations.

00:56:44.200 --> 00:56:45.250
KFJC, where I'm now a DJ.

00:56:45.330 --> 00:56:48.080
It's at Foothill College,  KCSU at Santa

00:56:48.200 --> 00:56:53.250
Clara University, KSJS San  Jose State, and KZSU

00:56:53.370 --> 00:56:54.750
at Stanford University.

00:56:54.830 --> 00:56:57.250
Weird stations like in Iowa.

00:56:57.370 --> 00:56:58.580
There were two important.

00:56:58.700 --> 00:57:02.620
KUNI and KUOI  were great stations, in Buffalo

00:57:02.750 --> 00:57:04.910
there were a couple  of stations, so everywhere

00:57:05.040 --> 00:57:07.830
there was a little cluster that  you could get stuff done.

00:57:11.660 --> 00:57:12.410
Ah ha!

00:57:12.910 --> 00:57:16.330
Okay, that was the Hoagy  Carmichael standard Stardust

00:57:16.450 --> 00:57:20.450
song by the great Mel Efros on the Master Seal label.

00:57:20.910 --> 00:57:23.870
This is WLEL, voice of  Leland University, and you're

00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:25.910
listening to Syncopated Money.

00:57:29.790 --> 00:57:33.080
And that was Mad Dog with Can't Wait, one more time

00:57:33.250 --> 00:57:35.750
And hey, since it's such a  great song, let's listen

00:57:35.830 --> 00:57:36.410
to it again.

00:57:39.200 --> 00:57:41.000
When you think about it,  a bunch of inexperienced

00:57:41.120 --> 00:57:43.950
college kids running a radio  station is kind of the perfect

00:57:44.080 --> 00:57:45.160
setup for a sitcom.

00:57:45.660 --> 00:57:47.700
None of us really had any kind of prior

00:57:47.830 --> 00:57:49.040
experience in broadcasting,

00:57:49.120 --> 00:57:51.040
we were all just figuring it  out as we went.

00:57:51.870 --> 00:57:52.660
Well, gosh, everything now,

00:57:52.750 --> 00:57:53.750
you can look back and well

00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:55.750
we should have had a plan and  we should have had a budget and

00:57:55.750 --> 00:57:56.540
we should have done this.

00:57:56.830 --> 00:57:58.580
And boy, we could have really accomplished a lot.

00:57:58.580 --> 00:58:00.700
But you're a third  year college student.

00:58:00.830 --> 00:58:01.660
You don't know  what you're doing.

00:58:01.790 --> 00:58:03.370
You're kind of winging it. This is fun,

00:58:03.750 --> 00:58:06.540
I got a parking spot, and I get  to play records for people that

00:58:06.660 --> 00:58:08.750
can connect with me  through a telephone.

00:58:08.910 --> 00:58:11.500
Like, I really wanted to do  morning radio, and we were

00:58:11.580 --> 00:58:14.000
having a hard time getting  people to do the morning shift

00:58:14.080 --> 00:58:15.540
because it was, you know,  you're in college who wants to

00:58:15.700 --> 00:58:17.040
get up at five in the morning?

00:58:17.120 --> 00:58:18.870
So we're like, let us do it.

00:58:19.040 --> 00:58:22.750
The first thing we did is that  we cold called the Morning

00:58:22.830 --> 00:58:24.540
Show on the Rock station.

00:58:24.620 --> 00:58:25.660
We called them live on the air.

00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:28.660
We were like, hey, could you  guys give us some morning show  tips?

00:58:28.660 --> 00:58:30.750
Since you guys are the  professional morning show

00:58:30.870 --> 00:58:34.200
rock deejays, could you guys  tell us how to be funny?

00:58:34.580 --> 00:58:38.200
My third or fourth DJ shift,  I finally found that confidence

00:58:38.330 --> 00:58:41.910
and I was talking so clear and  I was even ad libbing and I was

00:58:42.040 --> 00:58:44.790
being a little funny and  I'm like, damn, this is good.

00:58:44.910 --> 00:58:46.450
Oh my God, this is awesome.

00:58:46.830 --> 00:58:48.290
And then a caller called me.

00:58:48.410 --> 00:58:50.410
The light kept going off  on the phone.

00:58:50.580 --> 00:58:53.000
This is back in the day  where we, you know, I answer

00:58:53.200 --> 00:58:57.250
text and he's like, yeah,  do you realize you've played

00:58:57.330 --> 00:59:01.250
Toad the Wet Sprocket the same song three times?

00:59:02.750 --> 00:59:04.000
I was like, what?

00:59:04.540 --> 00:59:08.410
One day I woke up and like any  good GM or station manager,

00:59:08.540 --> 00:59:11.370
you turn on the station and see  what's going on, dead air.

00:59:11.500 --> 00:59:13.370
So I, I call the guy.

00:59:13.540 --> 00:59:15.410
So are you there? Yeah.

00:59:15.620 --> 00:59:17.410
He's there and you can hear  music in the background.

00:59:17.620 --> 00:59:19.700
And he's been doing a show for like three hours.

00:59:19.830 --> 00:59:20.910
And the transmitter  was never on.

00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:22.500
He didn't he forgot to  turn it on.

00:59:23.040 --> 00:59:28.700
This one guy, we put in an  overnight slot and he gets on

00:59:28.830 --> 00:59:32.660
the air and actually starts  bragging about how he's not

00:59:32.790 --> 00:59:34.620
going to do what the  station manager says.

00:59:34.750 --> 00:59:37.660
So, like, oh, jeez, come on,  drive down to the station at

00:59:37.750 --> 00:59:40.330
1:00 in the morning, boot the  guy out of the out of

00:59:40.410 --> 00:59:44.290
the suite, and he actually  showed up for work for his

00:59:44.410 --> 00:59:45.580
next scheduled shift.

00:59:45.750 --> 00:59:49.790
We put on side one of The Cure's 17 seconds album.

00:59:49.870 --> 00:59:53.620
Then we'd go out to his car in  the parking lot and listen to

00:59:53.700 --> 00:59:58.000
it and smoke a joint and, uh, monitoring, you know,

00:59:58.120 --> 01:00:01.040
making sure that, uh,  you know, the record didn't

01:00:01.120 --> 01:00:02.790
skip or anything like that.

01:00:02.950 --> 01:00:06.500
We were just doing our  own thing, you know, if that

01:00:06.580 --> 01:00:09.160
meant somebody had a beer  during their shift or somebody

01:00:09.250 --> 01:00:11.540
was smoking weed, it wasn't

01:00:11.700 --> 01:00:13.000
it wasn't weird or unusual.

01:00:13.120 --> 01:00:15.000
It was just what we were doing and having fun.

01:00:15.080 --> 01:00:18.700
Probably the biggest problem  we had, we would print out on a

01:00:18.830 --> 01:00:21.790
new digital printer  the playlist, and it was a

01:00:21.910 --> 01:00:23.290
dot matrix printer.

01:00:23.410 --> 01:00:27.870
Well, the problem with dot  matrix was eights and Bs all

01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:29.370
looked exactly alike.

01:00:29.450 --> 01:00:33.540
There was a band 808 state but  on the dot matrix printer and

01:00:33.660 --> 01:00:34.580
you can see it on the playlist.

01:00:34.750 --> 01:00:36.500
It looks like Bob State.

01:00:36.790 --> 01:00:41.040
They would go, hey, coming up  next on KTXT, Bob State and you

01:00:41.160 --> 01:00:43.410
could hear Dave screaming from  down the hall.

01:00:43.540 --> 01:00:46.080
It's 808 state 808.

01:00:48.330 --> 01:00:51.750
While the 1980s and 1990s are  thought of as a golden age for

01:00:51.870 --> 01:00:54.790
college radio, it is very  much still alive.

01:00:55.120 --> 01:00:57.330
For evidence, you don't have to  look any further than the

01:00:57.450 --> 01:00:59.620
recent popularity of  College Radio Day.

01:01:00.250 --> 01:01:03.160
The annual event, organized by  the College Radio Foundation,

01:01:03.290 --> 01:01:06.000
is celebrated by hundreds of  college radio stations across

01:01:06.120 --> 01:01:08.410
the country and  dozens more overseas.

01:01:08.620 --> 01:01:12.160
College radio has changed in  every part of our history.

01:01:12.290 --> 01:01:14.500
I think that the  interest remains, and it just

01:01:14.620 --> 01:01:16.870
might look a little bit  different than it did

01:01:16.950 --> 01:01:18.500
in the 1980s.

01:01:18.660 --> 01:01:21.290
I think college radio is  it's been cyclical.

01:01:21.410 --> 01:01:24.830
I think now it's not really a  factor when it comes to

01:01:24.910 --> 01:01:27.500
streaming or a factor when it  comes to record sales or

01:01:27.580 --> 01:01:28.040
any of that.

01:01:28.370 --> 01:01:29.870
But I think what it still provides is a

01:01:29.870 --> 01:01:30.870
sense of community.

01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:33.870
We've gone back to the way it was at the beginning.

01:01:34.160 --> 01:01:37.910
I think that's the beauty of  the whole thing, is that,

01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:41.620
you know, KSPC is providing a  bridge from campus to

01:01:41.750 --> 01:01:46.660
the community, and we have  lifelong listeners of this

01:01:46.750 --> 01:01:51.080
station who will tell amazing  stories about how it

01:01:51.250 --> 01:01:52.790
impacted their life.

01:01:52.870 --> 01:01:56.410
I see college radio up close  and personal through my job,

01:01:56.540 --> 01:01:58.620
and I don't think it's  changed at all.

01:01:58.750 --> 01:02:02.160
It's still students playing  what they want,

01:02:02.250 --> 01:02:03.580
doing what they want.

01:02:03.660 --> 01:02:07.790
And most of all, I think what  hasn't changed is they're

01:02:07.910 --> 01:02:12.120
holding off what they don't  want to see happen to radio.

01:02:12.580 --> 01:02:16.500
These kids are coming up with  shows that weren't even

01:02:16.660 --> 01:02:22.290
thought of, and they are  carrying on the tradition of

01:02:22.410 --> 01:02:25.910
college radio, and I'm so  happy about that.

01:02:47.910 --> 01:02:50.000
I was online, I was doing the morning show.

01:02:50.120 --> 01:02:52.540
I was up early and somewhere it may have been on

01:02:52.660 --> 01:02:53.750
Facebook or something.

01:02:53.870 --> 01:03:00.620
I see this notice that KTXT had  been shut down, turned off and

01:03:00.700 --> 01:03:02.830
I completely lost my shit.

01:03:20.120 --> 01:03:21.080
By 2000.

01:03:21.250 --> 01:03:25.410
We see KTXT no longer  under mass communication.

01:03:25.540 --> 01:03:28.580
It is now placed under the student newspaper,

01:03:28.700 --> 01:03:29.450
but they had no.

01:03:29.660 --> 01:03:31.250
They had a fundamental  misunderstanding of the

01:03:31.250 --> 01:03:34.000
differences between print media  and broadcast media,

01:03:34.080 --> 01:03:36.250
especially when it came to an FM radio station.

01:03:36.580 --> 01:03:37.660
They just didn't get it.

01:03:38.250 --> 01:03:40.250
I said, well, what do you want to do?

01:03:40.330 --> 01:03:41.250
You know, what's your goal ?

01:03:41.660 --> 01:03:45.580
Well, we're going to wait until  Christmas break and after the

01:03:45.580 --> 01:03:48.410
students leave to go on  holiday for Christmas.

01:03:49.200 --> 01:03:50.160
We're going to shut it off.

01:03:50.290 --> 01:03:51.200
We're going to turn it off.

01:03:51.870 --> 01:03:53.450
And we're going to turn out the  lights and we're going to

01:03:53.580 --> 01:03:54.450
lock the doors.

01:03:54.750 --> 01:03:56.700
And that's exactly  what they did.

01:03:57.080 --> 01:04:01.160
Texas Tech administrators took  KTXT off the air without notice

01:04:01.250 --> 01:04:04.080
on December 10th,  2008 during Christmas break.

01:04:04.910 --> 01:04:07.410
Students returned in January to  find that the station

01:04:07.540 --> 01:04:09.330
was just gone.

01:04:09.700 --> 01:04:12.120
It was a wake up call for those  of us who had lost touch

01:04:12.250 --> 01:04:15.830
with KTXT, and it should be a  warning to everyone with an

01:04:15.910 --> 01:04:17.120
interest in college radio.

01:04:27.580 --> 01:04:31.370
Stations are more vulnerable  than ever before, and they need

01:04:31.450 --> 01:04:34.540
vocal support not just  from students, but from alumni

01:04:34.700 --> 01:04:36.290
and the communities  they serve.

01:04:37.410 --> 01:04:41.120
I just don't know how much  space there is left for

01:04:41.250 --> 01:04:44.290
terrestrial broadcast and  I hate it.

01:04:44.410 --> 01:04:48.000
It's really disappointing and  sad sometimes to see when a

01:04:48.080 --> 01:04:51.160
college decides to give up an FM radio license.

01:04:51.410 --> 01:04:53.370
There's a real impact there  that I think is lost.

01:04:53.500 --> 01:04:58.700
If a if a college hasn't really  invested in that opportunity or

01:04:58.830 --> 01:05:00.500
let it slip through their  fingers like shutting down

01:05:00.580 --> 01:05:01.290
KTXT.

01:05:02.120 --> 01:05:05.410
There is still value in having  a radio station and having

01:05:05.580 --> 01:05:08.200
people participate in a  community of people who are

01:05:08.330 --> 01:05:11.370
interested in being around,  like the culture of music

01:05:11.450 --> 01:05:14.080
and radio, and that is the  reason why people look so

01:05:14.250 --> 01:05:17.500
nostalgically on their college  radio experience is because

01:05:17.620 --> 01:05:19.750
you're part of a culture and  you're part of a community.

01:05:19.870 --> 01:05:21.870
It's more than just the music and the content

01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:22.950
that you produce.

01:05:23.250 --> 01:05:26.040
Once you once you get rid of a radio station,

01:05:26.160 --> 01:05:27.290
it doesn't come back.

01:05:27.500 --> 01:05:30.790
You can sell it, and then you  have to buy it if you want it

01:05:30.910 --> 01:05:32.540
back or buy another signal.

01:05:32.700 --> 01:05:35.330
I've worked at Texas Tech long  enough to know that these

01:05:35.410 --> 01:05:38.830
things come in cycles, and there may not be a budget

01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:41.950
for it now, but at some point  somebody's going to come along

01:05:42.080 --> 01:05:45.370
and say, hey, let's, let's do  something with that signal.

01:05:45.660 --> 01:05:48.580
So you can only do something  with a signal if you still

01:05:48.700 --> 01:05:49.750
have the signal.

01:05:50.790 --> 01:05:54.450
Saving licence from being sold  off for quick cash paid off

01:05:54.580 --> 01:05:58.080
in 2012, when control of the  station returned to the College

01:05:58.250 --> 01:06:00.870
of Mass Communications,  and students return to the West

01:06:00.950 --> 01:06:03.750
Texas airwaves for the first  time in four years.

01:06:04.830 --> 01:06:07.290
Most stations in that same  situation are not

01:06:07.330 --> 01:06:07.950
so fortunate.

01:06:08.410 --> 01:06:11.580
And that is a shame because  college radio is absolutely

01:06:11.580 --> 01:06:12.660
worth fighting for.

01:06:13.250 --> 01:06:16.290
It is one of the last bastions  of truly independent,

01:06:16.410 --> 01:06:18.620
non-corporate broadcasting  in the US.

01:06:18.910 --> 01:06:22.160
It has enriched the lives of  millions of people over

01:06:22.250 --> 01:06:23.120
the last century.

01:06:23.540 --> 01:06:27.540
And for me and so many others  like me, it was more than a

01:06:27.620 --> 01:06:29.370
life changing experience.

01:06:29.580 --> 01:06:31.500
It was life defining.

01:06:31.620 --> 01:06:34.370
I can't tell you half the  classes that I took from any

01:06:34.450 --> 01:06:38.950
given semester, but I can tell  you about every single shift

01:06:39.080 --> 01:06:40.330
that I had at the radio station.

01:06:40.410 --> 01:06:44.500
I can tell you what every  record cover looked like

01:06:44.620 --> 01:06:45.870
and smelled like.

01:06:46.080 --> 01:06:48.000
All of those details.

01:06:48.120 --> 01:06:50.120
That was 100%

01:06:50.580 --> 01:06:51.700
why I was there.

01:06:52.080 --> 01:06:54.910
The rest of the education  was was secondary.

01:06:55.080 --> 01:07:00.200
My experience at KTXT shaped me going forward for

01:07:00.290 --> 01:07:01.450
my professional career.

01:07:01.580 --> 01:07:03.000
I constantly go back.

01:07:03.160 --> 01:07:03.700
How are you?

01:07:03.830 --> 01:07:04.580
The way you are today?

01:07:04.700 --> 01:07:05.750
Like, well, a lot of has to do with.

01:07:05.830 --> 01:07:08.500
I was working at this radio  station in college and

01:07:08.620 --> 01:07:10.000
that was everything.

01:07:10.250 --> 01:07:14.910
I left KTXT 30 years ago and my  time there still influences the

01:07:15.040 --> 01:07:16.120
music I listen to.

01:07:16.250 --> 01:07:18.660
I still stay in touch with  friends that I met there,

01:07:18.750 --> 01:07:21.660
and I'm still using the skills  I learned there at

01:07:21.750 --> 01:07:22.830
this very moment.

01:07:23.410 --> 01:07:27.000
And thanks to college radio,  I even got to live out my

01:07:27.160 --> 01:07:30.500
lifelong dream punching Mark  Mothersbaugh in the face.

01:07:31.660 --> 01:07:33.870
Oh, and making this film, of course.

01:07:34.660 --> 01:07:36.290
The three years I  was in college radio

01:07:36.410 --> 01:07:39.500
were probably some of the  best of my life, and I learned

01:07:39.620 --> 01:07:41.830
more during my time there  than anywhere else.

01:07:42.200 --> 01:07:46.000
Right now, thousands of college  students are on the air having

01:07:46.120 --> 01:07:48.540
that same experience: learning  to broadcast,

01:07:48.620 --> 01:07:51.700
learning to communicate,  and playing some of the best

01:07:51.830 --> 01:07:53.410
music you've  probably never heard.

01:07:54.830 --> 01:07:58.250
It's not an overstatement to  say that college radio changed

01:07:58.410 --> 01:08:02.080
my life in every possible way.

01:08:02.410 --> 01:08:07.330
It's 40 years since I worked  at WUOG, and to this day I

01:08:07.330 --> 01:08:12.290
think about it almost every  single day. A song comes up that I remember

01:08:12.410 --> 01:08:15.750
we played, a friend calls who  haven't spoken to in

01:08:15.830 --> 01:08:18.120
five years, who worked with us at the station.

01:08:19.120 --> 01:08:21.910
Um, I read something about the  station in the media.

01:08:22.080 --> 01:08:27.370
So it really is in many ways,  the DNA of how I developed my

01:08:27.500 --> 01:08:31.660
career and certainly how I  evolved my love of music.

01:08:31.750 --> 01:08:34.370
College radio has made me the  person that I am.

01:08:34.540 --> 01:08:38.790
I want that story for everyone  that cracks open a mic

01:08:38.910 --> 01:08:40.660
or works promotions.

01:08:40.750 --> 01:08:42.330
I want that for them.

01:08:44.330 --> 01:08:44.540
Yeah.