Another recent article in the New York Times talks about how college radio is maintaining its presence, and in some cases thriving, despite the availability of a wide range of music on the internet. Most of these stations are student-run, and allow students to DJ whatever they feel like during certain programming hours. And, according to the article, some actually do influence the success of indie bands, many by integrating their broadcast with a streaming webcast. While commercial radio is run by huge conglomerates and so-called professional "DJs" have no influence on the playlist, its great to see that young people still want to get involved with local radio.
In the future I am going to say a lot more about college radio, but in the meantime here are a few tracks that I discovered by college radio in the 1980s.
Hüsker Dü - Never Talking To You Again.mp3
Buy: Zen Arcade (1984)
The Smiths - Cemetry Gates.mp3
Buy: The Queen Is Dead (1986)
They Might Be Giants -Ana Ng.mp3
Buy: Lincoln (1989)
And here's a song by the Replacements from their most produced record, but a great song regardless. I will have much, much more to say about the Replacements at a later date. Man, I remember seeing this on MTV's 120 Minutes. And now its VH1 Classic? I'm old.
Buy: Don't Tell a Soul (1989, reissued with bonus tracks 2008)
2 comments:
I was a DJ at WNUR from 1989-1991. I had the Steel Mill from 2p.m.-4p.m. on Saturdays. It was Chicago's only stereo heavy metal programming at the time. The station manager wouldn't let us play anything that could be heard on any other station. My show more or less sucked, but a lot of the other programming was pretty cool and progressive. One day I had free tickets to give away for some new up and coming band called "Soundgarden." They were playing at a local club and it took me most of the show to unload them. Good times.
College radio is definitely still thriving. I started listening to college stations in the San Francisco Bay Area (KFJC, KZSU, KSJS, KSCU) in the mid-1980s when commercial station "the Quake" went off the air. They were one of the early "modern rock" stations that played a lot of college radio staples, so it was an easy transition for me to move further left on the dial. And, I ended up staying there...and becoming a college radio DJ too. The most interesting sounds are on non-commercial radio.
And, I've got to agree with the comment above. It's so easy to win tickets on college radio and I've benefited from that over the years, seeing free shows and winning music too.
Post a Comment