Campus radio

I love WFCS Radio.

So yes, at CCSU, Central Connecticut State University, we have a college radio, 107.7 WFCS New Britain/Hartford, The Edge.

The radio has been a thing since the '40s, and early on, it didn't become an official, official FM radio till, like, '60, '70s in, in that timeframe.

I approached it, I think, last semester of freshman year.

So I like, uh, learning about decades music as well, but I think it's so cool that we advertise for phys- physical media as well with record playing, or we even have CD players and advertising for that as well.

And there's just so much opportunity and, and it's awesome to be a part of the radio station.

College radio is so important, and more people need to learn about that, and it's just awesome.

awesome.Wow.

Um, and then, uh, I would say that like hip hop and, you know, break dancing era stuff was, uh, my first music that I discovered on my own, you know, that weren't like, that wasn't an exact, like I guess an influence that I was able to kind of discover from peers in my neighborhood and just like through the whole breakdancing phenomena that happened in the in the early 80s and then having mutual friends that.

were into it as well and then they were able to introduce me to things like the fantastic voyage program which is one of the very early like mid 80s radio programs that you would hear on college radio uh in toronto and so i would hear things like fat boys run dmc utfo i was so into utfo at one point like i was that's all i listened to And so, yeah, I would say in a nutshell, you know, that that's basically it.

Like a lot of the early, you know, classic rock records outside of, you know, being a kid and having AM radio around and then finding hip hop somehow, you know.

Was it popular around you at that time, listening to hip hop?

So I had a little Gemini, you know, one of those little Gemini scratch masters with the sampler built in.

And so I was just making loops and just kind of doing early songs with him in that way.

And we were trying to get our demo played on like the college radio shows and stuff like that and failing miserably.

It was really discouraging.

But I loved radio.

And so I was volunteering at Campus Radio at the University of Winnipeg.

I was volunteering at an AM station in Winnipeg.

And then I moved out to bands.

Yeah, I was.

Or early 20s.

I was 18, 19 when I was volunteering, when I was doing Campus Radio, right? Just out of, just at College University of Winnipeg.

Go Westman.

[rock music] Welcome to the History of Punk Rock podcast.

Today, we're digging into the untold story of how college radio turned campus stations into punk's first national distributors, turning demo tapes into a continental network before MTV even existed.

College radio was the first time most punks ever heard a record that didn't have a glossy CD cover or a Billboard chart position attached to it because those stations were run by students who were tired of commercial playlists.

The mid-'70s and early '80s campus broadcasters had no fear of playing a two-minute riot about an underground band with a bass line that sounded like a distorted siren because they could afford the time to dial a tape and play it live off of reel-to-reel with zero edits.

This gave punk a platform outside the traditional gatekeepers, making airplay not just a promotional tool, but a cultural exchange that allowed a band from Baltimore or a Seattle grittier crew in San Diego to find listeners dozens of states away without having to book a radio promo tour through major labels.

They hand copies to the station KZOM's DJ, who loves the aggressive bass riff and invites the band on air for a live jam session.

After the broadcast, listeners start texting the band via email or through early forums like Bulletin Board System, asking when the next record drops.

drops.The band sells their next EP out of their van at shows and streams the tape through the station's online stream, which reaches college radio across the country, creating a network of punk communities that shared information quickly.

All right.

You guys are here for Campus Radio.

And obviously, you always have a favorite radio station.

So who is your favorite radio station?

And, you know, if you are feeling the FOMO, you're from some other school going, hey, why are

these

SGI boys so lucky? How come they get to come in? Why are they so special? Well, then you too can be part of Campus Radio.

Just reach out to us here at SPH.

But in my freshman year, I wanted to have more non-science activities on my resume so that I was a fully well-rounded individual.

And I started working at the college radio station.

I loved media.

I loved audio.

So

I remember being at College Radio, and I got service.

That's Atlantic? So distributed by Atlantic.

This all becomes part of the story.

So you guys recorded this record, Stopped Being a Band.

Your label sent the record to College Radio, as one does if you're an indie record label in 1999, 2000.

It did fine in that context, but not enough to change your lives or get you to give up your suburban corporate lifestyle, Steve, or your other bands, Mike.

When did you feel like things were changing? When did you notice?

And I feel like we've earned it in a way that I didn't feel that way when we did this originally, where it felt like you started in the middle and didn't earn it, but now we've earned it.

At the same time, the kind of music you make is 21-year-olds music, by which I mean that it is the music that combines the emotional intensity of adolescence.

with, you know, the sophistication of a connoisseur that one becomes listening to college radio or

equivalent, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's music nerd music, which is mostly still young people.

I remember the catalog number was Rough Trade 2, so Rough 2, right? And Trip to Marineville was the album.

And that was a really big song back when I was on this little radio station called Campus Radio or Radio B.

It was on AM.

Have you ever heard of AM?

I think we're at $600.

The categories remain Animal Songs, 90s Campus Radio, Body Language, You in the Title, and Not the Original.

How about you in the title? You in the title.

All right.

Yes, You Better You Bet.

Not sure the judges will allow that as a true and complete answer, but okay, we will for this show.

Let's move on to Animal Songs, 90s Campus Radio, Body Language, not the original.

Body Language.