WSOU-FM, Seton Hall University’s Pirate Radio in South Orange, NJ, announced it will be featuring interviews with Five Finger Death Punch, Senses Fail, God Forbid and other bands WSOU gave early airplay to, for participation in College Radio Day on 10/11. Band members will speak about the role WSOU has played in nurturing their rise to fame. College Radio Day is a nationwide event celebrating the importance of college radio to communities, local music scenes, emerging artists and the cultivation of new broadcast and media talent.
“WSOU is well-known in the music industry for being a leader in breaking new bands,” says student station manager Omar Ahmad, who notes that the station gave the first area airtime, and in some cases the first-ever radio time, to Korn, Incubus, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Thursday, among others. “We felt the best way for WSOU to highlight the importance of college radio was to let the musicians who have benefited from college radio’s support tell their story.”
WSOU’s student managers will be offering personal commentaries on why college radio is important to them and the New York. Interviews and commentaries will be aired at the bottom of every hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The day’s programming will also feature special songs, station IDs, a 15-minute documentary on college radio that is being aired on all stations participating in College Radio Day, and interviews with station alumni Bob Ley and Bob Picozzi, who both went on to notable careers at ESPN.
The student managers of WSOU eagerly agreed to be part of College Radio Day because of the station’s rich 63-year history and because of the recent increase in the sale of college radio stations.
WSOU GM Mark Maben says that college radio stations provide vital experiential-learning opportunities that cannot be easily duplicated. “College Radio Day is a way for us to remind the world that college stations not only serve their communities, but give students a hands-on learning experience that cannot be emulated by reading a book or going to a lecture. Station alumni such as WINS’ Glenn Schuck, WDHA’s Kim Mulligan and NJ Devils radio announcer Matt Loughlin are all thriving today because of skills and confidence they developed at WSOU.”
College Radio Day will be acknowledged on more than 300 radio stations from coast-to-coast in the US and Canada. WSOU’s participation will be anchored by DJs The David Rind Experience, Brittany Speared, Dem Duquettes, and The Brooklyn Dodger.
WSOU’s College Radio Day Interview schedule is as follows:
7:30 a.m.: Commentary by Gabby Canella, WSOU music director
8:30 a.m.: Band Interview with God Forbid (New Brunswick, NJ-based band)
9:30 a.m.: Commentary by Omar Ahmad, WSOU station manager
10:30 a.m.: Band Interview with Senses Fail (Ridgewood, NJ); Alumnus interview with Bob Picozzi
11:30 a.m.: Commentaries by Katie Duffy and Samantha Desmond, WSOU staff representative and promotions director
12:30 p.m.: Band Interview with Trivium
1:30 p.m.: Commentaries by Chris Duquette and Victoria Haffner, WSOU technical operations director and news director
2:30 p.m.: Band Interview with Biohazard (Brooklyn, NY)
3:30 p.m.: Commentary by David Rind, WSOU sports director; Alumnus interview with Bob Ley
4:30 p.m.: Band Interview with Five Finger Death Punch
5:30 p.m.: Commentary by Brittany Martinez, WSOU program director
6:30 p.m.: Band Interview with Hatebeed
7:30 p.m.: Broadcast of National College Radio Day Documentary
RBR-TVBR observation: It’s true—college radio helped launch the careers of many in media today. College radio also remains the place for music discovery in many markets. Atlanta is good example with 100-kW WREK (Georgia Tech) and 100-kW WRAS (Georgia State). College radio submerges students in everything a commercial station would offer: underwriting/sales, on-air, production, engineering, management, news, you name it. But with the economy the way it is, many frequencies have been sold off over the last few years. What some may not realize, however, is at some schools, the interest isn’t there enough from the student body any more to fill the shifts—they’re too busy listening to Pandora and downloading iTunes songs. Those stations become automated, abandoned and then sold.
