College Radio 101
Chris Parizo talks to WRUV's station manager Alex Martin and WWPV's station manager Kevin Murrihy about college radio. Why they play the music they play and how they pick the bands.
Once upon a time there was a magic kingdom called Burlington, filled with happy, healthy and talented musicians who loved to make music and sing. Every weekend, these musicians would get together and play.
And within this kingdom of Burlington, there were little radio stations with their antennas aimed to the sky, playing the songs of the locals for all to hear... if the signal reached them. The musicians would sit around in their little tree houses made of mushrooms and listen to themselves and their peers become radio stars, right before their ears.
Everyone was happy and there was peace.
But then a very ugly and big ogre moved into Burlington. He stomped his feet and yelled bad words at the musicians as they played their songs at local clubs, and killed many of the local musicians in the process. The musicians of Burlington trembled.
But then a brave young knight emerged from the chaos. With only 4,500 watts under his belt, he battled the ugly and much larger ogre in a bloody and violent battle. The musicians ran to the knight for protection, but in the end, the valiant knight fell... and the land was silent.
The ogre laughed, outstretched his arms in the air and announced in his scruffy and surly voice: "You can't take me down!!! Ha, Ha, Ha! I am this big!!!" The ogre hypnotized the locals by the seemingly endless and monotonous sounds of Bush, Third Eye Blind and Live... and would even trick the locals by befriending a small number of musicians, playing their music and then throwing them away as soon as the locals seemed happy.
The battle was over and the ogre was victorious, but something had been overlooked by the ogre-the small antennas that were aimed at the sky years before it was even born still stood tall and were still playing the local musicians' songs... but everyone seemed to have forgotten.
If you live in the Burlington area, chances are you will receive both the University of Vermont's WRUV (90.1 FM) and Saint Michael's College's WWPV (88.7 FM). Recently, when large corporate radio stations stuck local CDs in the garbage bin or on the used rack at the local record shop, both of these stations have spent the better part of the last two decades putting the major label acts aside and keeping their local music library within an arm's reach of the DJ board. It was WWPV's persistent airplay of such local acts like The Wards and The Decentz in the early eighties that would lead a student/future WIZN Assistant Program Director Mike Luoma to get involved in what was going down in the neighboring Queen City, where he would get Phish and other locals their earliest radio play on a commercial station, Burlington's WIZN. These stations provide a valuable service to the listening community; they heavily promote local music.
Saint Michael's College's WWPV is currently led by station manager Kevin Murrihy. Murrihy, originally from Connecticut, made a splash in the local scene when he debuted "Burlington & Beyond," a two hour local music show. The first hour is dedicated to a buffet of songs, crossing the genres of pop rock, bluegrass, acid jazz, hardcore and whatever else Vermont musicians can come up with. The second hour of the show is reserved for bands performing live in the studio.
"The music (in Burlington) is incredible," states Murrihy. "It's the responsibility of college radio to promote their local scene. 'Burlington & Beyond' does that."
When listening to "B&B", the musical genres jump from pop rock to acid-jazz, hardcore to folk rock, and bluegrass to blues. To the outside listener, this mismatched format might seem unpleasant and, at times, quite damn irritating, but the goal of WWPV is to give an accurate display of local music... no matter how diverse.
"It is difficult to cover everything in one hour," says Murrihy. "There is just so much, and everyone has a CD to promote... to get it all out on the air is tough. Try going from Drowningman (hardcore) to Aaron Flinn (folk rock) within the space of four songs," he laughs.
"As far as other DJs go, they are all encouraged to play it (local music). Most shows are genre specific and they (the DJ's) tend to stick to the music they know which is usually what is popular. But, they usually know what locals will fit their format and they will play it if they like it. All local stuff is right next to the board, so they can just grab it."
So what bands stand out to the average WWPV DJ?
"For some reason, Strangefolk CDs always get stolen from the studio," jokes Kevin. "I have to take the really popular stuff with me, or else it's gone. Strangefolk and Phish are big. Belizbeha, Chin Ho! and Smokin' Grass get great play. Everything given to us will be played. We make suggestions to all the DJ's as to what would fit their show."
The University of Vermont's radio station, WRUV, has a more focused approach to the local scene. Instead of putting all its attention on all genres of Vermont music, the WRUV staff selects what will get heavy airplay and what will get one to three spins a week. For the past two years, Station Manager Alex Martin has continued WRUV's long standing tradition of supporting local music.
"The station started out as a classical station in the early fifties but went free format in the early sixties, where we still are today," says Martin.
"We have always tried to look for something new, tried to be one step ahead of the current 'Buzz Cut' (a term used by the local commercial rock station WBTZ for a Top 40 hit single). College radio is an entry level to commercial rock stations for bands. It is easier to get played on college radio than at larger commercial stations. At RUV, we don't want to play the same old stuff."
Whatever larger, commercial rock stations will be playing one year from now, WRUV wants to be playing today. Such acts as R.E.M., The Pixies and the B-52s found their market in college radio play in the late seventies and early eighties, a time when corporate stations wouldn't dream of playing them and WRUV hopes to continue that tradition... even if it doesn't represent the school's student body.
"Our listeners are mostly off campus," states Martin. "We don't cater to students, so 85% of the people who go to UVM don't even know we exist. We get people coming in wanting to do a Grateful Dead show and we turn them down, because it's not what we are going after."
"Locally, we like to follow key players from band to band. I loved The Madelines when they were still together, and after they broke up I was interested in Four Color Manual because of who was in the band. (Four Color Manual) got a huge push. If you look at a band like The Red Telephone (Warner Brothers recording artists from Boston, consisting of former members of Burlington's Envy), those guys got their motivation from their local market... any band does. They wouldn't have moved to a major if they hadn't got the support of college radio when they were in Envy, or the support of 'zines or newspapers. It all starts out local."
Do yourself a favor, listen to WRUV 90.1 or WWPV 88.7 or any other college station near you, whenever you can. If you ignore the ogre, it might go away.
Chris Parizo is that guy. Good Citizen is in no way responsible for his opinions. He makes his own bed. If you wanna beat him up because you think that you might work for the ogre that he talks about in this article, well, we don't blame you. Go to town. None of our business.