DJ Spotlight: Zoe Hulina

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The Radiator is an open platform: a radio station welcome to one and all. Our DJs and hosts come from all walks of life, and each comes with their own array of opinions. As a way of documenting our on-air personalities, Big Heavy World is spotlighting some of them. This past week I spoke with Zoe Hulina, host of Dark Roast Radio every Thursday from 7-9pm.

Zoe is entering her third year at UVM and falls on the younger end of the Radiator’s DJs. I don’t say this to make a mascot of her—some beaming poster child for a company trying to rebrand itself—but rather to emphasize her surprising years of experience behind the microphone. 

“I did radio in high school with friends just for fun,” Zoe said. “One of my high school friends who also came to UVM did it as well and he was the one who found the station [Big Heavy World] and got in contact with Jim and set up our own show…we had a lot of fun: great radio chemistry and everything and people would love to tune into our show.” 

Zoe originally joined the show as a guest, but did so with enough frequency to earn the label of co-host, and eventually host after her friend had to depart the show. This left Zoe with a canvas all to her own, and, like any confident artist, leapt at the opportunity. She’s been running the show on her own for a year now—marking three years in radio—and loves the platform it provides:

“I think it’s fun: the concept of someone listening to a radio show and not having a choice of what they listen to. Like I’ll put on a song and be like: alright this is it. You can’t skip it if you’re listening. This is what it’s gonna be.” She later added that “it’s confidence boosting to say something unapologetically on the radio (obviously with some kind of filter).”

Zoe seems to toe the line between amicably sharing her music for the good of the world, and sharing her music because she believes you need to hear this. One could also create an extended metaphor to the line between Marxist communism and Stalin’s Soviet empire, but I don’t want to make a mountain out of a kid’s sand castle.

Considering both her age and comfort on air, I figured she might be one to ask for advice on starting a show. Most importantly, how to be comfortable on air. Her advice was curt, but informative.

Her first point: don’t panic. 

“Don’t be nervous when there’s a microphone in your face. That was me when I started out in high school. Now when I bring guests into the studio I’m like: just talk. We don’t know the audience. You have wonderful things to say. Just let it go.”

Her next point: pretend like no one is listening.

“Just pretend like no one is listening right now and just talk. Even if that’s not true that’s something I’ll say.”

And lastly, understand that none of it comes instantaneously. The comfort and charisma grows with time. One day you’ll learn that “it’s only a microphone. I’m not afraid of it.”

Big Heavy World and the Radiator always appreciates those who aren’t afraid to speak their mind. Especially when they speak with conviction and in earnest—one who will not equivocate and not excuse and not retreat and who will be heard, to quote the american social reformer William Lloyd Garrison. Through her show, Zoe creates a conversation between herself and some ethereal thing that represents society. A grand statement, I know. But it’s true. Regardless of who hears, Zoe adds her voice to an ongoing conversation that we can’t see, but we all participate in. She just does so with a megaphone.

Zoe is highlighting the empowering nature of radio. How, even though it may often be forgotten, radio is the easiest way to put one’s thoughts out into the world. And by extension, it’s a means of putting oneself out before a crowd—an opportunity that can feel daunting to some. But for those with opinions, it’s a blessing, and I got the sense that Zoe could be one of those people. 

So I asked her: “do you consider yourself to be an opinionated person?”

“Yes,” she said, flatly.

An example of such an opinion might go like so:

“Pop music’s supposed to describe what’s popular, and I like how that’s evolved over time. I always think it’s funny when I’m playing new pop music, because that’s like a contradictory sentence,” Zoe said, pointing out the fuzzy line between the new and avante garde, and people’s definition of pop. “[Pop] is heavily associated with being basic, but that’s not true because if it’s new and no one’s heard it then how can it be basic?”

This opinion is the engine behind most of what Zoe plays. She holds a grudge against those who describe pop music as basic—those who use its popularity to form their opinions, rather than judging the music itself, or rather than just letting go of their criticisms entirely and just enjoying the music. Because in her own words, “I can’t define pop music. That’s what I learn more and more.”

On the whole, Zoe’s show is meant to be fun. A jaunty two hours to talk about whatever, and to play whatever. It’s a young punk mentality, even if there’s no punk being played. Unless punk becomes pop again, maybe. I’ll check and see if Paramore has any upcoming albums after this blog publishes.

Until then, tune into 105.9 FM on Thursdays from 7-9pm to hear Zoe on Dark Roast Radio.

Text by Luke Vidic.

Photo by James Lockridge.

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