Every year, the first Friday of October marks World College Radio Day, a chance for students unfamiliar with the radio station to come in and look around. It is an excellent opportunity for college radio stations to raise awareness about the station on campus to students and faculty. Our campus radio station, WMEB 91.9, participates in the activities annually. Opening up the station for part of the day allows visitors to explore its lounge and library of music. This year, our station gave out free food, CDs and merch.
On our campus, many students are unaware of where our station is located, as it is in the basement of the Memorial Union, Room 164. So, opening up and advertising tours is a great way to get some new students to familiarize themselves with the station, allowing them to learn more about WMEB 91.9. I am already a DJ, so I am very familiar with the location and some of the other DJs, but this allowed me to get to know them better and learn more about what other people are playing on air.
Jazmine DeBeauchamp hosts “Slumber Party,” a show on Sundays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“I really like having a show. It allows me to play music I like and curate interesting themes around it…Some shows are more full of rage than others,” said DeBeauchamp. “On those shows, I like to play “‘Wednesday’,”, and some shows are a lot more full of joy.”
DeBeauchamp’s show is set around the idea of a girls’ slumber party, where you discuss all the latest artists in the indie and alternative genres. She said that although she likes to play a lot of “Wednesday,” her favorite artist is Victoria Bigelow, who she often played this past September.
Evan ‘Schlubzy’ Hollander hosts “Space Station Sanguine,” airing Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. He applied to be a DJ this past summer as a chance to wind down on his days off and listen to some Japanese jazz fusion. He clarified that he doesn’t just play Japanese artists,. although they are the primary focus of his show. He also plays some other genres like city pop, alternative rock, shoegaze and funk.
“World College Radio Day was a blast, I got to hang out with all my favorite DJs and meet some new people, and eat some pastries,” said Hollander.
The chance to talk and hang out around the studio and show students around was really cool. A lot of people left with new CDs of some new or smaller artists to check out. A lot of what WMEB tries to do is highlight these underground artists by focusing on playing new releases and artists outside the Top 200. I highly suggest checking out the station by tuning in or coming to some of their other events. To find out more about the station, check out their Instagram @WMEB919. World College Radio Day is every day, so make sure to check it out if you are around next semester and have the time.