Post by Bornthrilla on Dec 16, 2010 15:20:44 GMT -5
College radio stations are a hit
Image accompanying article (Image Credit: Tim Rickard - )
(updated 3:00 am)
By Parke Puterbaugh
GREENSBORO — If it’s true that life begins at 40, then Greensboro’s three college radio stations must all be in their prime.
The youngest of them, WQFS 90.9 FM (Guilford College) just turned 40 this year. The others, WUAG 103.1 FM (UNCG) and WNAA 90.1 FM (N.C. A&T), are in their mid-40s.
All three stations are indeed thriving. Commercial-free, community-oriented and wildly eclectic in their programming, WUAG, WQFS and WNAA offer refreshing alternatives to mainstream radio. The voices you hear belong to local folks — college students and community volunteers — who love the music they play.
Each station has its own history, personality and musical mix. Whether you prefer cutting-edge indie rock and hip-hop, gospel and old-school R&B, music from around the world or your own backyard, there are shows to suit every taste.
WUAG: Less talk, more rock
The byword at WUAG is music. “Our main goal is to get music out there,” general manager Jack Bonney says. “We tell our DJs, 'Less talk, more rock.’ Not literally rock, but playing music. Because there’s always a lot of new and local music, and there needs to be an outlet for that.”
Music director Matt Northrup bears the sleep-depriving responsibility of sifting through new releases.
“We have something like 85 CDs in heavy rotation, and lately I’ve been adding 15 to 20 new CDs a week,” says Northrup, who introduces the latest discs on his weekly show (5 to 7 p.m. Thursday). “Right now, there’s a big mix of stuff in rotation, from jazz to experimental electronic music to independent rock. I wouldn’t even say that indie-rock is the heaviest thing. There’s a lot of hip-hop.”
WUAG’s 100 student DJs are instructed to play eight cuts an hour from discs in rotation. To help them organize their shows, CDs are color-coded by genre, of which there are nine: Americana, punk, electronica, reggae, hip-hop, rock, jazz, local and world music. The station’s philosophy is one of willful eclecticism and minimal musical boundaries.
“We have a really large music library, and we try to mix it up,” says Bonney, who became WUAG’s general manager, a full-time paid position, in 2003. Students on its executive board receive stipends for their service, and course credit can be earned for helping out at the station, performing jobs such as working as a DJ, writing news and sports briefs, and reviewing CDs.
After 25 years in the recesses of Taylor, UNCG’s theater building, WUAG moved to the sunny third floor of the renovated Brown Building in 2007. The station has a modern broadcast studio, two production rooms, a suite of offices — even a DJ lounge. One of the station’s featured shows, Radio Greensboro (8 to 10 p.m. Sunday), features live in-studio performances.
Another of its signatures is WUAG Presents, a series of concerts by up-and-coming acts at local venues.
“They’re almost always free, so that’s another way for people to come out and see new music,” program director Sara O’Brien says.
In broadcast terms, two facts about WUAG stick out: its high frequency and low wattage. Almost all college stations are grouped at the left-hand, low-frequency end of the dial. However, WUAG is up on the far side at 103.1, between commercial giants WJMH (“102 JAMZ”) and WQTR (104.1 FM). That proximity yields listener traffic, but the tradeoff is power. WUAG is licensed by the FCC to broadcast at only 18 watts, which means it doesn’t reach beyond Greensboro.
Still the station has loyal listeners at UNCG, around town and on the Web (where power doesn’t matter), and as they say, “18 Watts Is Better Than None.” That’s the actual title of a CD — one of five released, to date — of live tracks by local and national acts that have performed on WUAG.
WNAA: Uplift, educate, entertain and inform
The offices of WNAA, in Crosby Hall on the A&T campus, suggest that it is a high-powered, big-city media giant. In a sense, that’s exactly what this station is.
The roomy headquarters, which the station has occupied only since September, are sleekly modern and the equipment is state-of-the-art. The operation is professional, serving the community with music and community-affairs programming while preparing students for careers in commercial radio. And the station is powerful, broadcasting to a 14-county area with 10,000 watts.
WNAA has three full-time employees, including general manager Tony Welborne. It originated in 1966 as WANT (as in “A&T”), a low-power AM station.
“It was actually built as a class project by several electronics students, including myself,” Welborne recalls.
Read more:
gotriad.news-record.com/content/2010/12/15/article/city_s_college_radio_stations_are_a_hit
Image accompanying article (Image Credit: Tim Rickard - )
(updated 3:00 am)
By Parke Puterbaugh
GREENSBORO — If it’s true that life begins at 40, then Greensboro’s three college radio stations must all be in their prime.
The youngest of them, WQFS 90.9 FM (Guilford College) just turned 40 this year. The others, WUAG 103.1 FM (UNCG) and WNAA 90.1 FM (N.C. A&T), are in their mid-40s.
All three stations are indeed thriving. Commercial-free, community-oriented and wildly eclectic in their programming, WUAG, WQFS and WNAA offer refreshing alternatives to mainstream radio. The voices you hear belong to local folks — college students and community volunteers — who love the music they play.
Each station has its own history, personality and musical mix. Whether you prefer cutting-edge indie rock and hip-hop, gospel and old-school R&B, music from around the world or your own backyard, there are shows to suit every taste.
WUAG: Less talk, more rock
The byword at WUAG is music. “Our main goal is to get music out there,” general manager Jack Bonney says. “We tell our DJs, 'Less talk, more rock.’ Not literally rock, but playing music. Because there’s always a lot of new and local music, and there needs to be an outlet for that.”
Music director Matt Northrup bears the sleep-depriving responsibility of sifting through new releases.
“We have something like 85 CDs in heavy rotation, and lately I’ve been adding 15 to 20 new CDs a week,” says Northrup, who introduces the latest discs on his weekly show (5 to 7 p.m. Thursday). “Right now, there’s a big mix of stuff in rotation, from jazz to experimental electronic music to independent rock. I wouldn’t even say that indie-rock is the heaviest thing. There’s a lot of hip-hop.”
WUAG’s 100 student DJs are instructed to play eight cuts an hour from discs in rotation. To help them organize their shows, CDs are color-coded by genre, of which there are nine: Americana, punk, electronica, reggae, hip-hop, rock, jazz, local and world music. The station’s philosophy is one of willful eclecticism and minimal musical boundaries.
“We have a really large music library, and we try to mix it up,” says Bonney, who became WUAG’s general manager, a full-time paid position, in 2003. Students on its executive board receive stipends for their service, and course credit can be earned for helping out at the station, performing jobs such as working as a DJ, writing news and sports briefs, and reviewing CDs.
After 25 years in the recesses of Taylor, UNCG’s theater building, WUAG moved to the sunny third floor of the renovated Brown Building in 2007. The station has a modern broadcast studio, two production rooms, a suite of offices — even a DJ lounge. One of the station’s featured shows, Radio Greensboro (8 to 10 p.m. Sunday), features live in-studio performances.
Another of its signatures is WUAG Presents, a series of concerts by up-and-coming acts at local venues.
“They’re almost always free, so that’s another way for people to come out and see new music,” program director Sara O’Brien says.
In broadcast terms, two facts about WUAG stick out: its high frequency and low wattage. Almost all college stations are grouped at the left-hand, low-frequency end of the dial. However, WUAG is up on the far side at 103.1, between commercial giants WJMH (“102 JAMZ”) and WQTR (104.1 FM). That proximity yields listener traffic, but the tradeoff is power. WUAG is licensed by the FCC to broadcast at only 18 watts, which means it doesn’t reach beyond Greensboro.
Still the station has loyal listeners at UNCG, around town and on the Web (where power doesn’t matter), and as they say, “18 Watts Is Better Than None.” That’s the actual title of a CD — one of five released, to date — of live tracks by local and national acts that have performed on WUAG.
WNAA: Uplift, educate, entertain and inform
The offices of WNAA, in Crosby Hall on the A&T campus, suggest that it is a high-powered, big-city media giant. In a sense, that’s exactly what this station is.
The roomy headquarters, which the station has occupied only since September, are sleekly modern and the equipment is state-of-the-art. The operation is professional, serving the community with music and community-affairs programming while preparing students for careers in commercial radio. And the station is powerful, broadcasting to a 14-county area with 10,000 watts.
WNAA has three full-time employees, including general manager Tony Welborne. It originated in 1966 as WANT (as in “A&T”), a low-power AM station.
“It was actually built as a class project by several electronics students, including myself,” Welborne recalls.
Read more:
gotriad.news-record.com/content/2010/12/15/article/city_s_college_radio_stations_are_a_hit
