I got my own college radio show...

Today at my college orientation I signed up to host my own radio show in the only remaining slots available: Tuesday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. It's a pretty small school, but we are beginning to stream online which seems to be pretty big news for the communication department.

Any advice or ideas on the show? Basically they told me I have four hours a week to do whatever I feel like doing, while keeping the obvious regulations in mind. They said I'll have assistance for my first show but that it's pretty easy to do.

Now I hear this station is full of tons of hip-hop, so I figured I would change it up. I was thinking about maybe mixing some of the best classic rock (Zeppelin, Cream, Floyd, Sabbath, hell even Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and early 90s etc.) with some of the best rock of today. Maybe get a few guys in and inject a little sports talk? Any bands that don't get much play that you think may be good for the show? Nothing overly folksy or progressive. The place has countless CD's, but I wouldn't mind getting some opinions if you wanna throw 'em out there.

 

College radio? Play a lot of indie. Explore a little. Play things you don't even know. Just make sure you know where it says 'fuck' and 'shit.' College stations don't have the luxury of delay switches, so be ready to cut the power quickly off and on when it comes to the boards.

It's good that you took your shifts where you could get them. I ended up with the 9-to-midnight shifts Friday and Saturday when I got my first show. Never got rid of them, either. That way, I could get every guy in my house to tune in as they drank, as long as I gave them shoutouts every now and then.

If you're going to drink in the studio, be smart about it. Hide your Jack in a paper bag, like I did.

 

And for God's sake, when you're on, give us all the Web link so we can listen.

 

I'll give you guys the link once it's up and running.

I'm very excited to explore different bands and be exposed to music that I don't normally hear.

haha and I'll certainly take the advice about Jack in the paper bag.

 

I wouldn't recommend actually doing that unless you have an understanding co-host.

 

Congrats on the show. I hope you enjoy it. Hosting a radio show(s) was one of my favorite parts of college. I hosted three shows -- two-hour time slots -- during my sophomore year, two my junior year and one in my last year, most of them from midnight to 2 a.m., during safe harbor hours, where I could play anything within the station policies.

One of the most important things you've got to master is the art of transitioning. Never go from Led Zeppelin to Kanye West, for instance. Ease from classic rock to punk rock. Mix in promos, advertisements (or underwriting, depending on if the station is commercial or not) and public service announcements to not only help with transitions, but to increase the flow of the show. They're your friends. Most people didn't like having to play them, but it was only because they didn't understand their purposes.

Don't expect everything to be as easy as it sounds. You're going to screw up. You're going to screw up plenty of times. Just don't get frustrated with each mistake or, even worse, when they start to pile up.

 

Congrats. I really wanted a radio show when I went to college, but it turns out not every school was like Fitchburg State, where my best buddy went and ruled the airwaves every Friday and Saturday night. He and his co-host would get drunk, play whatever they wanted and, eventually, field phone calls from two girls who wanted to screw them. (they did!) this was in 1991-93, so to land an audience at all was pretty impressive, never mind finding an audience of females that wanted to screw.

I went to visit my buddy one weekend and the hosts for a Saturday morning show didn't show. So we went over and ran wild for a few hours. I did this one thing called "Nirvana or Bryan Adams?" I'd play a few notes of Lithium, then a few notes of Everything I Do (I Do For You). A few notes of Smells Like Teen Spirit, a few notes of Somebody. I'm a dork because it still makes me laugh today.

Anyway, once I transferred to a real college, I went to the newspaper and radio station get-to-know-you meetings. Turns out the radio station's idea of initaition was having you sit in the studio and watch a guy push buttons and having you attend a semester's worth of meetings. And most of the DJ slots were for Irish folk music and polka, because, well, the alums who donated wanted to hear Irish folk music and polka.

I spent one football game twiddling my thumbs in the studio and one Wednesday afternoon meeting listening to some dork drone on and on about the station and how we couldn't touch anything until the spring semester. Meanwhile, at the newspaper, I was asked to join the editorial board after one story (I wasn't that good, the sports editor was burnt out and a senior). Easy decision.

But I'd still like to play DJ and screw a listener one day. May the force be with you, BB.

 

Bring in strippers and get them to take their tops off. People love that.

Get a partner with a funny voice and call him Mad Dog.

Say "yo yo yo" and "what up" a lot. Very street.

Use those factoids from USA Today about how much time we spend in a year waiting for elevators. People relate to that.

Get a bunch of friends to come in and hang out and laugh and clap every time you say something.

You're on your way!

 

That's fucking awesome. ;D

 

You could stay within format and go old-school hip-hip and play nothing but late 70s and 80s hip-hop/rap -- Grandmaster Flash and stuff like that.

Or you could mess with them and play nothing but disco for two hours.

Or break out the funk - Parliament, James Brown, and stuff like that.

Or you could just go the classic rock/independent rock route. If you want some good rock you don't hear much of on the radio, look at some of the playlists or listen to some of the shows from Little Steven's Underground Garage
http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com/homepage.html

Or really mess with them and go the Americana route and play stuff like the Jayhawks, Old 97s, Slaid Cleaves, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely, Dan Bern and stuff like that.

 

when i did college radio, i made sure to avoid crap people can hear on commercial stations. if you play those bands, find deep album tracks that people don't know.

and i disagree with mike down below - college radio should be experimental, free form ... if you want to play zep into kanye, by all means, do it and make it work.

 

Look at some other stations to get ideas about music to try out.

http://wnrn.org/

There is a lot of great music out there. Use youtube as well to get a free listen of the song you are thinking about playing.