Now I will talk about the best decision I've ever made in my college, joining my univeristy's radio station. The station is called WRIU on 90.3FM. My show is called Mixed Nutz.
If you know me (and I think you do), you know I love music. I collect it, analyze it, experiment, I memorize it. I always want more and more. So, I've racked up a bit of a library on my iTunes. By the time I hit college, I was swapping my hand-picked mixes with friends and throwing the best jams into my student films.
That's how I got introduced to WRIU. In my first filmmaking class, I screened my final in front of my peers. A guy in my class complimented me on the soundtrack. He said I should be on the radio. He happened to be the general manager of Studio B, the internet station that trains people to ride the FM waves. I happily agreed. This was two years go.
I entered the radio station, placed in it's oddly hidden-yet-obvious location on campus. Far up on the top floor of a university building lay a haven of music, away from the meddling others. It was late at night when I arrived to my classmate's radio show, and I'll never forget what I saw when I entered the main studio.
The room was very dimly lit, as a giant bright green LCD screen ticked away military time and an old-school rotating red light hummed "ON AIR." The uneven walls were stacked, stuffed, piled from floor to ceiling with CDs. Graffiti covered every inch of the crumbling walls behind the soundboard. Microphones, zip-tied to gargantuan rotating arms, stretched around the DJ station like a huge, robot spider. The yellow and red lit keys on the mixing board glowed. My classmate was drunk on blackberry bourbon and offered me a shot as soon as he registered my face. His cohost was an evil queen type chick, with wicked cat eye glasses and piercings and a sexy deep voice. At a glance, I knew this was THE thing I had been waiting for at college.
I trained for a semester on Studio B, a small closet that embodied much of the charm as the main studio. I did it alone, for two hours, once a week. No one listens to the internet station, but I convinced my friends and family to tune in at least once. It was exciting in a way that something lame is exciting, before you realize it's lame. It was also kind of lonely.
Finally, a year and a half ago, I started training in the main studio. My classmate DJ friend abandoned his post by then, and I was in the hands of the main studio's general manager, a super unique guy named Tyler. Learning from him and getting to know him was an experience in itself.
How to explain Tyler. Well, he's in his mid-twenties but looks about 18, he's still an undergrad, pursuing a degree in Philosophy and computer science. He's nice as can be, but always has a pained look on his face. He is a vicious asshole when he doesn't like someone or something. His hair is sometimes long and shaggy, and he anxiously fiddles with it. He's kind of short but also kind of handsome. He's extremely nerdy, but also extremely hilarious. He likes to drink, a lot, and he likes to do uppers, a lot. He's a mechanical genius, as he built and engineered almost everything in the studio. He's ultra awkward to speak to, but he doesn't even care. He still runs the huge staff meetings, answering questions with lightning accuracy, peppered with large gaps of "UHHHHH...." He's a pretty awesome dude.
So, he trained me, with his friend Pat. Pat, aka George Moshington, is one of Tyler's oldest friends. He is a huge punk rocker, he's in his mid-twenties and has some kind of crippling illness that has him in a wheelchair. He likes to fight, listen to hardcore punk, smoke and drink. What else is there to say? He's a nice guy too.
With the blessings of the extremely eccentric heads of the station, I started my show, Mixed Nutz, on Wednesday (later switched to Thursday) nights from midnight to three am. I recruited my best buddy at college, Cass, to do it with me. She likes music as much as I do and her taste overlaps yet varies greatly when compared to mine.
Our shows are the ultimate mixed tape, pure in purpose: generate the most random and all-encompassing varieties of good, worthy music. Something that any kind of person could dig, if they had an open mind. We wanted to celebrate our wide span of music affinities while pushing ourselves to find even more obscure/popular tunes, all while providing our listens with the best and most fun listening experience. We've succeeded in all aspects.
Our genres consist of (and are in no way limited to): classic country, bluegrass, folk, rock hits from the 1950s-present, disco, classical, soul, blues, soft pop, psychedelia, electro, thrash, rockabilly, psychobilly, proto punk, punk, pop punk, hardcore punk, new wave, top 40, club hip hop, alt hip hop, underground hip hop, dance pop, metal, dance rock, techno, house, trance, blues rock, alt rock, reggae, reggaeton, comedy music, show tunes, other, and more.
We love doing our show so much: we sleep until 11 pm, obsessively create our playlists, smoke pot/cigarettes, drink beers, drive to the studio, chit chat with the DJs before us, and dig in to the night. The studio is always mercilessly hot, so you have to dress accordingly. When the phone rings in the studio, insane strobe lights go off so the sound of ringing won't be heard through the microphones. We beg and taunt people into calling up, so we can jabber on with them as long as possible. Sometimes we bring friends. We often dance around like we're being paid for it.
It's the best possible scenario: late night, blasting the best music you can think of in an awesome, isolated box. People call and tell you they love what you're doing. You drink and laugh with your best friend, talk music, talk about anything. You groove like nothing else matters. You focus in on your core -- your unflinching desire for amazing sounds and the feeling you get when your desires are fulfilled. No one is ever going to stop you or control you.
All I can say is, Listen to Mixed Nutz on 90.3FM, wriu, or stream it live on wriu.org on Thursday nights from midnight to three am.
!!!
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