Only nine years ago it was a women’s bathroom; now it’s the on-air room of KWVA 88.1 FM, the student-run radio station where disc jockeys spin music 24 hours a day.
KWVA will celebrate its ninth anniversary Friday at the WOW Hall. The show features performances by all-female AC/DC tribute band Hells Belles, Monkey Torture, The Sawyer Family, Pellet Gun and Honey Vizer.
The office that houses KWVA is nearly hidden on the Mezzanine floor of the EMU with EMU accounting and payroll. The station has a staff of nine people, an assistant and enough DJs to play constant music.
Since KWVA’s first day on the air — May 23, 1993 — the station has had its share of criticism.
In its first year on the air, the station weathered attacks from the student body charging that the music played was too obscure and that a mix with more well-known artists was needed. The station’s organizers argued that doing so would take away the unique things the station had to offer — music and other programming that commercial stations couldn’t afford to play. While the station still sometimes receives complaints, the growing structure of the program has alleviated many concerns.
“My favorite thing about working here is being able to bring not-so-well-known music to people,” said Diana Preziose, a music coordinator for the station.
Presiose said she loves working in the music industry because it is a quick-moving world. She loves KWVA because it is also fast-paced, with DJs moving in and out every two hours or so. The early morning and afternoon hours are mostly DJ mix shows, which offer a combination of caller requests, a fixed rotation of pre-selected music and the DJ’s choices. The later afternoon and evening hours are filled mostly by specialty shows, during which DJs can play any music within their specialty, ranging from country to industrial.
Besides music, the station features variety shows and news every weekday from 6 to 7 p.m.
Erin Zysett was inspired by the National Public Radio show “This American Life” to start a similar program for KWVA called, “Everyday Ovid.” The new program is every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on 88.1 FM.
“It started as a ‘This American Life’ rip-off, but we’re expanding it,” Zysett said. “We want to take the basic ideas of using information, humor and literature and take it from here.”
KWVA General Manager Charlotte Nisser said that one of the biggest problems the station faces is dealing with the Federal Communications Commission and radio-relation regulations.
The FCC ruled recently that music licensing companies can charge radio stations for broadcasting on the Internet. KWVA currently works with four such companies but has only signed a contract with one of them. The station now pays the company $200 a year to broadcast its songs over the Internet. The cost is based on the number of ‘hits’ on the station’s Web site, not the actual number of online listeners.
Nisser has also been working to get better equipment because the $8,000 allotted for equipment each year only stretches to 2 CD players and a recording unit that is necessary for news production.
Nisser has worked at the station for three years and has dealt with artistic and political conflicts but said she has enjoyed the music and the people. She said that the greatest thing to see is the development of the station both in structure and reach. That is why she is currently working to get money for an educational upgrade to update the station’s equipment.
Most of the station’s current equipment was donated nine years ago because it was antiquated or falling apart at the time, Nisser said. None of the audio equipment in the on-air room, where the DJs play the music, is digital, and it is always prone to breaking, she said.
“If a student were to learn on the equipment we have and go into the real world, they would be laughed at,” Nisser said.
Advertisements and public service announcements are recorded digitally through the software program Pro Tools and then transferred onto large analog tapes called carts. Carts are essentially old-fashioned 8-track tapes, and the station has hundreds of them. They are used for public service announcements, event promotion and for underwriting, the form of advertising that non-profits use.
“If we get the money to move up to a digital system, maybe students can comfortably go work in the real world,” Nisser said.