On the wall of the on-air control room in the radio studio tucked in Louis Hall is taped a sign that reads in scribbled sharpie:
847-866-9687
847-866 WNUR
I speak to this sign. I tell it “this is WNUR FM Evanston Chicago, Chicago’s Sound Experiment,” “you are listening to the rock show” and “we have a lot of great music to play for you tonight.”
The radio, increasingly overshadowed by its younger siblings television and the internet, still remains the most intimate media medium. Limited to a single sense, listeners must rely on their imaginations and the voice on the other side of the dial. Unfortunately for radio DJs, this intimacy is only a one way street. Sitting alone, hosting my first rock show of winter quarter, I spoke to a sign on the wall. Outside of calls, I have no way of knowing if people are listening. DJs exist in a bubble of isolation.
Fortunately, WNUR has listeners. The station, blessed with a signal range that reaches well into Chicago, has one of the country’s largest listenerships for a college radio station. Additionally, WNUR fans are notoriously vocal and dedicated, paying half of the station’s operating budget through donations. But WNUR is ironically a college radio station that is more popular off campus.
While sports broadcasts attract some collegiate listeners, the station’s biggest student demographic are Wildcats already affiliated with the station. The station’s eccentric, albeit award-winning, programming schedule strives to accomplish WNUR’s mission statement of broadcasting underrepresented music but is often considered alienating by casual listeners expecting a more streamlined Clear Channel experience. Is it any surprise that a station that refuses to play popular music isn’t that popular?
The following week when my co-host and WNUR general manager Doug Kaplan joins me in the station, I ask him the same question. “Our music is better than popular,” Doug laughs. “It’s good!” He returns to nonchalantly flipping through a stack of a dozen CDs improperly left on the counter instead of returned to the station’s extensive library.
“Besides, if we were just playing the stuff people already have in their iTunes, they wouldn’t listen to us for that either.” Deciding the stack did not contain any albums worth keeping, Doug disappears into the library to presumably file the misplaced CDs before momentarily returning. “And who says we aren’t popular?”
He has a point. WNUR has been around since May 8th, 1950, but radio is significantly different today. With iPods, file sharing, Youtube and satellite radio, it has never been easier for a music lover to control what they listen to and where they can listen to it.
There is no longer a need to trust music listening to a stranger. Even more adventurous listeners can still ensure an enjoyable “radio” experience by visiting sites like Pandora that broadcast music catered to user style preferences. The mighty iPod can now surf the web and cook toast but fails to broadcast radio. With cell phones rapidly replacing clock radios as the preferred alarm of choice for students, radio fans better hope Steve Jobs reveals an iPhone app soon to save the medium. Add radio to the list of things the internet has ruined, right next to newspapers and my attention span.
It seems that for our generation, a lack of alternatives is the only scenario that compels radio use. Our culture of personalization enabled by recent advances in technology has left us more interested in our own musical preferences than a random radio DJ’s tastes. The trend is isolating and self-reinforcing — two common side effects of modern technological comforts — but perhaps worst of all, prevents students from exposure to underrepresented artists, a music liberal arts education.
“I listen to the radio when I’m bored of my music and want to hear something new and fun and exciting. [WNUR is] at least all of that,” shouts Doug over the shards of post-punk guitar broadcasting from the studio. The phone lights up with a call from a Chicago listener requesting a recent song title from his car.