Randolph DJs keep college radio airwaves alive

Less than a minute before airtime, Randolph College students Carl Coffey and Alisha Dingus rattle off potential topics for their radio show, “Cold Sweating in a Burning Room.”

Tiger Woods. Twilight. Grammy nominations.

At the last second, their third co-host arrives — Maggy Roza, who has been MIA for the past couple weeks. Together, they are self-described “ringmasters of a raucous radio circus.”

With the flip of a switch, the deejays are streaming live. During a Tiger Woods diatribe, which includes a smattering of obscenities and jokes about the SUV crash/golf club incident, two friends stop by the station and begin chatting on air.

“This is becoming chaos,” Dingus says, as she thumbs through her iPod, looking for a song to play.

Anything goes at Randolph’s campus radio station, WWRM “The Worm.” Well, almost anything.

Shows on the censorship-free station run the gamut from indie rock and zombie music to sports talk and poetry readings. Students can talk about whatever they want, as long as they do not slander members of the Randolph College community. And any music is fine, as long as it’s not pirated.

“You get free creative license,” says student manager Sarah Kreiger.

This fall, WWRM experienced a renaissance, growing from a handful of inconsistent shows to 47 deejays putting on 28 live shows a week. The shows are broadcast live at www.wwrm.org.

“Radio definitely is a dying art, but I think that’s part of the appeal maybe on this campus,” Kreiger said.

Recording takes place in a closet-sized studio in Main Hall, across from the coffee shop. The glass windows are framed with strands of Christmas lights and the walls inside are papered with music posters and old covers of Rolling Stone magazines.

The studio dates back to when the station was founded in the 1960s. The musty brown rug and a collection of about 2,000 vinyl records have survived the decades.

The station faded in and out of popularity, as technology and student leadership changed.

The station went silent for a large part of the 1980s, and was revived in the early 1990s, when it was broadcast through a campus cable TV channel. In the fall of 1999, the station hit a high with 55 DJs and was one of the biggest campus clubs until 2005.

WWRM went dormant during Randolph’s transition to a coed college, said long-time faculty advisor David Schwartz, a philosophy professor who hosts a show called “The Show.”

Kreiger, also known as “DJ Kreig” was largely responsible for the comeback. She recruited deejays and board members. She started her own show called “Your Mom” with friend Jessica Accorso, a.k.a. DJ Itchy. She planned dance parties to raise money and increase the station’s visibility.

“My goal was to let people know the station was actually here,” Kreiger says.

With her pixie haircut, straight-leg jeans and casual tee, Kreiger gives off the vibe of a low-key hipster. On “Your Mom,” she and Accorso play mostly alternative and indie rock, often by unsigned artists that mainstream radio ignores.

“It’s a cool life, being a radio DJ,” Kreiger says.

At WWRM, it’s OK for shows to be rough around the edges. Dead air is not uncommon as deejays fumble for the next song; spontaneous tangents can go on for 10 minutes or more. Some deejays wing it, while others plan out exactly what they’re going to do.

Students Lauren Shelton and Hannah Asher host The Mix Tape on Sunday nights. Their show’s unofficial tagline is “Oh my gosh, I love that song.” That’s how they want listeners to react to their music, which ranges from Lil Wayne to Bing Crosby.

They don’t know how many people tune in, but are conscious of the fact that their parents might be listening.

“That’s the scariest thing,” Shelton says.

Shelton’s parents are deejays at a country radio station. Sometimes, they call her the day after her show airs and give her tips.

“They tell me, talk slower and don’t talk to people who are coming up to the window because the listeners can’t see them,” she says with a laugh.

The station’s longest-running program, The Show, is hosted by professors Jim Peterson and Schwartz, a.k.a. “Dr J and “Dr. D.” They started last year to get more faculty involved with the station, but have continued because it’s just plain fun.

“We sorta wing it,” says Schwartz.

The professors mix it up with music, commentary and banter. The Beatles is their most played artist, but they also play funk, classic rock, country rock and occasionally “something for the kids.”

The pair loves to get callers. Every time the phone rings, Schwartz stops what he’s doing and exclaims “Oh my god!”

On a recent show, they got a call from Mark Haskell Smith, a writer in Los Angeles. Smith was a guest faculty member early this fall and called to share his experience from a trip to Amsterdam, where he was doing field research on the 22nd annual High Times Cannabis Cup for an upcoming book.

As for their listener base: “Well, it’s not massive,” Schwartz says. “But at the same time we get calls.”