In the early morning hours of Saturday, November 16th, 7 of KXLU’s director team members and station manager drove up towards UC Santa Barbara to attend UC Radio Network Conference (UCRN) hosted by KCSB. UCRN is a staple of the college radio community in California, where student radio leaders, DJs, advisors, and alumni come together to engage, learn about how different stations operate, lead specialty panels, and discuss the future of college radio.
We picked up our UCRN tote bags and headed straight into the keynote address, “Life after College Radio: Media Futures”, led by Ernesto Aguilar of KQED San Francisco. He spoke to us about his journey that led him to his current title of Executive Director of Radio Programming and Content Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives. Aguilar spoke about his childhood in a military living situation, where he was forced to wake up at 4:30am and lights out by 9:00pm. When Aguilar couldn’t sleep, however, he discovered that he could listen to the radio at a low volume, which opened up his ears and mind to a whole new world outside of his own life. This kickstarted Eduardo’s passion for radio, and he reminded the crowd of college DJs how important our roles are to our local communities. This stuck with me personally because sometimes during my late-night show, I feel like nobody is listening. The lecture encouraged me to rethink my role within the greater LA community, and inspired me to curate better, more engaging programs for my listeners.
After the keynote panel, we split into three smaller groups to attend a roundtable discussion of our choosing. The options included engineering/production, outreach and fundraising, and programming content. I chose the engineering and production roundtable, where the different stations discussed their production equipment, varying approaches to live sessions, and the nearly universal need for updated equipment and funding.
During our outdoor lunch, we had the opportunity to socialize with other student radio leaders. I met Madeline Hass, a community coordinator at KDVS, who oversees the training of new volunteers to become DJs. I learned that volunteers must complete 30 hours to co-host a show and 40 hours for a solo show, with specific tasks like advertising and censoring new music. These hours can be accumulated through various activities, including event volunteering and contributing to the zine. New DJs typically start with early morning slots during safe harbor hours, which reduces the pressure for those who are just beginning their broadcasting journeys. Madeline told me that finds the most rewarding aspect of her role to be building the KDVS community and seeing new volunteers have positive experiences in college radio.
Teia Ciornei: Hi, can you introduce your name and title at your station?
Madeline Hass: “Hi, I’m Madeline Hass, I’m with KDVS. I’m one of the community coordinators. There’s two of us in my position, and we’re in charge of training all of the new volunteers on how to become DJs. We lead seminars, twice a week, about the different DJ training processes. And there’s also a volunteer hour requirement to host a show at KDVS. So we help DJs, or volunteers get their hours. A lot of community outreach stuff.”
What is, how does the hourly, the minimum hour thing work, and how many hours do you need? So like, what does that look like for a student or community member?
Madeline Hass: “You need 30 volunteer hours if you want to co-host a show, [and] 40 volunteer hours if you want to have a solo show. We require four hours of advertising in our stacks, so going through each shelf and making sure everything is advertised, and then four hours of censoring the new music we have come in. So any new music we have sent into us from like promoters, we have in a pile that’s to be censored, and we have volunteers listen to it and make sure or write down what songs break FCC rules and can be played outside of Safe Harbor hours. So four hours of both of those are required. Everything else is up to [the volunteers], how [they] want to do it. You can get hours for volunteering at events, so helping with setup, tear down all of that. We [also] have a zine that we put out. You can get hours for contributing to that. Dyson and I, the other community coordinator, we host a PA show where we want new volunteers to come on and get new voices. You get two hours for coming to that show and chilling with us in the studio and getting air time. So yeah, there’s a lot of different ways to get hours, and the training process is an entire quarter. So you start the second week of the quarter, train, then at the end of the quarter, we have an overnight training. Then you become a DJ, and you can host a show the following quarter.”
So if you get the 30 or the 40 hours, you are guaranteed a slot?
Madeline Hass: “Yes, yeah.”
How do you manage that? Do many people not actually make it through the required amount of hours?
Madeline Hass: “Not as many people make it as you would think. But also, all new DJs have to have a 2:00am to 4:00am or 4:00am to 6:00am showtime slot because we’re a 24/7 radio station, and that’s in safe harbor hours. So that way, also your first quarter DJ experience is not as high pressure, so if you mess up, likely not to run in as many issues there, specifically with FCC rules being broken when you’re in the safe harbor hours. Also, a lot of people tend to co-host a show when it’s between those early morning time slots. A lot of people like to alternate. So we don’t [always] keep it weekly, like I alternated with a co-host, so I did a 2:00am to 4:00am every other week with a co-host. But the volunteers, for real, run our station… They’re the reason we can do everything we do, and the reason we can have 24/7 programming is because first quarter DJs take on those graveyard shifts. But it’s kind of awesome because it builds camaraderie, because everyone’s done it, like everyone started off that way.”
What’s been the most fulfilling and exciting part of your position?
Madeline Hass: “Well, this is my first year doing the job, so [the other volunteer coordinator] and I got hired over the summer. And the best part is, honestly, just going to the events and seeing all the volunteers there, and getting to meet a bunch of new people helping build the KVDS community. KVDS has been the highlight of my college experience. It’s how I met my housemate and everything and some of my best friends. So it’s really cool to see that form for other people.”
It was encouraging to learn that Madeline finds the most rewarding aspect of her role to be building the KDVS community and seeing new volunteers’ experiences mirroring her own positive college experience. Over the course of our day at UCRN, I was pleased to discover that this was a common sentiment between many of the other college radio staff members and alumni.
During the second block of panels, KXLU and a few other schools led a DIY promotions panel including screen printing, custom pin-making, and bead-making. The KXLU team had all hands on deck to help demonstrate our multi-step screen printing process. Our panel focused on printing KXLU and UCRN designs onto blank shirts. Only 30 minutes in, a line of over 1000 UCRN attendees lined up with their blank shirts, tank-tops, and tote bags. The most popular, by far, was our new two-headed bunny design. We went about an hour past the scheduled panel timeframe to ensure everybody who wanted a shirt was able to get one.
I floated over to the bead-making station a few tables behind, where two KZSC staff members were demonstrating how to make custom banana slug keychains. I got to chatting with Abby Edelstein, the physical librarian at KZSC at UC Santa Cruz. I conducted a brief interview with her to learn more about her position, how she manages the station’s extensive collection of physical media, and her current efforts to digitize the library.
Abby and I talked about techniques for organizing vinyl and CDs in a physical music collection. I learned that KZSC’s new music is sorted by genre with the help of volunteers, and each item is labeled with a sticker containing the artist’s initials for alphabetization and tracking of play frequency. The collection is managed by eight to nine genre directors, around 30 subgenres, and their process aims to achieve a structured and inclusive method of organizing music. I also learned that the biggest challenge Abby faces is maintaining organization and ensuring all media is properly cataloged and returned to its correct place.
What’s your name and title at your station?
Abby Edelstein: “Hi. I’m Abby Edelstein. I’m the physical librarian at KZSC at UC Santa Cruz, and I’m mostly in charge of taking care of all of our extensive collection of physical media, and organizing it, protecting it, refiling anything that is floating around the station. Right now I’m trying to work on getting our library digitized, so that we can find stuff a lot easier. Because right now you’ve kind of got to go in and spend time searching for stuff. So [while] we’re starting to catalog our collection, I want to make it so that it’s a lot easier to find what you’re looking for, and so we know exactly what we have, because we have a lot of really cool stuff, and I feel like it’s just like buried in the collection… I want to make sure people are finding [music] and playing it on their shows more, and using physical media more, instead of just… playing stuff off Spotify.”
Do you have an estimate of how much physical media your station has? What are some of your biggest challenges in your role, and what does a typical day in your job usually look like?
Abby Edelstein: “I’m not exactly sure how much we have. It’s definitely in the tens of thousands. We have a pretty extensive CD collection, we have a whole room for that. And then in the main lobby of our station, we have…a ton of vinyl as well, and so, yeah, I think our biggest challenge is, honestly, just making sure things are organized and in the right spots. Because a lot of the times, people will play media and then not put it away. Then, it’s hard to keep track of, like… We don’t know if we have it or if it’s just, like, floating around, like, on the couch or something. So just making sure I have all the media and it’s in the right spot is probably the biggest challenge for me, and trying to figure out [organizing] our digital library right now.”
What is your favorite kind of physical media and why do you think it’s important?
Abby Edelstein: “I think my favorite is definitely vinyl. Because I just, I love hearing like, the crackle and stuff when you play it. And we have stuff like from the 70s and 60s…I just love seeing things that last, and I want to make sure it lasts… I think it’s super important, because we have a lot of [music that’s only on] physical media, that is not on Spotify or not online anywhere, [music] like it would be totally lost if we didn’t have the physical version of it.”
How do you organize your station’s physical media collection?
Abby Edelstein: “Our vinyl and CDs are organized by genre, and so when our new music comes in, we process it by having our volunteers, listen to it and sort it by genre. And then we put a little piece of tape that is color coordinated of which one it is. And then we also put a little marker, if it’s like, a queer artist or a woman artist, so we can… play those more because they’re underrepresented. And then we also have a little sticker on it that has like the first three letters of either the last name of the artist or the first word of the band name. And that’s how we alphabetize it. Then also on a little sticker, we write down when it gets played, so we know how often stuff is getting played.”
That’s really cool. How many genres do you guys organize by?
Abby Edelstein: “So, like, we have our genre directors who are kind of in charge of [organizing by particular genres]. We have about eight or nine of the genre directors. But [for] actual [genres] that we mark tape for, I think maybe 30 [sub-genres], but some are a lot bigger than others. Like, rock takes up a lot of the section versus like, experimental,l [which] is a much smaller section. We have a lot of different sub genres too.”
I let Abby get back to leading the bead-making workshop, then I noticed two people heading into the KCSB station, so I asked if I could tag along on their tour. As an avid physical media collector, it was incredibly exciting and inspiring to see another station’s collection and how they organize their media.
While exploring the station’s extensive, (retractable) shelves, I ran into Parker Doti, KCSB’s Music Director. He showed me around KCSB’s music archives in greater depth, and even graciously gave me a tour of his office. Yes, his office. I was incredibly impressed at the existence and size of said office. I wish I had an office…
What’s your name and title at your station?
Parker Doti: “My name is Parker Doti. I work for KCSB FM in Santa Barbara, and my position is Music Director.”
How many employees do you have at KCSB?
Parker Doti: “We have 12 staff employees and four advisors, career staff. And then, as for volunteers, all our DJs are volunteers.”
When did you start this position?
Parker Doti: “I started this position this school year, so a couple months ago, and I’ve been with KCSB since Fall of last year.”
What year are you in? What drew you to KCSB?
Parker Doti: “I am a second year, and…I just thought radio was cool, and I always wanted to be part of it. I kind of, I just got, like, a newsletter about KCSB. I was like, Oh, that seems cool. So newsletters work (laughs). I just like talking about music and writing about music and sharing it. So college radio felt like the perfect thing for me.”
And what kind of music do you listen to? I know [as a music director] you listen to everything, but, if you had to narrow it down...
Parker Doti: “So not to say everything, [because] I would have said everything, but [recently] I’ve been listening to a lot of, like, funk and jazz music. Specifically, I’ve been digging like, when, in the 70s, jazz musicians started getting really weird. Like [when] Miles Davis and John Coltrane started experimenting with more funk and free jazz and stuff like that, all that stuff I think is super cool.
Also, there’s a lot of cool Middle Eastern funk and soul music I’ve been digging recently. So check out, there’s a cool label called Habibi Funk. I’ve been super into them recently. So that’s a cool label to check out.”
What does a day here look like for you? And is it just you doing the music directing?
Parker Doti: “What I typically do is, there’s these shelves right here with all this music that needs to be listened to. It’s my job to go get that from the post office and the university center [and] bring it over here. I typically pull out a couple of them and review and listen to them on my own, but we have a music review committee that’s hosted every week, and a big group of volunteers come together and they check out CDs. They go home and listen to it and write a review for it, if it’s a good fit for our station, and come back and discuss it and talk about it.
[So] that’s how all these CDs get reviewed. So all the CDs in the library over there have volunteer reviews [from] over the past, like 20ish years or so.”
So all of this happens before they come to you?
Parker Doti: “So after I’ve received the CDs from the mail, we put them in these bins and put them out [in front of the station]. When the committee happens, people dig through them and take out what seems interesting, and then they go home and listen to them, review them, and then bring them back. I [also] write reviews [myself]. I’ve written reviews that are on the KCSB blog, and I’ve written reviews that get put in the library, but I also just do a lot of editorial work for reviews.”
So you don’t personally get to listen to every release that gets sent to your station.
“I don’t listen to everything, just because there’s a [lot] that gets sent. There’s too much. I listen to some, and then a lot of it is delegating that listening to volunteers who want to do it. And we have, like, a very good, solid base of music reviewers who come every week. So shout out [to the] KCSB music review committee!”
When filing new adds on the shelves, does it ever feel like you’re running out of space?
Parker Doti: “[New music is being added] constantly. [But] we still do have space. The shelves are getting pretty full, which is why we’ve been diligent about purging music too. Because music gets added at certain points in time to where now, like, maybe later. It doesn’t fit with our mission statement anymore, so we would eventually purge it. Like we’ve had, I don’t know, like, old Weeknd albums and stuff like that that people aren’t really playing, so we get rid of those so we have room for more music.”
How do you dispose of the music you decide to take off the station shelves?
“We donate them. Sometimes we do tabling, out there on the walkways where students walk by. We just put them in bins and people can dig through and take what they want, yeah, just donations.”
Awesome. What are some notable pieces of music that you’ve found in the KCSB archives?
“I already mentioned the Habibi Funk one. They’re this super cool label, and we have one CD of them. But it’s an eclectic mix of music from the Arab world. It’s a lot of funk, jazz and soul from the Middle East from the 1970s and 80s. [That] was a super cool find. It was in the compilation section. There’s this little booklet in [the CD] that has these crazy bios about all the musicians… I’m trying to remember other stuff I found, but so much stuff gets sent in.”
When you’re looking through CDs or vinyl or whatever, what makes you like pick one up? Because for me, I do certain labels and years. Like, I always pick up Elektra. Or I’ll pick up something if it’s from 1979 to like 1991. What’s your process?
Parker Doti: “It’s really just if the cover looks cool, I’m gonna be completely honest. I [do] feel like artists really need to put a lot of effort into their cover art, because that’s what people see initially. And they kind of like, I know, judge [music that way]. I know the saying, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but that’s what a lot of people really do. So with the Habibi funk one, I just thought it looked cool… I like how the orange text pops against the grayscale background, and he’s got, like, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, which is kind of cool. There’s all these dudes. It just looks really intriguing. So I was like, oh, that seems like a cool CD. That’s what made me want to come grab it.
So a lot of them are [also] just, like, shock value. It’s crazy. Kind of makes me want to listen to it. But then there’s like, ones, and then there’s just ones where, like, I don’t know, the CD cover isn’t as interesting and doesn’t really make me want to listen to it as much, but I’m really drawn to the ones that, like, if an artist puts a lot of effort into how their CD cover looks, then I don’t know. I think that’s cool.”
Why do you think physical media is important?
Parker Doti: “I think physical media is important because there’s not really that [same] kinetic energy when you’re playing music online, like [there is] when you’re holding the CD in your hand… [When] you’re holding the music in your hand, iit feels more real. And I think that’s really something that people should pay more attention to. And also, like, just CDs are cool. [And] the intention of putting it into your CD player…It’s like, a whole effort of putting it in and then listening to the full album. Like, on Spotify, it’s easy to just…shuffle and listen to a couple songs and just turn it off.
Cool stuff. We recommend it there too, but it’s so different. Definitely turn your phone off. It’s not there anymore. And people put so much effort into, like, the actual detailing of the CDs and, like, the little booklets, and there’s sometimes just, like, cool liner notes and stuff. And it’s also especially cool, like ones, like this one, where it’s like, obviously aged, it’s cool to see how personalized each one has become.”
Right? I’ve seen a lot of cool personalized notes on the LPS at our station.
Parker Doti: “Yeah, a friend of mine when I was younger, he was, he got really into like, different versions of the Beatles White Album, because it’s just like, it’s just like a white cover, but because it’s just that it’s been, like, personalized and augmented so much from like, copy to copy. It’s just cool to see all the different versions.”
If you had to pick, what is your favorite form of physical media? For me, I would say CDs, but I have more vinyl because I tend to find more of them when I’m at record stores or digging through KXLU’s archives.
Parker Doti: “Yeah, vinyl is cool… but I feel like not all formats work on vinyl, if that makes sense. So I feel like CDs. I like CDs. I love cassettes. Actually, cassettes are dope. I’m a big fan of cassettes.”
Cassettes are great, right? I started collecting them a few months ago myself.
Parker Doti: “Cassettes are cool. I don’t have a lot of cassettes, but I think cassettes are cool. They’re tiny, they look cool, [but they can be] inconvenient. But sometimes inconvenience is cool, I guess.”
“Sometimes inconvenience is cool.”
Parker Doti, KCSB Music Director
On my way out of the KCSB station, I began chatting with Greta Fennelly, the Station Manager of KRFH 105.1 FM. We talked about KRFH’s multiple teams, including events, production, and PR, and the station’s need for better funding and recognition for station managers. Despite their small budget and limited resources, the station is growing. Greta also told me about her experience working at FLIRT FM in Galway, Ireland, over the summer, where I learned about differences in content and programming regulations overseas.
What’s your name and what do you do at your station?
Greta Fennelly: “My name’s Greta Fennelly [aka] DJ Gretch. I’m the Station Manager of KRFH 101.5FM, if you want more info, there’s KRFH.net. and we are a fully, completely student-run radio station composed of multiple different teams, and we have managers for each team. There’s the events team, radio production team, production team radio drama, radio drama team, PR, and fundraising. Our primary events are, we have elixir Palooza, which is a once a semester music festival. And then we also have something called the 48 hour TJ zone, where it is 48 hours of straight live programming with each individual and unique show for each 48 hour, which will comprise of a live produced radio drama play as well as live band performance and other fun things like live mixing.
We’re fully student run. We currently have a team of about 60 students running the station. We are currently fighting for at least some sort of payment for our station managers. We run off of an insanely small budget. We’re very limited in our resources and our capacities, but we’re continuing to grow and improve every semester. And you know, we wouldn’t be able to do it without all of the lovely dedication of our incredible DJs.”
How big is your school?
Greta Fennelly: “8000, maybe 9000 students.”
What does your programming look like?
Greta Fennelly: “So, all 60 DJs have their own shows or more shows. Like, I have five hours on air a week.”
Five hours?! How do you get five hours? Do you have different programs?
Greta Fennelly: “Yeah, I have 4 different shows. So I have one show, Wednesday mornings with my friend Madison, called the crisis hour. And then Wednesday nights, from 9:00pm to 11:00pm, I have my own show, eclectic ox, which I’ve been doing for [over] three years now. And then I have side tangent which is my own, like specific, direct show, which is more research based. And then I have a group show called the garden party with me, DJ milkman, DJ Scotty and DJ maiden.”
That’s amazing. Wow. How did you get into radio?
Greta Fennelly: “I don’t know. I just always knew I wanted to do radio. And then, first semester, I got set as PR co-manager, and then I managed PR for a year, and then got promoted to station manager and running the whole shebang.”
So is radio a big thing at your school? Like, it seems like you go to a smaller school, yet there’s still a lot of people in your community.
Greta Fennelly: “I think that our community is really music based, like, we have a super strong local music community, so it’s something that people are really invested in, and it’s easy to get into. And, yeah, I just think KRFH, really creates an inspirational environment. I’m an art history major… The fact that I’m involved with this so much is insane. But, you know, over the summer, while studying abroad, I also got to work at FLIRT FM in Galway, Ireland. I had my own show there called California Gal, and it was so fun learning about the local music community there and how other radio stations operate outside of the rules of the FCC.
Something really unique about abroad programming is that they don’t operate under the guise of the FCC. So, like, say, you wanted to have a sex therapist on. You could do that in the middle of the day and the school day when all the kids are at school because they like, it’s like, it’s common sense based, you know, like, kids will not be tuned into the radio. Therefore, you could have, like, an educational segment like that. And then also, in terms of profanity, it’s differently operated because I had my show from like 8:00pm to 9:00pm on Monday nights. So as it slowly got later and later into the night, I could incorporate songs with more explicit words.”
Does Ireland have an equivalent of the FCC?
Greta Fennelly: “No, they don’t. It’s really cool. I think it’s just primarily common sense based, and maybe if, like, you really messed up and, like, did something that’s totally out there, you might get in trouble or fined by somebody, but I don’t know who.”
Very interesting. What has been something you have learned this year, or one of your biggest challenges?
Greta Fennelly: “I think that if you want change somewhere, you’re gonna have to be the one to fight for it. Like, this year, like, I’m really just fighting for funding. Like the fact that our school can spend $30,000 on a drone show, that looks horrible, but I can’t get $50 a month for putting in 60 hour plus weeks. I’m gonna have to go out there. I’m gonna have to go to the department heads, I’m gonna have to go to the chancellors, and I’m gonna have to be the one to fight for grants and funding so that our radio can continue, regardless of passion and dedication, like we deserve to pay positions for the extreme amount of work we’re all doing.”
Totally. So your main goal this year is finding funding. How are you doing that?
Greta Fennelly: “Yelling at authority figures and searching for grants and just being loud and annoying and vocalizing my opinion and what I think we deserve.”
Well, I believe in you, and I admire your passion, and thank you so much for chatting with me.
After chatting with a few more college radio folks, my coworkers and I walked around the lovely UCSB campus at sunset and admired the unfamiliar architecture. My personal favorite building was this tower:
After the conference, a few of us decided to check out the DIY Santa Barbara music scene at a house show near the campus. The show, featuring some local bands including Blair Gun, ended up being one of the most authentic, high-energy shows I’ve ever been to. Everyone was dancing, smiling, socializing, as if we had known each other for years. At one point, something even possessed me to get in the mosh pit for the first time since I was like, 12… I didn’t stay on my feet for long, and I left with a gnarly scrape on my right knee. With a strict midnight cutoff for all of the house parties, we were back at the hotel and in bed by 12:30. I left UCRN Santa Barbara feeling inspired and hopeful for the future of college radio. My coworkers and I came back to LA with some new ideas we hope to implement into KXLU’s operations. I’m looking forward to next year’s conference already.
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