Radio Free College

There's a documentary coming out about how great and transformative college radio was in the 1980s/90s and yasssss I want some now:

A team of filmmakers this week debuted the first teaser trailer for “35,000 Watts: The Story of College Radio,” a documentary they say will tell “the untold story of college radio brought to life by the students behind the mic and the bands they made famous” — and they’re looking for help funding the project.

I regret that I was only a college dj for one semester; I wish I could find some of the old cassettes I recorded of some "comedy bits", or just teaching my peers how to fucking rock.

Some previous Xmastime love for those days:

My experience as a college radio dj was nothing like that. I was once a college dj hero, kicking off my first-ever show with:

Do You remember Rock 'n Roll Radio
Holidays in Cambodia
The Kids are Alright

I was only a dj for a semester; I got tired of people calling up to hear the Red Holt Chili Peppers. I'd instruct them to put their hand on the radio dial and spin it in either direction and they'd probably get one. Plus, it was lonely in there by yourself - the most fun I had was when I brought a buddy into the studio and I did a "the lead singer from DT and the Shakes has died" show, and he pretended to be two of the band members - one distraught, one glad. Mostly I ended up badgering girls into calling in and talking to me. Of course we didn't have a speakerphone, so the listeners could only hear my end of the conversation. Of course. Luckily we only had 10 watts, meaning that if you were about 3 feet away from the station you couldn't hear it. Sigh. Memories.

ps - my fellow dj? jennie fennell:

We never became best buds or nothing, but through the years we'd meet up every once in a while and talk about how much we loved the Ramones, culminating with our senior year when she was responsible for bringing them to play at our Student Union. The night before the show we did a 3-hour all-Ramones radio show (which pretty much was the same radio show I did every week anyways), then the next day got to hang out with them before they played. Fucking awesome. She remained the only other person I ever met at school who knew, much less loved, the Ramones and I can still picture her walking into the dining hall with that black t-shirt on.