Beyond just rocking out to your favorite music, being a college DJ is educational. College DJs learn about the world of radio, they learn about marketing, music promotion and dealing with a live audience. “Obviously the involvement of college students is important,” says Trinity University’s Station Manager at KRTU-FM, Ryan Weber, “A lot of the students who come in don’t know a thing. As far as knowledge of the format, most of them don’t know any of the bands we’re playing. It’s an educational experience through and through,” DJ Ryan explains, “One of the things we’re really dealing with a lot is we have kids who are 18, 19, 20 years old, and it’s really easy for them to program music they like. But most of our listeners aren’t interested in that. They have to program to people who aren’t just their buddies. There’s a difference between DJing in your dorm room, and DJing for other people and getting them to think outside of themselves.”
That’s the challenge for many college DJs—playing for the masses while still pleasing themselves. College DJs select music like an artist selects paint colors. From getting promotional information from distribution companies, to digging through the old vinyl collection in the storeroom, college DJs truly care about what they play, and they have more freedom to play what they want in a college environment than almost anywhere else. “You can find people that know things about genres that you’ve never heard of,” says University of Texas DJ Loren, “I don’t know where else you [can] find that. The people [working in college radio] are really knowledgeable and the most educated [about] music that you’ll find.”
Musicbizacademy.com reports there are 10,000 commercial radio stations and 2500 non-commercial (college) radio stations. So only 1 in 5 radio stations is a college station. The majority of commercial stations answer to promotion companies who promote college bands, but many of those stations won’t sift through an entire pile of CDs to discover a new artist. For most, the number one criteria is that the music fit the station’s established format.
The difference with college radio is that most college radio stations have a ”free-form” or open format. “I read about the artists and we listen to the CD,” says NMSU’s DJ Glory of KRUX-FM, “If we think it’s something that will do well on the station or something we can check out, we will [play it]. We look for the best quality of [music]. We don’t pass [over] a lot of music [because] we try to give everything a chance.” That’s amazing considering the fact that college radio stations are flooded with new music daily. Most bands sign up with a promotional company and let them do all the dirty work. However, some go to extremes to get their record played on the air. College DJs will tell you that the best way for bands to keep themselves off the “Don’t Play” list is to simply be themselves and be original. They say one of the biggest turn-offs is to hear local bands who just copy other artists. “I like bands who use a lot of textures and elements,” U.T. DJ Loren says. “People who have a unique story or background to [their music].”
But as the competition for radio spots rises, some bands go to extremes to be played. However, most college radio DJs agree, the best thing to do is to submit your album [to the radio station] and not be a nag. A good album cover doesn’t hurt either. “In the local scene, we’re pretty easy going,“ says Trinity University DJ Ryan, “With that stuff, if it just gets to our doorstep, we’re pretty generous with it. But [if] things like album art catch the eye, we might give it a listen instead of letting it sit a little bit. It’s kinda silly, but it happens.“ At least that’s good news for bands who make themselves stand out.
