How do you listen to music?
Do you ever listen to the radio? What about college radio stations?
Do you enjoy putting together music playlists? Could you see yourself as a D.J.?
In “College Radio Keeps Its Cool,” Nathan Deuel writes:
On an early morning, outside the student center at Loyola Marymount University, gardeners trim bushes around the “sunken garden,” which — this being Los Angeles — is actually a massive and manicured green lawn. It’s too early for most students, but Elias Herrera, a slim marketing major in a black T-shirt, chunky glasses and bluejeans, is browsing the Latin jazz and salsa CDs in the sprawling collection at KXLU, an unlikely powerhouse of college radio. Some call it the very best in the nation.
It’s approaching 9 a.m., and Mr. Herrera, a 21-year-old senior, needs to go live. On a station that includes an opera show that has been on the air for 50 years; a killer bluegrass, country and Americana program; and possibly the nation’s most astonishing reggae D.J., KXLU showcases Mr. Herrera’s genre fusion show, “Papunky,” which he says is named after his paternal grandfather. “He was a bit of a troublemaker,” Mr. Herrera says. “I always imagine him listening in.”
The booth is a crypt when Mr. Herrera closes the door. A student who recently finished an internship at an ad agency, a guy whose parents run a couple of ultrahip coffee shops in San Diego and a young man with a girlfriend who sings in her own band, Mr. Herrera proceeds with solemnity and seriousness, cracking his laptop and straightening a stack of CDs. With care, he pulls a protective covering over the microphone, notes the time and gets ready.
“Live from the blufftops of Loyola Marymount University,” he says. “I’m Elias Herrera, and this is my show, ‘Papunky.’”
The article explains what it takes to host a show:
Whether you’re streaming KXLU from Europe or listening to FM radio on the 405, the impression lingers: It’s a lot of work to host a show. While holding a full load as a student, Mr. Herrera said he spends at least a dozen hours each week hunting tracks.
Most KXLU D.J.s share a similar origin story. Self-described as invisible when she was in high school, Ms. McAllister said she found her “tribe” at the station, where she met the man who would become her husband and a group she said are still her best friends. Mr. Herrera had a similar experience, seeing the KXLU booth at a student fair and immediately realizing these were his people.
During a conversation in KXLU’s performance room, where the singer-songwriter Julie Doiron recently played live for several hours, the station manager Lydia Ammossow, 54, one of two members of the station’s professional staff, explained how she attended Loyola in the 1990s but wasn’t cool enough to D.J. “I wore cardigans and ribbons in my hair,” she said. But now in her third decade here, Ms. Ammossow is the station’s undisputed den mother.
Can places like KXLU survive, when the technological pull feels squarely in the opposite direction? “One administrator can kill a college radio station,” Dr. Jewell said, while adding that she feels the health of such stations is strong, because the ideals of do it yourself, camaraderie and community feel so urgent and attractive to so many people, on campus and off.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
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If you were a D.J., what music would you play?
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Share other details about your show: What would you call it? Would you have an alias or D.J. name? What time slot would you pick?
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Make a playlist for one of your shows. Or put together a collection of three to five songs with a theme, and submit it to our “My List” contest.
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KXLU has an extensive vinyl collection. Do you collect music in any physical formats, such as vinyl, cassettes or CDs? Do you see value in holding on to these objects?
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What’s your reaction to the article? Are you a fan of college radio? Would you want to tune in to one of the stations mentioned in the story?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
Michael Gonchar is the editor of The Times’s Learning Network. He spent 16 years in New York City public schools as a teacher, instructional coach and curriculum specialist.
The post Would You Want to Be a D.J.? appeared first on New York Times.
