College radio leaving an influence on Stonehill and Bridgewater State campuses

By Bobby Calobrisi
Listening to the radio on 92.3 Pro FM, Ellen Rathburn is sure she has heard this song somewhere before.
“It’s really funny usually, ‘Where do I know this song? They say it’s brand new. I’ve heard this before.’ Oh, we played this on WBIM four or five months ago.”
Rathburn is the general manager at the Bridgewater State College radio station 91.5 WBIM-FM and recalls Lily Allen music being played on WBIM her freshman year and hearing her again on Pro FM a year or so ago.
“It’s really nice to know that we do have somewhat of an influence,” said the senior. “Our charting and listenership gets to pick what [eventually] goes on these big time stations and what ultimately becomes popular sometimes.”
In an era of commercial broadcast stations that play predominately mainstream music nationwide, over 1,400 college radio stations are becoming the local alternative.
Jeremiah McCarthy, the general manager at Stonehill College’s 91.3 WSHL-FM, says that college radio is known for featuring up and coming artists.
“It’s a place for us to get undiscovered and budding artists before they catch on to the greater public.”
Peter Q. George, general manager of 95.1 WXRB-FM in Dudley, Mass., as the chief engineer for both Stonehill College and Bridgewater State College radio stations, said, “College radio has the flexibility to play up-and-coming music [without] having to worry about ratings.”
George says that college radio gives students a look into the professional landscape of running a radio station.
“Both mine and colleges offer public service to the community and we are aware of an audience in mind,” he said. "Both have an avid listener base that will swear by what we play."
Geoffrey Lantos, a professor at Stonehill and academic advisor for WSHL, resides in Easton, Mass. and says listening off campus provides insight into Stonehill’s campus life.
“It’s not tightly scripted like a professional station. It’s more conversational, more laid back, easy going [with] no strict time limits,” he said. “It speaks more to college students directly.”
Chris McCormick, who maintains the computers as WSHL’s Information Technology representative, thinks it is good for a college station to have alternative programming.
“It’s not like, ‘You have to play this or you’re fired,’” said the Stonehill senior. “We wouldn’t have any DJs if it was like that.”
Both WBIM and WSHL programming includes hip hop, alternative rock, indie rock, rpm
(a mix of techno and dance), metal, as well as talk radio.
George says each station’s signal covers seven to eight towns: WBIM’s signal covers the southeast direction toward Middleboro while WSHL’s signal goes northwest toward Brockton.
“Each station has a potential listenership of 175,000 people on FM alone,” said George.
WSHL and WBIM make sure there is no dead air when DJs aren’t in the studio.
Using Zara radio, a free program software, students store alternate playlists, taglines and their own recordings, said McCormick.
Rathburn says the majority of emails to WBIM ask how to get their bands on the air.
“A lot of bands send us stuff to play demos,” she said. “We never turn anything away. We try to give everyone a shot.”
The WBIM staff goes into Boston and Providence to listen to artists whose albums have been sent to them by music promoters.
“We’ll [listen] to other bands too that we absolutely love that are opening for [artists we’ve played] or playing in other show next door and grab CDs and just add them to our rotation too,” said Rathburn.
WBIM does community outreach work on and off campus for Boy Scouts and Club Scouts in the Bridgewater area; Relay for Life; a heart disease event; open-mike nights; and air guitar competitions.
“We really put ourselves out there on campus and try to get involved with as many people as we can,” said Rathburn.
Rathburn said WBIM started reworking its station dynamic by revamping its programming by introducing a news talk show and hip hop as well as rpm. She says that the station is trying to alter away from medal music.
“We definitely are finding a lot of hits before they make it onto the charts, but we are trying to expose Bridgewater State [College] and surrounding communities to music that they wouldn’t hear on other radio stations; stuff that people at our station are passionate about and want to share with the community,” said Rathburn.
In the future, Rathburn says WBIM will be looking to do more community work and underwriting, where a business exchanges goods and services, like giveaways, for on-air advertising.
Extending their services to the Stonehill Community, WSHL has been asked to DJ events for the Office of Health and Wellness; Relay for Life; Earth Week; and the Stonehill chapter of Silent Witness Initiative.
“Working public events gets our name out to people who maybe aren’t aware that the school has a radio station,” said McCarthy.
For the past two years, the Office of Health and Wellness has asked WSHL to DJ the fall and spring health fairs that raise awareness to prevent injury, illness and disease.
“The music for the spring fair was particularly well chosen with a wide range of easy listening yet modern music that people could be seen moving along to the beat of softly singing along to the songs,” says Jessica Greene, wellness coordinator, via email.
For WSHL, McCarthy wants the station to have a greater presence on campus.
This means having more of an active relationship with clubs and organizations utilizing the station’s DJ services.
“If more people are aware we have the capability [to provide service] we would be a greater presence on campus,” he said.
WSHL is in the process of setting up a master computer to store everything from music playlists and downloads to underwrites and public service announcements. This will make it easier for DJ selection, says McCarthy.
Long after he graduates, McCarthy just wants students involved with the radio station to stay committed to it.
“Some students don’t know how lucky they have it to have a radio show,” he said. “Other stations may require you to take a class and they have a lot less freedom of what to play and when to play it.”