DMB Killed the Radio Star

I'll always have warm fuzzies when I think about WSBF, Clemson University's radio station. I was never on the staff there, but many of my friends were, and my time at Semantics left me next door. My freshman year, we helped WSBF end an era as all the student media groups moved from the old building with the smelly couches to the new, less smelly, more sterile student union. My brother has been active with WSBF since his own freshman year at Clemson, rising the ranks to senior staff and to station engineer. He works with many of my old friends there.

Now, it seems that WSBF is poised to end another era with a change that will have a bigger impact on the rest of Clemson than a change in setting. The station will be expanding its playlist, allowing DJs to play music by top-40 groups if those groups have not yet attained a gold record.

I'm not sure that the difference between a Top-40 ranking and a Gold Record is a big one. Maybe it's not. But on a visceral level, I don't like the change. I don't understand the change. A college radio station that plays almost entirely unknown, strange, indie music is never going to appeal [as a first-choice station] to the listener who still gets pumped up over the occasional Brittany Spears, pre-crazy, song. And to those who actually listen to college stations, this change could be a bad thing. Stuff White People Like got it right--there's huge appeal in music no one else has heard. College is about growing up, experiencing new things, getting smarter, and being weird. A college radio station should reflect all that.

I can see the opportunities behind going more "mainstream." The local college station here, WICB, mixes in popular music all the time, and they're up for an MTV music award.

But I'd take WSBF over WICB any day, even though I have never heard Scremo on WICB. I always feel so sad to hear a music block consisting of REM, Radiohead, and Incubus. It doesn't matter to me that I like the more popular songs. There are two or three other stations here that are doing the same thing. Give me more Sun Kil Moon please.

People will talk about that new take on "Wasn't that a Mighty Storm" and how bummed they are that they can't find it on YouTube. No one cares that you heard the newest Radiohead song for the fiftieth time today.

College kids, please keep radio weird.