On the Air With WGMU

I remember hearing local college radio station while visiting friends in Virginia and Maryland. It never surprised me that they listened to their college stations—but there were a number of non-university people, or "townies" as they were sometimes referred to by students, who also listened to them. I even remember a few parties at locals' houses where DJing responsibilities were left entirely to the college radio station, often resulting from a squabble over people interrupting others' songs or messing with people's CDs or stereos.

When asked about their choice of station, the townies said they discovered interesting bands through student DJs and were spared the slew of played-out or plain awful songs from larger stations.

To be fair, my friends at these universities were music snobs and hipsters, (I'm one of them), and their townie friends were no different. Even though they didn't all agree on a favorite band or artists, there was still a shared sense that mainstream radio was, at best, bland or, more typically the response, an abomination. For them, college radio was a chance to hear Joy Division or the Smiths or the latest band to ride a crest of Internet hype and sensationalism.

Things are slightly different here in Fairfax.

George Mason University's college radio station, WGMU, has not had an AM/FM frequency for quite a while, instead working only online. As local residents can't happen upon the station while tuning through the available frequencies, WGMU is not particularly well-known outside of the college community, and even on campus there is plenty of room to grow into. I haven't wandered into any Fairfax house parties where WGMU was being played nor has anyone told me about a local or independent artist they heard for the first time on the station. And beyond radio waves and bandwidth issues, with iPods and iPhones, a bunch of indie and local music blogs and websites, Internet entities like Pandora, and the popularity of local radio stations such as DC101 and Hot 99.5, WGMU has their work cut out for them.

What role can WGMU play in the Fairfax community?

So I asked Alexander Romano, the current Program Director at WGMU.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked as music director at WGMU for three semesters and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I worked under two program directors, the last being Alex. As music director, your focus is far more on the distributors and record labels who send the station records and the student DJs who will be playing these records than on the big picture. This being the case, I rarely was able to pop my head up—or, rather, take off my headphones, hang up the phone, or sign out of my never-empty email— to notice much more than what records were popular the last week and what records we were being asked to push the next.

LGLP: While the George Mason campus community is obviously your main priority, how does WGMU attempt to engage the local Fairfax community?

AR: This is something we've been trying to work on in the past few years. We have reached out to local bands and have held performances at the university that are open to everyone, but in terms of getting the word out there to the local community and engaging them in our activities, we haven't done that so much. Our main priority are the students of George Mason. Once we have them we'll be able to put more resources towards reaching out to Fairfax. What we have done is engage local business in joint advertising ventures and opportunities here with WGMU, so we do keep local businesses involved.

Do you think it is difficult to engage the Fairfax community because WGMU is an online radio station as opposed to an AM/FM band radio station?

I get this question a lot. I think in a way it is difficult due to that restriction, but we really are in a new age and we are a college radio station. This is something I try to stress to everyone. The audience in which we serve and target is totally connected and always online, therefore we are an online radio station. It would be nice to have an AM/FM frequency, but I think it would create a lot more headaches for us then we need. This is the age of the Internet, and that's where we are. Always moving forward and ahead here at WGMU.

Local music is a staple of WGMU's broadcasting. How do you see WGMU's relationship with Fairfax and NoVA-area bands? Are there changes you'd like to make regarding this relationship? Is there anything you'd like local bands to know about WGMU? 
I think we are fairly well known with NoVA area bands and respected. We get a lot of requests from bands to perform in our shows or to put their music on our station. There's nothing that I would like to change in that regard. We have a local music director and all she does is locals. There is quite a bit of concentration on it. Local bands should know that we're here and if they want to submit their music for consideration of air time play please send it to: ATTN: Local Music Director, WGMU 4400 University Drive MS 4B7 Fairfax, VA 22030.

WGMU often sets up and helps with George Mason University's concerts. What shows can Fairfax residents look forward to this year?

There's nothing I can reveal yet, but Fairfax residents should definitely keep tuned for some exciting new stuff this year. We'll be sure to send Fairfax City Patch a press release and or schedule of events when all the dates are finalized.

 
What plans do you have for WGMU this year? Where do you feel you are and where would you like to go?

I think we need to work on providing to the students what they want, period. We need to play the music that they want to hear, cover the news they want to hear and talk about what they want us to talk about. We're working hard on changing some of the way we do things. College radio should be fun and cool and that's what we're working on. We're going to certainly have a bigger presence in the university community and we're going to start playing some different music; the music college students want to hear, mixed in with the new stuff out there they don't know about (i.e. locals, etc.).

 
Is there anything else you'd like to say about WGMU?

At WGMU we're always playing and talking about what you want to hear…24/7, 365 days a year. We're nonstop and always on at www.wgmuradio.com. From local music shows where we interview bands and play their music, to news/sports talk shows to techno/house trance music, '90s rock and the hottest music of today… we have it all. We're looking for suggestions from people in the university community and outside of it on how to make our station more desirable to our listeners. We're always looking for volunteers and there are opportunities for non-students at the station too. If there are professional radio stations outside of VA looking to interview a professor at the university or someone in the area we have the equipment to do so. We are ISDN line capable and have worked with NPR member stations and other stations throughout the country. 

Our emphasis at WGMU is on music, but we're also swaying into the news segment to cover a different genre and open up some more doors to the variety of listeners we have. Please contact me at: aromano3@gmu.edu if you have any questions.