Student-run KWUR amplifies various music, scholar sounds

“Hello and welcome to Música in Missouri!”

It’s 3 p.m. on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and sophomore Natalia León Díaz is kicking off her weekly DJ set with co-host and fellow sophomore Andrés Orbegozo. The two are DJs for KWUR 90.3 FM Clayton — KWUR for brief — Washington University in St. Louis’ student-run radio station since 1976.

Each week, they give attention to a style or a particular nation. This week, the theme is guajira.

“Guajira is a music style derived from punto cubano,” León Díaz says into the mic. “It revolves round themes that pertain to the countryside and has a nostalgic high quality.”

León Díaz and Orbegozo are two of the 75 scholar DJs who host weekly exhibits that highlight distinctive — and infrequently obscure — genres and artists. Other exhibits function jazz deep cuts, international R&B and home music. After broadcasting on-line just for a number of years, KWUR is again on the airwaves, providing scholar programmers a chance to share their passions and listeners an opportunity to find one thing new.

“We have an enormous range of exhibits by way of varieties of music, however we even have speak exhibits, historic dives and even readings,” stated senior Spencer Kates, KWUR co-general supervisor, who hosts the present “À la mode,” a weekly set that includes eclectic rock and folks music.

Students can catch a few of these acts stay throughout KWUR Week March 25-29. The annual free live performance collection will function hardcore band We Weren’t Invited (8 p.m. Monday, March 25, at Blueberry Hill); a scholar band showcase (7 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, at Risa Commons on the South 40); jazz artists Daniel Hererra and Braxton Hart Quartet (7 p.m. Thursday, March 28, at Ridgley Hall, Holmes Lounge); and indie act Horsegirl, alt-R&B singer Lydia Newsom and WashU breakout act Non-Euclidean Geometry, which is fronted by Kates (8 p.m. Friday, March 28, at Blueberry Hill).

“We have a document variety of DJs this yr, and KWUR has had a rising group exterior of our DJs, so we predict a terrific turnout,” Kates stated. “I’m actually wanting ahead to our scholar present. This is the primary time in KWUR historical past the place we now have a devoted present for college kids throughout KWUR Week, and I can’t wait to see them play.”

Located within the Danforth University Center, the KWUR studios are coated with band posters and stuffed with stacks of vinyl records, lots of them marked with notes by DJs from previous generations. (Photo: Jin Park/Washington University)

KWUR broadcasts on 90.3 FM utilizing a 10-megawatt sign, which solely reaches a few mile past the Danforth Campus. For context, Kates stated many school radio stations function on 1,000 watts, whereas industrial radio stations often broadcast on 10,000 to 100,000-watt alerts.

To complement this restricted attain, DJs stream stay audio by way of the platform Mixlr, permitting folks to hear everywhere in the world. On this Sunday, León Díaz’s household is tuning in from Puerto Rico.

Different platforms, nevertheless, include totally different guidelines. On Mixlr, DJs can play music immediately from streaming sources equivalent to Spotify and Apple Music. But per Federal Communications Commission tips, radio stations should personal copies of the music they play on air. In a world the place most younger folks don’t personal the music they take heed to, this will pose a problem. Luckily, the KWUR studio is stacked with many years of vinyl records, cassette tapes and CDs, all out there to DJs for enjoying on air.

KWUR has its personal insurance policies as effectively. Because the station’s mission is to share music that folks could not in any other case encounter, DJs should play three new releases per present and songs with fewer than 10 million streams on Spotify. Even with these restrictions, DJs get loads of inventive liberty to make exhibits their very own.

“I simply love doing it,” Orbegozo stated. “Even although I generally find yourself placing the playlist collectively at 1 within the morning, I simply get sucked into doing it. It’s actually a labor of affection.”

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March 21, 2024 at 04:10PM