Radio Nowhere

in Campus Life Features by Brad Nelson and Josh Culpepper — August 31, 2009 at 8:43 pm | 0 comments

These days, it seems as though everyone occupies his or her own little bunker of sound. Between the explosion of personal choice afforded by iPods and the rigid, authoritarian playlists of Clear Channel-choked radio, why not side with the former’s righteous democracy? Besides, few people these days really pay any heed to the call of the radio. Aside from a few gems, like National Public Radio and a local station now and again, one would be hard pressed to listen to a station more than 30 minutes without hearing a repeat of some obnoxious song that was nearly unbearable the first time it played.

Radio seems a thing of the past, an archaic mechanism that has magnificent potential, but like anything else that turns a profit it has been greatly abused. Now, it merely breeds conformity.

Which is why the presence of Wolf Pack Radio, a decidedly non-repetitive station that scours beyond the radar for both new music, is meant to be a relief.

Historically, Wolf Pack Radio has had issues with connecting to the University of Nevada, Reno, as well as to Reno at large. The station, when fed through a car radio set at 1700 AM, can be indistinct fuzz even within feet of campus. PC owners can readily stream the .asx encoded station (the format belongs to the bug-heavy and resource-draining Windows Media Player), but some must go to arduous lengths and download previously unknown software to stream the station on a Mac.

And like its media brethren, radio is heavily transforming in the wake of online and new media, in which one can stream any desired song after a quick Google search.

While most media are finding new, unsure footing on the Web, Wolf Pack Radio has always been an online presence, even before securing an AM channel.

“The internet has been the backbone of Wolf Pack Radio from the beginning and I can see it really being the future of it,” says Steven Owens, general manager of Wolf Pack Radio.

Owens cited KEXP, a Seattle radio station based out of the University of Washington, as an influence on Wolf Pack Radio’s forward movements. “You go to their Web site and see that it’s archives of interviews, it’s streaming music, they have their radio station on there, they’ve got reviews, everything,” he says. “That’s the future of college radio.”

The station’s imminent desire, according to Owens, is to incorporate podcasting, so as to break out of streaming constrictions and to archive shows and interviews.

“Not everyone can listen all the time,” he says.

The station will also dedicate some of its budget to purchasing a new encoder.

“It will make (the station) not only Mac-friendly, but really Mac-friendly,” says Owens. “Everyone has their iPhones now and iTunes has an FM streaming feature. The new encoder would allow us to work with that.”

The Web site will change as well to reflect the more flexible KEXP model.

“We’ve actually simplified our Web site to WordPress-based design so we can start to incorporate music reviews,” says Owens. “We want to be more than just a radio station. We want to be more of a music source.”

Wolf Pack Radio is also continuing its long, uphill battle for an FM signal, which would overcome the AM signal’s limited range. The station has been in the talks with Truckee Meadows Community College about sharing their already-acquired FM license. Since 1995, the two have had an agreement to share the license. Now the issue is no longer in the hands of either party—the Federal Communications Commission has yet to approve the signal.

“If they approved it tomorrow, it’d still be a two to three year window before we’d actually get on FM,” he says. “So all we can do in the meantime is increase our internet presence and our AM presence and our general University presence.”

An FM license is incredibly difficult for a college radio station to acquire in the first place, according to Van Pham, former Wolf Pack Radio general manager.

“College radio stations are typically relegated to lower FM numbers,” she says. “They’re also in really high competition with religious stations, so there’s really not much space in the market for things like that to happen.”

Why pursue the FM route when so many options for personal radio are available, from streaming music to iPods?

“It’s hard to say,” Owens says. “The presence of iPods has killed many an industry, CDs and all that and radio included.”

Owens offers his own behavior as a sign of hope.

“I listen to Wolf Pack Radio whenever I’m driving generally,” he says. “The signal’s not too great but I still get it between my house and here. I still use my radio and a lot of my friends still use the radio.”

Wolf Pack Radio will continue to act in their role as an essentially independent, “underground station.” Bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and Arcade Fire have been staples in the “indie” music scene for years, but outside of that cult following, one would be hard pressed to find even a small bevy of people who knew who these bands are or what they do. This is the epidemic Owens and Ray Eliot, music director at Wolf Pack Radio, are still out to cure.

Eliot is the man through which all the music played at the station passes through. With discriminating tastes he fords through the rushing current of what he calls “a shotgun blast” of music. Promotional CDs are sent to him daily in distended envelopes of yellow and white, packed to the gills with pleasures for audiophiles.

“I kind of roll with whatever sounds good,” says Eliot. “You typically want something short, fast and punchy to appeal to people, but a lot of the times you go with, ‘I know Animal Collective’s going to be good because it’s Animal Collective.’ ”

This studious combing for important yet buried music is why Owens finds college radio an essential part of campus life.

“It gives people an opportunity to express their views on pop culture that would otherwise be overlooked,” he says. “It’s a voice for those who don’t really have a voice in any pop culture outlets.”

WORDS BY BRAD NELSON AND JOSH CULPEPPER
PHOTOS BY CARL RAYMOND AND SCOTT BARNETT