Back in the day, I did college radio: 90.5 FM is WUOG Athens.
This morning, I saw this clip online. This is what we had in rotation during the week of October 23, 1991–and then add in your open slots.
Back in the day, I did college radio: 90.5 FM is WUOG Athens.
This morning, I saw this clip online. This is what we had in rotation during the week of October 23, 1991–and then add in your open slots.
And glad to see Roosevelt in heavy rotation. We had the best music scene back then. (Plus these dudes were way nice.)
MC 900 Ft Jesus! Yaaaaaaassssss!
Also:
In reply to Duke :
Yeah, we weren't screwing around.
In reply to Duke :
I had completely forgotten about that guy until I was watching Beavis and Butt-Head and they played one of his videos.
In reply to Mndsm :
Bow bow b-bow-wow-wow
Bow
B-b-b-b-bow-wow-wow
Also, Mudhoney! Berk yeah!
And Deacon Lunchbox, may he Rest in Peace. He was from Atlanta but played Athens a bit.
Sadly, he and two members of The Jody Grind, an Atlanta band, were killed while returning from a show. An oncoming driver crossed the median. I still remember getting the call while in the JD booth to spread the word. Haunting, even all these years later.
Interesting to see Kraftwerk in both heavy and medium.
And Jello Biafra but no DK's??
In reply to jgrewe :
Heavy and medium rotation featured new/recent material, so for Nirvana, it was Nevermind–this was just before the album blew up, as I recall. Jello released an album in 1991, too. I'm going to guess everyone listed on heavy and medium that week had something new, so that was the album in rotation.
The albums in rotation were placed in milk crates down on the left side of the studio. If the album was on CD, then it was in the rack on the right side of the studio–kinda above the turntables. There was a process that kept the music mixed nicely. Our programming department probably didn't get the credit that they deserved. They picked the albums but the DJ's selected the songs–assuming it didn't feature four-letter words.
Yeah, interesting to see Kraftwerk listed twice. I see that they release a compilation album that year. Did they release something else that year? Could be a typo, too. We were young and didn't have computers. That piece was produced via the literal form of cut and paste.
Each DJ got to fill open slots, too, so that's where you'd slip in your DK, etc.
We also had specialty shows that broke from standard rotation. I usually did midnight to 3:00 on Wednesday nights–standard rotation–and also hosted a few shows over the years. I really liked being up there all alone late at night, though.
berkeley yeah Bullet Lavolta!!! Circuits and Over The Shoulder are on every biking or running playlist i've ever made.
I'm surprised not to see R.E.M in there? Did you guys consider them too popular for college radio by that point? (but then why Nirvana and the Chili Peppers?) Or is that just a snapshot of a lull between albums?
Edit: I guess that was right around the time that Nevermind and Blood Sugar Sex Magick came out, so probably Nirvana and RHCP hadn't actually become that popular yet? That was a long time ago. :)
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
R.E.M.'s Out of Time (1991) might have been in rotation at some point. I can't remember, to be honest. But, yeah, by then they were pretty mainstream for college radio. That album also came out in March, and this list is from October.
The other thing that we couldn't play in addition to curse words: songs that had gone mainstream.
So, using R.E.M.'s Green as an example, all of the commercial hits were off limit: Stand, Orange Crush, etc. World Leader Pretend? Maybe? But, at least with R.E.M., I stuck to the IRS days. Plus I had/still have some bootlegs. :)
What about Nirvana? When Nevermind came out in fall of 1991, it wasn't a huge hit. They were still seen as this little grungy band from Seattle. I saw Nirvana early in October at the 40 Watt. They were still playing smaller venues. But fast-forward just a few months, and they were the biggest thing since sliced bread.
I'm guessing Smells Like Teen Spirit first went on the "do not play" list. I'm sure the rest of the hits followed. But Territorial Pissings or Floyd the Barber? You were probably pretty okay playing those.
Also, there wasn't someone there babysitting you in the booth. To mark a song that should no longer be played, the program director simply crossed out its name on the sleeve. It was just that simple. You still had to fill out your song logs, but I don't even remember if they were audited. But everyone played by the rules because we were all into making the station work.
And even though R.E.M. was huge by this point, they were still "our" local band. You'd see them downtown. They were restoring cool buildings. I believe Peter Buck still owned the 40 Watt at that point. They were very much still part of the community. So it wasn't like there was any animosity towards them.
I see Ice-T and Public Enemy on the list. Very cool. What tracks did you play of theirs?
In reply to Gearheadotaku (Forum Supporter) :
Sadly, I can't remember. Honestly, I'm not the best with song titles.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I had to dig around but I remember the DK's hadn't been active since '86 so that would have been almost "classic rock" level for college radio.
I saw them at The Jockey Club in Newport, Ky in '84 or early '85, saw the Cramps there too. It was a long hike from Toledo to see shows of that caliber.
In reply to jgrewe :
And we still could have played DK. I did. You just had to fit them in as one of your open slots. I sometimes hosted Loud Fast Rules, the metal/punk show. So they would have fit in there, too.
I'm not sure how they now track playlists, but we filled out sheets during our sessions–like with a pen, paper and a clipboard. This is totally from memory and likely wrong, but each sheet had slots for something like:
5 songs from heavy rotation.
4 songs from medium rotation.
2 songs from local rotation.
4 songs from your open slots.
Once you filled out the sheet, you started a new one. So, in the end, there was a mix where the station played more from heavy rotation and less from medium rotation. And then still lots of songs that weren't in rotation. So your job, as the DJ, was to string things together that made for a good show. I'd use my breaks–we followed a hot clock regarding breaks for station ID, time/weather, promos, PSAs, etc.–to change gears. Fun times–and educational, too.
That sounds like it would have been a cool time to be involved in college radio. We used to call the University of Toledo station and request Mongoloid by Devo when they were doing generic rock requests. Since most people only think of Whip It when they think of Devo it was fun to expose the DJ's to one of their Greatest Misses
In reply to jgrewe :
It really was a good time. "Alternative music" was on the boil with so many great bands exploding onto the national scene: Soundgarden, Nirvana, Fishbone, Living Colour, Dead Milkmen, Bad Brains, Primus, etc., etc. I saw The B-52s play in the field next to my dorm–they came back from NYC to play our homecoming. I think They Might Be Giants played at the student center. Mojo Nixon personally insulted me from the stage–totally worth it.
Then add in all of our terrific local bands out of Athens, Atlanta and the area. I was there when Pylon was back together.
The scene sounded–and looked–a lot like this:
And yes to Devo–all of it.
Possibly my favorite song (as of today; might change tomorrow):
In reply to jgrewe :
And something else that contributed to the day's scene: no one had cable, Atlanta radio didn't reach us, and the internet didn't yet exist. We operated in this little incubator where you discovered new music through friends, live shows and our little radio station.
And back to R.E.M., just found this. This was filmed while I was there–that's just how stuff was. And is that a Volvo 240 wagon in the driveway?
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