Funferal

Alt.rock, student radio and listeners

I spent Tuesday evening at my College Honors Banquet and had an interesting conversation with one of the staff at the student-run radio station, WPGU. The station is owned by the Illini Media Company, who also own The Daily Illini, so I was somewhat surprised to learn that the station does not pay on-air staff, as I believe that columnists and reporters for the DI do get (modest) pay. Not that I prefer a professionalised model of student media, but I find the difference of interest.
Separately, however, I discussed WPGU’s much publicised change of format earlier this year. As someone who doesn’t listen to the station – I’m more of an NPR/news junkie – I wasn’t totally clear on what had changed, and the rationale behind it. On the surface the station had changed from a college rock format to a more indie/underground rock sound. I wondered if this was to focus in on a particular student market – those interested in more ‘cutting-edge’ music. It turns out that this is part of the story – but more fascinating is the suggestion that moving from the strict college rock format allows the station to rotate in a certain amount of older rock/chart hits. So in fact the change was in order to attract a broader audience than merely students (while also securing the ‘serious’ rock fans on campus).
This is fascinating because the way the student DJ I spoke with described things the main reason for a change that was trumpeted as a move to cutting-edge, underground music, with more emphasis on local and up-and-coming bands, was actually to attract a more general audience by playing (some of) what is rapidly becoming classic rock. It’s interesting to see today’s NYT story that notes this trend among alternative rock stations nationally.