The Wake

Posters for artists such as The Fuck Yeahs and Styrfoam’s Duck Eufios consume most of the wall space in Radio K’s main office. There are also radio promotional stickers and old CD’s lining the edge of the ceiling that glimmer silver, purple and green. Retro music is playing faintly in the background as students and volunteers mill around, and a wooden monkey with red polka dot coconuts, a green grass skirt, and a Radio K headband sits on top of the employee mailboxes.

“Have you seen Aimee?” DJ Katie Amundson yells as she walks through the door, looking at the guy behind Radio K’s font desk. “I haven’t,” he says. “Fuck, someone from The Wake is here,” she grumbles, rushing back to the studio.

At noon we finally find Aimee Easter, but only after I’m escorted through a maze of hallways and offices. She’s sitting in a studio, wearing tall socks, a skirt and a striped shirt, rifling through CDs.

Easter looks at the rotation list, which is set by the music director. It includes two-thirds of the songs she’s required to play. The other one-third Easter chooses.

“We get to decide what’s played on air, which is really fun as far as being a DJ,” marketing director Charlotte Peterson says. “It’s our own taste which makes us a lot different.”

When an album is in rotation, DJ’s aren’t allowed to play previous albums by that artist. Artists not in rotation may only be played once a week, and the same song can only be played once a month. “It probably sounds hard but really it isn’t, given we have over 10,000 CD’s,” Easter says.

I return later that day to sit in with Peterson, who is also a DJ, and right now is scrambling to get a set ready. “I am really bad and usually running in here losing my mind trying to pull things together,” says the tall blonde.

As we begin talking, Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory, Archie Bronson Outfit, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy play in the background. Peterson’s favorite selection, Ronotypes’ Je ne te Connais Pas is played, and she explains that in French the title means “I don’t know you”—but in a sexual way.

Today Peterson plays longer songs, so we have more time to talk. But usually, the DJ’s songs are greatly influenced by requests from listeners.

“Commercial radio stations have shareholders,” Peterson says. “All we have are listeners who support us, so we kind of have to listen to them.”

DJs also have to listen to campus regulations—meaning liquor promotions and cussing are huge no-nos.

But some rules are meant to be broken. “I always encourage foreign bands that come in to swear,” Matt Herting, another DJ says. “You’re not allowed to swear in English, but you can swear in Norwegian.”

Radio K is only 13 years old, but radio transmissions at the University date back to 1912. The school didn’t get an AM license until 1922, when they began to broadcast lectures, concerts, and football games. The station’s call sign was KUOM, and students shared it with St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., giving each school an average of six hours a day on the air.

In 1948 another station, WMMR (Women’s and Men’s Minnesota Radio), was created, with studios in the Coffman Memorial Union. The station focused on providing a service for the student body.

It’s here that Garrison Keillor, host of Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, began his radio career, broadcasting classical music as a student in the early 1960s before switching over to KUOM from 1963 to 1968.

Fast forward 25 years and you’ll find a lesser-known U of M alumnus, although his impact is also widely felt today. The man’s name is Jim Musil, and it was he who thought of merging the two stations together in 1993. Radio K was born.

“When the stations merged into Radio K, WMMR’s mantra was ‘music should hurt,’ Peterson says. “It [WMMR] had a kind of ’80s and ’90s punk sound to it. That carried over into the attitude of Radio K, which I think is one the most important elements that sets us aside today.”

In tune with its punk roots, Radio K is a small operation without a lot of money. The station is run by two senior staff members, a production, traffic and news director, plus a web master and sports services master. The majority of Radio K’s positions are held by student volunteers.

“You must be taking at least one credit to volunteer here, and six to hold a full time position,” Peterson explains. Most new employees were recommended by others already involved in the station.

Radio K is the only far-reaching (not closed circuit or short-range FM) college radio station in the metro area. It offers students and volunteers who work for the station the best kind of broadcast experience one can get, Peterson says.

Since the station is listener-funded, Peterson and the crew of DJs uses air time to raise money. She explains Radio K’s newest biannual fundraiser, “Power Surge.” Starting Monday, Oct. 9, the station hopes to raise $50,000 from listeners who call in to (612) 626-ROCK or go online to pledge donations.

Peterson breaks to go on the air again. “This is college radio, Radio K,” she begins, then reads off this week’s calendar and offers to give away tickets to Scissor Sisters at Myth Nightclub. “Be the seventh caller when you hear the K,” she says.

Listeners hear the K when Peterson plays a selection from Sesame Street which points out the letter K. Peterson demonstrates it just before I leave.

“I was walking down Sesame Street,” Big Bird says, “when I saw a great big long word written on the side walk—but it’s such a big word I can’t read it. Maybe you can help me. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K!” The seventh caller wins!

Listen to Radio K on FM 106.5 or 100.7 or AM 770; radiok.cce.umn.edu/.