{"id":3261,"date":"2010-10-26T10:51:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T17:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2010-11-01T07:48:53","modified_gmt":"2010-11-01T14:48:53","slug":"then-and-now-wtsr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=3261","title":{"rendered":"Then and now: WTSR"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wtsr
John Anastasio \u201969 in the Kendall Hall studio in 1968.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since its early echoes in \u201950s dorm rooms, when it broadcast on the AM band under the call letters WTSC, the campus radio station has been a catchall for the College\u2019s creative and charismatic.<\/p>\n

The station, which today broadcasts on air at 91.3 FM and online, 24\/7, from the Kendall Hall basement, has hosted a long line of DJs, directors, writers, technicians and musicians. Every wave of radioheads has brought new innovations, and the station has come a long way from its homemade, AM-radio roots.<\/p>\n

John Anastasio \u201969<\/strong>, a former DJ, was there for WTSR\u2019s launch to FM in 1966. He said that first, 10-watt transmitter in Armstrong Hall had \u201cless power than your average light bulb,\u201d but he remembered that the five-mile broadcast radius was quite exciting at the time. He and his colleagues were thrilled when they went for a ride on Rt. 31 and tuned into WTSR for the first time on car radio.<\/p>\n

Anastasio became a key station member, running classical and talk programs, taking a sledgehammer to Kendall toilets when the station moved into an old men\u2019s room, and joining with other DJs to create a defiantly independent vibe that has survived for over three decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was college radio to the point of being so eclectic and esoteric that it just had to be interesting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The \u201canything goes\u201d broadcasting, which might have leapt from jazz to Elvis to some obscure jug-band tune, was largely attuned to the revolutionary feeling of the era, he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could do stuff that the commercial broadcasters wouldn\u2019t dream of doing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was kind of like the FM version of YouTube … there was a little bit of this, a little bit of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after the \u201860s, many DJs continued to fight the good fight against commercial radio.<\/p>\n

Tom Kelley \u201997<\/strong> has pushed the station\u2019s musical boundaries as much as anyone\u2014as a night DJ in the \u201990s, he ran a three-hour experimental block that mixed avant-gardes and obscurities. Today, he is part of a big team of community volunteers\u2014alumni and locals whose love for radio brings them back to the station every week. His Tuesday night show, \u201cTransmission Control,\u201d draws from the relative unknown of electronic alternative, which he calls \u201ca niche of a niche of a niche.\u201d<\/p>\n

His show and others like it are the embodiment of the station\u2019s catch-phrase: \u201cOpen Your Mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exposing people to unfamiliar music is his forte: \u201c(This music is) completely off the radar, so how are they going to know about it? I put two and two together and realized, people will like this when they hear it, they just don\u2019t know it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randy \u201cNow\u201d Ellis<\/strong>, a long-time community voice, says college radio is a \u201cnever-ending battle\u201d against mainstream complacency. He\u2019s aired over 100 on-air interviews since the \u201970s, including talks with Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra and songwriter Stan Ridgeway, and he\u2019s done his part to diversify the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refuse to play \u2018the hits,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to play the same song every three hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"wtsr
Alec Plasker \u201913, promotions director and DJ, browses the station\u2019s music collection, which these days includes 8,000+ CDs and 400+ vinyl records.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other volunteers, of course, are there simply because of the feeling they get when they go on air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I get there, I get all this energy,\u201d said Claudette Bailey \u201990<\/strong>, who grew up in Jamaica and uses her time slot to spotlight authentic Caribbean reggae.<\/p>\n

Joe Accardi \u201976<\/strong> has been spinning tunes from the \u201cgolden age\u201d of rock n\u2019 roll since he was a student. \u201cIt\u2019s like a vitamin and a drug for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt sort of rejuvenates me, you know, turn a mic on and actually speak to an audience out there about music that I\u2019ve loved all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accardi fondly recalled the various charities and phone-a-thons WTSR orchestrated back in the day for groups like March of Dimes, Greenhouse, and Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. That giving spirit hasn\u2019t left the station\u2014last year, for example, it raised $2,000 for cancer research at its \u201cLaugh in the Face of Cancer\u201d comedy show.<\/p>\n

In this and other ways, the station is responsible for a lot more than the music it plays. With several news and sports programs and scores of opportunities for interested students, WTSR is one of TCNJ\u2019s greatest career training assets.<\/p>\n

Chris Kubak \u201908<\/strong>, a former director of music and production, said the station is \u201cthe best balance of fun and professionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTSR is one of a kind … there\u2019s no other station anywhere in our broadcasting radius that even compares,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t tell you how many times a DJ has told me that they’ve conquered their fear of public speaking or were able to learn time management skills through being a DJ,\u201d Melissa Virzi \u201912, the current station manager, said. \u201cWTSR is essentially a small business, and has opportunities for every major to learn something or participate in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the technology advances, CDs go the way of vinyl, and radio takes to the Web, WTSR alum are sticking with it. Volunteers like Accardi, Bailey, Ellis, and Kelley say they\u2019re not going anywhere. Anastasio, who won several awards in broadcasting and now teaches it to high-school students, thanks the station for setting his course.<\/p>\n

The consensus: there will always be a place at TCNJ for WTSR.<\/p>\n

In Kubak\u2019s words, \u201cThe basement is one of those things that kind of represents the heart and soul of the College.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since its early echoes in \u201950s dorm rooms, when it broadcast on the AM band under the call letters WTSC, the campus radio station has been a catchall for the College\u2019s creative and charismatic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":3263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner","category-november-2010"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}