College Radio is Alive and Well and Holding its Own
By Alex Kantarelis

There’s nothing like listening to your favorite radio station while driving around Worcester or winding down in your dorm room. Commercial radio has lots of fun personalities, but it’s also loaded with commercials (hence the rather self-explanatory name, ìcommercialî radio). Satellite is a cool substitute, but paying for radio is unnecessary and annoying. This leaves one solid alternative: College radio. Nothing could be more personal than college radio. The majority of college kids don’t want to hear about the traffic situation on 495, or the upcoming free giveaway of Jordan Knight tickets. More importantly, they don’t want to hear the same thing over and over again. Fortunately, college stations are best known for playing a wide variety of great music that you will never hear anywhere else. And luckily for Worcester, we have one of the biggest and best college stations around, Holy Cross’s WCHC 88.1FM.

Holy Cross graduate and current employee Christian Santillo serves as the advisor of the station, volunteering his time because he loved WCHC so much. He started at the station as a freshman DJ. ìBy Senior year I was the Chief Engineer and Webmaster, and was on two different shows,î said Santillo. The best part of the station is the freedom it has, what sets WCHC apart from commercial radio. ìCommercial radio formats are usually controlled by executives and managers,î he said. ìWe have the benefit and luxury of setting our own formats.î College radio gives the DJs the station the opportunity to take more chances. They get to select their own material. On any given day, you could hear shows that cover all musical genres. There is no boss telling the DJs what to play. ìEach DJ prepares his own music. [Shows] range from classic rock to classical to Middle Eastern,î Santillo added.

WCHC began way back in 1948, making it older than most commercial stations in Worcester. They currently broadcast on 88.1 FM and have a 15-mile listening radius. And recently, they’ve added an online broadcast. ìListeners can tune in from all around the world, and I have seen hits to the web stream come in from 6 continents,î Santillo said proudly. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, with different DJs every hour from 8AM until 1AM. Talk topics cover local and national news, campus news, entertainment, and all campus sports. The station received national attention when Holy Cross pulled off a miraculous hockey upset. ìA clip from the 4-3 overtime victory over Minnesota on March 24 in the West Regional Semifinals in Grand Forks, N.D. was played on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio and was a nominee for ‘Homer Call of the Week’,î Santillo said.

So if you’re fed up with of hearing the same songs repeated over and over and mixed with way too many commercials, give WCHC a try. Chances are, they’ll have something you’ll like, and it’s a great chance to hear your favorite song before commercial radio gets its hands on it and plays it 500 times a day.

Some WCHC links worth checking out:

wt.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060206/NEWS/602060357/1008/NEWS02
 
www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/press_releases/2005-2006/06_01_05
 
www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/features/2005-2006/hockey_06