Originally posted on CampusAttic.com on October 4th, 2013
At
all times of day or night, KWVA’s scribble-covered, album-lined little
corner of the
Erb Memorial Union is alive. One of the few campus radio
stations in the country with a real person in the studio 24/7, 88.1 FM is the
place to hear everything from the best of the garage rock revival to the latest
synth-pop whatever to the forgotten alternative gems of the ‘60s. Although
KWVA’s programming is primarily musical, it also broadcast student-produced
news every weekday evening, conducts live remote broadcasts of campus events,
and offers an enticing variety of talk shows almost every day.
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| Program Director Thor Slaughter in the KWVA 88.1 FM studios, inside the EMU. (Bryan Kalbrosky/Campus Attic) |
Since
its first song hit the airwaves in May 1993 (which, by the way, was “Hey, Mr.
DJ” by They Might Be Giants), KWVA has been gaining momentum in
the college radio landscape. Music Director Thor Slaughter has received both
the Best Newcomer and Least Likely to Sell Out awards from College Music Journal,
and now interns at NPR’s All Songs Considered. DJ Marc Time’s
“Sunday Morning Hangover” has won Eugene Weekly‘s Awards for Best Radio Show and
Best Radio Personality. Just this past year the station was listed by Pigeons and Planes
in the “25 Best College Radio Stations” – one of the youngest stations honored.
What’s
often forgotten is that University of Oregon’s radio broadcasting history
doesn’t begin with KWVA – not even close.
In
fact, radio transmission at the university dates back to 1925, with the
formation of KORE, Eugene’s first radio station. (If KORE sounds familiar, it’s
because it still functions today as a Springfield-based Christian station.)
Starting
in 1931, journalism students could enroll in then-SOJC
Dean Eric Allen’s radio editing class, which worked with Daily Emerald staff
members to air a 15-minute broadcast five times a week over KORE. A news team
reported on timely topics of the day, the School of Music showcased its talent
with on-air recitals every Friday, and the Drama Department put on spoken plays
two times a week. Slowly but surely, radio was weaving itself into university
culture.
 |
| Students in a Radio Speech class. (©UO Special Collections) |
Soon
after the editing class came the first full radio production class – a
collaboration between the Schools of Music, Business Administration,
and Journalism; but presented via the Speech Department in a modest yellow and
brown building on lower University Street. The classes’ eclectic projects went
well enough that the Speech Department began offering a Fundamentals of Radio
Broadcasting and Radio Workshop, and by 1941, the program had far outgrown its
highly limited, start-up broadcast equipment.
While
the studios were being renovated, arrangements were also being made for
students to broadcast material over
KOAC-Corvallis, a state-sponsored station with a much
broader listenership than KORE. The following academic year, after a multi-year
struggle for proper facilities, the university’s radio programs were ready to
take off.
 |
| Students prepare for a KOAC broadcast. (©UO Special Collections) |
The
Radio Workshop and editing classes of the time self-produced standard news
reporting, music, and advertising, but also fully flexed their creativity with
story shows, complete with homemade sound effects (picture opening and closing
a door in front of a microphone) and whimsical narration.
The
broadcasts played a part in the greater Eugene community by presenting programs
for the Office of Civilian Defense, the Red Cross,
the Community War Chest, and others. Just as
importantly, the classes were a community for those hungry not only for
vocational experience but also knowledge, perspective, and the advancement of
the medium itself.
In
1944, a zealous group of faculty and students formed the University Symposium
of the Air. The team reported on current events and issues, but could better be
described as an early talk show. Its enthused co-hosts debated intellectual
quandaries and eventually toured the town to speak to junior/senior high
schools, service clubs, and church groups about the topics they’d researched in
their work. Above all, the Symposium and other radio groups emphasized service
to the university and being aware of campus happenings, and listener numbers
kept growing.
 |
| Speech students broadcasting on KOAC. (©UO Special Collections) |
1946
was another big year for UO radio, this time in relation to programming.
“Campus Headlines,” the daily university news show, came to be centered largely
around the return of student veterans from war, and “Something For You” became
Eugene’s first popular music radio show. Guests and performers featured on
regular programming like “Campus Interview” and the “All-Student Variety Show”
were each more renowned and talented than the last, and it was generally agreed
upon that a bigger, better radio setup should again be in the works.
The
freshly-formed Radio Division of the Speech Department moved in 1949 to the 3rd
floor of historic Villard Hall, and the radio studios moved
along with it. The brand new setup (which went hand-in-hand with the
renovations to University Theater) included broadcast
studios, practice studios, and classrooms with all the latest in radio
mechanics. The music library had grown to over 900 vinyl records, but it was
time for one more step forward.
 |
| The KWAX studios in the 1950s. (©UO Special Collections) |
After
over a year of exhaustive negotiations, the FCC licensed KDUK, UO’s first very
own frequency modulation station. The name was changed soon after to KWAX (bummer,
right?), but the station, staffed entirely by 18 students, was a definite
success nonetheless. The commercial-free fare was broadcast on 88.9 FM,
characterized by the previously unheard of ‘50s rock n’ roll shows that forever
changed popular culture.
At
the time, direct lines were being pumped from KWAX to John Straub residence
hall and – get this – Carson Hall, which, at the time, was the university’s
most modern dormitory. Thanks to KWAX, hundreds of kids in the dorms were
shuffling and head-bobbing to a new, irresistible genre that the DJs themselves
were still discovering – it was a golden age for radio.
By
1958, philosophy professor Albury Castell’s weekly show “Window in the Ivory
Tower” was syndicated nationwide, the KWAX studios had added on a full
television production setup, and UO’s athletics had been noticeable enough that
“Campus Headlines” changed its name to “Campus News and Sports.” The rest
should’ve been history – the whole UO community’s ongoing valued resource for
entertainment, news, and music.
 | |
| KWAX studios went beyond radio to also including TV studios in 1960. | (©UO Special Collections) |
However,
KWAX gained so much of a following over the years that in the 1970s it
affiliated itself with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hired a
professional staff, and became an NPR station; leaving the UO with no radio
entity to call its own. Come the early ‘80s, not a single university student
worked in the KWAX studios.
Naturally,
this caused a stir among students interested in pursuing a possible radio and
broadcasting career, so in the late ‘80s two student activists named Gary
Rosenstein and James January started the conversation about a new campus
station.
In
the purest spirit of the student voice, Rosenstein and January gathered the
1,800 signatures necessary for the idea to be brought to a vote, and in 1990,
the ASUO passed the bill by more than 4-to-1.
The
plan was for KWAX to share airtime with the new student station, which was
named KRMA (which stood for Real Music Alternative) and would air a block of
rock music over the KWAX frequency during a set time of the day. Needless to
say, the student population felt a bit slighted by the setup, and KWAX, too,
was less than thrilled. Though faced with immense fundraising difficulties, the
students fought hard for their own FM frequency.
Finally,
after an unexpected amount of toil, the name of the new station was changed (a
real loss, in my opinion), and KWVA 88.1 FM was born on May 27th, 1993. It
broadcast from an antenna atop Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, the station
comprised of old hand-me-down donated equipment. Rosenstein and January had
long since graduated, but their resolve continues to keep alive an aspect of
university life that’s hard to imagine being without.
From
its humblest of origins, KWVA immediately grew both in physical size and
audience scale. By 2008, its antenna had been moved from P.L.C. to Goodpasture
Island Road and its signal was increased from 500 to 1000 watts, making the
station’s one-of-a-kind programming available to the entire Eugene/Springfield
area.
Today,
KWVA is able to be one of the only 24-hour live broadcast college stations for
the simple reason that people want to be a part of it. Around the station, it’s
referred to as “Eighty-Eight Point Wonderful.”
Year
after year, there’s a surplus of willing DJ applicants, even for the graveyard shifts.
It’s radio you can tune into in your car at 4 AM and hear the voice of a
friend. It’s radio you can listen to on your lunch hour with equal chances of
hearing your favorite slow dance song or an off-the-wall dance-punk jam you’ve
never heard, and probably would never hear otherwise. KWVA is the kind of radio
you can look back on, the decades of personality and creative community it’s
created for our school, and be grateful. Viva la radio.
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| One of KWVA’s awesome community DJs. (courtesy: MTV) |
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