“When All Else Fails, College Radio Speaks.”
This is the theme of this year’s College Radio Day taking place today, October 5. This is a day to recognize and celebrate WXJM, along with all other college radio stations, whose sole purpose is to give a voice to its students and the issues they care about.
For WXJM, a lot of that concern lies with giving local and independent artists a place to promote their art when they may not have the platform to do so. We thrive as a station on building relationships among ourselves and the music we share with the Harrisonburg community. This is another reason why we love WXJM Live and want to support anyone who wishes to participate in any capacity of the program.
We also have weekly shows that allow our own DJs and talk show hosts to discuss topics that are important to our community as a whole. Some of these allow other students to guest on the show and share their own input, as well as call-ins to the studio that do the same.
This is why we want to celebrate College Radio Day. It began in 2011 by the College Radio Foundation, which now has the support of the chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
"College radio, when we were struggling, was one of the elements that really kept us afloat — being able to play gigs and people had heard of us because they were playing us on college radio stations,” said Jett in an interview for College Radio Foundation.
She and Laguana are this year’s ambassadors for College Radio Day.
"We're definitely a product of college radio, and through the years we've managed to remain on college radio with the records we put out. It means a lot to us," she said in the same interview.
You can join us today in celebration by tuning into 88.7 on your FM dial or listening live at wxjm.org.
xX Long live college radio Xx
Feature photo: courtesy of Heather Eckstine
CRD Graphic: courtesy of Chrissy Garrett
