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THE DEATH OF COLLEGE RADIO

a CD cataloguing project

during my brief stint as treasurer (less than a month before i suffered a nervous breakdown and left) for my college's radio station, i became enamored with the myriad cds contained there. having been founded in 1978, the station relied, as i assume every station did, on spinning live records, and then cds when their popularity overtook vinyl. the various back rooms of the station contain hundreds, if not broaching the early thousands, of cds. demos, classics, local bands, and mediocre but earnest self-released singer-songwriter albums line the walls and pile in bins. in recent years they've accumulated in the latter, unsorted and unlistened to as members of the station become less and less interested in them. times have changed, and streaming killed the literal disc jockey and brought about the live-on-air spotify dj. no one knows how to work the cd player that accumulates dust in the recording booth, nor do they care to learn. the cds themselves collect similar dust. it lines their handwritten labels that betray they were once loved. the formerly most popular ones are marked "core", as in "core rotation." i don't know why it makes me so sad but it does.

i do not possess any kind of musical background that permits me any authority to criticize music. in fact, some may even describe me as "tone deaf" or "better off pursuing silence." despite this, i am curious about the contents of these cds. some have no information about them online whatsoever. while i know that i am not suited for musical endeavors, i can listen and i can type. here is my attempt to catalogue and evaluate some of the station's more unique finds.

a brief history of wmwm