By Gabriella DePinho & Pete Janny, Editor-in-Chief & Sports Editor
As the spring semester starts and students get back into the groove of things, WRCM is keeping campus groovy. WRCM, Manhattan College’s radio station, is back for its third consecutive semester. While WRCM has already made impressive strides since its rebirth in Feb. 2018, the club has set their sights even higher this semester in hopes of furthering their reputation as one of the premier clubs on campus.
The high moment of WRCM’s successful comeback came last semester when the club’s total number of shows had ballooned to 52, a big jump up from the approximately 30 shows that were featured during the spring 2019 semester.
The increase in shows has given the radio station more versatility. Some find their niche with the station through their love of music; others use the club’s platform to jumpstart their own talk shows.
In the eyes of club leadership, it is the diversity that makes WRCM a natural fit on a college campus.
”Diversity is a big thing that stands out amongst our shows,” said junior Alyssa Tipton, who serves as WRCM’s Social Media Director and Graphic Designer. “You can never really get bored of listening to the station because all of the shows have their own unique style and theme to them.”
xAs WRCM’s Graphic Designer, Tipton has taken a lead role in creating the club’s merchandise collection, which is known for its colorful t-shirts and stickers. These unique items are staples around campus, worn to class and in Locke’s and slapped on students’ water bottles and laptops. These items have kindled a greater awareness among students of the growing popularity of WRCM.
“I like being the graphic designer specifically because I get a lot of creative leeway as far as my designs for the station go,” Tipton said, whose other leadership responsibilities include managing the station’s Instagram account and helping format the website. ‘It’s really cool seeing people around campus wearing or showing off my merch, whether it be stickers or shirt.”
Every club has to do their part to ensure that they present themselves in the most accurate light possible. One misconception about WRCM is that one’s involvement is conditional on prior experience with the equipment but new DJs quickly come to learn that is not the case.
“One thing I love about WRCM is how simple they make it to do something such as being on-air and hosting your own show,” freshman DJ Kaylin Flam said. “It’s something that anyone can learn how to do and it’s really easy to get the hang of.”
“The on-boarding process was pretty simple and quick. The board does a great job running the station and effectively communicating with all the DJ’s,” said senior DJ Piotr Zarzecki, who got his start with the station after helping his friend and fraternity brother, Anthony Bradley, cover an extra time slot in the fall semester.
Being that WRCM is student-run, DJs have lot of freedom in how they run their shows.
“The name of my show this semester is “Conversations and Good Vibrations” which is the first show of the week on Monday mornings at 10 a.m. During the show I play music, which varies in genre, and either talk about little known facts or current interesting news. It’s just an hour where I hangout and entertain anybody willing to listen,” said Zarzecki.
Flam also plays a wide variety of music on her show “Treble Time,” and even provides analyses of each song.
“I do play a lot of songs from different genres and occasionally, I do artist profiles, where I talk a little bit about the artist in between playing their tracks throughout my time slot, which I want to do more of this semester,” Flam said.
This past semester freshmen Emily Daly and Emily Lavelle started their own show called “Em and Em” that is premised on their favorite rock music. In 2020, “Em and Em” will continue to prioritize rock music, but with a greater emphasis on live bands.
“Our show is almost entirely based around rock music through the ages, but we each have our own special preferences in the genre,” Daly said. “We want to keep the same genre base that we have going now but we want to include more live show experiences.”
While Flam, Daly, Lavelle all have many shows ahead of them being that they are still only freshmen, Zarzecki is on a countdown to his May graduation date.
“I decided to give WRCM a try my senior year because I realized that outside of MC I wouldn’t have been able to have another opportunity to host a radio show. It’s been great seeing the students get really involved in the show and watching this part of student life really pick up steam. I think it’s a great outlet for creative Jaspers seeking something unique from their college experience,” he said.
While WRCM’s booth is located in the Research and Learning Center, club leadership is hoping to expand club reach beyond the booth. Tipton hinted that the college community will be in for some pleasant surprises this semester.
“We have a lot of different plans in motion so I don’t want to give everything away, but I think the main campus will hopefully be seeing a lot more of us this semester,” said Tipton.
Nevertheless, the club has already expanded in ways unanticipated by founding members. Tipton has been onboard since day one, giving her a heightened sense of pride of how far the station has come in such a short period of time.
“I feel like I was part of the club when it was still just an idea, and the founder, Sam Walla, my roommate, started actually putting everything in motion. We started out as just a small group of friends, and I certainly didn’t expect WRCM to be as big as it is now, but I can for sure say that it has exceeded my expectations,” said Tipton.
She continued.
“I think the reason why the station has become so successful is the amount of heart and dedication that goes into it. Every roadblock we faced we persisted through until eventually, we started gaining popularity and momentum throughout the campus. That is when the club started to grow into what it is now and the e-board grew from four people to 12.”
The shows are set to resume on Monday, Jan. 27 and will be featured at a fixed time during each school week for the remainder of the semester. There are 14 new shows slated to debut this semester.
Editor’s Note: Samantha Walla is the Production Manager of The Quadrangle