The logo for We Are College Music Radio. @WRCM.ROCKS / INSTAGRAM
Laili Shahrestani, Features Editor
We Are College Music (WRCM), Manhattan University’s very own student-run radio station, has introduced their new board members for the 2025 – 2026 academic year. Senior Ronan York is the club’s new president, while Sam Wofford is the vice president. In addition, senior Billy Walker was announced as the tech director, senior Barrett Palmieri is now the secretary and senior Lucia Kobayashi has been labeled as treasurer. Lastly, junior Grace Coutu was announced media manager, and junior Sadie Fox has taken over the position of web master.
This year will be York’s first-ever term serving as the president of WRCM. He expressed his utmost admiration for the club to The Quadrangle.
“I just have a lot of passion for WRCM and have a lot of love for it,” York said. “We have lots planned for this year.”
A number of representatives from the new executive board spoke with The Quadrangle in regards to the overall mission of the club, and what the group is trying to achieve. Palmieri, who is a first-time member of the WRCM board, expressed not only his enthusiasm for the upcoming year, but also what he believes is the main goal of the club.
“I mean, to me, our club is here as a way to share interests and build ourselves with one another, because that’s why we’re here at college,” Palmieri said. “It’s to help each other along. Our mission statement, you could say, is to just ‘listen and share’.”
WRCM has no shortage of upcoming ideas and events that they are planning to bring into the new year. In previous years, WRCM may have only been labeled as a college radio show, however, several board members spoke about how now, the club will be transitioning into a new era of expansion, where factors other than just radio are going to be incorporated. WRCM has plans to continue collaborating with the Manhattan Media Network, in hopes to continue filming their radio episodes, which allows for more exposure by creating an outlet to be posted on online platforms. In addition, WRCM has future plans to DJ several more music bashes and events around campus this year.
Wofford spoke about his time on WRCM over the course of the past few years, and about his excitement regarding how the club is transitioning beyond the walls of just radio.
“I’ve been in WRCM since my freshman year,” Wofford said. “It was the first club I joined. I feel like the past four years have been very transformative for the club – it’s kind of grown up with us. It started as simply radio, and it was very independent, but now it has become so much more collaborative ever since we took on our new roles. I just love how it’s become more than just college radio, and it’s like something that we get to share with the whole campus.”
In addition to the expansion of the club through DJ sets and film, York shared how he is excited to announce that they will be bringing back their magazine, which was once a huge aspect of WRCM.
“WRCM used to have this thing called, The Magazine,” York said. “We had our own magazine, which received a really good pull. Recently, we were going through the archives, and so this year as the running president, I decided we should bring it back.”
Several WRCM board members emphasized that at its core, the club is a place where students are able to openly practice their freedom of expression, and use the club as an outlet for creativity. Several board members expressed how they are hoping to see a positive turnout of prospective students at the first meeting because of this very reason. York spoke a bit about the sense of freedom that comes with joining the club, and how it allows for anyone who wants to join to have a space to authentically be themselves.
“I think WRCM is a very good form of freedom of expression,” York said. “There are people who do the show and just play music for the whole entire time, and there are also people who do the show and just talk for the whole entire time. There is so much freedom.”
Palmieri added onto the idea that WRCM is attempting to be an open space for any student who is interested, and is a space for them to express themselves in whatever way they choose to, whether it be through music or speech. He went on to speak about how the club also pushes students to grow as an individual and embrace who they are.
“All clubs only go as far as the students push them,” Palmieri said. “But WRCM, specifically to me, just felt like a place where there was guidance, direction and I could also be super creative. I could talk to people on my show, play music, have a psychedelic rock show or a funk show. I just love sharing music.”
With all the new ideas that WRCM is currently working on, the new board is looking forward to a year full of hard work and dedication in hopes of making the club grow even further. Walker, who currently also serves as the president of Manhattan Media Network, expressed his passion for not only WRCM, but for keeping up the momentum and drive when it comes to the betterment of the club.
“We are one of the clubs that I really feel like is for having fun,” Walker said. “It’s a nice little escape from your everyday life, in the sense that you literally just sit in the radio booth for an hour, talk about whatever you want and play whatever you want. Recently, we just broke ground by recording our shows, and I’m just really excited to try and do more, with that being my main goal. There really is a lot of momentum at the moment with WRCM, and I’m excited to see how many people join us.”
While WRCM has been around for a while now, Wofford spoke about how previous years will be incomparable to the upcoming year, in the sense that the new board has so many ideas for the campus community.
“Last semester, we held a bash and it was really fun,” Wofford said. “But that was just the beginning. That was the trial run. We were just getting our feet wet. This year, WRCM is going way harder.”
If you are interested in joining WRCM or learning more about the club, follow @wrcm.rocks on Instagram.