Dartmouth College Radio: A Retro Safe Haven
I'm a huge fan of the band "Queen" (who isn't!), and I particularly love their song "Radio Ga Ga." If you haven't listened to it, I'd suggest you first go give it a listen and then come back and read the rest of this blog post. The song enshrines radio as something that is still useful and has a particular kind of retro beauty even though its relevancy was decreasing throughout the second half of the 20th century. That's the song I think about when I'm in the radio studio at Dartmouth. It's such a unique and niche activity outside of the classroom, yet it's one that can be broad to fit anyone's interests.
You might think of a radio station as something that merely plays a few songs throughout the day and gives ubiquitous updates about the weather that might not even be accurate. Trust me, that's not what WDCR is about, and that's certainly not what we try and portray at the radio station. Rather than fulfilling this radio stereotype, WDCR is used by students to host their own podcasts, play their music for an hour, tell stories, etc. The news staff at the radio station covers all kinds of stories from around campus and around the world – anything from notable construction happening on campus to results of presidential primaries.
On a more personal note, I took a liking to the radio station because of it's useability to send out weather forecasts and updates. Once I got acquainted with the news staff at the station, I learned about the weekly updates that aired every Friday for the student body to tune into. Of course, a weekly forecast about the weather was included in this update. I was ecstatic when the news team offered me a role as the "station meteorologist," where I would craft the weather forecast for the update on a weekly basis. This might not sound like much to someone who isn't passionate about weather, but WDCR was an avenue for me to pursue a passion of mine, and that was very important to me.
I suppose that's a sort of "hidden beauty" aspect of Dartmouth; there are all kinds of these hidden gems in the nooks and crannies of Dartmouth's brick walls in various clubs and organizations. You just have to be willing to go out, explore new things, meet new people, and unlock some doors for yourself! Who knows what might happen if you just take a step out of your comfort zone and try some new things. Radio didn't exactly sound like my cup of tea at the beginning, but once I met the wonderful people at the station and learned about the weather forecasting aspect, I was hooked. I truly hope you can find a niche like I did at the radio station, so maybe give WDCR a try if you come to Dartmouth!