College Radio

[UnDesirable]

Anyone interested in starting a list of college radio stations that might play music submitted by unsigned, independent artists. This radio station is run by a small liberal arts college in my hometown. One of their many slogans is: "We play all the crap you never heard before." This statement is pretty true because I have heard alot of crap on it throughout the years but have also heard alot of cool stuff I would have never been exposed to otherwise.
I have heard them play about every genre imaginable. They only have a range of about twenty miles, but they do get students from all over. If you would like to submit something to them. it might be best to wait until October when their fall semester is rolling and they have all the new DJs trained.

http://www.iwu.edu/~wesn/


artists & labels submit materials to:
Music Director
WESN 88.1 FM
PO Box 2900
Bloomington IL 61702

Also if this list grows the moderators might want to consider making it sticky.

[bz£]

Here is some random advice and info which may be helpful, based on my own experience as a college radio Music Director.

- "Music Director" is more of a clerical job at a college station. In commercial radio, that person is making a lot of the decisions about what gets played, but in college, each DJ is usually deciding for themselves what they want to play. Some college stations have a loose format, like every weekday evening from 8 to 10 will be blues, but even then, the DJs are probably picking the individual songs to play. This may not be particularly helpful information but it's worth keeping in mind.

- Send your music on CD. Duh, right, but we used to get an occasional cassette demo. You might as well not bother; the only time these get looked at is if someone wants to make a mix tape and needs a "blank" tape. Vinyl is okay but a lot of people don't even look at the new vinyl stuff. This depends on the genre: if you're a rap artist then it almost has to be a 12", for example. CD is generally what you want though.

- Use a real jewel case. Some stations will just throw them out and use their own filing systems, but others will have huge shelves of CDs. Yours is basically invisible in a paper envelope.

- Make it clear what your genre is. The station is probably getting about four or five hundred new CDs every month. You probably won't stand out in that crowd anyway, but you at least want to attract the attention of the few people at the radio station who might want to play your stuff. Also, if you are local (basically, if you can hear the station at home) and/or have some magical appeal to a particular demographic, make that clear too. "Rock" is not really a genre, be more specific.

- Cool packaging is neat and all, but make it absolutely clear what the name of your band is, as well as the name of the album and the track listing. Make it easy for the DJs or they won't bother! You might also pick out a few tracks that you most recommend (and pick songs that start up quickly!). Put that stuff on a big white sticker on the CD case so the DJs can see it. Also, make sure that you can tell what the CD is by looking at it so it doesn't get lost forever when taken out of the jewel case. Basically, the DJ is probably not going to spend more than fifteen or twenty seconds deciding if your CD is something they want to play or not.

- Extra promotional stuff is nice but it usually just gets thrown away. If the music director even looks at your cover letter and glossy photos, the only thing they might be looking for is an indication of genre so they know who to pawn that CD off on.

- If you can afford it, you can send multiple copies of your CD. Ask for them to be given away to the DJs. If you are lucky one of your CDs will find its way to someone who likes it. This is probably not worth the expense, but some labels do it.

- Use a decent padded mailing envelope. Address it to the "X Music Director" where X is your genre. That person might not even exist, but it makes it clear right away to the MD who might be interested in your CD.

- The standard industry magazine, at least in the US, is the College Media Journal ("CMJ"). Their New Music Report has a monthly log of the current top-rated albums at hundreds of stations across the country. I don't think you can just buy a copy of the magazine but you could try to find one at your local college station. As far as I can remember, it'll have a huge list of stations and the name of each station's MD. Maybe even addresses, but it's been a while so I can't remember for sure. At any rate, someone should look that up because CMJ is probably a valuable resource.

[ken]

I've always wanted to start a thread like this.

http://www.geocities.com/marshallstax/nbtintro.html

"The Next Big Thing"

If you have an as-yet-unreleased, home-burned demo CD,
or a CD-R album release, go ahead and send it in.
(See below about vinyl and regular, mass-produced CDs.)

I want punk, hardcore, emocore, homocore, popcore, surfcore, tikicore(!)... anything with an edge, passion or purpose. If you're making some kind ofcommercial or mainstream type music, please save your postage...

After I play each recording, I give out the band's or artist's contact number / e-mail address so listeners can make their own contacts.
The playlist section has any website link that I have on the band or artist.

Please send CD-Rs, cassettes, with band info, stickers, contact numbers, etc to:

The Next Big Thing
KALX-FM
26 Barrows Hall # 5650
Berkeley, CA 94720-5650

[rogerroll]

I sent some stuff in to Brown Student Radio, which broadcasts both on the air and over the internet. I had good luck with them, and perhaps you might too:

If you want to send music to BSR for review (vinyl, CD, CD-R, cassette are all welcome), please send them to:

BSR
Music Dept - Attention: (Pick a genre out of list below)
Box 1930
Providence, RI, 02912

Packages should be addressed to the attention of a genre director.
Choose from: Rock, Loud Rock, Electronic, Hip Hop, Country & Folk, Jazz & Blues, Classical, World, or Jambands.

If you are interested in following up on what you send us, you are welcome to do so.
However, please wait a couple of weeks after you send the package. Contact the appropriate genre director for more information.

Genre directors' email addresses can be found on our Contact Info page.

The way I look at it, getting played on an Ivy League school's radio station is more or less like getting accepted to that school. So, I use that as a bragging point. Also, it's probably worth noting that I only sent in one song, and it was to one of the DJs, and it was basically about that DJ, so... I dunno. Take it for what it's worth.