That time of year…

It’s that time of year!  Students are stressing, excessively in our opinion, over the tests and projects and papers we call “finals.”  For KWVS, that means a few things:

• Most DJs have probably given their last show this season
• We enlisted help from Gary Duff (@Gary_Duff), a journalist and host of The Gary Duff Show – the show is being broadcast on KWVS, Saturdays at 5PM PST.  Gary has had an impressive lineup on his show the past two weeks: Hillary Duff the first, and then Brian Johnson (ACDC), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), and Duff McKagen (Guns N’ Roses) the second week.  Check it out, KWVS is moving onwards and upwards!
• Until December 25, the auto-DJ music will be a hand-picked Christmas selection.  Get in the holiday spirit as you study for finals, you even have permission to show us to your family when you get home!!!  A pretty great Christmas gift, we’d say.

Enjoy the much-needed break, Pepperdiners and others.  We’ll see you in the spring with more music, more talk, and more action.

KWVS Fall Schedule 2011

What’s up this year?

Hello, fans of KWVS Radio! I’m Wil, and I’m the social media guy for Pepperdine’s official radio station. I know you’re anxious to hear, so here are some updates about what’s new at the radio station for Fall 2011:

New directors: In addition to our staff from last year who you know oh too well, we have added Eddy as our Music Director and Aaron as our Graduate Student Advisor.  We welcome them with open arms, and they are contributing plenty to our team!

Social media: This blog will shift towards a source for KWVS news, giving it a more focused goal.  Also, our Facebook page is going strong, and a great place to interact with and ask questions to the team here at KWVS.  Also, we love Twitter.  Interact with us, we would love to hear your thoughts and can improve when we get feedback!

As always, visit our incredible website, designed by our very own Jonathan.

We had a presence at Waves Weekend 2011 with the House House, DJed by Music Director Eddy.  Waves Weekend, for anyone who doesn’t know, is an incredible time at Pepperdine that serves as a giant pep rally, family visit weekend, and lots more.  We had scheduled an interview session with Andy Grammer, but hit a speed bump when he wasn’t able to make it.  Colbie Caillat, on the other hand, played a spectacular show for Pepperdine students, alumni, and families.

KWVS will soon have a presence on iTunes U!  DJs are currently being trained on posting their podcasts, and content will be posted shortly.

As there are a lot of hours in the week, we are always in DJ recruitment mode (we have been tweeting with #BEaDJ on Twitter).  Having your own radio show on a legitimate FM radio station is not something people get to do.  It’s that simple.  At Pepperdine, an exception is made thanks to the incredible resource we have that is KWVS.  There are a million ways to contact us, so don’t be shy –  we are flexible, and some even tell us we are nice.

Stay tuned for DJ of the Week, an exciting event in the works, and much more!

Fall 2011 Pitch Night Speech

[Karen clears her throat]

Hi, I’m Karen Yang, Station Manager of KWVS Campus Radio, the same force that planted a Spongebob moonbounce on the CCB lawn for THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY!!

But as much as I loved conspiring with band managers to rattle the campus in the middle of dead week and carrying 200 cupcakes out of Ralph’s as a 5’3″ Asian girl, I want radio to be yours.

I want you to open your computer and hear your voice on air (that’s right, we’re streaming online), see on TV videos you made, and shake the Internet with your music.

Radio has no hoops to jump through. It is yours from freshman year to senior year.

[Poignant pause]

I’d like to introduce you to my team.

Animal Tracks, May 23rd 2011

Here’s today’s playlist:

• Radiohead “Karma Police” from OK Computer
• Mogwai “George Square Thatcher Death Party” from Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will
• Queens of the Stone Age “No One Knows” from Songs for the Deaf
• Eagles of Death Metal “WannaBe in LA” off of Heart On
• LCD Sound System “All My Friends” from Sounds of Silver
• Manchester Orchestra “Virgin” from Simple Math
• Bowerbirds “Northern Lights” from Upper Air
• Beastie Boys “Intergalactic” on Hello Nasty
• Beastie Boys “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” on License to Ill
• Beastie Boys “Here’s A Little Something For Ya” from Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
• Adele “Hometown Glory” from 19
• Gui Boratto “Beautiful Life” from Chromophobia

This week’s Animal Pack is in red and features that white Jewish rapping trio, Beastie Boys.

Animal Tracks, May 16th 2011

Animal Tracks was in full force today with both DJs in the studio–DJ Panda K and The Moose! Here’s today’s playlist:

• The Octopus Project – “Exit Counselor” on One Ten Hundred Thousand Million
• Okkervil River – “The Valley” on I Am Very Far
• Yuck – “The Wall” on Yuck
• The Cranberries – “Dreams” on Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?
• Megafaun – “Volunteers” on Heretofore
• Megafaun – “His Robe” on Daytrotter Session
• Megafaun – “Guns” on Gather, Form & Fly
• TuNe-YaRdS – “Bizness” on W H O K I L L
• I Was Totally Destroying It – “The Ocean” on Horror Vacui
• the dodos – “Going Under” on No Color
• Son Lux – “Rising” on We Are Rising
• The Civil Wars – “Barton Hollow” on Barton Hollow

This week’s Animal Pack is in red and features music from North Carolinian band Megafaun.

Animal Tracks, May 9th 2011

• Explosions in the Sky – “Postcard from 1952″ from Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
• The Strokes – “Under Cover of Darkness” from Angles
• Panda Bear – “Last Night at the Jetty” from Tomboy
• Foster the People – “Pumped up Kicks” from Foster the People EP
• Drive-By Truckers – “Drag The Lake Charlie” from The Big To-Do
• Merle Haggard – “Folsom Prison Blues” from Mama Tried
• Bon Iver – “Brackett, WI” from Dark Was The Night
• Volcano Choir – “Island, IS” from Unmap
• Kanye West – “Lost in the World (feat. Bon Iver)” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
• Low – “Especially Me” from C’mon

This week’s “Animal Pack” is in red and features the music of Justin Vernon. Join us again next week when both DJ Panda K and The Moose will be sniffing out the best tracks for your listening pleasure.

From Russia, With Love

Did you know that you can contact us by email? See kwvs.pepperdine.edu. We usually get contacted with bands, band managers, artists, and members of the local community that want promotions on the radio. However, recently we got a message from a particularly ardent fan:

Hello dear friends!
I would like to thank all radio presenter to your radio.
Even in cloudy weather, your opinion is based on the heat that passes through the radio speakers. Thank you, dear, that in spite of your mood, you give us warmth and love.
Over the past few years I’ve lived in your country, I woke up and fell asleep to the sound of your radio. Unfortunately, I had to return home to Russia. Unfortunately, such radio stations as your not in Russia. Once again I want to thank you and all your management for your work – you bring the people a good mood!
Dear radio presenter, be happy!
With love, Andrey Domnenko
I would be very glad to receive your response.

P/S: If you are able to send some souvenirs with the logo of your radio, you would have made me happy (I’ve always wanted to wear the t-shirt with the logo of your radio, my size XL).

Your loyal listener.

Don’t forget to come out to TV/Radio Awards Banquet tonight at the CCB from 6-8pm!

Leadership Positions

We are looking for Assistants to all of these positions– they will be mentored by someone in this experience and be on a track to assume directorship positions in the future, should they prove themselves!

We are also looking for a Music Director. Go to tons of concerts? Want inside experience with speaking with band managers? Want to bring your favorite artist to school? This is the position for you!

As follows are the positions (fall semester commitment), apply for any one of these and we will look over your application to determine suitability:

News Director: Hosts weekly news show, recruits and teaches how to broadcast news on the radio, manages and produces content of news show, assists with station-wide events.
Do you have: Production skills, content creation, broadcast news, interpersonal skills?

Program Director: Organizes DJ schedules, publicizes show schedules, maintains station log, assists with station-wide events.
Do you have: Good sense of organization, reliability, good communication skills?

Production Assistant: Helps produce station logs and station IDs (announcements on radio), produces PSAs promoting radio on TV32 (e.g. featured DJ), assists with video and audio editing of promotions, assists with maintenance of kwvs.pepperdine.edu, assists with station-wide events.
Do you have: Video and audio editing skills (Finalcut Pro), website maintenance skills (Dreamweaver), graphic design skills (Photoshop), and an understanding of rebranding?

Promotions Manager: Responsible for flyers, t-shirts, bumper stickers, remote locations and other materials or events such as the Station Rager that present a positive image of the station to the campus and community, assists with station-wide events.
Do you have: Event planning skills, graphic design skills (Photoshop), people management skills, and the ability to work with administration (e.g. SGA, administrators, SPB)?

Music Director: Responsible for communicating with recording and distribution companies for promotional albums, works with Promotions Manager and band managers to put on events like Chellapalooza, management of music library (e.g. coming up with a system of giving access to vinyl 45s and LPs), and screening new music, assists with station-wide events.
Do you have: A passion for music, an addiction to attending events like Coachella and Lollapalooza, interpersonal skills, event planning skills, organizational skills?

KWVS is constantly growing and I am planning to lead new initiatives such as more events like Chellapalooza, show bombings instead of meetings (like all DJ’s and directors crash your show), having the Production Director run a mini-production-company for KWVS promotions, and increasing visibility of KWVS on campus with fliers and social networking. If you see improvements that can be made, apply to come on board and we will make things happen!

Questions? Feel free to email me. Have any nominations among your peers that you think would be a great addition? Let us know.

Radio Schedule and ONLINE STREAMING!

That’s right, we are OFFICIALLY online!! We are SO excited to be catching up with the rest of the 21st century that I can’t HELP but use random CAPITALIZATION and MULTIPLE EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! You can officially listen to us LIVE online at www.justin.tv/kwvs! We are in the process of modernizing the auto DJ music as well, but in the meantime, here is a schedule of our student shows so you can tune in then! Unless you’re a huge fan of smooth jazz, in which case you’re in luck the rest of the time.