College Radio Selecter

As an adolescent I was a college radio fiend.

WPRB, WTSR, WKDU, WNYU. Turn the dial in your mom’s car to either extreme and search around in the static until you heard the college kid DJ mumbling through a PSA or the weather. My mom would say “This person goes to Princeton? They can barely read.” As far as I know there was no such thing as “indie rock” at that time, pre-grunge and pre-pop punk crossover… It was “alternative” or “college rock”. CMJ-College Music Journal, had charts with top college radio station played songs. Very strange. Some hardcore and punk would slip through the cracks and you could keep up on the upcoming shows, but I also got to like some of the lighter stuff that was played.

I actually got an FCC broadcasting license in high school so that I could have my own show.

I never went to college though. So you know….maybe tomorrow…maybe some day.

(do you like insted? or the pretenders I guess.)

This song was released in 1985 but stayed popular throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s because… well they’re were skinheads everywhere and it was a problem for everyone who wasn’t a skinhead.

I don’t know much about the band but they fit in somewhere between the Dead Milkmen and They Might Be Giants.

It’s cool, mellow, and kind of silly. We’ll turn the aggro down today.

Since I’m getting into College Rock here’s Dramarama, a NJ band who seemed relegated to the College Radio scene when a lot of similar bands started breaking into the mainstream:

They probably should have moved to Boston, could have broke free from the CMJ holding pen.

I have read that they’ve received a little attention at SXSW in the recent years.

Here’s the whole record, maybe you can get into it: