Live music sizzles at WERS radio

by C. Sheffield

Drummer Andy Knowles of the Fiery Furnaces performs live in the WERS studios

A few weeks ago a man driving past the WERS studios on Tremont Street spotted GZA (“The Jizza”), of the renowned Wu-Tang Clan, performing live. The driver pulled over, put on his hazard lights, and watched the entire session through the large windows.

“That doesn’t happen all the time,” WERS Program Coordinator Rachel Paiste ’06 laughs, “but we consider that a good response.”

Well-known music acts like The Jizza are not strangers to the WERS studios. In fact, students who work at WERS line up well-known bands to perform live in the studio every week.

Recently, The Future Heads, a new British band making huge waves in the rock/pop music scene, released its CD in the U.S. The band had a write-up in Rolling Stone a few weeks ago, and they played live in the WERS studios the week before.

Cutting-edge live acts like The Future Heads are one element that keeps WERS in the top five of the nation’s best college radio stations and on Boston’s “best of” lists every year.

“That’s just one example,” says WERS Music Director Molly Casey ’06, referring to The Future Heads broadcast, “but that type of thing happens all the time.”

Live mixes have become a signature feature on WERS. Not only does the station present a Live Music Week each April, for which Casey estimates close to 60 bands come to play in the studio, but Paiste says WERS typically showcases anywhere from 3 to 10 bands in the studios each week.

Paiste says the live mixes are something the WERS staff and the visiting bands love to do. “The students like it because they get more experience working with the equipment, and they get to meet the bands. The bands love it because it’s free publicity and they usually plug their show for the upcoming night. It’s a win-win situation.”

Paiste says the listeners seem to like it as well; although the station doesn’t have any hard numbers on how many people tune in to the mixes, she says the majority of the callers give positive feedback.

Tough but rewarding work

Allison Haar ’05, the station’s live mix coordinator, says the student engineers she assigns to run the mixes have to go through “very intense” training and work their way up before they are selected to engineer a live mix.

“We provide the training sessions, and the students have to take an engineering test, and then they have to engineer an entire show on their own without making a single mistake before we give them the ‘OK’,” Haar explains. “It’s not easy.”

But, she says, once you pass the engineer’s test, the perks are plentiful. “Our studio is amazing,” says Haar. “By becoming an engineer you gain access to the studio without having to be enrolled in a studio class [which are typically reserved for upperclassmen]. So a freshman with a real desire to engineer can come in here and get all the studio time he or she wants whenever they want.”

The spaciousness of the studio is also an asset for Haar when she books the bands. “We can fit 10, 12, 13 people in the studio easily,” she says. “We recently had an Afro-beat orchestra with 13 people in here.”

She also says the mixes are so well done that the station gets many requests from the bands for a copy of the live mix to compile or release on a “live” CD.

“The live mixes are also a great way for student engineers to build their reels [audio portfolios],” says Haar. “It’s pretty impressive to have someone like Tori Amos, Willie Nelson or Andrew W.K. on your reel. Students are able to say, ‘I engineered that entire mix,’ which looks great to employers.”

All students all the time

WERS has a reputation as one of the premier college radio stations in the country, and it’s also almost entirely run by students.

“I think having an all-student staff is to our benefit,” says Music Director Casey. “The students don’t focus on just the music that’s being promoted. They focus on representing the school and the city and the station and putting forward a huge variety of good music.”

Paiste agrees. She says WERS has become what many Bostonians consider an alternative source for music because of the student influence, the block programming (each hour the DJ and music genre changes) and the live mixes.

“We have so many different shows,” says Paiste, “and they’re all done by students who are really excited to be here and play the music they’re playing. If you listen to our station in the morning, you could think we’re kind of a folk, crunchy, hippie station, but in the afternoon it turns to jazz and blues and mellow at-work tunes. Then on the weekends it’s totally different.”

Jack Casey, the station’s general manager (a professional and non-student), says that many college stations are run by students, but he feels what makes WERS different is the station’s mission: “To train future leaders of the media industry; provide a compelling product for listeners in the Boston area; and reflect the quality of the institution.”

A good reputation

Molly Casey says over the years the professionalism WERS has shown, the variety of music played, and the facilities the station has to offer have impressed bands and band labels.

“Sometimes bands will limit themselves and say ‘we only want to play at these five stations,’ but we’re always one of the stations,” Casey says. “We’re very lucky.”

 Lucky indeed. Casey, Paiste and Haar all agree that WERS is a station unlike most others and they are proud of the high-quality equipment and the station’s wide coverage area, which, general manager Casey says is due to antenna height.

“Our power output is 4,000 watts, which is relatively low compared to other stations in the market, but we have really good antenna height, which means we have a strong signal throughout most of the market.”

 But mostly, Molly Casey, Paiste and Haar are proud of the students they work alongside everyday.

“The quality of our staff is the most impressive,” says Harr. “Everyone seems to really enjoy what they’re doing here, they love music, and when the bands come in, it shows,” adds Casey.