By: Tim Donahue
Video By: Abbey Raynes
On the top floor of the Viking Union, the KUGS office is one of the few modern gems that stands out within the brick-laden north side of Western’s campus. Stacked wall-to-wall with CDs and vinyl from local and national bands of every genre and era, the KUGS office is a music lover’s fever dream.
My brother was a KUGS DJ during his Freshman year at Western in 2017. He raved about his experience selecting music and playing it for the student body to hear. I was a Sophomore in high-school at the time, and there was nothing I wanted more from a college experience than to follow in the footsteps of Jack Donahue, the radio DJ, and the coolest person ever.
I started college in 2020 and the catch came when COVID-19 shut campus down in favor of an online existence. With campus’s shut down went the dorms, my chance at living on campus during my Freshman year, and—to my eighteen year-old’s heartbreak—the chance at becoming a DJ for KUGS.
Since then I found a passion that transcends even my love for music, writing. I took a job as a writer for Wavelength and started viewing music as a supplement rather than the driving force in my daily life. I wrote articles, poetry, and fiction, and up until last Friday [April 28,2023] I’d never seen the inside of the KUGS office.
Andie Jennings is the KUGS marketing coordinator, and they were nice enough to indulge my high-school dream, letting me play DJ for the day while they showed me the ropes of what a typical day looks like for a KUGS volunteer.
The “Ropes”
The Music: My first task upon arriving in the office was to select songs and form them into a playlist, which brought me to the CD wall. Armed with a pen and a clipboard, I had the privilege of scouring the KUGS collection to come up with five songs that would form the perfect opening for my hypothetical show. From Seattle grunge to folk and bluegrass deep-cuts, the shelves of the office are a gold mine for any and every kind of idiosyncratic music taste. I chose new music like Boygenius’s “$20” and Yo La Tengo’s “Sinatra Drive,” as well as old Mudhoney and Gillian Welch. I was all over the place, but I was happy and never lacking for another option.
The Listening Lounge: Once I’d selected five songs for my playlist, I brought them into the sun-baked listening lounge where I plugged into the speakers and got my first experience with the CD players. Testing songs for myself before sharing them with whoever I was about to share them with, I sat in the sun on the first day that felt like Spring and paused for a moment to breathe with some of the clearest and most captivating music I’d ever listened to. I turned knobs and changed levels, loaded CDs and faded tracks into each other. I would’ve been lost without Andie’s assistance, and either way, as someone who is used to his phone doing all the work, it was the most involved I’ve ever been in the act of listening to music.
The Equipment: The equipment was like that of a spaceship. While trying to play music in the listening lounge, the studio, and even later in the on-air office, it felt like I was trying to decipher morse code into Spanish as I mixed, faded, and loaded the tracks of my choosing. Nothing takes place over the phone in the KUGS office, everything had to be stopped, started, and transitioned smoothly by hand. And mine, in this case, were shaking tremendously.
Andie Jennings was a great help when it came to the equipment. Although my control was a bit overwhelming, they walked me through each step in a way that would make sense to any incoming volunteer. Step-by-step, we walked through everything, and I played my records for the office as a test of what an actual on-air experience might be like with myself at the helm. It was clunky, but I made it.
On Air With Tim Donahue: The on-air studio looks across the lawn in front of Old Main. Picnicking and studying, people soaked the sun like figurines from the birds-eye-view of the top floor of the Viking Union. Somebody named Story was in the middle of their set when we walked in, she stood up and I sat down and before I knew it my voice was broadcast to the entire KUGS audience. An audience that would’ve surely included my younger self if this were 2017.
I stumbled, and I mixed up the buttons that faded from Story’s last song to the sound of my voice. I forgot how to speak, and when I read an ad that I hadn’t planned to, I forgot how to read as well. The sun shined and I people-watched, Story loaded their next song and I got out of the way to peruse records by Kate Bush and Prince—it seems like the real heavy hitters are saved for the on-air booth. Wholly embarrassed and red in the face, I smiled as I left the KUGS station and returned to my natural habitat of the Viking Union.