After organizing a stack of vinyl and logging into Spinitron, the station’s DJ system for cataloging the music they play, Jake Beck flipped a coin. It landed on jazz.
“I brought a bigger eclectic assortment of vinyl today, ranging from country to jazz to bossa nova,” Beck explains. Then he begins his 10 a.m. radio show. “Morning, Eugene. Thanks for tuning in to KWVA Eugene 88.1 FM here on this rather disgusting Monday morning. My name is DJ Bean and Cheese, and we’re here live in-studio with another rendition of ‘No Problem.’”
Beck, both a DJ and the current programming director for KWVA, always tries to ease into the mood of his show by starting with some slower songs. His DJ name comes from his favorite kind of taco: a bean and cheese taco, a specialty from his hometown of San Antonio, Texas.
After transitioning into the country section of his show, Beck says he wants to end things slow.
“I hope each of you cowboys has a great rest of your Monday,” he says to his listeners. “To end this country train, we’re gonna go back to where it started: with George Strait. And I dedicate this to all the women who have ever wronged me. This is ‘All my Exes Live in Texas.’ I hope you have a great day out there.”
During his show, Beck transitioned through four different genres. Currently, the station plays around 16 genres and is trying to expand into every facet of music.
But music is not all that goes on at the station. KWVA Eugene 88.1 FM is the independent campus radio station for the University of Oregon, located in the Erb Memorial Union, and is a part of a nationwide network of college stations that feature everything from sports to news to music. Students started the station in 1993, the peak era of independent college radio, to give students a public and independent voice.
KWVA 88.1 has been on the air for 29 years. Charlotte Allen, KWVA’s General Manager, says that this station exists thanks to a group of dedicated students in the 1990s.
“They managed to acquire a station and go through all the federal and university processes to get that station on the air,” says Allen. She has been with KWVA for 16 years and is in the early stages of planning the 30th anniversary of the station’s first broadcast.
Music has largely turned to streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music. College radio is no longer in its heyday. Its main benefit of being a way to discover and share indie music has been replaced by the algorithms of streaming services. According to the Infinite Dial, a national survey on digital media consumption in America, only 9% of people aged 12-24 use AM/FM radio to keep up to date with music. Because of how much streaming has eaten away at its audiences, colleges have been selling off their radio broadcasting licenses for over a decade. Even still, KWVA carries on.
Currently, KWVA has approximately 70 DJs volunteering. These DJs are alumni, local Eugene members and University of Oregon students. Every DJ has a two-hour time slot throughout the week to play any music they please. DJs like Beck, Kayla Krueger and Isaac Waggoner all use radio as a medium to express themselves.
“My show is so weird,” Waggoner says. He has been with the station since January of 2022 and likes to get creative with his show.
“I originally called it Good Morning America. I pull such random comedic bits. One day I committed to making my show all about cyber security,” he says. “It made no sense, but I thought it was really funny.”
His show is now called “Good Morning Eugene,” and it focuses on playing current jazz, rock and old 1960s French pop.
Waggoner says he enjoys being as creative and out-there as possible for the medium. In the beginning, he adopted an “awkward” persona, purposefully telling jokes and then fumbling to the punchline. Over time, he added more of himself into his on-air personality.
He says he enjoys sharing things with people and that KWVA is perfect for that. He was introduced to the station by a friend who had a show and immediately fell in love. Waggoner says it looked right up his alley because he could just be himself without putting himself in front of a camera. He says he has continued to run with his weird and exaggerated yet honest radio personality.
“I think, to a degree, it’s a form of self-expression. I also love music and being able to share that with people.” For Waggoner, KWVA has become a source of community where he can connect with others through his sense of humor and music.
Krueger fell in love with the station for similar reasons. Her show “The Road to Nowhere” focuses on playing classic and psychedelic rock, funk and mo-town. She was walking by the station in 2021, during her freshman year and remembered that some KWVA alumni have recommended checking it out.
She says she loves how she can play whatever she wants. Krueger is a huge fan of Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground and everything else psychedelic rock. One time Krueger played “Echoes,” a 23-minute long epic of a song by Pink Floyd.
“I think it’s great to inflict your music upon your listeners,” Krueger says.
After a year of working with the station, she says that she’s learned that being a DJ comes with some challenges. She tried to have perfect sets while also utilizing all the different equipment but found it almost insurmountable.
“It’s stressful at first, and I definitely had my fair share of nervous breakdowns and sweating,” says Krueger.
But Krueger has learned never to take it seriously and to just ease into the flow of queuing up songs and doing some bits of trivia about the music she plays between them.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. Nobody really cares,” Krueger says.
She says that she finds it liberating and exciting to create a persona that she can broadcast to the campus community. Krueger goes by “Penny Lame” during her 10:00 a.m. show every week on Tuesday. Her friends called her the Penny Lane of Eugene, a reference to the 2000 movie “Almost Famous.”
KWVA has two studios dedicated to DJing, with each wall lined with a storied collection of musical memorabilia dating back to the 1950s. Beck says that DJs have contributed to the collection of knickknacks piled on a desk resting on the wall opposite the door.
Each wall in the main office is plastered with its own collection of posters and old vinyl covers from the last century. Beck says that independent bands and labels send in CDs of their latest releases, which coalesce into three stacks of about 15 unorganized CDs each in the main office, waiting to be sorted into their already extensive music catalog.
Beck says that this helps connect local and small bands with would-be listeners. DJs are required to play at least one song from each album sent in. He says he wants their collection to continue growing so they can play as many different songs and artists as possible, even after the entire room has been filled with a catalog of vinyl, CDs and cassettes.
Beck visits the office almost every day and loves it because of how warm and inviting it is. He particularly treasures an unreleased Shaquille O’Neal demo vinyl because it represents how diverse and eclectic the studio itself can be.
“Our mantra here is ‘Music you can’t hear everywhere else,’” Beck says.
Krueger says KWVA is the most welcoming community she’s been a part of on campus. Next year, Krueger will be taking over Beck’s position as programming director, and she is excited to be more involved with the station.
And Kruger is excited to keep doing what she’s doing, which includes DJing music and handling ticket giveaways.
During one of Krueger’s shows, a call came into the show asking her about a ticket giveaway for a Cream cover band coming to Eugene, and she excitedly picked up. She thanked the caller, gave him the ticket info, spoke about the band Cream for a bit with her caller and then dove right back into queuing up songs on her computer and the two turntables behind her. Krueger says she likes that she can be someone who interacts with strangers over their shared interest in music.
Waggoner likes how close-knit the station is. He says he’s always getting compliments from other DJs about his shows, and he makes an effort to listen to other shows to learn how to be a better DJ. He likes engaging with the community as well.
“It’s cool hearing from the community, and it makes me feel proud that people enjoy what I do. I never really thought people listened to the radio, but I average around 200 listeners,” says Waggoner.
Beck says that an elderly woman from a local retirement home once requested him to play “Dancing Queen” by ABBA during his show. He did. A few days later, Beck received a thank-you letter from the home with over 50 signatures, thanking him for the music he played and how he kept the retirement home company. Beck says that even though the request was out of the ordinary, he was more than excited to fill it for her.
“I was a little shocked by the artist’s request. Typically when I get requests from that caller ID, it was older tunes like Charley Pride or Elvis,” Beck says. “I was more than happy to play some disco for that lady.”
Collaborating with other DJs in the station is just one part of the community at KWVA, and Beck says that interacting with Eugene is another. During a show, it is not uncommon for the DJs to give away tickets, take calls from people and air PSAs about anything from smoking marijuana to receiving a flu vaccine.
For the DJs at KWVA like Krueger, Beck and Waggoner, it isn’t just about getting to play good music. It’s about becoming part of a community that can share an interest and passion.
“This job has allowed me to meet dozens of people I wouldn’t have without this position,” Beck says. “I have made lasting friendships in my tenure as DJ Director, knowing that the lasting impact this job will have on me is to always seek out new friendships.”
