Media Meditation #2: Making Media

DJ Nasty on air - Photo Credit: Samuel Parker


It doesn't really seem like it, but I have been making media on the radio for over a year. I am a DJ for the Champlain WAVE, Champlain College's own internet radio station. Getting a gig on the Champlain WAVE was as easy as sending an e-mail to Matt Grasso with a showtime and attending a 10-minute training session. Everything past that I learned from experience.

My show is called the DJ Nasty Radio Hour and it features me in my radio guise, DJ Nasty (shown at left). I usually plan my show for at least a couple hours, so the production value is rather high, honestly, for a volunteer college internet radio station. Some of my most common and popular bits are reading the news over "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band, making funny responses to Craigslist Missed Connections, responding to funny Yahoo Answers questions, and writing eBay sales pitches in a segment called "Sell it to me DJ Nasty". As you can see, most of my radio bits have to do with participatory media, brought on by our Personal Shift, from personal to participatory. Integration of participatory media seems to be a common thing these days. I also interact with fans on my Facebook page (another participatory media).



Here is a mockumentary I made of my radio experience under the alias "Victor Del Monte" or "VD":




Being on the radio is like having a conversation with thousands of people at once (or in my case, hundreds of thousands). Someday, I hope to pursue a career in the field, but until I get a pro job, the WAVE is my best outlet of creativity.

I occasionally take callers, and it's something I should probably work on if I want to break into the industry. It is a great way to connect with listeners and that is the most important part of the radio industry; making a solid collection with listeners. What I've learned in my limited radio experience is that the benefit of radio is its local content. To my knowledge, no other prominent media offers a 24/7 local experience. This is the sole reason I think radio will survive the fire it has come under. Even if they don't know it or show it, I think people truly need a local experience on a nearly daily basis. Some people say radio is on the downturn, but I disagree. As long as there are people who care about their community, there will be people who want to hear about it.

I'm open to talk about my radio experiences, so feel free to comment about it.