Long tuned-out, KOXY makes a comeback

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Author: Kate Bustamante

 

Correction appended
 
“That’s the six nine hitlist–where everyone gets pleased,” Kyle Scoble (junior) says. Scoble delivers this colorful line to close each episode of “Six Nine Hitlist,” the weekly radio show he co-hosts with Maurice Judge (senior), broadcasted on Occidental’s own radio station, KOXY
 
Entirely student run, KOXY revolves around the work of student DJs who host weekly shows that span a wide variety of tastes and genres throughout the week. For many years, KOXY broadcasted at FM 104.7, but the prohibitive cost of owning a wavelength took the station off the air and onto the Internet in the 2000s. Today, the station streams online 24/7 on koxyradio.com and other Internet Radio websites. In addition to its online programming, KOXY organizes many of music-related events on campus around the year, such as the FIDLAR concert at Sycamore Glen on Feb. 11.
 
The station has a long history. KOXY was a long-standing part of the Occidental community for several decades, before campus radio rode out of fashion with the development of alternate music sources such as MTV and the Internet. The station closed its doors for many years, but in 1999, a group of students led by Kristian Kratz ’01 started a project to revive KOXY
 
After about six months of work to bring it back, the radio station was officially relaunched on March 30, 2000. 
 
Director Anna Oseran (senior) said KOXY has come a long way since then. “When I first came to KOXY as a sophomore, our manager alluded to a lot of laziness in past years. There weren’t many events and the radio shows were pretty haphazard.” 
 
Last year, station manager Parker Harris ’11 helped turn KOXY around by inviting up-and-coming artists to campus and cementing ties between the station and the community. “Parker did a great job in building KOXY as a vital force in the community,” Oseran said. 
 
KOXY has built a relationship with the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, as well as fellow college radio station KXSC of the University of Southern California. KOXY collaborates with both groups to bring in bands to play at the Center for the Arts every month–recent highlights include Cass McCombs, an alternative rock musician and artist from California, No Joy, a Canadian female rock group and Woods, a lo-fi folk rock band from Brooklyn.
 
“It was a great success. The shows were generally packed and we had a audience of USC students, Oxy students and Eagle Rock/Highland Park residents,” Oseran said. This year, the KOXY team will continue to focus on events on and off campus, she added.
 
Oseran said she is proud of the acts the station has been able to bring to campus. In past months, they’ve had student DJ Avery Henderson (senior) perform in the Green Bean, and brought three local bands to perform in Sycamore Glen, including Brown in Blue, which features Occidental senior Brett White. And last week, Portland synth-pop group Wild Ones performed their debut EP, “You’re a Winner,” on Branca Patio. 
 
The next KOXY event, on Friday, March 2, will be a concert featuring electronic-based acts Nite Jewel and Pictureplane. Nite Jewel will kick off the night with its mellow, ambient sounds and Pictureplane will drop the beat with some upbeat dance tracks. 
 
All KOXY events are open to the public. “We really like to make our events open to the public so everyone can enjoy the bands and so that we can establish KOXY as a sort of community-based radio station,” Oseran said. 
 
Back at the station, KOXY has been working hard this year to produce original content. Programming Director Allan Van Vliet is in charge of shows and has been coordinating them so that they go off without a hitch. 
 
Van Vliet said that there has been more enthusiasm in the recording booth from student DJs this year than in the past, and hosts are also showing up for their scheduled shows more consistently this year.
 
The musical diversity of this year’s DJs has also given KOXY a more eclectic sound. Current shows include “Bearable Radio,” which exposes listeners to quality alternative music and classic rock; “Eating Pasta with Your Stepdad,” a stroll through hits from the past three decades; and the talk show “Please Listen.” Some shows haven’t started yet for this semester, but KOXY is excited for the shows they have and already recruiting for more.
 
“Please Listen” is one of the talk radio shows at KOXY this year. Hosted by sophomores Ryan Flanagan and Zoe Butler, the show was on at Mondays at 7 p.m. last semester, but Flanagan and Butler plan to move the show to Fridays at 4:30 p.m. later this semester. Inspired by “This American Life,” a talk show on Chicago Public Radio, the duo takes on a theme each week and jumps off from there. 
 
Flanagan said the pair sometimes gets carried away while recording the show. “It’s mostly just Zoe and I complaining about whatever was bothering us that week,” Flanagan said. 
 
Flanagan added that she thinks KOXY is a great college radio station and has benefited from her time w
ith the station.
 
“I’ve started listening to more KOXY shows since starting at the station, and it’s good music that’s getting played most of the time,” Flanagan said. “Definitely better than LA radio stations, in my opinion. More people should tune in.” 
 
Another one of KOXY’s student-run shows is “Jazz and Jams,” which features another female duo, sophomores Alice Ottoson-McKeen and Emma Zack. 
 
The pair mainly plays jazz, but sometimes shakes up the mix by throwing in “wild card songs” like hip-hop and rap tunes. The show’s time has not yet been set for this semester, but the show was previously scheduled for Thursday nights. 
 
For Ottoson-McKeen and Zack, the show is mostly about having a good time and creating a chill experience for them and their listeners. “Lots of good jazz, good jams, and witty back and forth,” Ottoson-McKeen summed it up.
 
Although response has been better than ever for the station this year, the KOXY team is still pushing to increase their listenership and attendance at events. Oseran said the goal is to make KOXY as beloved by Occidental students as it is by KOXY staff. 
 
“I love KOXY. It is sort of this weird hidden club at Oxy that, for some reason or another, is sort of off the radar,” she said. “As a result, everyone who works on the station is totally passionate about it. Everyone works really hard.”
 
And everyone on staff is hopeful about the upcoming semester and the future.
 
“KOXY really has it all this spring. Music, talk–we even play podcasts from a South African organization that allows youth to share their stories on-air. The music is incredibly diverse, and every week I hear something I’ve never heard before,” Van Vliet said. “DJs have a lot of fun playing music and talking on the air, and that’s evident when you listen. It’s a great space.”
 
Correction: The article misstated the name of the local organization with which KOXY is now collaborating. It is the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, not Eagle Rock Center for the Arts.

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