Airwaves

by Brian Goslow

With the school year underway, the region's campus radio stations are slowly working their way back on air. Worcester State College's WSCW (94.9 FM) can be heard in the city's west side (although you have to tilt your radio in the right direction or you'll pull in a New Hampshire station). Clark University's XRCU is rumored to be following 'SCW onto the small power circuit on 95.1 FM (the same frequency as Nichols College's WNSC), although a monitoring drive through Main South last week proved fruitless. "Worcester's Only Alternative Source," WCHC (88.1 FM), has yet to sign-on after leaving the airwaves last spring prior to major renovations of its broadcast studios. And the unfortunate irony continues to be both Fitchburg State College's WXPL and Framingham State College's WDJM broadcasting on the same frequency as Worcester's community station WCUW (91.3 FM), denying listeners a chance to sample what each of the area's music scenes is up to.

FOR A SAMPLE of what's going on in Worcester, Marianne's Afternoon Pick Me Up, which airs every Monday and Friday from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on WSCW, features a rundown of the local music calendar, focusing on upcoming shows at the Espresso Bar and Sir Morgan's Cove. "I try to update it each time I do a show and stay in touch with the bands that are going to be playing," says the program's host, who made her station debut last week. The show's selections were tied together by some timely promotion carts, suggesting the station, which began broadcasting on the FM band last spring, is taking its wider range seriously. Music on the Pick Me Up jumped from ska to dance to a whole batch of bands who sound like Prodigy. She hyped this weekend's Locobazooka bash at Green Hill Park by playing tracks from Limp Bizkit's Three Dollar Bill Y'All$ (Interscope) and had listeners bouncing off the wall with even heavier sounds, including Filter's "Can't You Trip Like I Do?" from the Spawn soundtrack. "I try to play a lot of hardcore, but a lot of it has swears in it."

THE BROADCAST SCHEDULE for WSCW is Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. "We have got some calls from Assumption College and Holy Cross and residents outside the college campuses," says station manager Laurie Zylick. "It's an awesome feeling to get feedback. We've been getting lots of requests since the freshmen moved into the dorms [at Worcester State]."

The station's programming runs the gamut from punk to industrial, adult contemporary to ska, and features a Latino music program every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Host Melissa Cruz throws in the occasional techno dance tune on one of the area's hottest shows. Zylick hosts a local- band show every Monday from 8 to 9 p.m. She's always on the lookout for new material. Local groups should send their cassettes, CDs, and singles to WSCW, 486 Chandler Street, Worcester 01602.

SONGWRITER AND STORYTELLER Christian Bauman, who performs with the Camp Hoboken Revue, Assassins, and Amazing Incredibles, will be on his own when he appears on New Traditions on September 23 at 7:30 a.m. on WCUW (91.3 FM). Bauman will perform tracks from Road Dogs, Assassins, & the River of Ohio (Black Potatoe) and talk about his upcoming shows at Club Passim (October 5) and the Iron Horse (October 10).