WJHU broadcasts student creativity

From its studio on McCoy’s first floor, student-run radio station WJHU has provided a creative outlet for students since 1945.

Not only do the radio shows feature music genres ranging from indie rock to Bollywood and rap, they also take on other formats like personal interviews with members of the community and fantasy football advice for sports fans.

Becoming a DJ is a simple process. After being trained to use the studio’s equipment, the DJ has complete artistic freedom in the structure of their weekly segment.

Matty Munoz, a senior and co-host of freestyle rap show “Double Dream Hands,” values the creative control he has at WJHU.

“One of my friends asked me, ‘Do you really enjoy doing the radio show?’ and I said yes because I’m not particularly creative when it comes to artistic things like drawing... but this is a creative outlet that I very much enjoy,” Munoz said.

Junior Raph Santore, the other co-host of “Double Dream Hands,” views WJHU as a creative outlet and also a source of stress relief.

“I started rapping in high school for fun. A lot of my friends are very musically talented, but I’m not, so for me that was my way to contribute. It’s really nice for us that it’s on a Friday. It’s a good way to de-stress at the end of the week,” Santore said. “A lot of the time more people come through to our radio show, because it’s fun to hang out. It’s the highlight of my week for sure.”

In the past, WJHU has struggled to promote themselves on campus. George Danforth, senior and WJHU DJ, described the connection between the radio station and the general student body.

“I think we could do a lot better. That being said, it has been much worse. I think we’re gaining momentum in terms of how we’re viewed by the rest of the student body,” Danforth said. “When I first joined the club two years ago, everybody was like, ‘I don’t really know, radio, what do they do? Do they host shows in dive bars and do random stuff like that?’ Over the past couple years, way more motivated kids have gotten involved and it’s a growing organization.”

Santore recalled how he became familiar with WJHU by accident and how promotional efforts have fostered change in the organization.

“I didn’t know we had a radio show as a freshman until second semester because my roommate got a show. That was the only reason that I knew. That being said, I personally know that a lot of people who are pretty heavily involved in radio have been making an effort to publicize it more, especially this year,” Santore said.

He also spoke about how WJHU has diversified the content of its radio shows over the years.

“If you read the show descriptions there’s a lot more diversity in the shows now, which is interesting. It’s not everybody playing music for an hour necessarily,” Santore said. “When you have people talking about serious topics, talking about sports, rapping, it spices it up a little I think, which is important for the radio to have because it makes people more inclined to listen.”

Through these efforts, awareness about the radio station has continued to grow among the student body, especially among underclassmen. As a freshman, Alexandra Walinskas has recently completed DJ training, started her show and is already considering her long-term commitment to the organization.

“WJHU is structured in a way that if you want to take initiative and get involved, you’re totally supported in doing that,” she said.

Walinskas thinks it is important to continue to raise awareness about the existence of the station.

“You really can make a tangible impact on the radio station, so I’d like to obviously keep doing my show, creatively develop and see what I’m going to do with that, but also on my own initiative I want to build more hype and awareness for WJHU,” she said.

Recently, the executive board’s efforts to engage the student body have included events both on and off campus. Danforth elaborated on these opportunities.

“The scope of the organization is extremely wide. We have editorial content and we put on music events that range from hosting a grilled cheese cook-off on the beach and blasting music at people who walk by, to actually bringing artists in to perform shows in venues in Baltimore,” Danforth said. “We have bake sales for fundraisers, we offer DJing services to other clubs and do stuff like that. There’s a pretty broad range of things to get involved in.”

Danforth argued for the perks of having a college radio station without restrictions or set content.

“I think that’s actually one of the benefits of having it be a college radio station without any particular angle other than, ‘we’re just gonna let people do whatever they want,’” Danforth said. “It makes it interesting to listen to because you tune in, you can just hear... there’s some person that feels strongly about this so they’re just gonna put it out there.”

Senior Ruth Landry, host of “BIG FUN” for the past four years, encourages students to take advantage of WJHU’s events.

“Our shows off campus are awesome and cheap,” she said. “We put a lot of work into that and it’s really hard to get people to come off campus, but we always provide good methods of transportation that are easy to find. Uber’s there, so there’s no excuse not to get off-campus and go chill out with Hopkins students at hip clubs in Baltimore.”

Landry, who also organizes the public relations for WJHU, further explained some of the difficulties the club has faced over the past few years.

“I don’t think most people know that we have a student radio station and that’s definitely what I’ve been doing on the PR end is getting people involved,” Landry said. “[We’re] mainly trying to get the word out there that we exist as a platform. It also is really hard since until this year you couldn’t listen to us on the Hopkins wi-fi. It was incompatible for whatever reason and we had been trying to get somebody to fix it and no one did.”

According to Walinskas, WJHU is not only committed to improving its external relationship with the outside community but also internally, within the organization.

“This year I know that the executives of WJHU said that they want to bridge the gap between DJs and execs more and foster that connection, so that everyone associated with WJHU is familiar with each other and is sharing in the full experience,” Walinskas said. “At the end of the day, everyone is supporting WJHU and putting positive vibes for WJHU out there which is pretty significant.”

Landry reiterated WJHU’s commitment to helping Hopkins students explore Baltimore’s music culture.

“We just want to be a resource basically for not only good music nationally, but [also] encourage people to get out there locally because Baltimore has an incredible music scene,” Landry said. “It’s a shame that Hopkins students don’t use it as much as we should.”