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In print | Published October 8, 2009

Managed entirely by students, WSRN 91.5 FM, Swarthmore College’s self-described “fiercely independent” radio station, started broadcasting on Sept. 28 with a slew of new shows ranging from hip-hop to folk, jazz to world music. While there are over 60 shows, “Chester Noise” with Daniel Symonds ’11, “We’re Still Just Friends” with Bertolain Elysee ’11 and “The Chem Lab” with Professor Bob Paley are some of the shows that focus on the creative, educational and exploratory side of music.

“Chester Noise” stands out from the other shows because of its focus on community building and, as Symonds put it, “music empowerment.” Symonds said that the show is just one aspect of the program he started last year, Chester Noise, which works along with Chester Police Activities League (PAL) and Cory Long, head of Making a Change Association (MAC). The program, Symonds said, “tries to tie Chester youth with all the sort of media resources available on campus.”
The Chester teenagers also receive studio training, where they learn about how to work at a radio station and mix and produce music. During the show, Symonds said that the show will become “a vehicle for promoting and playing music made by students in Chester Noise.” The show is a combination of talk and music, mainly hip-hop. But “there’s definitely a push to talk about social issues and let Chester speak for itself for once,” Symonds said.

An interesting aspect of the program is the involvement and investment that the Chester youth put into the show. “Chester students play a primary role in the decision-making process in all aspects of Chester Noise,” Symonds said.

Symonds believes that all the opportunities available to Swarthmore students should be accessible to Chester students. “We kind of owe it to everyone around us to share our resources,” Symonds said.

Symonds hopes that Chester Noise will continue after he and others involved graduate.

“Chester Noise” will not officially start for another few weeks, but Symonds will be DJing with high school students during the allotted slot on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

While some of the music on “Chester Noise” is freestyle, Elysee’s “We’re Still Just Friends” is composed entirely of freestyle music. This is Elysee’s first semester with the show, which is somewhat of a sequel to a similar show that was here his freshman year called “We’re Just Friends,” though he has been the hip-hop director of WSRN since his sophomore year. “We’re Just Friends” was run by seniors in Vertigo-go, who would “get together every weekend and freestyle,” Elysee said.

“[F]reestyle tradition disappeared from WSRN, so I figured that it was important to resurrect the tradition,” Elysee said. “I’m hoping that after I leave, it will become almost an institutionalized part of the hip-hop department.” Freestyle is, according to Elysee, where “you have a beat and people just drop rhymes ‘right off the dome,’ and spontaneous rapping. It can be telling stories, it can be kind of word play for wordplay’s sake, but as long as you’re rapping.” At the moment, Elysee and the other students on the show are using tracks and beats from Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne to 90s rap. He hopes that they will be able to “start making original beats.”

With some of the other radio shows, DJs try to prepare playlists for the show. With “We’re Still Just Friends,” there isn’t much preparation beyond finding beats. “These days, there are written freestyles, which to me is like an oxymoron. Or [people] will have a few lines already in their head and will rhyme off of those, but as far as I know, we’re all just going in completely a blank page,” Elysee said.

He hopes that the show will encourage students to try out freestyle and be excited about rap music. “I want to see WSRN become more of a creative, productive space … hopefully people will just start going in and making beats,” Elysee said.

Though the radio station features mainly college students, chemistry Professor Bob Paley turned his love for music into “The Chem Lab,” a show that just started its seventh year.

“It’s all about music. Unlike a lot of people in my peer group, I still listen to a lot of new rock music,” Paley said. “It is an outlet, an opportunity for me to continue hearing new music.”

Paley came to teach at Swarthmore in 1989 and about 14-15 years ago, was in a rock band with students. “We played live a bunch of times on campus and then they graduated. For a number of years, I didn’t have a musical outlet,” Paley said. One of his research students was the rock director of WSRN, and Paley suggested doing a show. Though the name “The Chem Lab” might make students wary, Paley thought “it would be fun to say you’re in the chem lab on the air. I make no attempt to try to play [science-related] things.”

The show features mainly rock music, which ranges from the classic bands of the 60s and 70s to indie rock. But Paley shies away from playing things that are on mainstream radio. “Since I grew up in the 70’s, mainstream music from the 60’s and 70’s got played over and over again on the radio. I don’t think anyone listens to mainstream radio anymore,” Paley said.

Paley tries to play what he thinks students are listening to, mentioning how he reads “Pitchfork” every day to stay up-to-date on current music. “Alongside new music, I play the old stuff. There’s no good reason why the music from the 60s to the 90s can’t be played alongside current stuff,” Paley said. “Good rock music is good music.”

“The Chem Lab” airs Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. “We’re Still Just Friends” airs Wednesdays from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. “Chester Noise” airs Fridays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Camila is a first year and can be reached at cryder1@swarthmore.edu

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