What Do You Love About Music?

This was originally a tumblr post, but I was so happy with it, I thought it belonged here too

What Do You Love About Music?

“…to start with? Everything…” - Russell Hammond, Stillwater 1973.

That’s about how I feel. Yesterday, I realized as I was walking down my street. I couldn’t stop telling myself how much I love my job. I mean sure, I don’t get paid in cash but that just means that Uncle Sam can’t take anything from me. 

And to think, I only ever got started with radio announcing as an extra curricular at the University of South Carolina. I set out with the idea of becoming a music journalist, but once I found out that the newspaper industry was taking a nosedive straight to hell, I focused on the music part and after a setback, got a DJ position with WUSC-FM & HD-1 Columbia, or WUSC for short. Pretty exciting stuff to be part of one of the “Best Little College Radio Stations in the US” boasted one magazine, it might’ve been Rolling Stone fancy that. 

I guess at that point I was pretty stuck in my ways musically. I’m an old soul at heart, one of those kids that got thrown in the Wacky Wayback Washing Machine in the 20th century and washed up in the 21st century time warp. Nevermind I was born in 1990.  

I wanted to be able to play really neat stuff that I enjoyed from the 1960’s. In this case, The Monkees was a perfect example. What I got was everything shy of that including a rather awesome sit down phone interview with Howard Kaylan of The Turtles! Trust me, that was the highlight of the best times of my life at WUSC. The thing is, I had my first taste of bureaucracy at that moment. While I was so excited to have Howard’s endorsement, and rather important insight into the workings of the music biz, I was saddened to find that my peers didn’t see it my way. 

So what’s a girl to do? I enjoyed what I had at my fingertips no doubt, but without the right words to say to people to sell it all, I felt a bit of a fraud. I don’t know. WUSC did give me one important thing though, It answered the question: 

“What are you going to do with your life?”

I answered, “I’m going into radio!” And left with my head held high. USC gave me what I needed, they didn’t use me…I used them. Of course before I left, I joined forces with a veteran DJ who was a WUSC alumn still going strong, and also worked in the biz about the time the tunes I was spinning—were popular. He saw something in me and took me under wing and led me to Our Generation Radio, a small online station where the only rule is “Have Fun.” I’ve been having as much of that as I possibly could ever since.

With one interesting bit of irony, I now feature indie music every week.

Well…at least it doesn’t suck...it's homegrown and it's beautiful. <3