In 1994, I started as a lowly DJ at WMWC 540 AM at Mary Washington College. My first show was titled Sounds from the Attic because the station was at the very top of Lee Hall, in what seemed like a nicely decorated attic. Even though the station couldn't be heard by hardly anyone (rats had eaten through all the transmitters in the basements of the dorms), I was still dead set on having a radio show. When I was a kid I'd "broadcast" my fake radio shows from my bedroom (which consisted of recording them on tape with my boombox), complete with a top 10 each week. I was inspired mainly by top 40 stations like 98 WCAU FM (Philadelphia) and DJs like Terry "Motormouth" Young.

In any event, Sounds from the Attic started off with a bang. The final song of the show right before my debut on-air was none other than Kid Rock's "Balls in Your Mouth." Fitting. :) My partner at the time was Matt Sutter, and after I introduced myself came my first on-air blunder -- I forgot to turn on Matt's mic for his introduction. Oops.

That first year was a blast, though. Time went by and Matt got too busy to continue with the show. But being a lowly freshman, I had plenty of time on my hands.

My fondest memory from the first year was my final show of the year: a 2 1/2 hour freestyle cipher live on air featuring myself, Jasper White (Hurrikane), Carl Poole (Mista Midnite), Sye Smith, Dejuan Brown (later, Poetic), and Jason O'Neal (Anon). Being that we were on AM and it was late at night, we didn't hold back in any shape or form. We went half an hour past the end of the show, cursing our asses off the whole time. Thank goodness I taped these sessions -- some of them were absolutely amazing.

Sophomore year we moved from AM to cable radio FM. I did two three-hour shows each week: The Jazz Corner (a jazz show, obviously) and Level the Vibes (a reggae and dub show). Again, I had a hell of a time, even if we were still heard by next-to-nobody. Six hours a week in the station was no problem. I also started the first WMWC web page. That year the General Manager Brady Wassom approached me and asked if I might be interested in succeeding him as head of the station next year. I hadn't really thought about it before...

Junior year I had a three-hour slot that I split into three one-hour shows: Trancelike State (electronica -- a really kick ass 45-minute mix that I ended up making dubs of for people on the Net), Level the Vibes, and The Jazz Corner. I also debuted my first Holiday On the Edge, a three-hour holiday show during the last week of the first semester. During the first semester, I served as Brady's apprentice of sorts, warming up for taking over the reigns in January.

Halfway through Junior year I started my rule as GM. Running the station... pretty damn cool. I worked with Tristan Leiter, Natalie Illum, and John Snellgrove (my tech, program, and music directors). I continued as a DJ, too, of course. I also redesigned the WMWC web page, which actually existed until January 2000 in basically the same form. It's recently been redesigned with a nice looking, but uninformative new page.

The summer after Junior year I was in Fredericksburg, so I continued working at the station. These were some great times -- driving over to the college on a hot Saturday, going up to the abandoned station, cranking up the air conditioning and just taking care of business. Checking out new CDs (something I miss so much about the station), cleaning the place up, and trying out our new digital cart-replacement-system.

The first semester of my Senior year, Natalie worked as my assistant since she was following me in the great line of GMs (she was the first female GM in quite a while and formed an all-female staff, as well). Bekka Barker helped out John with music, Sally Bean helped Tristan out with tech stuff, and Olivia Synott helped Natalie with Programming. In September, John, Tristan, and I went to the CMJ music conference. What a good time -- I met Eric from Easy Star for the first time, I ran into Rob Swift of the X-Men/X-ecutioners, I met trumpet legend Donald Byrd, I talked with Philadelphia junglist 1.8.7, and I saw peformances by Guru, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Black Eyed Peas, Witchdoctor, Rob Swift and Total Eclipse, Coldcut, Psycho Realm, and Benny Green. Unreal.

As a DJ, I had a three-hour slot that I titled Return to the Attic, based on the title of my original show, coming full-circle. The format was the same as my original: any type of music that I dug, generally in organized sets. I covered hip-hop, reggae, dub, electronica, jazz, and most of the other stuff that other DJs wouldn't touch. I also did the second annual Holiday on the Edge program.

In January of 1998, Natalie took over as GM and I returned as "just a DJ" again. But I also helped organize the station's first (and only, as far as I remember), "Hip-Hop Wednesday" with Phil and Nene and DJ Q. Hip-hop starting at 4pm and going straight until midnight, with guests throughout the shows. Fittingly enough, Hip-Hop Wednesday was the final show of my time at MWC. So, I brought back some folks from the first year -- namely Dejuan and Anon -- and also got Phil and several others to freestyle along with us. Some other friends joined me for my last program, as well, making it one to remember.

Throughout the four years, I got to meet and interview a nice handful of artists for the station (and the school paper) including Spearhead, Indigo Girls, Spring Heel Jack, Mad Skillz, Run-D.M.C., Jazz Poets' Society, and more.

I definitely miss my time at WMWC. And not just getting free CDs and hearing music several weeks before it came out, but working with other people that were as enthusiastic (mostly) about the station as me. And I'm not kidding about missing the station -- in December of 1998, even though I had graduated, I returned, thanks to new GM Olivia Synnott, to do the third annual "Holiday on the Edge." There was no holiday show in December of 1999, but I did return in December of 2000 for what may finally be my final WMWC show.

Copyright ©2001-2003, Ryan A. MacMichael