College radio station WTSR ran special programming during Welcome Week including live broadcasts from remote locations and contests with giveaway prizes.
Music Director Sean Wilson said WTSR management viewed Welcome Week as an opportunity to be a part of the College community and to expose the freshmen to a unique music experience. WTSR distributed information on how to get involved with the station at all of their events and plan on holding an organizational meeting a few weeks into the new semester. Wilson hopes to find the people who are really interested before they get lost in the shuffle of the starting semester. Wilson is a DJ himself as Bastard #3 of "Destiny's Bastard Children" on Tuesday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight.
From 8 a.m. to noon everyday, WTSR played "FM in the AM," a program that featured alternative College music. WTSR correspondents ran live interviews and sponsored trivia games for freshman and their parents during move-in day. The station was also present at Thursday night's Late Nighter and lunch at Eickoff Hall on Friday. DJs brought out the equipment to provide music at Saturday's Volleyball Tournament and the Wiffleball Tournament on Sunday.
WTSR will return to its regular schedule after Labor Day and will feature new DJs and programming. Some old favorites will return, such as Monday's "'80s night," "Metal Fridays," and other specialty genre shows such as folk, blues, and electronica. The WTSR programming schedule has not been finalized yet, but it will be posted on their Website, www.tcnj.edu/~wtsr, when it is completed.
The station generally runs with a staff of about 100 people including a 13-person board of directors, volunteers, newsreaders and licensed DJs. WTSR has a track record of being just ahead of the cutting edge,playing artists like Jason Mraz, The Strokes, and Queens of the Stone Age months before they hit the mainstream. Bands currently in rotation at WTSR include Fountains of Wayne, Super Furry Animals, and the emo-punk band Fair Weather.
"We are truly the music alternative," Wilson said. He said WTSR aims to expose people to new music and not "shovel the same garbage down America's collective throat."
WTSR can be found on your radio dials at 91.3 and will continue to DJ around campus at events and at lunch-time at Eickoff Hall. The station is also be sponsoring the annual poster sale, held in the student center.
