Digging deeper into 'The Underground Sound'

By Kathleen Grohman

In the basement of Swig Hall, the office is very quiet, except for the voice of the disc jockey on the air. Her voice emanates from a door covered with stickers for bands and radio stations. The music library covers the walls from floor to ceiling and is organized by genre. There is a "Hey, Mr. DJ" board in the hallway with pictures of some of the DJs making funny faces.

Most students lovingly refer to the blinking red light on the roof of Swig as the beacon that guides them home when they get lost, but in fact, it's the antenna for KSCU 103.3, the campus radio station. The station is located in the basement of Swig, thus its name -- "The Underground Sound."

Junior Allyson Harrison, a business management major, is KSCU's general manager, which means she is the student in charge of the whole station. According to Harrison, KSCU has a 30-mile radius. KSCU has DJs or radio shows from about 6 a.m. to midnight and the off-hours are filled with a compilation CD, so there is always something playing. KSCU can play music from the computer, CDs or vinyl.

Harrison got involved with KSCU at the beginning of her time at Santa Clara.

"I saw the table at orientation, and I got hooked," she said. Harrison said that she likes the perks of her job -- such as free concerts and music -- but she really appreciates the real-life experience this job has given her.

Sophomore J.T. Harechmak, a political science and environmental studies major, first got involved with KSCU as a freshman, when he completed the 10-point training system to be eligible for his own show. Aspiring DJs do simple work, like listen to new music sent to the radio station and recommend which tracks are the best, attend meetings or volunteer around the station to get points. Once a person gets 10 points, a current DJ will take them under their wing and teach them how it works. According to Harechmak, this process usually only takes about a quarter.

Harechmak has a reggae show called "The Sound System" that airs on Fridays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"I started off wanting to play political music, but all that music swears way too much," he said.

In fact, Harechmak's DJ name, The Weatherman, is a holdover from his political show, Harechmak said. He decided to have a reggae show because he hardly knew anything about reggae and wanted to learn more.

Reggae concerts are called sound systems, which is how Harechmak got the name for his show.

"A big part of reggae culture is the sound system party. Whoever had a good sound system would throw a party," he said.

The balance between music and talk is up to the DJ, as long as four public service announcements are made per hour. The Sound System is mostly music, but there are some talk shows on the station.

Harechmak gets callers all the time, especially for requests and questions, but he usually doesn't put them on the air.

"I wouldn't really trust putting anyone on the air," he said. KSCU is subject to the same FCC regulations as any other radio station, which means no swearing, explicit sexual content or satanic content. The radio plays on a six-second delay, "which means I have six seconds to catch any slip-ups," Harechmak said.

Harechmak wants students to know that they can listen to KSCU online at KSCU.org if they don't have a radio.

KSCU has an open house April 17 at 7 p.m., and, in addition to DJ positions, there are a dozen paid management positions open. Management applications are available as of April 11.

Harrison stressed that KSCU plays all kinds of music and describes "The Underground Sound" as "a great place to express your musical passion."

Contact Kathleen Grohman at (408) 551-1918 or kgrohman@scu.edu.