Alternative Music Gives Way To Political Talk

By Jonathan Karl/CNN

NEW YORK (April 30) -- College radio has a new sound this year: political talk instead of the alternative music formats for which so many campus stations are best known.

At Hamilton College, near Utica in upstate New York, students are tuning in to WHCL, the campus radio station, for talk with a political bent.

Like many other student-run stations, Hamilton College's WHCL is making room make room in its music-heavy format for news and talk radio.

WHCL's liveliest show is Double Take, a weekly program that features debate on issues ranging from fraternities on campus to the war in Bosnia. Last week's hot topic was affirmative action (96K WAV sound).

In the studio, a student offered his opinion: "It must be better. And who can make that better? The people using their vote to vote in politicians who are committed to making that better."

The debate is contagious, spreading political discussion from the radio studio to the dorm room and beyond.

Hamilton senior Betsy Knice is an avid listener, and frequent caller, to the show.

"It's a good forum for people who are in a college setting, who don't get to read a lot of newspapers or watch a lot of TV, to get an idea of some of the issues and to hear what people their own age are thinking about them, rather than what newscasters and older people think about them," Knice said.

College radio can also reach far beyond a campus audience. There are 818 student-run radio stations in the U.S. and New York University's student-run radio station churns out 10,000 watts of power in the heart of America's biggest media market.

The station, in a hole-in-the-wall studio in Greenwich Village, is just a few miles downtown from where radio stars Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern and Don Imus broadcast their shows.

In addition to regular news broadcasts throughout the day, WNYU has recently unveiled two talk shows hosted and produced by students.

"When we do this talk radio format here at WNYU, we shape it, members of my generation shape it," said Sid Dinsay, an NYU student and radio host. "We don't have to pitch our format ideas to older people who otherwide wouldn't understand our gripes (192K WAV sound)."

Its New York location gives WNYU a chance to book some big-name guests. Last week, Dinsay's guest was Gardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, himself a talk show host on WABC radio. When the student show premiered last year, its first guest was ex-New York Mayor Ed Koch.

Koch, who has made a name for himself in talk radio, has plenty of advice for the NYU students, but he gives it with a warning.

"If you agree with me, after picking 12 issues, on nine out of the 12, I'm very happy," Koch said. "If you agree with me on 12 out of 12, see a psychiatrist."

With final exams underway, most colleges and universities are finishing up for the spring. But as the fall term begins, look for more and more students to tune into the 1996 presidential campaign through college radio.

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