Student Life Archives

Illustration courtesy of KWUR

Preceding KWUR, the University’s first radio station was KFRH. Established in 1961, KFRH operated out of Liggett Residence Hall and served the South 40 only. Musically, KFRH did little to stand out. When it shut down in the spring of 1974, KFRH’s claim to fame was in 1968, when freshman Beau Harris set the national collegiate record for consecutive hours broadcasting at 136.

Though KFRH shut down, the students’ thirst for college radio remained. Robert Felekey and other students worked with administrators during the spring semester of 1976, and KWUR was born on July 4 of that same year. Its programming, from the beginning, was full of content not played on mainstream radio. Progressive rock bands like Rush and Frank Zappa were some of the early KWUR DJs’ favorites. Underground and free jazz music was another early mark on the station.

Listenership, Money, and Drugs

In the early 1980s, KWUR became plagued with a combination of low listenership, fiscal constraints and illegal activities. The radio station was funded by a 3-2-1 ratio between the Office of Student Activities, Student Union and the Congress of the South 40. In September of 1982, though, the Congress denied KWUR funding due to a perceived lack of student interest. One school survey found that only 19 percent of students listened to KWUR. With student interest low, a significant amount of funding was pulled. In Sept. of 1982, KWUR ceased broadcasting for the remainder of the year.

Student Life reported at the time that the decision was based on disputes with the administration over funding. The perception among the administration was that KWUR’s alternative music content was not popular with the students and that it focused too much of its energy on the non-Wash. U. community. Yet today there are speculations that KWUR was in trouble for other reasons as well. Though the details are murky, according to Klacsmann and other current and former KWUR associates, disc jockeys were accused of illegal activities in the early 1980s. There was evidence that DJs were making illegal transactions and other arrangements over the air for what were likely drugs.

When KWUR began to rebroadcast in 1983, it did so with the oversight of a new advisory board. By the late ’80s, though, KWUR’s reputation for obscure music and illegitimate activities were well publicized. KWUR news, both good and bad, was frequently the leading headlines of Student Life. A 1988 op-ed in Student Life by Jonathan Handelman seemed to capture the mood: “KWUR broadcasts, you see, are sort of like missionaries of old. The difference here is that instead of spreading the gospel … KWUR spreads Progressive and Alternative music to the tasteless.” Handelman said. “We need good music, wholesome music,” he concluded.

Nirvana, a Magazine, and a Flourishing

Out of the relative chaos of the ’80s came a KWUR radio that flourished in the ’90s. It began on Oct. 16, 1991, when a then little-known band called Nirvana was set to play Mississippi Nights. Before the show, band members Kurt Cobain and Krist Novocelic drove around in a car with two KWUR disc jockeys. They were then brought back to the station for an interview. According to John Klacsmann, the current KWUR training director and historian, the interview is a “little unbelievable.”

“It’s just a couple of DJs hanging out with Kurt Cobain,” he said.

The Nirvana story was lost for years before Klacsmann found a recording of the interview in the station. For him, the interview is evidence of just how ahead of the curve KWUR was at the time.

“KWUR was very into Nirvana before they got huge,” he said.

Other former DJs agree.

“It was the real alternative radio station in St. Louis,” added Derek Teslik, hip-hop director from 1998-2000.

KWUR was one of the first St. Louis stations to feature hip-hop. The station “had serious rap shows back before there were rap shows in St. Louis,” he said. “It was one of the few outlets for real, underground rap.”

Eric Ratinoff, a KWUR disc jockey in 1991 and 1992, saw KWUR’s success as a product of its musical content. “REM and U2 had moved college rock into the mainstream” during the 1980s, he said. In the early ’90s KWUR, “there was an attitude that those guys sold out and let’s find something else.”

Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chili Peppers were some of the bands that took their place.

“The ethic [at KWUR] was that nobody understand[s] us and we don’t want them to,” Ratinoff said.

As the alternative bands became increasingly popular with the mainstream, KWUR simply continued to find good, less recognizable names.

The scope of KWUR’s success in broadcasting new and alternative music during the ’90s was not limited to the confines of its radio station. In the spring of 1991, the station’s ambitious managers began publishing a magazine, “Sample,” that would provide a forum for discussion of alternative “musiculture.” At a time when KWUR was under attack in the pages of Student Life for being too elitist, expensive, and irrelevant, “Sample” was the way for the station to respond in print. In the first issue, Mark Schwartz published an article entitled, “In defense of alternative music,” in which he blasted Student Life for its treatment of KWUR as the home of “music no one likes.” Schwartz provided a choice to the reader. “You can participate in the record-industry-radio-consumer m‚nage … trois” by listening to “Eric Clapton on 90.3.” Alternatively, he said, on a “college campus, where minds are supposedly broadened … you can support less visible artists and musical styles.”

If the longevity and quality of “Sample” is a measure of what choice Wash. U. students made, then KWUR won the battle by a long shot. By the time of the magazine’s last issue in the spring of 1999, it had produced a total of 16 issues, and had featured interviews with a veritable who’s who of 90’s alternative and underground music. Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Nirvana, the Flaming Lips, Pavement, the Beastie Boys, Uncle Tupelo, Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Blackilicious are only a handful of the more than 75 names interviewed over the decade.

The iPod and Future of KWUR

According to Klacsmann, “Sample’s” abandonment reflected a period of general decline for KWUR. As the 90’s segued into the new century, KWUR was forced to confront a number of problems that the station is still dealing with today. The first is the ubiquitous iPod. Radio itself is still trying to find itself since the days that alternative new music became readily available through the mp3. “Providing alternative music when people had limited access to it was huge,” Klacsmann said. Now, KWUR finds itself having to adapt. Some reforms have already taken place. Over the summer, the station was renovated and cleaned up and the internet site was upgraded.

Other reforms are old issues. The station was given 10 watts with which to broadcast in 1976 and has not been given, despite numerous protests, any additional wattage since. In 1997, the station was again historically early in streaming its music live via the internet, but the problem of low wattage remains one of the central concerns for KWUR even today. A station, according to FCC regulations, can only be upgraded to 100 watts if it is at least three clicks on the dial away from another station. KWUR remains two clicks from 90.7, KWMU, St. Louis’ NPR and Public Radio International station.

Still other progressive measures are in the works. There is talk of moving over to the A.M. dial once all of radio becomes digital in the near future. Plans for a thirtieth year anniversary next summer are being discussed, with rumors of a celebration that will include one dj broadcasting for 30 straight hours. As always, KWUR week is being planned now so that it can continue to be one of the musical highlights of the year.

The history of KWUR reveals a radio station often inappropriately managed and not always loved. One of Klacsmann’s goals for the future has been to understand KWUR’s past. He has compiled the magazines, discovered old recorded interviews, and talked with numerous KWUR alumni. Ultimately, despite its tumultuous history, when compared to other student groups around campus KWUR’s longevity and consistently are rather remarkable. “We’ve been around 30 years, but we’ve pretty much stayed the same,” Klacsmann said. One need only tune in to find out what the future has in store.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Cadenza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.