It's no surprise that Brown Student Radio is firmly entrenched in the Providence music scene - it's had longer than any other college station to form ties with the larger community. BSR blazed airwave trails when, in 1936, it became the first student-run station in the country. Sixty-nine years of steeping in the unique culture of the city has left BSR with a strong Providence flavor.
One of the three tenets of BSR's official manifesto is to further interactions between Brown students and the Providence community. The station features a blend of Providence-grown and Brown DJs and programming that focuses on the Providence scene.
Approximately half of BSR's DJs are local, said Shepherd Laughlin '07, co-features director at BSR. "The people who come out of the greater community are more likely to have ties to the local music scene," he said. The station's weekly Live Block frequently hosts Providence bands.
Even when not playing the music of local artists, the DJs at BSR spin music that reflects the Providence tradition of indie and underground music. According to General Manager Shauna Duffy '04, "the goal with the music shows isn't to be elitist, but we have a limited amount of airtime, so our goal is to put things on the radio that aren't elsewhere on the radio. So it doesn't have to be all obscure, but we don't play Top 40. If you have a good reason for playing a Britney Spears song in a program, that could be legitimate, but for the most part we try to discourage DJs from playing the same stuff you hear everywhere else on the radio."
Duffy noted that students and local DJs who want to learn the ropes of commercial radio production have an "amazing opportunity" in the Brown-affiliated WBRU.
Unlike at commercial stations, DJs at BSR create their own playlists. In general, however, they are required to play three new releases - songs released within the past three months - each week. The station receives hundreds of new releases and most of them are reviewed, Duffy said. "We encourage (DJs) to play new things but we never tell them what to play."
The range of music played at BSR is large. Shows range from "The Square Dance Disaster Hour," which describes itself as "country begets metal begets rock begets baguettes" to "Transforming Hip-Hop," which promises to deliver "free association with hip-hop as the jumping point."
Although the music offered up at BSR is disparate in genre, it all tends to be music that doesn't have many other avenues for public exposure.
This tendency toward originality and the lesser-known can also be seen in BSR's lineup of feature programs. "Mixtape For the City," hosted by Megan Hall '04.5 and Andrew Oesch RISD '02, directs listeners on biking tours of the city. For each show, Hall and Oesch plan out 30-minute biking routes in Providence and set them to music, giving directions and pointing out the routes' interesting points along the way. Hall said she tries to pick music that reflects the feel of the routes, which so far have included a stretch along Wickenden Street beginning on the downtown side of the Point Street Bridge and ending at India Point Park and a path around the capitol building that included a dip below the Providence Place Mall.
While Hall stays in the station to broadcast, Oesch arrives at the route's endpoint to leave candles, cookies and a suggestion box for listeners. But Hall and Oesch make it a point not to accompany the bikers along the way because they want listeners to discover the city for themselves and create a "mobile community" in Providence, she said.
"Mixtape For The City" provides one example of the fluid nature of the Providence arts scene. The show combines music, biking, the aesthetic appeal of the city and even visual arts. According to Hall, "some of the (advertisement) posters were more artistic than informative" - one was designed to emulate a silk screen with nearly illegible information about where and when to meet.
This tendency toward mixing music, visual arts and the biking community is an aspect of Providence life that Rhode Island native Duffy said she finds very appealing. As for Providence's reputation as a haven for underground music fans, Duffy said she feels that "Providence is a million times more amazing than its reputation could ever pretend to stab at. I think it's the most amazing city in the world. There are amazing ties between the music community, the visual arts community, the bike community - all these people are part of amazing communities that get international recognition."
Hall said she feels the uniquely diverse nature of the Providence music and arts scene is partially due to people's desire to "live intentionally." She said that many Providence artists are concerned with the impact their actions - including what food they eat, where they live and how they get around - have on the greater community.
"(Providence) has a group of people who want to live in a different way. They don't want to buy into owning a car, they don't want to buy into having a corporate job. They're interested in making art or music and alternative forms of transportation."
This characteristically Providence blending of art forms and desire for something outside the mainstream continues to be reflected at BSR.
"We don't need to be doing what every other radio station is doing," Duffy said.
