While trudging through the monotony and commercial-ridden airwaves of the radio looking for a good song or topic, give KECC 1500 AM a listen.
KECC is a radio station on campus that is completely run by the students from the radio club, and they have full control over the music that is played and the topics discussed on air.
“Why would you not want to listen to a radio station that is run by students?” disc jockey Brandon Rhodes, music major said. “We play music by students and talk about topics relevant to students.”
Rhodes who hosts “Brandon and Friends” alongside fellow DJ Aaron Houston, welcomes EC artists to submit their music to KECC, so that they could play it on air.
“We (Rhodes and Houston) play our music all the time and always put student’s music on air because KECC is all about the students,” Rhodes said.
The music played on KECC is very diverse. While Rhodes focuses on R&B and Houston focuses on hip-hop, DJ Karen Braun plays punk, metal and blues.
“I don’t play any mainstream stuff,” Braun said. “I like to play the underground stuff that regular radio does not play.”
Along with playing diverse genres of music, including EC artists on air, KECC also speaks directly to students about topics that are happening all around campus.
“Right now we’re talking a lot about the student election going on,” Houston said. “We also talk about EC sports. We just had the baseball coach in here, talking about the team missing the playoffs and we’re going to have the football coach in here soon.”
The DJs also talk about things going on all around the L.A. area including current events, musical acts on tour and the city’s sports teams.
Aside from offering music and DJ commentaries, they also have talk radio segments where they take calls from students and give their opinions on popular topics in the media.
“We have a segment called ‘Girl Talk’ where a group of women come in and talk about women’s issues and give advice to people who may be having problems,” Houston said.
Even though the KECC radio club already has a diverse group of students, it is always looking for more people to join.
“We recently had a big influx of new DJs to the radio club which is great, but we could always use more,” Braun said.
For those interested in becoming a part of the radio club, meetings are held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday in the Technical Arts building, room TA104.
The radio club is hoping that they will be able to spread the word about KECC with a much larger staff.
“We know a lot of people don’t know about the radio club or KECC, but if they give us a listen, I know they’ll like us,” Houston said.
KECC is on air from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays, on channel 1500 on the AM dial.
