WXYC SignalSignal toto NoiseNoise March 1997 March 18, 1997 I laughed when I was recently told is WXYC’s that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to 20th anniversary Listen for special anniversary events Heaven” was the first song that & broadcasts in March and April WXYC played when it first went on the air twenty years ago. Not Inside out of any disdain or disrespect for Led Zeppelin - which is still a Interview with Matthew Shipp big favorite of several WXYC DJs, believe it or not... continued inside WXYC’s top 77 of 1997 It's all age groups. We have Chapel Hill High School and the junior high school kids listening to us. We have Carolina students of all kinds: preppies, Bill Burton on the the organic types, disgruntled WQDR listeners, old WDBS listeners, attempted “Top 40 Takeover” of 1980 The Best Records of the 1980s Randy Bullock on the 1992 Gavin Convention Listener Survey Program Guide and graduate students. Also a lot of community people listen to us. Anniversary event station manager Bill Burton information in the DTH, 4/13/82 WXYC 89.3 FM WXYC’s top 77 of ’97* (*) = so far...this list is based on playlists from 1/1/97 to 3/8/97; several records on this Box 51 Carolina Union list got significant play in 1996 or are still getting play right now, so a lower placement on this list doesn’t mean that a record got played fewer times overall, just fewer times during Chapel Hill, NC 27599 this time period.) 1. Dr. Octagon — Instrumentalyst (MO WAX); “Blue Flowers” 12-inch (BULK) USA 2. Ghost — Lama Rabi Rabi (DRAG CITY) 3. Red Krayola — Hazel (DRAG CITY) 4. v/a — Growin’ Up Too Fast (MERCURY) 5. v/a — When I Was a Cowboy (YAZOO) studio phone 6. Mary Lou Williams — Zoning; Zodiac Suite (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS) 7. Ziryab Trio — Mashreo Classics (CRAMMED DISKS) 8. Meringue — Music From the Mint Green Nest (CHERRY SMASH) 9. Trans Am — Surrender to the Night (THRILL JOCKEY) 919-962-8989 10. Portastatic — The Nature of Sap (MERGE) 11. v/a — Macro Dub Infection, Volume II (GYROSCOPE) 12. v/a — Women in Electronic Music - 1977 (CRI) management 13. John Fahey — City of Refuge (TIM/KERR) 14. Bugskull — presents “Snakland” (SCRATCH) 15. Alice Coltrane — Ptah, the El Daoud (IMPULSE) 919-962-7768 16. Ann-Margret — Let Me Entertain You (RCA) 17. Aphex Twin — Richard D. James Album (SIRE) 18. v/a — Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky (ROUNDER) music director 19. Tek 9 — Is It On? (SSR) 20. Sister Rosetta Tharpe — Complete Works, 1938 - 1944 (DOCUMENT) 21. Andy Statman Quartet — Between Heaven and Earth (SHANACHIE) 22. Huun-Huur-Tu — If I’d Been Born an Eagle (SHANACHIE) 919-962-7768 23. v/a — Power of Tower (CRED FACTORY) 24. v/a — Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS) 25. v/a — “Rhyme and Reason” soundtrack (PRIORITY) news and PSAs 26. Bernice Johnson Reagon — Give Your Hands to Struggle (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS) 27. Fifty Foot Hose — Cauldron (WEASEL DISK) 28. v/a — Music of Indonesia, Vol. 10 - 12 (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS) 919-962-7768 29. v/a — World Music in the Netherlands (RADIO NETHERLANDS) 30. Myra Melford — The Same River, Twice (GRAMAVISION) 31. Alwin Nikolais — Electronic Dance Music (CRI) promotions 32. Brigitte Bardot — Best of BB (MERCURY) 33. Ilyas Malayev Ensemble — At the Bazaar of Love (SHANACHIE) 34. v/a — Pebbles Volume 9 & 10 (ARCHIVE INTERNATIONAL) 35. Loren Mazzacane Connors — Long Nights (TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS) 919-962-7768 36. Memphis Goons — Teenage BBQ (SHANGRI-LA) 37. Dr. Israel — the 7 Tribes of Israel (WORD SOUND) 38. v/a — Dutch Harbor: Where the Sea Breaks its Back (ATAVISTIC) internet 39. Village of Savoonga — Philipp Schatz (COMMUNION) 40. Naftule Brandwein — King of the Klezmer Clarinet (ROUNDER) 41. v/a — The Sugar Hill Records Story (RHINO) [email protected] 42. Guru Guru — Space Ship (The Best of Part 1) (CLEOPATRA) 43. Ebn E Sync — self-titled (WORD SOUND) 44. Ad Vielle Que Pourra — Menage a Quatre (XENOPHILE) http://sunsite.unc.edu/wxyc/ 45. Eyvind Kang — 7 NADEs (TZADIK) 46. June of 44 — The Anatomy of Sharks (TOUCH AND GO) 47. Built To Spill — Perfect From Now On (WARNER BROTHERS) 48. Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls — Rebel Roots (NAIM) 49. v/a — Jazz the World Forgot Volume 1 (YAZOO) 50. v/a — Family Album (SHYBOY) 51. Prince Charming — Psychotropical Heatwave (WORD SOUND) 52. v/a — When I’m Hungry, I Eat (GOURMANDIZER) 53. v/a — Evitas Tango (MILAN) 54. Sam Rivers — Concept (RIVBEA) 55. Mike Patton — Adult Themes for Voice (TZADIK) 56. Softies — Winter Pageant (K); self-titled (SLUMBERLAND) 57. Spanish Fly — Fly by Night (ACCURATE) 58. Quintron — The First 2 LP’s (BULB) 59. Ken Ardley Playboys — We’ve Got Ken (LUCKY GARAGE) 60. Bounty Killer — Hip-Hopera 12" (BLUNT) 61. Hamid Drake-Michael Zerang Duo — Ask the Sun (OKKADISK) - or even “Stairway to Heaven”, despite the fact that I can think of at How well does any of this work, if it works at least twenty better (and probably shorter) Led Zeppelin songs that I’d all? WXYC’s greatest strength is what some sooner listen to. perceive to be its greatest flaw: that there’s too much of the unfamiliar and strange and not enough No, I chuckled and smirked inside because it seemed like the great of the stuff you already know and love. We respect radio god in the sky couldn’t have written a more ironic opening script and understand this position and we always value for WXYC than to have the station play “Stairway to Heaven” as its your input as a listener. But by the same token, we first song. Think about it...on the one hand you have “Stairway to hope you understand that as an educational and Heaven”, a song that has to be the most blatantly over-requested and entertaining freeform radio station, WXYC must painfully overplayed song in the history of the narrowly casted radio keep exploring and mixing it up, embracing the format known as “classic rock.” On the other hand, you have WXYC, previously unknown with the same fervor that most a radio station that has spent the last couple of decades trying to reach of us reserve for listening to our old favorites. It’s beyond not only the limits imposed by advertisers and mainstream this constant shifting of focus and the resulting definitions of quality and accessibility (restrictions that most college unpredictability that often makes WXYC truly stations eschew to some degree or another), but also the often-false magical. Because without any limits or genre notion of “genre” and the artificial musical boundaries that any sort of restrictions, you never know...that next song you block programming inevitably creates. hear could truly be ANYTHING. Maybe even “Stairway to Heaven.” During my years at WXYC, our stated format has been “music of the 20th century”. Obviously, the station’s going to have to come up Tim Ross, station manager with a different catch-phrase in a few years, but that’s not relevant to the matter at hand. Right now, “music of the 20th century” seems like a fairly accurate, if vague, description of what WXYC sounds like. It’s also the description of an ambitious and idealistic format that’s often difficult to implement in reality. In fact, it bears noting that by no means has WXYC always sounded as diverse as it does right now. The road from that initial playing of “Stairway to Heaven” to WXYC’s current attempted blend of almost every imaginable type of music has been long and arduous, one filled with all sorts of incremental modifications to the playlist and station soul-searching about how to better integrate all types of music into one appealing whole. So now, in 1997, a 20-year-old WXYC finds itself with the incredibly exciting yet monumentally imposing task of mixing together almost every type of music, from all of the world’s forms of centuries-old DJs’ Picks from ‘96 traditional music to a whole host of modern musical genres that didn’t even exist when this station went on the air. We’re talking blues, African, 1 TORTOISE “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” electronic, cajun, reggae, gospel, punk, ska, Celtic, hip-hop, noise, pop, 2 SUN CITY GIRLS “330,003 Crossdressers Latin, jazz, folk, dub, classical, Asian, techno, and more...not to mention From Beyond the Big Veda” all of the numerous hybrids and subsplinters of these categories that only go to show how limiting the listed category definitions can be in 3 DOCTOR OCTAGON “Ecologyst” the first place. 4 STEREOLAB “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” WXYC’s top 77 of ’97 continued 5 TRANS AM “Trans Am” 6 THE ROOTS “Illadelph Halflife” 62. Springheel Jack — 60 Million Shades.... (ISLAND) 63. Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers — Super Freak / Yaina (CUBOP) 7 DJ SHADOW “Endtroducing...” 64. Revo — Operation Re-information 7-inch (POP BUS/SSS) 65. Make Up — After Dark (DISCHORD); Sound Verite (K) 8 SUN RA “Singles” 66. v/a — Patio Collection, Volume 2 (SMILEX) 67. v/a — The October Revolution (EVIDENCE) 9 LATEEF(w/DJ Shadow) “Latyrx/The 68. Rampage the Last Boyscout — “Wild For Da Night” 12-inch (ELEKTRA) Wreckoning” 12 inch 69. Atari Teenage Riot — Not Your Business EP (DIGITAL HARDCORE) 70. Panasonic — Kulma (BLAST FIRST) 10 BECK “Odelay” 71. v/a — Eh, Paisano! (RHINO) 72. Omar Faruk Tekbilek — Mystical Garden (CELESTIAL HARMONIES) 73. Pavement — Brighten the Corners (MATADOR) The Dirty Three, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the 74. Digital Underground — “Glooty-us Maximus” b/w “We Got More” (?) 75.