by Devin Bowen
This past weekend, KRFH made our big debut at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) for the annual University of California College Radio Conference, and man, it was an experience. Being a college radio junkie and a KRFH DJ myself, I was just so geeked out of excitement for this trip. We had $20 in our pockets, three cars full of indie college merch and a dream traveling down the state to Santa Cruz, Calif. Once we arrived in Santa Cruz, it was game over; no one was ready for the KRFH Humboldt people to be in their city.
The conference itself was full of so many activities for the different college radio stations, giving each DJ a panel of where to go for different presentations and what they consist of. KZSC, UCSC college radio station, made the whole experience so welcoming. They provided tour guides, an after conference show and so much free food. Besides the fact that everyone was someone I didn’t recognize, the UCSC campus felt so similar to Cal Poly Humboldt, making the anxiety of it all to be just a tad bit chilled out. I will say it was honestly a surreal moment hearing other college radio stations’ systems compared to ours.
KRFH, besides Stanford’s station KZSU, are the only fully student-run radio stations and stations that don’t pay their DJ managers. I was quite literally gagged by the amount of money these other stations were given and just the fact that they were being paid! It does make sense after hearing how everyone runs their stations, but in my opinion, I think KRFH keeps college radio pretty punk-rock by doing it for the passion, music and experience.
At the end of the conference, all the stations got to do a merch-swag swap where we basically just traded what we all made for our stations. KRFH Public Relations Manager Madison Verba and I were on an insane motivational high after the swag swap. There were prints, coloring books, teddy bears and even shorts! As KRFH social media, too, I was ready to grab my phone to document my DJ friends like a crazy facebook mom. Santa Barbara’s station had me most impressed and really jumped the gun for my motivational high for KRFH’s future. Plus, it was so cute and heartfelt seeing everyone take our zines, posters and stickers. In fact, almost everything we had was wiped clean from our table. Imagine SpongeBob with an “aw” face — that was me.
After the long radio day, KZSC hosted a mini-show at one of their local venues called the Vessel. KRFH were once again the true punk rockers, dancing and jamming the whole time. We even adopted a member from Stanford’s college radio to join the Kerfich family. In the long run, being a college radio DJ is the best part of my college experience, and seeing other stations and students have that passion was so validating. So, of course, I’ll be keeping college radio alive — will you?
Devin Bowen is a journalism major and also the social media manager for the student run radio station, KRFH. She admires collecting vinyl records and exploring new artists. They hope to spread new experiences and influence a different perspective with music and culture through The Lumberjack. Contact them at dlb155@humboldt.edu.