I Can’t Live Without My Radio

Appealing to eclectic music lovers everywhere, WCNI thrives even in the era of Big Streaming.

By Tim Stevens ’03

avigating the studio home of WCNI, Connecticut College’s independent, ad-free, free-form radio station, can be challenging for those with a touch of claustrophobia. Most walls are covered, floor to ceiling, with shelves of CDs and vinyl. Eagle eyes might even spot the occasional tape or 8-track, still holding on years after their format essentially went the way of the dodo. On the walls without music, posters, stickers and old concert announcements hint at eras past and the station’s rich history.

Make it through WCNI’s labyrinthian hallway and things open up to the station’s beating heart, its broadcast booth. There, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, it broadcasts an impressively wide array of music to Camels—and the Camel-curious—everywhere. If one stops by, they might well catch John Tyler, the station’s community general manager, commanding the airwaves with his Friday morning world music show, aptly titled John E’s World. Tuning the dial to 90.9 every other Saturday after 9 p.m. will gain you access to Joey Royale’s Crypt of Cool, a show he bills as “weird music for weird people.” And on Mondays, anchoring the 3-6 afternoon slot, Student General Manager Riley Madden ’26 will greet you with an “eclectic mix of rock, folk and Americana.”

Madden works the board with an assuredness one would not expect from someone who’s only been doing this for just over a year. She makes sure her listeners know exactly who they’re hearing before moving easily from the likes of Talk to Me by Bruce Springsteen—The Boss is a staple of every broadcast—to All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints by Paul Simon. At times, she builds thematic suites within her three hours; at others, she lets a sort of controlled anarchy guide her selections. In addition to the music, she peppers her on-air time with trivia and song analysis.

“I start off every show with the same song, Pirate Radio, a rocker from the lesser-known folk rock musician John Hiatt. His song, a tribute to the old tradition of pirate radio blasted haphazardly over the airwaves, playing the unconventional, innovative songs commercial radio wouldn’t play, is also the name of my show,” Madden explains.

“The Pirate Radio name is a tribute to what WCNI is all about—ordinary people volunteering their time to play their favorite music for their community, no matter what genre, no matter how commercial or how obscure.”

WCNI Student General Manager Riley Madden ’26 looks for music to play during her weekly show, “Pirate Radio.” All photos by Sean D. Elliot.

Let My Love Open the Door

In 1951, when Connecticut College for Women got its first taste of college radio at 620 on the AM dial, Madden’s show would have seemed impossible to station founders Carol Crane ’50 and Phyll Hoffman ’51. In fact, there’s almost nothing recognizable about the noncommercial, educational station compared to its infancy.

Cables carried the early signal from Palmer Auditorium to the dorms and academic buildings. However, residents down the hill in New London couldn’t hear a word of it. If someone wasn’t on campus, and inside, they’d be out of luck.

Sitting next to the transmitter in Plant was no guarantee, either. Even on campus, there was a good chance the signal from a more powerful station would create enough interference that WNCI barely broke through. Still, for 45 minutes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, Conn students had an opportunity to hear their classmates in the Radio Club broadcast.

The fledgling station took a big leap forward in 1974. That’s when it made the move to the FM dial, extending the station’s reach and expanding broadcasts to every day of the week. But with only a 10-watt antenna to carry the signal, WCNI remained a largely campus-only station.

It was in 1984 that the station really began to come into its own. Under the direction of the station’s then-President Rebecca Gates ’86, WCNI made three critical changes. First, it upgraded to a 500-watt antenna, increasing the station’s reach to around 25 miles into towns like Colchester and Essex and across the border into Rhode Island. Second, the station began to actively broadcast late-night programming. (According to WCNI Treasurer and DJ James Sachs ’85, the midnight-3 a.m. slot is now one of the most popular for students to claim.)

Third, and arguably most important to the station’s identity, it began to open up its schedule to professors and community members to come aboard and broadcast their own radio shows, too. Besides bringing a more comprehensive range of voices and interests to the airwaves, it also helped weave WCNI into the larger fabric of the New London area. For a campus that has long wanted to connect more deeply with the people and communities surrounding it, WCNI stands as an early and ongoing success.

In the years since, the connection between the radio station and the community has been further solidified by concerts, an annual fundraising marathon, another antenna upgrade that quadrupled the station’s wattage in 2003 and the establishment of Connecticut College Community Radio, Inc., as the body overseeing WCNI’s operations and finances in 2005.

But the “little station that could” has seen its fair share of challenges, too.

The Pirate Radio name is a tribute to what WCNI is all about—ordinary people volunteering their time to play their favorite music for their community, no matter what genre, no matter how commercial or how obscure.

Riley Madden ’26

Join the Gang

As it turns out, it wasn’t video but COVID-19 that nearly killed the radio star. In March 2020, Conn students left for spring break and were promptly asked not to return to campus and instead finish their courses online. Staff and faculty, too, were asked to work from home if possible, and WCNI went automated.

Live broadcasts finally returned in June 2021. But even then, restrictions and campus outbreaks limited student involvement.

“The College was very protective of students, and student DJs were just not allowed,” Madden says.

But by the time Madden arrived as a first-year student in the fall of 2022, life on campus was beginning to get back to normal.

“My first week or two at Conn, I saw the WCNI table. As someone who loves music and loves talking about music, I was really drawn to it. I started training in September and I was on in October,” she says.

“I was really enjoying it. Then, in February, there was an email about a new Board election for student manager, which had been vacant for years. I thought it was a fantastic opportunity, but I was just a freshman. I had to ask for a waiver to even run. But I did, and they gave it to me.”

Eventually, more students joined or rejoined the community hosts on the WCNI airwaves. The presence of new blood in the studio has also brought a further diversity of sound, something the station has always prided itself on in the modern era.

“There’s an incredible diversity of genres offered,” asserts Sachs. “There is a show on movie soundtracks. There was a program in Yiddish.”

Madden agrees, noting that while many stations play the same 50 or so songs on repeat, “We have everything. Classical. Traditional folk. Sea shanties. Broadway standards. Rock and roll, obviously. Oldies. Jazz. Everyone involved is passionate about music and what they’re playing.”

Modern State of Mind

As WCNI has evolved, so too has the radio industry. Major disruptions have included the rise of syndicated corporate radio and online music streaming companies like Spotify and Tidal.

“There’s this challenge to making an FM station relevant today,” Sachs admits. But he says WCNI offers the human touch, listener-focused experience and wide variety largely missing from Big Streaming.

“When people use Spotify or YouTube premium or any of those systems, they’re all algorithm-generated. When they build your playlist, they pick the songs that are not only popular but that will make them the most money to play. So when you’re using Spotify, you’re the product. Even if it’s the free version, you’re the product. The WCNI listener is not a product or service—they’re actually a listener,” he says.

“And we’re humans picking music from this vast library we’ve developed over the decades. So, yes, anyone can build a playlist, but you can’t duplicate someone going into that library, pulling things, mixing them with their digital collections and offering new selections every show.”

That doesn’t mean WCNI isn’t growing and adapting to the times in its own way. Already boasting the third largest signal reach among Connecticut’s 11 college stations, placing it ahead of Yale’s frequently praised WNHU and NESCAC rival Trinity’s WRTC, WCNI is poised to mount a new antenna on top of Shain Library later this year. (Paid for largely by donations raised during the station’s annual fundraising marathon, the antenna marks a bit of a full circle—during the ’70s, a windmill mounted on the original Shain roof powered the station for a time.)

The new antenna will provide listeners with better and more consistent reception of the independent oasis that is WCNI on the radio dial. But the station also streams online, allowing users to listen in from anywhere in the world.

“During the last fundraising marathon, we got calls from all over—L.A. and New York, but also Japan and Brazil,” Madden says.

In recognition of its historic and ongoing contributions to music broadcasting, WCNI was selected this spring as a 2024 inductee to the New England Music Hall of Fame. Madden says it’s a fitting tribute for the resilient station with the simple motto: “For the love of music.”

“There just aren’t many stations, even college stations, that are entirely independent and free-form and connect with the community,” Madden says. “But if you’re looking for music you won’t hear on other stations, WCNI is the place.”

50 YEARS OF WCNI

Connecticut College will mark 50 years of FM broadcasts with a WCNI anniversary celebration during Fall Weekend, Oct. 18-20, 2024. Alumni of the radio station who want to participate should contact event co-chairs Jamie Sachs ’85 (wcni.treas@gmail.com), Richard Kadzis ’76 (rkadzis@gmail.com) or Ken Abel ’76 (kenn616@gmail.com).