You may not be able to tune into WBAR on the AM anymore, but streaming online 24 hours a day, seven days a week is a station that only occasionally sleeps.
In the basement of Reid Hall, right around the corner from Health Services and Quad vending machines, a two-room radio booth lined with records buzzes all day and well into the night. WBAR, Barnard’s radio station—and answer to WKCR—is kept going by dozens of students who each host weekly two-hour shows. While the station used to broadcast on 1680 AM, WBAR is now completely streamed online. It broadcasts at least 10 shows daily, and the station’s goal is to provide 24-hour, commercial-free coverage.
For volunteer disc jockeys, their WBAR airtime is an opportunity to showcase their musical stylings and opinions. Rachel Wagner, BC ’09, does so during her Sunday evening show “Punk and Metal.”
“I play a lot of LA hardcore stuff—early punk, a lot of black metal, which is pretty much not typical for WBAR,” Wagner said.
Still, if the eclectic mix of student DJs who host shows listed as “Rock,” “World,” and even “Eclectic” reveals anything, it is that there is no “typical” WBAR show. In the show “Naked Cake,” which airs on Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m., Barnard seniors Beth Anne Macaluso and Katie Moore blast music that listeners probably danced to in their middle school years.
“We essentially play guilty pleasure songs,” Macaluso said. “We have your Britney Spears, your Rihanna, your ‘N Sync. It’s kind of the anti-college radio show.”
Typical college radio show hosts are “usually more pretentious and do the indie rock thing only. We wanted to do more of the trashy,” she said, laughing.
Both Macaluso and Moore are new to the WBAR community, having launched their show just three weeks ago. Macaluso, who transferred to Barnard at the beginning of her junior year, said “Naked Cake” was a low-key way to meet new people.
Unlike newcomers Macaluso and Moore, Sarah Itzkoff, BC ’11, is in her third semester as a WBAR DJ. Her show, launched in her first semester at Barnard, is called “The Sun’s Not Yellow, It’s Chicken.” It airs directly after “Follow the White Rabbit” and broadcasts on Saturdays from noon to 2 p.m. Ever since she participated in a Barnard precollege program before her senior year of high school, Itzkoff knew she wanted to be part of the radio station.
“I like to talk a lot,” she said. “I end up talking between each song. I don’t want it to just be music. I want to give it a human face.”
For DJs like Itzkoff, Macaluso, and Moore, the shows are also about connecting with listeners as well as each other. “Naked Cake” has brought Macaluso and Moore together to the point that they are able to finish each other’s sentences.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Moore said. “It’s a nice outlet for us—”
“—to take a break from life and listen to some fun music,” Macaluso said.
“I like to be part of a community that shares this love of music, and also to be able to embrace my love of music every week and share it with friends and family and whoever else tunes in,” Itzkoff said. “It’s a side of me that a lot of people don’t usually see.”
