I've always wanted to be a radio personality

Interview with DJ and production manager of WPGU, Rama Vallury on February 4, 2009.


(Interview taken place at Starbucks on Green Street)

Neha: Thank you so much for meeting with me.

Rama: It’s my pleasure. I’m always in this area, since the radio station is across the street. Unfortunately, my office is occupied, so we couldn’t meet there.

Neha: Oh, it’s no problem. Let me give you a brief introduction of what I’m doing. The assignment for my JOUR 400 class is called “I’ve always wanted to…,” and I thought it would be appropriate to get in touch with someone at WPGU, because I’ve always wanted to be a radio personality.

Rama: Well, why don’t you become a radio personality?

Neha: (laughing) Well, I guess I’m just really shy. I just wanted to let you know, before I get into the questions I’ve prepared, that I will be recording this interview so I can keep my facts straight. You’re an on-air DJ, so I’m sure this is nothing out of the ordinary for you. Before I get into the questions, can you spell your name for me?

Rama: Sure, it’s spelled R-A-M-A. Last name is V-A-L-L-U-R-Y. My DJ name is Noodles, spelled N-O-O-D-L-E-S.

Neha: Great. What year, and how old are you?

Rama: I’m a senior. I’m 21, but I feel like I’m 85.

Neha: And what college are you in?

Rama: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Department of History and the Department of English.

Neha: How did you get involved with WPGU, considering that your major has nothing to do with broadcasting?

Rama: Threats. My older brother, who used to be a big something in the production department at WPGU had a job standing for me with the operations manager, but I didn’t take till I was a junior when it was off the table. I went on a study abroad and one of my friends from the trip happened to be the music director at WPGU. He told me I would do well there and enjoy myself, so I took her at her word and I showed up.

Neha: That’s great. And what exactly did you do there when you started, and what are you doing there now?

Rama: When I started I was an intern on air, which would be the RTS radio training staff, and I also was an intern at the production department that makes all the commercials, liners, and live media for the station. That’s what I did when I started there, and now I’m a full-fledged DJ on many shows. I also run the production department, so I’m in charge of making all the commercials, and I’m also in charge of hiring, firing, staffing, scheduling, and going to all of the wonderful meetings with all the other departments. It’s a good time.

Neha: You mentioned a pretty hefty list of things. This job seems like a huge time commitment. What inspires you to keep doing it considering – like I said earlier – that it’s not a part of your major? Does it help you at all with your major? Have you gotten any good skills you can use?

Rama: It’s a creative outlet for me because when I’m doing the academic work, I’m really focusing on it. So, for example, if I’m reading a book for English, I will focus on the book and its role in the English class. For History, I will focus on the paper that I’m working on. It doesn’t really afford much in terms of the creativity field. It’s really good for intellectual stimulation, but you really need a creative outlet and WPGU has done that for me for the past two years, where not only can I express myself on-air where people are listening, but I can also make commercials and try new things out every time with editing techniques and voice making, copyrighting. It forces me to continually change what I do and keeps me interested.

Neha: Cool and you mentioned that you do a lot of things on-air. What are some of the shows that you do? Can you give me an idea?

Rama: I’ll go chronologically. On Monday through Friday at 12 o’clock, I’m on the Flashback Café with Andy Jones, who’s the other DJ. It’s sponsored by Meier and Dallas and Company. We only play music pre-1995. We can go as far back as – I don’t know – the thirties if we really wanted to, but it’s usually things that have the classic, alternative feel that inspire alternative music. I’m on that show every day except for the weekend. And then later on that day, I’m on Funk, Peace and Soul which is at 9 o’clock. That is the show that plays funk music, soul music, R&B. Anything that’s in that field. So, Ray Charles, John Coltrane. Anything. Blues fits in there. Jazz fits in there. So, anything in that general genre, we do that. And at midnight Monday night going into Tuesday morning I’m on Warzone. It’s a musical debate show. We come in with different topics every week that we present. Well, we’re doing a show coming up which is Bob Dylan versus Neil Young, so I’ll take the side of Bob Dylan and my co-host will take the side of Neil Young. We’ll play music by each artist and debate the merits of each artist and merits of each song. And we’re not looking to crown anyone as the king of whatever or the bass player of all time, but we want to make a list and intelligent comments about it to get people more interested in listening to that music because – in the case of Bob Dylan – he’s an American folk hero, whereas Neil Young is highly unappreciated. So, we really want to introduce Neil Young’s stuff to people who are listening. On Tuesdays I am on Flashback Café but at 8 o’clock at night, I’m also on Shrinkwrap that plays all the new music that comes out. It’s sponsored by Mike and Molly’s and the Illini Apple Center. The requirement is that it has to be albums released recently. Three weeks is what we usually do as a cutoff. And we’re changing what it used to be where we’d just play the music and say, “this is new music” to – by putting me on it – we take certain albums and play a few songs from it and then give a review for the album, and then we go on from there. The Apple Center is interested in us doing some product testing, so they’re going to give us some cool new gadgets to play with for a week, and then we’ll talk about them on air and do all sorts of fun things like that. But yeah, we’re in charge of the new music. If you want to hear new music, you go to that show.

Neha: You said Apple is going to be giving you new gadgets to play with on air. Are they paying you for that?

Rama: They sponsor our show. Per show, each sponsor needs to pay a $100, so they can get live reads for each DJ to read during the show and to get commercials to run through the day, or specifically on a show. We have to mention that, “We are brought to you by the…Illini Apple Center…or Mike and Molly’s.” Then, we basically promote them because they are promoting us. It’s mutually beneficial, and it’s pretty fun. I enjoy doing it. Later on in the night, I do a show called Beats and Rhymes. It’s the only show where you can hear hip-hop on WPGU. It’s all underground and independent hip-hop. You’re not going to find rap or anything like that. We’re heavy on Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla. Anything like that, that has actual something to say and that is very innovative and fresh. We’re strictly hip-hop, not rap. There’s a clear difference between those. I think…I think that’s all of them. It’s a lot of shows.

Neha: Yeah, it definitely is a lot of shows. Like I said earlier, it seems like a huge time commitment. It seems like you’re pretty comfortable talking. You have a strong presence in person and on air. How long did it take you to become comfortable with talking on air, because being on air seems very nerve wrecking? How was your first experience on air? How long did it take you to finally master it?

Rama: It didn’t take me too long to become comfortable on air. I’m a person that does not generally like the sound of my own voice, but apparently people think I sound good for radio and all that stuff. So, the big thing for me was getting used to the sound of my own voice. The first time I went on air, it was 3 o’clock in the morning on a Saturday. I had been on Beats and Rhymes the night before as in intern, so I didn’t sleep. I went in and no one was there. My first break was shaky. It was a first jump into a pool on a winter day sort of thing. You’re a little nervous. You’re front selling and back selling and letting people know the phone number and things like that. You turn off the mic and you’re thinking to yourself, “oh my god, I was just on air – they can hear me!” You stop worrying about that after a while. You’re just having a conversation with the mic. The mic is just a mouthpiece to the world, so any thoughts you have about music you think people should know, you say. You learn to get all of that across in the shortest amount of time possible, because generally you have thirty seconds to a minute to get that across before you have to start playing music again. It was nerve wrecking, the first twenty minutes of the show. I had trouble answering the phone. Eventually, I figured that out. Once I figured out how to answer the phone, I got pretty good at it. I would listen to recordings of me on-air and hear where I was deficient and knew things I could do better at. It just so happened, the head producer I was working with also happened to be a DJ. He was the only other head producer in the department that did that, and he taught me a lot of things about what I should do on air and what I should sound like. I should know where I’m starting and where I’m ending. He just gave me individual techniques to play with. Working in the production department accelerated my progress, in terms of getting comfortable on air because I was on air in commercials, anyway. So, it wasn’t like people weren’t hearing me. It was just that I had to do it right the first time instead of having two to three tries to get the message across. So, for me it didn’t take that long. It’s just a lot of hard work that goes into it if you really want to do well.

Neha: What do you think it takes for other people that are interested in becoming on air DJs? What do you think it takes for them to be successful?

Rama: It takes a lot of commitment on your part. Something we like to stress is that it isn’t just a shift. Don’t treat it like a shift where you clock in and clock out. Treat it like a show. Make it your own. Call it something. Give people a reason to listen to you. What makes you special? That’s the big thing I ask about everyone’s show: Tell me what it is that makes you special. For example, Beats and Rhymes is the only show that plays hip-hop, and Funk, Peace and Soul is the only show that plays soul. For a DJ that’s on at 9 a.m. or in the afternoon: what is special about them? What are they bringing to the table? I can’t answer that, because they’re doing things only they would know. You have to put in a lot of work and make everyone realize that you’re not just the glorified button pusher. You’re actually putting in the work. So, if you want to be a DJ, you have to work at it. It’s a never ending process, because no matter how good you think you are, you can always be better.

Neha: That’s interesting because that’s a thing they say in journalism, too. What do you do on your shows to make them your own, aside from playing only hip-hop for Beats and Rhymes or playing only funk music for Funk, Peace and Soul?

Rama: Each show that I’m on, I try and bring my own individual presence to and contribute something, so it’s not me sitting there going, “mhmm, yeah,” and agreeing with the other guys on the show. For example, on Flashback Café we have a segment called Noodles Tips and Turntables, named by Andy Jones, who is the co-host. It became a segment because I decided I wanted to play vinyl on the show. It also turns out that I’m the only person that knows how to play vinyl on air. We turned it into a full-fledged segment everyday now. I consistently find new vinyl to play, which is fun. I’m also big on telling people stories about what they’re listening to and why they’re listening to it.

Neha: Have you been able to tie the skills that you’ve learned in radio and broadcasting to your major, and do you hope to do broadcasting in the future?

Rama: Believe it or not, broadcasting and a History or English major are not exclusively mutual fields. I find there’s a lot of carry over. If I read something in a book, I can make it relevant to the music we’re playing. I believe people refer to that as being hyper-literate. A lot of artists like to tell stories, and you can read their stories. Bob Dylan called himself Bob Dylan because of Dylan Thomas, the poet. So, if you read Dylan Thomas, you’re going to get a feel for Bob Dylan. So, I read a lot of things and it helps me express what we’re doing on-air. And historical things…I have a good mind for that. I remember a lot of arbitrary facts and stuff that may not seem important. I can think of a lot of music related facts and events throughout history that people might not remember. Working on broadcasting has also helped me become a better presenter. I’m constantly aware of the deadline that I’m working with. No matter how many things I would like to say, I have to tailor it. I have to get the maximum amount of impact in the time that I have. That is something that broadcasting has helped me do.

Neha: How about broadcasting in your future. Have you gotten any offers?

Rama: I went to a conference in November of last year, called Talent Track, which is run by the Conclave, which is a radio conference where you meet with professionals in the industry and get an air-check by them. They listen to a scope tape – which is usually a CD now – of three minutes of what you consider your best work in whatever department. I decided not to turn in a DJ one. I just went with the radio commercial broadcasting aspect of it. The responses I got were universally positive. An operations manager of a cluster of stations out of Omaha told me to quit school, start my own business, or start working in radio right now. I got a lot of cards from people who have my job in bigger radio stations, like Q101. I did some networking. I would like to keep doing broadcasting. It’s a constantly changing field and I’d love to keep up with it. Once I get my bachelor’s degree this May, I’m pursuing a graduate degree in advertising or radio production. I would love to keep doing this.

Neha: The future of radio is a little bit iffy. It hasn’t been doing so hot these days, and a lot of people argue that radio is dying. What are your thoughts on that?

Rama: (laughing) If radio was dying, we’d be in a serious amount of trouble. Right now, being a smaller station entirely run by students in a medium-sized, Midwestern town, the worst has happened, and we’re still doing okay. On our website, the217.com, WPGU gets the most hits. People want to see what we’re doing. A lot of stations are feeling the crunch and a lot of people are losing their jobs, but it’s just a reaction to the economy. When the economy picks back up, radio will come back with it, because a lot of people don’t realize podcasts are radio shows that you would listen to on the radio. They’ve just sent it out again, so you can listen to it again. There are nontraditional forms, so we’re not limiting radio to just radio. Keeping up with the pace of the times and adjusting will keep radio around for a long, long time.

Neha: Has WPGU felt the economy?

Rama: We have. Businesses tend to cut radio advertising as the first thing, because it’s a niche. In terms of broadcasting, you’ll find more people watching TV, than listening to the radio. We’re a very TV-dependent society now. In my department we try to keep our clients as happy as possible, and the better we do with their products, the better products we consistently make, we’re going to keep the clients we have and get other businesses interested, like the bars in Champaign, who never advertise until now. We keep in mind that other businesses are listening and they’re going to come in and see what we can do.

Neha: So you have faith?

Rama: I have faith that it will be around for a while. People just need to be up for the challenge, and it’s a pretty big challenge.

Neha: Well, I’d really like to thank you so much for coming out and meeting with me. It’s been a pleasure.