 "Photo: THE REVIEW/ Alyssa Benedetto")
When WVUD2, WVUD’s online radio station, got a makeover, the students in charge of the re-launching thought it needed a new name too. On Friday, “The Basement” was re-launched with new DJs, new programs and an HD radio broadcast.
Steve Kramarck, assistant director of student centers and the overseer of WVUD and WVUD2, says the makeover was made possible by students who wanted to take advantage of the new HD technology.
He says sophomore Tony Minervini and freshman Trish Saccomanno are the student brains behind the operation. The two were put in charge of the re-branding and reconstruction of the online site.
“They really felt that we had this vital tool down there that we weren’t using to get people interested in the station and provide more opportunities and that we could really do something great with it,” Kramarck says.
Minervini says the changes were made in an effort to bring more attention to the universities little known secondary station.
“WVUD2 was kind of a sister station to WVUD — it had a run for a while, there were a couple DJs, but then it kind of died off,” Minervini says. “What we did was pretty much repackaged it and made sure we had a ton of DJs to put on the air.”
There has long been a perception that WVUD2 was the “junior varsity” version of WVUD, he says. They decided to make it student-based and change the name to eliminate that misconception. His partner, Saccomanno, says she agrees.
“WVUD2 was kind of dead when I got here — it was just kind of a practice thing when people would get trained,” Saccomanno says. “Now we’re trying to make it its own thing instead of being secondary to the on-air station.”
The Basement also gives students the opportunity to get involved, Minervini says. WVUD, which runs on the FM band, is not just made up of university attendees. Many of the DJs on WVUD are community members or alumni.
The Basement is going to be primarily student-run, and will broadcast more modern music geared towards students.
“It’s stuff people our age want to listen to, which is stuff you might generally call ‘underground music,’ ” Saccomanno says.
The pair created The Basement’s name from the concept of underground music, as well as its location downstairs in Perkins Student Center.
“The Basement is a pun,” Minervini says. “It’s broadcast from underground, but it also has that sound to it.”
Junior Brandon Tull, a DJ for WVUD and The Basement, says he is excited for the re-launch.
“It’s a big step to getting a lot more listeners and giving the new people who are just getting involved a better chance at succeeding,” Tull says.
He says he is one of many student DJs who will have their own show on The Basement. His upcoming show, HRTSTPR (heartstopper) Sports, will feature coverage of sports that are not run on the FM band including wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts.
Student DJs on The Basement will have the freedom to choose the music and subject matter of their shows, Minervini and Saccomanno say.
New shows will feature new music, sports and comedy programs, they say.
The renaming was made official Friday at the “Basement Bash,” a kick-off party for the new site held at Bacchus Theatre in the Perkins Student Center. It was also the first day of Radiothon, the station’s annual fundraiser, which will run for 10 days.
The station’s goal is to raise $57,000 for a new HD transmitter, so that moving to HD will be possible.
“We have a big goal,” Minervini says. “We have high aspirations because we need to get something that will benefit the people listening — a new transmitter.”
The significance of broadcasting through HD radio is that there will be a much wider audience range and a wider broadcast of the station, Saccomanno says. The quality of the sound is better as wll.
The site can be listened to on both an HD radio and online, Kramarck says.
“We’ve designed our site so that it’s easy to use with smartphones,” Kramarck says. “Most people in college don’t have a radio, other than in their car, but they all have smartphones, so they can listen to The Basement and the FM both online.”
The station has been getting a lot of buzz due to its break from WVUD2, Kramarck says, and has a catchy name students will remember.
“I’m proud of where it’s going,” Minervini says. “It’s going to be a movement — a student-run, student-listened to underground radio station.”
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