Volunteer disc jockey Ricky Marrero perched on a bar stool in front of a microphone. Ice-cold air conditioning blasted into a closet-sized room packed with music equipment and vinyl records.
“Welcome to ‘America in the Evening,’” he said. “I’m your host, Rikkums.” And the drums picked up the tempo for the first song of the show.
Grow Radio, a grassroots nonprofit station, depends on a broad variety of music and volunteers to stay running. The local, Internet-based station is in need of volunteers.
“The broadest criteria that we are looking for is people passionate about music,” said Bill Bryson, general manager of the studio.
For volunteer DJs, radio shows are a weekly, two-hour commitment, and volunteers should be prepared to make a yearlong commitment.
Bryson started the radio station, found at growradio.org, in 2009 as an outlet for people who aren’t interested in the type of music FM radio usually offers.
“Variety and diversity are where we like to focus our musical interests,” he said.
Volunteer DJs have to be willing to stay away from sticking to a specific genre. Programming at Grow Radio follows a formatting that’s typically called free-form. At any given time, any type of music could be playing, Bryson said.
For “America in the Evening” host Marrero, variety is more of a freedom than a challenge.
Marrero typically picks his first song on the day of his show and follows the music from there, he said.
Free-form programming is different from the typical radio programming. Most stations don’t give DJs the freedom to pick any song they like, Bryson said.
The station allows each DJ’s taste to dictate the different music played.
“You’re going to get sick of your own music,” said Shawn Maschino, host of Grow Radio show “Lost Sharks,” “but there’s tons of exposure to new music, so it’s a good place to be.”
Not only are DJs allowed to play the music they want, but they also get to choose the format. Maschino tends to use vinyl to put on his show.
“I like vinyl — the aesthetic and the size,” he said. “There’s just something about holding the records.”
When Bryson started the station, he hoped the experience of volunteering as a DJ for Grow Radio would foster personal growth as well as musical growth.
“If you’re a college student spending any or all of your four years involved with a station like this, it will give a lot back in terms of the college experience.”
A version of this story ran on page 10 on 9/26/2013 under the headline "Independent radio station lets its DJs grow"
