WestConn's radio station — WXCI — celebrates 35 years
DANBURY, CONN. —When Kevin Hogan — now a Channel 3 Eyewitness News anchor — was a Western Connecticut State University freshman reporting for WCSU radio station WXCI, his voice was overheard by the general manager of a local radio station — and he was offered a job on the spot.
Jim Clarke, on-air personality for local station WRKI I-95, said Hogan is one of many WXCI alumni who have made careers based on their college radio experience. A number of WXCI grads are now in the recording industry, advertising and corporate media.
“I went there exclusively for the radio station,” said Clarke, also a former DJ on XCI, who can be heard on I-95 weeknights from 6 p.m. to midnight.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, Clarke, along with more than 100 alumni of 91.7 FM WXCI, will celebrate the station’s 35th anniversary and reminisce about life as a college DJ.
Every year on the anniversary — which is celebrated the last Saturday of February — from noon to midnight the station is turned over to former students who get to relive their college days by playing their favorite tunes and interviewing old friends and colleagues.
WXCI is a student-run college radio station located on WestConn’s Midtown campus. Started in 1973, WXCI has remained the second largest college radio station in Connecticut and broadcasts at 3,000 watts.
The station plays everything from hip-hop, metal, indie-rock, Americana, classic rock, jazz, punk, reggae, techno, folk, dance, experimental, industrial, hardcore, to alterative rock, avant-garde, power-pop, funk, electro clash, country, ambient, ska, grindcore, bluegrass, electronica, psychadelic, British invasion, elevator music, black metal, drum and bass, and more. It also features weekly topical talk shows including the Sports Jam and WestConn Happenings and, on the weekends, broadcasts WCSU sports events, including football, basketball and hockey games.
XCI was one of the first stations to play alternative rock in the 1980s — now a focus of many college stations. It helped popularize new bands — from Duran Duran to R.E.M.
The station began back in the early 1970s with small stature — some even say it was in a broom closet. But before too long, at least before Professor of Communication Dr. Hugh McCarney came along in 1977 as the station’s adviser, it was moved to the second floor of the Student Center where it’s been ever since.
McCarney, who is still adviser to the students, said 120 alumni came to the first reunion which celebrated the station’s 25th year and he expects at least that number this year. “It’s an opportunity for people to reconnect and network,” he said. “The fact these people want to come back shows how important it was.”
Alumnus Tom Zarecki, now a radio consultant and principal of an internet radio and television streaming company, said WXCI was a great stepping stone. There in the station’s beginning years, Zarecki helped create the station. He said within the first couple of years of the station’s inception at least a dozen students were working in communications-related jobs outside the university. He credits WXCI’s professionalism under the guidance of McCarney with turning out such qualified candidates. “We created a commercial-sounding format,” Zarecki said. “We didn’t sound like a college radio station.”
Zarecki said former XCI members still stay in touch, mostly through a blog Web site where they network, problem solve and reminisce.
“People feel a connection with XCI even after many years. I feel a very deep connection to it,” said Zarecki. “I think it’s something the college is proud of. It has a long legacy and a lot of people who worked at XCI went into the business.”
The radio station is mostly paid for through student fees, although the students can raise funds or get grants and the Alumni Association helps with sports broadcasting. The disc jockeys select their own music from the dozens of freebie CDs that arrive by mail each week. The format is laid out by an executive board that “sets parameters of what can be played,” McCarney said. “You won’t hear country and western.”
The focus instead is on new music and breaking groups, and quite often what XCI students select for the local airwaves will eventually make the Top 40 list the following year. The station has three gold and platinum records of groups they helped break into the business by being among the first radio stations to play their songs.
And while the students have lots of fun expressing their inner DJ, they are careful about guidelines and McCarney makes sure of that.
The students research the music to make sure it follows the format and there’s nothing objectionable to their 14- to 30-year-old audience. McCarney said that a lot of local high school students apply to WestConn who’ve been listening to XCI for years “and they want to be a part of it.”
“Everybody who spends time there grows,” he said. “There’s a certain ego satisfaction having potentially thousands of people listening … but they often find they want to improve things and take on positions of responsibility. That way they really get to shape what goes on there.”
Carey Hewitt, who graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s in business administration, was one of those who helped shape the station and he still misses his on-air college days “terribly.”
When he started with the station in 1976, the music was more rock and the station was growing in popularity as they increased power. “We played music students wanted and we had no commercials — that was a big selling point,” said Hewitt.
Hewitt remembers the 1976 elections that were simulcast nationally and statewide with a local cable station. He said it was exciting getting dressed up in a suit. “I don’t know how many people saw us,” he said with a laugh, “but it was fun to do.”
“I remember very fondly the big snow storm in 1978. We were in the radio station for 24 hours straight interviewing government officials and working on keeping people updated
with the storm. That was a fun time for me,” Hewitt said. “A lot of good memories from XCI.”
For more information or to attend the celebration, call McCarney at (203) 837-8254.
