“You are listening to WJJW 91.1 North Adams!” I can’t count how many times I have had to say this—but I can assure you it has been more times than I can count on my fingers. I started my show on WJJW on Feb. 2, 2018. That was the day that everything changed. That was the day that I got to experience what it was like to really try something new. If you don’t know, WJJW is MCLA’s college radio (91.1 FM for local radios). This has been going on for a little over 45 years as of 2018. A professor in the English/Communications department, Jim Niedbalski, is the faculty advisor for WJJW and he is more committed to this than I’ve ever seen any professor committed to a club.
The name of my show is “Almost Everything In Between” which airs every Tuesday night from 8-10 pm. The reason I call it this is because I like all genres of music, except country (if you like country, I’m not sorry). Either way, WJJW is a musical outlet for me. It gives me a way of letting me share my music and vent. I get to talk to people without actually talking to people. I get semi-nervous talking in front of big crowds and groups in general, so this is a great way to help me work on that.
As of late, there has been someone new on my show. Her name is Kellie Donovan. We have been friends since Spring 2018 since she was roommates with my friend Bee. We didn’t really talk at first, but as time went, we grew as friends. By the end of the semester, we were glued at the hip (we still are if I’m being honest). As I was figuring out what I wanted to do for my first show of the year, Kellie told me she was interested in joining WJJW, but she wasn’t sure if she could do her own show. That’s when I got the idea of having her be my new cohost. When we went to the first WJJW meeting, that was the day Kellie became a new member of the show!
She had her first show Sept. 14, 2018—since I already had my first show, we got to cover someone who couldn’t make their show. That’s when I asked Kellie “Hey, do you want to do your first show tonight?” And it happened. She did great! She did a lot better with her first show than I did with mine. In the end, I’m very happy to have Kellie as part of the show, and I can’t wait to see how it grows!