Turn on Channel 10 in your dorm or 90.3 FM on your radio from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m on a Tuesday night, and you’ll be hearing the sounds of Frank Hughes, Matt Monteiro and Ethan Wood on their Electronic Dance Music (EDM)-focused radio show. The show consists of four hours of live music and each week offers a new set of songs.
“I’m pretty confident in saying that we probably do the longest radio show currently on air, possibly all year, possibly in several years. Four hours is a long time to fill, which is the reason why we basically need three of us to do it, ” Hughes, known to fans as DJ Frankie Wilde, said. “Something else I think is pretty unique is rather than the occasional DJ who might spin a one- or a two-hour show, we play for four hours without stopping, no commercial breaks, no rest to go outside. We’ve each made a commitment to play all new music every week and it’s not even limited to just playing songs we didn’t play the week before, but trying to find new stuff to us.”
Each week Hughes, Monteiro and Wood alternate sets, displaying different EDM-style music for listeners to tune into throughout the four-hour show.
“I would definitely say the tone changes. It depends on who’s DJing and what they bring to the table every week. I never have a discussion with Matt or Ethan about where they get their music or what they want to play,” Hughes said. “Usually between my set and whoever plays next…there’s definitely a change in tone and by the end of the night, where I’ll close the show, again probably the last 45 minutes to an hour, I think everything gets a little calmer and a little focused.”
Often, the radio show will host guest DJs that range from students, alumni and faculty. Sophomore Andrew Ebel was the guest DJ this Tuesday.
“I’m friends with Frank and it’s his show. He asked me to guest DJ and I do a lot of DJing on the side-that’s my favorite hobby, so I do events,” Ebel said. “I do a lot of fraternity and sorority events on campus just trying to get involved. So Frank asked me to do an hour on the show.”
Ebel expressed the variety of music that can be heard across different shows on WRPR.
“I know right when I got here at 10, they had from 9 to 10 an hour of hip-hop before us and now Frank does EDM,” Ebel said. “But I know for his show, he does a lot of old tracks or he likes to have a theme so one day he’ll have dub step or one day he’ll have just house, like from 80s and 90s or he’ll have a guest DJ like me and just let them do what they want.”
Both Hughes and Ebel expressed the desire to gain support for the radio station.
“This is my first time actually in the studio or actually seeing the studio,” Ebel said. “It’s unfortunate because a lot of people don’t know that we have a radio station and have 90.3 FM or Channel 10 on TV. I feel like a lot of people just disregard that and don’t tune in.”
“We would like to include more people in this experience,” Hughes said. “If people have music out there that they’d like us to play, if you have songs of your own that you’d like to have on the radio, songs you’d just like to request or if you’d like to perform on our show, reach me on Twitter. It’s a good opportunity for other people to participate and share their love for the music and the craft of DJing, just as we do with other people.”
Listeners can connect to Hughes and his co-hosts through Facebook and Twitter and be sure to tune in to 90.3 WRPR.
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dreed1@ramapo.edu
