14th Annual College Radio Day presents “35000 Watts” documentary at Texas State

By Felicity Guajardo

Co-Director of News

World College Radio Day lands on the first Friday of October. This year, we celebrate the nationally recognized day on Oct. 4th. Along with the 24-hour radio broadcast on KTSW 89.9-FM this Friday the grand finale will include a screening of “35000 Watts”, a documentary about how this medium has affected musicians and students alike, on Oct. 12^th in Evan’s Auditorium at 7 p.m.

The documentary features interviews with musical legends Joey Santiago, lead guitarist for rock band Pixies, and Mark Mothersbaugh, lead singer for alternative indie band Devo. The documentary focuses on how college radio gives back to the community & local artists and how these impacts have led to lasting relationships.

Michael Millard, director of “35000 Watts”, said the documentary is very fun and enjoyable to watch, but there are also some very deep moments.

“There are some moments where we talked about the threat to college radio and we talked about some of the challenges and we talked about the community that gets built around a college radio station and the friendships that get built. And I think that those moments have hit kind of an emotional chord that I even maybe I wasn’t totally expecting would happen,” Millard said.

As a alumni himself, Millard created this documentary partly due to his own college radio experience at KTXT 88.1-FM at Texas Tech.

“From the moment I walked through that door for the first time as a freshman not having any idea, you know, what I was getting into my life changed,” Millard said.

Millard says the accepting nature of college radio really defined his experience and the culture has continued to be a place for outsiders and people from all walks of life.

“That’s what I loved about my time in college radio was hearing all this kind of outside talk about  ‘oh, well, these people don’t get along or you can’t get along with this group or these groups,’ and then I’d go to the college radio station and we’d have people of all types, like having a blast loving each other, like working together, all being very, very focused on a common goal,” Millard said.

Rebecca Morrow, account executive/promotions member for KTSW 89.9-FM, also says that she has made friendships that makes college radio special.

“It’s impacted my life so many ways like I have so many friends that have the same goals as I do… I’ve just found community here that I haven’t found anywhere else I feel like everybody here is so different and they can bring something to the table,” Morrow said.

Amelia Hobson, assistant director of programming, appreciates college radio for spinning tracks that are out of the ordinary.

“College radio is important to me because growing up that was kind of how I found a lot of my music taste, like from the local colleges in my area. I’m from San Antonio and yeah there’s bigger schools in my city and they played a lot of stuff that my dad liked and by proxy that I liked. So yeah, I would say that it was very formative for like my music taste and finding music that wasn’t pop hits,” Hobson said.

The one hope that Millard has for this documentary is that people continue to keep college radio alive by acknowledging that it is here to stay and to keep it safe from university budget cuts.

“So, walking out of the theater out of the auditorium, you know, I hope that there’s kind of this mix of enjoyment and kind of a remembrance of how great college radio is. But definitely if I had to choose one, I would want people to have like that sense of urgency of being aware that if there’s a college radio station in your town they need your help, they need your support,” Millard said.