On Tuesday, Sept. 5 — a hot and humid night — heat lightning rolled into Oakland University’s athletic fields. Darkness overshadowed much of parking lot P11 and the bonfire pit. The weather looked grim.
However, this did not stop OU students from dancing the night away to artists like Frank Ocean, Smino, André 3000, Childish Gambino and more. At one point, there was even a jumble of students line dancing to “Wobble” by V.I.C.
The event, entitled OUSC Eats & Beats, was jointly hosted by OU’s Student Congress and WXOU (88.3 FM) — the campus’s student-run radio station.
“We’re the college radio station and DJ every event on campus. You can find us downstairs in the Oakland Center next to The Oakland Post,” WXOU’s PSA director Zachary Oberdier said.
Similarly, on Thursday, Sept. 7, WXOU hosted the event WXOU Social at the Circle — alongside The Oakland Post and Student Video Productions — at Hamlin Circle.
Advertised as an opportunity for first-year students “looking to meet new people” with “popcorn, lawn games and slushies,” this event was populated by many new students excited and willing to put themselves out there.
“I really love the event,” freshman Brandon Owens said. “I love that it’s bringing everyone together, and everyone is having a good time.”
“I thought [the event] was really entertaining. It was a good reason to get out of my dorm for the night,” junior Ethan Lehman said — sharing a similar sentiment.
Thursday night’s event was filled to the — figurative — brim with students dancing to more contemporary hip-hop artists like Drake, Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj.
The atmosphere was noticeably more intimate compared to Tuesday’s event, with students congregating off to the side to play cornhole, mingle and watch the Detroit Lions game — with live sports commentary by Giovanni Moceri, a member of the sports media team at WXOU.
“[Being an independent studio radio station] allows us to be as creative as we want to be. College radio is a place where you can do anything you want,” Moceri said.
And while college radio — and radio in general — is not as popular as it used to be thanks to on-demand music streaming, there is still an audience for the underground.
“Radio is dead, but we’re still here,” WXOU’s programming director Andrew Deacon said.
WXOU is also very vocal about why the radio station is important for OU’s music scene — specifically in how they shape taste and help indie artists.
“We do a lot of stuff with musicians, both local and not. We have music sent in to us [from] various indie bands around the country,” WXOU’s general manager Logan Pizzuro said. “We also do a concert series called ‘WXOU Underground.'”
You can find WXOU at wxou.org, as well as on Instagram at @wxouradio. To get involved, students can volunteer to DJ events on campus, host podcasts and live and pre-recorded radio shows, interview artists and more.
“Music is such a wide landscape, and being able to find your little slice of it and share it with people, that’s what it’s really all about,” Pizzurro said.
