"Hey - this is Rhayna, your Mistress of Rock for the next two hours, and you are listening to KUGR 95 ROCK!"
If you were in Pullman, and were tuned into 95.1 on your radio dial around 6pm on a Thursday night, you would probably hear those very words coming out of your stereo speakers, welcoming you to my radio show on KUGR 95 Rock, WSU's cable rock station on campus. My dream job is to be a DJ on a major rock radio station, preferably in the Seattle area, so when I heard that I could have the chance to start "playing DJ" here at school, I jumped at it. My shift is on Thursdays, from 6-8pm. My first show was on September 7th, and considering it was my very first time playing with the control boards, etc., I think I did pretty good. I recorded it, so if you ever get a chance to hear it, you can tell me otherwise another time. :-P
Before I say anything else, I have to explain the origin of the name "Rhayna", which is pronounced "Rain-ah", by the way. Having the name Jennifer has cursed me over the years. Not only do I get the joy of hearing things like "Oh, another Jennifer?" or "Oh - I dated a Jennifer once" because 10 ZILLION parents decided they liked the name, but because of sharing the same name with half the world, I have a strange obsession with unusual or unique names or spellings of names. While in a writing mood a few years ago, I went searching the internet for names for the heroine in my story. I loved the name "Rhiannon", but a friend of mine was using that for a story she was writing, so I was looking for something similar. I came across "Raina", and I liked the way it sounded. I didn't like the cheesy spelling though. It bothered me - too plain. So, I tried writing it down with some different spellings, and eventually came up with R-H-A-Y-N-A. Not only did this look cool to me, but I could shorten it up to "Rayne" (as I like nicknames), and have it play off the spelling a bit.
...And with that "Rhayna" was born. Since then I have incorporated the name into much more than just that story, which I am still working on, by the way. I guess I adopted the "alter ego" a couple years ago, but didn't really realize it until now. My Yahoo! Messenger and AOL IM ID is "jetcityrayne" and as you all know, that is also the name of my website. Someone asked what the name meant, and basically it is a play on words. Jet City = Seattle, and I am "Rayne". Of course, there is also the very bad pun - jet city rain. Yuck. Sorry I did that... Back to my radio show....
As mentioned on the flyer on the previous page, I have two segments to my show. First, there is the "Buttload of Buttrock Hour", which features the best of the 80's rock bands, whether they used tons of hairspray or not. I play everything from Def Leppard to Poison to Stevie Nicks - if it rocked, and it was from the 80's, I'll play it. Since some of the "old" 80's bands have new material out, I'm also trying to showcase that too, so that people know that they are still alive and very much kickin' ass. So far I've played new Poison and Def Leppard. Mötley Crüe has a new record out, so I will probably try to play something off that soon. Since I am a wealth of useless musical knowledge, I try to pass some of that onto my listeners in between songs. Hopefully they are amused by my concert reviews and various other rantings and ravings, but since I've yet to have a listener call in, I don't know what they are thinking.
The other part of my show, which has typically been the last part so far, is called "Mind Your Metal". As the name suggests, I play heavy metal bands during this part of the show. Metallica tops the list (of course), with other heavies like Anthrax, Megadeth, Pantera and Soundgarden also in heavy rotation so far. This is the hardest part of my show to "program" because what heavy metal is to ME is much different than what is actually out there today. The "classic" metal acts are still incredible, and provide me with plenty of material, however, when it comes to more recent "metal", I suddenly find myself at a loss for names and songs. There are so many bands out right now that have a "heavier" sound, but they aren't what I would consider "classic" metal. (I'm sooooo old!) So, I think I have to change my definition a little and broaden the spectrum to allow more of a selection. Taking a cue from the Funky Monkey at home (which I am on right now by the way... listen for me!!!), I am going to start playing more of the "new heavies" like Limp Bizkit , Kid Rock, and Papa Roach, just to name a few. I figure that if people think they are being cheated with less than their standard of Metal, then they will call me and bitch at me. Either way, at least I would get SOME feedback!!!
I've been spending a good hour or so each week picking out songs for my show, which isn't that much time compared to how much I read textbooks. (Click here if you want to see some old playlists...) However, I know there will be some weeks that I either don't have that hour, or I won't have the energy to want to plan ahead, or I will just be in the mood for something different, so I have already figured out a plan for those days. Those days will be designated "Random Rock" days, and I will basically throw out the format and play whatever I feel like playing. There are a ton of bands that I really like and would love to promote, but they currently don't fit into the genre's that I'm already playing. This is my way of getting them some airplay too. (I'm hoping to get a CD or two from some of the people I know at home that are in bands so I can get their name around Pullman a bit. We'll see what happens there.) I also have a ton of import stuff that is rare, from a number of different bands, so I wanted a chance to play that stuff too. In the future, I plan on trying to do an all Seattle band hour and a new music hour. I'll try to give warning on when I'll do that, but probably won't know until the day of my show.
As far as KUGR goes, the station itself is pretty cool. I have a link to their website on my main page, and I would encourage you to check it out. Eventually, there will be a profile of me on there under the "airstaff" link. There will be a picture of me, but no mention of my real name. Heh, heh, heh... I'm so slick... HA HA! Actually, my cover has been blown as I was videotaped during my shift for my TV show, Another View. So... the secret is out that Rhayna is actually this old chick named Jennifer, but that's okay. It's still fun to have the alter ego, and I won't be on the TV show forever... I am hoping to take my alter ego with me to a future permanent job, so that is why I am sticking with it even though it's not going to be that big of a secret anymore.
For those of you who asked about where I get my music for my show, I have used 99% of my own music so far. The station does have a pretty extensive library of CD's, however, they are mostly recent rock, not 80's, and there isn't much serious metal in there either. They do have Rage Against The Machine and other "newer" heavies, so I have used a couple of the station's discs already. On a Random Rock day, I will be using mostly station stuff as most of my "newer" CD's have the lovely "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" on them, and therefore aren't usually "radio-friendly". The station's CDs are either promos from the [record] labels themselves, or are the censored versions of the LPs. That brings up another problem I ran into last week. Since I am the huge Metallica fan that I am, I have loads of live and rare recordings off of their import singles. This is great, except for that in almost every single one, there is that ONE part where they say that ONE bad word, and then BOOM, I can't play it. AAAAAARRRRRGH!!!! If only I had a way to edit those tracks!!! UGH!
Maybe that should be my next project... HA HA!
Well, I hope that I have answered most of your questions on my radio show. If you do have more questions, including feedback on the show or even requests, go ahead and e-mail me. Thanks!
This page last updated on: 04/29/01 04:09 AM