Students Bring WCUA Radio Back on the Air
By Antoinette Cea
After a brief hiatus last semester, WCUA is back on the airwaves under new management, featuring a new variety of disc jockeys and talk show hosts.
Joseph D’Antonio resurrected the radio station after a shut down by University officials for faulty licensing. D’Antonio is WCUA’s head Station Manager and is very excited to be back on the air.
“I like it a lot,” said D’Antonio. “I really enjoy just showing up, putting my time in, and I enjoy music in general. I like being in a leadership role with it. The way I talk about it is my job on the radio is to give people a stage and let them dance on it. I like to step back from the radio and let each DJ do there thing. I want to make a system that anyone can show up to, do, and play their music, whatever that may be.”
WCUA features a wide variety of shows and has few restrictions for disc jockeys. Music show genres range from Rock, Rap, EDM, etc.
“There are of course language restrictions, like you can’t say George Carlin’s 7 Dirty Words,” said D’Antonio. “I have no personal problems with any type of show, and so long as no one is advocating violence, I don’t care what anyone plays. We are the Catholic University’s Radio Station, and must adhere to that. We can’t have a pro-choice radio show, but other than that everything is fair game. I don’t want the radio station, though, to become a political platform.”
D’Antonio believes that the variety featured at WCUA creates a healthy culture on campus that brings students together through music.
“The music is what draws me in, and draws most people in,” said D’Antonio. “We want the radio station to create a culture around campus where music bring people together, whether you like classical, motown, rap, whatever. We want people to get together and listen to music, and maybe talk about somethings. I think more than anything, the radio station allows people from different backgrounds and musical tastes to share them.”
D’Antonio believes the mission of WCUA and music in general is to encourage people to discover what kind of person they are and college is the perfect place to do that. “Maybe you’ll turn on your campus radio station and find a whole new genre of music you never thought you’d like,” said D’Antonio.
D’Antonio and Assistant Stage Manager, Christopher Neyhart, have a Monday night radio show from 6:00-8:00 PM called “Chris and Joe Don’t like Mondays” which features Hard Rock and Punk Rock.
Many students on campus have tuned in to listen to WCUA and really enjoy the new shows. Ben Rahimi, junior Biomedical Engineering major, says he loves to jam out while studying for his exams.
“My favorite thing about WCUA is that it’s right online,” said Rahimi. “While I’m stuck in my dorm studying for hours I can tune in and listen right on my computer. My favorite night to listen is Tuesday. It’s a few hours of rock.”
Tune in any night of the week for a few hours of music and talk shows.
“College is a time where one decides the kind of person they are, and music has a lot to do with that,” said D’Antonio.
Thank you for informing the CUA community about one of the longest-running communications sources on campus! I look forward to streaming the station again.
A few questions:
1) What is the date of this article? (none is showing up online for this and certain other stories.)
2) When, and for how long, was the “brief hiatus” that occurred last semester?
3) What was meant by “faulty licensing?” Was this non-compliance with the arcane rules of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act, which regulate online broadcasting?
4) What happened to the station’s website at http://wcua.cua.edu/ ? As of 4/8/16, nothing is there.