Zach McCollum, Abby Lebet, and Jon Ollom are the Co-DJ’s of Do You Know Who You Are, a radio show on WTBU, BU’s own radio station. The DJ’s, along with interns Michaela Shortreid and Jillian Napolitano, are in the WTBU studio every Saturday. I talked to Zach, Abby, and Michaela about what happens behind the soundproof door.
1. How did you come up with the name of your show?
Zach: It’s the name of an album by Texas Is The Reason, and for me, it represents the aura of emo. It’s a seminal album by a really important band in the genre, and it represents the golden age era more than anything else, which is really important.
2. What are some topics that you’ve brought up in between songs?
Zach: We talk about stuff relating to music in general, like topical subjects in emo music, punk music and indie music. We always have a rundown of upcoming albums and recent releases and talk about upcoming shows that we’re going to. If there are any current events going on in the scene, we talk about that as well.
3. Do you ever have themed weeks for the show, or is this something you would consider doing?
Zach: Yeah! We’ve done that a few times in the past, like a 90s themed week, and a calendar playlist, which has a song for each month, and that’s about it. I like these weeks a lot, and we’ll definitely do it again in the future.
4. What are some of your favorite albums and artists you’ve played on the show?
Abby: I like playing Remember Sports because they’re a small band from Philly that I’ve really liked for a while, and I want to give them some recognition. I also like playing Have A Great Season because they’re from Asbury Park, NJ and I’ve seen them live.
Zach: I really like playing Jersey bands, but I usually play an eclectic mix of everything. I play Free Throw and Title Fight a lot, and last semester I played a lot of Brand New.
5. Do you see yourself continuing this radio show for the rest of your time at BU, and would you like to expand on it past college?
Zach: Yeah I’ll most likely continue it through my time at BU, I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I’ll always try to have some sort of show at BU, whether it be DYKWYA or something else. I’m a journalism major, so it’s not the direction I’m planning on going in after college, but it would definitely be cool.
6. Why did you pick this show to intern on? Was it the music in general, or was there something else that attracted you to this show over others?
Michaela: Zach is in my photojournalism class, so we did a project together and started talking about music. We have very similar music tastes, and he suggested that I intern, and it sounded really cool so I said yes!
Tune into Do You Know Who You Are on WTBU every Saturday from 2-4 pm. You can listen at 89.3 FM, 640 AM, and also here!
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