I spent my first year and a half at Florida State University like so many others: lost and borderline miserable. I hadn’t quite figured out my major yet, I hadn’t found a good friend group and I hadn’t found a club or a cause I felt passionate about. I was on a quest with no map and no end in sight. As much as I loved this amazing university, nothing I was doing was making it feel like home. I can honestly admit now that if I had never found V89, I would not have made it much longer at Florida State University.
Courtesy: WVFS Tallahassee
V89 (legal ID WVFS Tallahassee) is a registered student organization here at FSU and a full-fledged radio station run entirely by student and community volunteers. At the beginning of every semester, V89 holds a Cattle Call for volunteers. The call provides information about every department that students and community volunteers can get involved with, including Announcing (DJs), Production, Music, News, Sports, Continuity, Public Relations, and Development. Regardless of your major or interests, there is literally something for everyone!
News and Sports announcers have the opportunity to develop stories for live, on-air broadcast throughout the day Monday through Friday. Each department has special programming played over the airwaves as well. The monthly news program “Vox Populi” focuses on a variety of topics and features investigative and performance pieces compiled by the News department. This is News Director Catherine Buckler’s favorite part of her job because it “challenges ‘newsers’ to be creative and come up with their own segment from any genre, and they learn the technical skills of producing it!” The Sports department has their very own live sports talk show, Tomahawk Talk, every Monday night covering local and national sports news. These departments are great environments to learn more about broadcast journalism and hone creative writing techniques. Both News and Sports are open access with absolutely no prior experience necessary!
The Announcing and Production departments at V89 are limited access, meaning you have to audition and/or be interviewed to participate in them. Production is a creative outlet allowing volunteers invaluable experience in audio production, mixing, and recording. Volunteers are selected to be in this department and have the opportunity to create prerecorded legal IDs, as well as public service and promotional announcements.
V89 Announcers are actual DJs who speak live on-air, and they select music for air-play from a physical CD and vinyl catalogue of over 27,000 albums! There are multiple specialty shows weekly, in addition to regular programming that includes almost every genre from punk to reggae to jazz and everything in between. Veteran DJ Chad Stamper explained that being exposed to everyone’s diverse musical taste is his favorite part of being an announcer. “To this day I am still blown away when I learn of genres and artists that my peers are listening to. There is so much music in the world!” V89 is broadcasted throughout the Tallahassee area twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year through 89.7fm and worldwide through an online stream available on the V89 website.
Courtesy: WVFS Instagram
The Public Relations department is responsible for all communication with the outside world including ads, merchandise, fliers, program guides, managing all station social media, and arranging all of V89’s awesome events. This department is a great way to get your hands dirty with assignments involving many facets of real-world PR and marketing. The V89 Public Relations department is also open access with no prior experience necessary. The PR department recently teamed up with Union Productions to put together the V89 Birthday Bash taking place at Club Downunder this Thursday, October 29, 2015 featuring live music from Crocodiles, Ex-Breathers, Woozy, and Dark Tunnels. Check out the promo video the department made for the event:
Going to my first V89 Cattle Call was easily one of the best decisions of my life. From the moment I walked in the crowded mini auditorium in Diffenbaugh, people were friendly and the atmosphere was creative and comedic. I joined Public Relations my first semester and learned so much about social media and flyer graphic design. The Development department taught me about sales and business relations. As an announcer I get to learn about and share amazing music with people all around the world. In the Continuity department I get to write public service announcements about important causes and events to support my community. More important to me than anything, I’ve found a family of people who I get to laugh with and enjoy the beauty of music with. My last hope at FSU turned into my home here.
Keep an eye on V89’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds for more information about their next Cattle Call and other events so you can get involved too! Keep your radio dial set to 89.7fm, The Voice of Florida State.