 "Photo: Ross Chin, Staff Photographer")
Listen - there is a new frequency riding the airwaves of radio entertainment, and it's not on the radio. KCR college radio has a new show "Achtung Radio," featuring music, news and exclusive interviews from around the world via the Internet.
The show was put together by a group of students last semester. The idea of the show was to offer something unique for students to listen to, production manager Vincent Tajan, a sociology graduate student from France, said.
"We want to express ourselves in a different way, with different music," Tajan said. "On our show, we're playing stuff you don't hear on other mainstream radio stations."
The show covers international music with bands such as Gangs of Four, Liquid Liquid and New Order. The music ranges from the early '80s to the present. The styles are just as diverse, including techno, house, disco, electro and punk-funk.
"I cannot say that one artist is any one style," Tajan said. "They are all so mixed with a lot of frameworks.
"We don't want to be fixed in any one style of music."
One of Tajan's partnering DJs, sociology senior Eli Cohen, said very little planning goes into the show.
"Normally we will bring in some stuff that we want to play, but it's not strict," he said. "We never really know what we're going to play next. It depends on our mood."
Joining Tajan and Cohen are Philipp Grefer and Dennis Tie, who are both international students from Germany. Working together, the group of DJs broadcast band interviews and play exclusive coverage. They recently aired the recorded concert of Radio4, who played live at The Casbah, Tajan said.
"We try to contact label companies and they send us music to play," he said. "We try to add a higher element to it."
In addition, the KCR DJs communicate with the International Student Center on campus. They work with the center to gather important announcements to broadcast. However, they try to keep the talk minimal.
"We basically try to explain the track - the title, the name of the artist, the year of the album and where it is from," Tajan said. "We just want to play music, that is what the show is all about."
The station's Web site, www.kcrlive.com, provides an outlet for students to hear new types of music and enjoy the sounds of various countries. From 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday on the Web site, people can double-click the "radio" link to listen to the show.
"My goal with the use of the Internet as a medium is to start global parties," Tajan said. "People meet online through the show and organize parties in their own country.
"With our diverse audience, the goal is to have different parties going on at the same time through our show."
The KCR program is not like any typical San Diego party.
"Using the Internet as a way to distribute music has endless possibilities," communication junior Maria Gomez said. "It is a way to unite listeners and teach diversity, and that's a good reason to party."
Undeclared freshman Natalie Sparks said she liked the idea of starting a bunch of different parties all through one show.
"It would be something different from all the other radio shows who just play pop music," she said.
According to Cohen, "'Achtung Radio' goes beyond the boundaries of radio frequency."
To go even farther beyond the boundaries, Tajan wishes to throw fine arts into the mix. With elements such as pictures, graphics of modern art, urban art and graffiti, the show hopes to gain an even more diverse audience. He plans to post the images on the Web site.
"We're protesting through music and fine arts," Tajan said.
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