Some disc jockeys are really into broadcasting long tracks of radio-static-sounding “noise wall” and raise a fuss when management asks them not to. Such is the case at Case Western’s WRUW last week, when Dominic Kavelski, known as “Medium D,” the disc jockey of “Delicious Delusions of a Discriminating Mind” on the station, forwarded an email chain to Scene and other outlets crying censorship from the station’s student managers who asked him to stop playing it.
Medium D — who’s done more than 220 shows in three-plus years there — loves the “harsh noise” genre, particularly the music of French artist Vomir whose tracks often last between 30 or 60 minutes and sound like he held a microphone in the wind and looped the resulting audio for an arbitrarily long time. But it’s “art,” and something that should be allowed to be played on a college rock station that prides itself on staying out of the mainstream, the DJ argues. This is his most played song at WRUW:
“This is going to sound strange to you, but a lot of the stuff I love now I used to hate,” he told Scene in a phone interview, saying he’s developed a deep appreciation for Vomir and fellow noise-makers Nightmare Castle. To be asked to not play the music he enjoys the most is unacceptable, he said.
For listeners who may have tuned into the station in the midst of a half-hour-long “harsh noise” track, it could very well be confused as really bad radio static, management said: “Because noise wall can be misinterpreted as WRUW being off the air, we have decided that playing it does not align with our primary purpose,” station general manager Bethany Kaufman wrote in an email to the programmer. “Our primary purpose is to provide eclectic programming that reflects the interests of the students and the Cleveland community… Additionally, WRUW is owned and operated by the University, and we are responsible to them for our programming. WRUW is not an appropriate platform for this genre.”
But that “static” argument is bullshit to Medium D: “It’s just like how my mom thinks Twisted Sister and (death metal group) Obituary are the same band. That’s what that argument sounds like to me.” (The station issued a public statement on Monday saying, “The conflation of ‘noise genre’ with ‘pieces of music that lead to confusion about the status of our air signal’ was one that was made out of ignorance, and for that we are truly sorry. We are not banning our DJs from playing any genre of music”).
But, if he continued to play the long chunks of “harsh noise,” he’d lose his timeslot, the email from management concluded.
“I will NOT be censored for programming that does NOT violate FCC policy,” he wrote back. “Find a programmer that agrees to be censored for your no-longer (‘absurdly’) eclectic station.” That email chain was forwarded to Scene and others, leading to dozens of Facebook posts from those sympathetic to the cause. (“This is shocking to me and utterly reprehensible to the behavior on part of the GM”; “Her actions show a clear lack of understanding in this regard. History is replete with examples of the power-that-be stifling serious/difficult art.”) There was also a lengthy blog post from the Seattle alt-weekly, The Stranger, by artist Derek Erdman, a former Clevelander, saying “I imagined [the harsh noise] could possibly make a person think that the radio station was experiencing some kind of difficulties. After a few more minutes I’d decided that it doesn’t matter if that’s the case. The ‘noise wall’ is a pure act of free expression and simply must be allowed to continue.”
The show is done, he resigned on Feb. 9. Those clamoring for that trademark “harsh noise” sound are encouraged to stand behind a jet engine for an hour and a half.
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2014.
Just air Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”.
That stuff doesn’t belong on broadcast radio where only a few select people get the opportunity to program shows that can be heard on radios in Cleveland. Only an extremely pretentious DJ who wants the station to be as alienating as possible to human beings would play it on their airwaves for long periods of time. He’s free to post all the noise he wants on the internet for those who seek it, but it’s perfectly reasonable of WRUW to want programming such that a listener can actually tell that the station is broadcasting at all.
VOMIR was awesome live in Houston, Texas!
True to the publication you write for, you are clueless…
You know what makes you a shitty reporter, Doug? The fact that this would have been a completely different article if this matter involved music you liked or understood.
A tempest in a teapot. The station has a point about not wanting listeners to think they’re hearing static, but likewise, disk-jockeys should have the freedom to play harsh noise and other forms of extreme, “static-sounding” music.
A compromise might be to encourage jockeys to play whatever they like as long as the pieces aren’t more than a certain length. In other words, they should be encouraged to favor a range of tracks in the genre during their show, rather than just pummel listeners with a single long track.
Such a compromise still puts a limit on what harsh noise can and can’t be (which is unfair), but it also encourages the programmers to live up to a certain standard of what community-oriented radio station should be, which is (arguably) to introduce listeners to a range of music—even within a specific genre.
You’ve completely left out that WRUW banned me first from freedom of speech from a show I did for 16 years. Is there no importance in that? Fuck you, Scene!!!
Mike Salamone (A.P. Magee)
seriously fuck your condescending, sarcasm-ridden article that doesn’t at all address the core issue at hand. what’s in your record collection? id like to take a stab at comparing all your favorite things you call “art” (yes, IN QUOTATIONS; smug and SUPPORTING***** THE SCENE.
you’re a fucking twat. you should work for the radio station.
by the way, out of all of the “harsh noise wall” i’ve heard, i’d say a really small percentage of it sounds like radio static. if you think 80% of HNW artists sound like RADIO static, then you’ve obviously never heard radio static before in your life. it’s just a bunch of “old people” calling black sabbath “the devil’s music.”
Way to totally miss an opportunity to defend freedom of expression while simultaneously demonstrating your gross ignorance of the subject matter.
Thanks for writing about this. Regarding your final line about those clamoring to hear harsh noise, all they have to do is listen to any of the several shows on WCSB that are dedicated to noise and experimental music, shows that have large followings. This kind of abstract sound art has been around since at least 1913, but people often react as though the music is some kind of toss off meant to irritate. Actually, contrary to an earlier post, the noise folks are the least pretentious people I know. Regardless, people who are upset about this include fans of noise as well as supporters of all the DJs at WRUW and their right to, as the WRUW mission statement says, program their shows however they want, within fcc guidelines. Scene should know Cleveland has a huge noise and experimental scene! There have been documentaries about it, and touring artists from all over the world enjoy playing here.
Thanks for giving our genre some air time. The only college station that used to touch the stuff around here was all the way out in Boulder. I played a live set on it before they got the boot too. It delighted me and I’m sure many noise artists felt the same about this DJ. It’s a shame that he quit.
Cool Vomir track, i don’t feel it as static, it’s rich and warm. I wonder about Nightmare Castle, never heard them, anyone knows anything about it? The problem they saw with broadcasting it is pure discrimination and nothing more. fascists!
Wow! In the fall of 1987 I heard the first noise track of my life on WRUW. I can still remember it, the thumping stamping machine sounds, the looped fan noise like an alarm. So unique and curious! “Is this the show? I’m on the right station, right? Is my radio picking up some kind of other kind of weird signal? It can’t be … this sound … it’s so … curated … so arranged … isn’t it? Like listening to a machine, singing.” I was fascinated by it, and then even more fascinated by that meta-moment when you realize you’ve been teased into thinking about music, radio, and sound in a different way.
I’m glad he resigned. Fourteen minutes of that is art? I could see 3 minutes and more talking on the part of the “DJ” explaining who the “band” is. But not this. I’d change the station and I helped support it during their last fundraising campaign!
If anyone is interested in a CWRU’s students view on it, google CWRU Observer. It’s one of the top stories on the campus paper’s webpage.
One night a number of years ago I was driving through Cleveland and flipping through the radio dial when I happened upon 89.3 WCSB. All of a sudden i was pummeled with an unholy blast of blown out guitar madness that turned out to be Acid Mother’s Temple’s “Electric Heavyland” album. It was an exciting and transcendent experience. I had never heard any guitar based music so wild and free and thrilling before. The song was 10 minutes+ with fairly lo-fi production and lots of screeching “static-y’ noise that to some people (like maybe my grandma) might be mistaken for a faulty radio broadcast. When I arrived at my destination I stayed in my car to listen the entire song, loving every minute of it.
My point is that regardless of what I or anyone else thinks of a particular style of sound, the college radio DJ is someone that I and many others look to for musical and artistic nourishment, for the thrill of hearing sounds you’ve never heard before, for the shock of the new or perhaps the remembrance of something old and seemingly forgotten. Freedom to program and play any and every kind of sound that exists in the wide world is precisely what makes college radio what it is – a great asset to our community for those with open ears.
Forget playing what you project the largest portion of a certain demographic will like or accept or what has certain financial interests behind it – college radio is about exposing people to what they don’t yet know they like or will accept. For me, it was the first time hearing Acid Mothers Temple, for someone else, maybe it’s Vomir. I would hate for anyone else to be deprived of that experience.
You know what, play what you want, and who cares if its different or not the same old songs. I’m so damn tired of the same old music on each station. You’re not “new rock alternative” if you’re playing songs that were on the radio in 2001. It’s time to move on, give new music a chance, and stop complaining when stations do give it a chance.