While WKNC recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of its switch to FM frequency, NC State’s student-run radio station was around long before 1966. In all the years it has been a part of this campus, one element has remained the same — the station belongs to the students.
“It’s always been characterized as a student station,” said Jamie Lynn Gilbert, the associate director of Student Media and the only professional staff member of WKNC. “It’s still the students’ radio station. Even though I’m a professional staff member, they can veto any and every idea that I have. If they want to do something, they get to do it, and I’ll support them.”
Gilbert said that student creativity and the constant flow of ideas is her favorite aspect of working for the radio station.
“Some people get in their pigeonhole of what a media outlet is, but that’s not how we think of things at WKNC,” Gilbert said. “We’re really more of a multimedia organization. I like when a student comes to me with an idea — I like being able to provide them with the resources to bring that idea to fruition.”
The students brought about the station’s concert series, “Fridays on the Lawn” and the “Double Barrel Benefit” concert that happens every February. Student projects are what get printed every year in the station’s annual publication called the ‘zine (short for “magazine”).
The greatest contributions that the students make, however, come through the music that the radio station airs. The general manager and a junior majoring in women and gender studies, Emily Ehling, said she loves working with the local music scene.
“We make great connections with local musicians,” Ehling said. “And that is truly our biggest mission — to bridge the gap between NC State students and the music community around them.”
The station’s focus has shifted a lot since WKNC’s conception back in 1922. An initial news focus gave way to a sports focus with the airing of the first ACC basketball tournament in 1954. The sports focus gave way to a music focus with the switch to FM broadcasting in 1966, which centered on genres such as jazz and blues. Even now, the station continues to shift and grow.
“We were pretty heavily focused on indie rock,” Gilbert said. “But in the last year we’ve really tried to shift that focus to our three main formats: indie rock, electronic and hip-hop. We’ve changed our program schedule, and we play heavy metal on Fridays.”
Playing local music is currently most important to WKNC; however, local is not limited to the Triangle. The station plays music from bands all over North Carolina, from towns as far away as Boone and Elizabeth City.
“We would definitely have enough to just showcase the Triangle because there’s so much happening in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill,” Ehling said. “But we thought it was just as important to showcase the rest of the state because not every city has their own radio station that will do that for them. And it just gives us an opportunity to work with more people.”
Both Gilbert and Ehling emphasize the sense of community that thrives among the student staff and the bands with which they work.
“We have a great relationship with the musicians that reach out to us and that we reach out to,” Ehling said. “The staff is, in itself, its own big family. I love the community aspect of it, in both a sense of us creating our own community and then how we go out and interact with the non-NC State community.”
Ehling said that on-campus events like “Fridays on the Lawn” engage students in music they might not otherwise have access to, whether it is because they are not old enough to get into other local events or because they do not have the transportation to get to those venues. She believes the concerts are especially convenient to freshmen that can simply walk over from their residence halls.
“There’s a lot of great, homey feelings when it comes to this place,” Ehling said. “I have been at the station since my freshman year in 2014, and I love working here. Becoming involved with the station is definitely the best thing I’ve done in my college career.”
Satisfied with all that has been accomplished thus far, the staff looks forward to future projects that will allow the station to grow and accomplish even more.
“We have upgraded to HD broadcasting, which is exciting because it will eventually allow for a multicast channel,” Gilbert said. “When we get the finances together, we’ll get a second studio, which will give students double the opportunity to learn about broadcasting and music.”
There are many upcoming events and opportunities such as this for the WKNC staff to look forward to in its next 50 years of broadcasting, but some things never change. And this is something that makes the environment of NC State’s student station so enjoyable.
“Anyone who works here is just obsessed and in love with WKNC,” Ehling said. “That is something that has not changed. That is our tradition — an undying, unwavering love for college radio.”
Founded in 1966 as the first FM radio station on campus, WKNC has been broadcasting at NC State for 50 years. In addition to a variety of smaller genres, WKNC mainly plays electronica, hip-hop, indie rock, metal and North Carolina-based music.
