With the broadcast of Paul McCartney’s first solo hit, “Another Day,” Auburn’s student radio station began what would become an Auburn fixture: WEGL 91.1FM.

Almost a year earlier, on June 1, 1970, then-Auburn University president Harry Philpott submitted an application for an FM radio station to the Federal Communications Commission.

Subsequent funding from SGA ensured the operation of the station, which has since migrated from Haley Center to Foy Student Union to the new Student Center and has seen its power increase from 10 to 3,000 watts.

The station now hosts 67 DJs, most of whom host shows on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Broadcast associate Reed Alexander brought his experience from working in community radio to try and help these young DJs on their way to professional radio.

“I try to bring my experience to teach—I try to think of WEGL as a learning lab,” Alexander said. “Anybody can do WEGL and I encourage anyone with a passion in music to come on over and do their thing.”

The main rule to follow: do right by the FCC.

“As far as the FCC is concerned, we pay close attention to the rules,” Alexander said. “I listen to a lot of the shows to make sure they’re following the rules, but we train all the DJs on what you can say, what you can’t say, stuff like that. We try to make sure people follow the rules and if they don’t, we usually find out about it.”

The staff encourages someone that is interested in becoming a DJ not to hesitate, that anyone can be a DJ.

Meetings are held once a semester where potential DJs can sign up, get general information and meet the staff.

Recently, some changes have been made to the process, making the path to the studio less intimidating by meeting with candidates personally, learning more about what music they’re interested in, what kind of show they want to have and encouraging them to team up with friends. From there, a slot time is determined and a WEGL DJ is born.

The WEGL staff also prides itself on allowing DJs to play whatever type of music they want, not confining DJs to play pre-approved set lists or requiring certain songs in every show.

“We have genres from top 40 to country to classic rock to indie to alternative, heavy metal, anything you can think of we play,” Alexander said. “Then we have sports shows—really good sports shows that do call-ins and stuff like that and we have news twice a week.”

Around a year ago, a movement began to materialize called Keep WEGL Weird, a reaction to an effort by the previous station manager to include more Top 40 style songs in the set lists of WEGL’s DJs.
“As far as I understand, it was to try to get one of these songs into each show, I think is what he was trying to do, and the DJs were like ‘No way, I want to play my own material,’” said Co-Promotions Director Jimmy Palmer. “It gave us a good slogan and got us a lot of exposure, so I guess all in all it was a good thing and nothing really changed.”

According to an article published by The Auburn Plainsman in November 2010, then-station manager Cheeano Cambridge was trying to add structure by establishing “blocks” of time where certain genres would be played exclusively, and that within these blocks, DJs would “play at least one ‘mainstream’ song for every few ‘up-and-coming’ songs.”

To date, no such changes have been made to the station’s requirements, and Alexander insists that WEGL has definitely stayed weird.

“If anything, it just got better, I think,” Alexander said. “As of now, the music’s a little better organized, but it’s still the same stuff that people have been liking with WEGL for years.”

The staff and DJs at WEGL feel that listeners want to hear songs they’ve never heard before and that exposure to new music is one of the main things that keeps people listening.

WEGL also encourages local bands to bring in CDs and hear their music on the radio and hosts live shows by local bands like John and The Conners from the studio.

“We want to promote the station and at the same time we want to promote our students and our local talent here in Auburn and really since radio’s got a loud voice, get it out there so people can hear what we’re all about,” Palmer said.

The station also hosts events toward the same end, including past concerts like the 2009 WEGLfest and a Halloween Rave this past Monday that showcased local DJs Backspace and Andy B along with Escape From LA, whose masked personas seemed right at home.

“The rave is a first-time, experimental thing—just trying to make something new and fun here on campus,” Palmer said. “Putting it together has been a learning experience for all of us, just trying to figure out all the channels and avenues you’ve got to go through.”

According to Alexander, the WEGL staff wanted to host an event that would give some exposure to local talent and provide a fun, safe and unique event for Halloween.

WEGL also plans to use its platform to help promote events from campus organizations.

“As important as the student body is to WEGL, and it is very important, I would also want to get more involved with all the organizations,” Alexander said. “I want to make sure when they think of ‘I have an event, how can I get the word out?’ The first thing they think of is WEGL.”

With the end of the semester approaching, Alexander and company would like to see a number of improvements and to keep WEGL moving forward and getting better.

“We want to make sure all the DJs are comfortable talking on the air,” Alexander said. “I would really like WEGL to sound like a professional radio station. Right now, I think we’re doing a good job and we’re moving toward that.”