JustArts: When did you start getting involved in WBRS?Ben Stein: I came here last year as a midyear, and during the first club fair I signed up to become a DJ. Then I accidentally went to one of the meetings and decided I wanted to be on [WBRS' executive board]. The music director at the time was named Sophie, and she needed a co-director, so after being very persistent she finally made me her [co-director]. She transferred to NYU last semester, and now I am music director.

Jake Blair: There is a similar story for me. [I signed up to be in WBRS during the club fair and] was in the studio pretty much within the first week or so. When first semester was coming to a close and Ben was becoming music director, ... like Ben, I asked, because that was what I wanted to do.

JA: So what drew you guys to radio and WBRS?

BS: I love music and new music a lot, but that is what draws you to radio: a love of music and wanting to be more involved in the industry and being able to play what you love and have other people hear what you love.

JA: What do you think radio as a source offers that other mediums can't?

BS: Many things, but first and foremost portability: You listen to it in your car, and when you turn it on music is just there. It is also personal. ... When you are in your car, they will say, "Make requests," and you will call in and hear your voice on the radio.

JB: I agree, there is a gap between conversation on the Internet. E-mail is not direct, while radio feels like a direct conversation.

JA: You guys rose up in the ranks of WBRS pretty quickly. Were there any difficulties you face and had to overcome?

BS: Not many difficulties, [but] more individual tasks like accessing the [College Music Journal] website that is very unresponsive. It is fun, though. We get to deal with promoters from record labels pushing their bands on us, and it's fun to listen to lots of bands and see what we like best.

JA: How do you balance the airplay of indie bands and Top 40s?

BS: Our job is mostly the new and indie bands because the Top 40s don themselves upon the DJs.

JB: As music directors, we don't tell people what to play. People play what they want to play, and we give suggestions pushing them in different directions. I've found if you say nothing about the Top 40, the airplay usually balances out.

BS: We put up suggestions every week trying to show people new music they might like.

JA: What shows do you guys host?

BS: We have a live show every week called Liberation Frequency that is hosted by the music directors. It is a two-hour show, so the first hour we just play new music, and during the second hour we play our personal choices. That's the only show I'm currently doing now, but when I first started I had a show called Indie-cent Exposure.

JB: Right now I have a show I've been doing since last semester called 25 Watts from Nowhere that is a variety show with a focus on local bands. Sometimes you are in here and nobody will have a show, and you can do whatever you want. Last semester, Jackie [Benowitz] '12, our live music director, said that she wanted to play some vinyl 33.5 RPM records, and so together we just made an impromptu 45-minute show.

BS: At the station, we have one of the largest vinyl collections in the Northeast. ... You can just go in there with your computer and not come out for hours finding all this new music.

JA: Do you have any ideas for the future of WBRS?

JB: We are trying to reshape the way we take music to the station and get lots of people involved [by creating] a genre-coordinator system where we get certain people who are interested in all different types of genres. We are obviously not experts in everything. For example, ... all heavy metal sounds similar to us, though I'm not opposed to it, ... so having someone here who can tell us what is good and bad and if it is worth keeping or not [would be a positive change].

BS: I'm personally excited for the digital switch, ways to make music distribution easier for the DJs. In the office, there are [tons] of CDs and I can't wait to see what it looks like when it is all digital.

JB: The big project this semester is moving our library into a digital format.

BS: We have a lot of fun planning the big concerts, like SpringFest with Student Events. But we also have a small budget for [Cholmondoley's] concerts where we get to display indie music and show the bands we have a lot of passion for.