a chat with Kristen Westhoven, new music director at WSCA

Just three years after hitting the airwaves, Portsmouth Community Radio continues to bring fresh music, innovative programming and an independent voice to listeners across the Seacoast. As WSCA 106.1 FM continues to grow in size and popularity, the station has enlisted the help of a new music director. Kristen Westhoven joins the station after 15 years of radio experience in Henniker. She replaces former director Chad Beisswanger, who still hosts his show, “Ear Candy,” on Tuesday nights from 8-10 p.m. Loyal listeners might recognize the Deerfield resident’s name from her WSCA radio show, “If Only You Could See What You Hear,” which airs on Friday nights at 8 p.m. The Wire recently caught up with Westhoven to find out her plans for the Port City station.

Can you tell me a little bit about your background and what experience you bring to Portsmouth Community Radio?

I was over at WNEC, which is New England College’s radio station, from 1992 up through January 2007. And I was music director there for a good chunk of that time, probably, I’d say, from 1994 onward. I left because the school suddenly got in control of the station after they bought our transmitter, and it wouldn’t sit under the student senate budget. We managed to get by for years with that. Once the school got a hold of us, they started making some big changes. The school, when they decided that they were going to change directions—and didn’t really tell us what the direction was going to be—they just decided to start cleansing the music library. They invited the students to come in and start buying it, and whatever was left they said they were willing to donate. So, I thought, after all this work and all this great music, it would be a shame to see it just get thrown in the dumpster. I knew about WSCA being pretty brand new and I thought they might be interested in having some more music, so I e-mailed them and Chad, their music director, said, ‘Sure, we’re interested.’ I brought it out, and, at the same time, I ended my show at WNEC because I really didn’t see the point in continuing if they weren’t going to allow me to bring in the music I wanted to play. I wasn’t planning on a music director position at WSCA. I just filled out a form, a proposal to do a show, just an indie rock show, and I’ve been doing that since February. Then Chad suddenly said, ‘I’m stepping down.’ Since I had the experience, I decided, ‘OK, I’ll try this out.’ I’m seeing already how much more work it is.

How will working on the Seacoast and in Portsmouth affect how you do your job?

It’s a lot different. I’m already finding that out, because a community radio station is entirely different from a college radio station. You have to deal with a lot more different aspects. They have a vast array of programs, for one thing, and we’re trying to make it so that all the genres that the community would like to hear are represented. My first thing stepping into the job is that I’d like to try and organize it a little bit better so that we have specialty music directors for all the genres that people want to hear, such as world. Jazz is pretty set up already, but as far as, like, world music or hip-hop or electronic music, there is really no music director set in those positions at this point. I know there (are) some interested people, and we’re going to set them up so they can start making reports for their genre, and then they can start receiving more music, in addition, because when they see the charts, that’s when the industry starts sending you more music. That is what WSCA was really lacking in, was having enough genre music.
 
Could you describe what exactly a music director does? 

The main thing is to acquire the new music, which we’re going to put in our library and play over the air. The way to do that is, we have a subscription with CMJ, College Music Journal, and for a subscription fee, they send us all these different record labels and artists. In return, you’re supposed to report a play list every week for their top 200. The record labels will read that and then they’ll see that you’re supporting them, and that’s basically how the music keeps coming in. If you chart things, then the industry sees it and they’ll start sending things. But in addition to that, now, in this day in age, with MySpace, you can acquire so much more music beyond the CMJ umbrella—and for nothing. I mean, these artists do it themselves and they just want their music played, so they’ll send it out free of charge if they want to get it played. So, if I happen upon somebody that’s really interesting, I’ll ask if they’re interested in sending us something, and very often they do. So, we’re putting that type of music on the air, too. Real underground.

Beyond that, the music director is in charge of the library, keeping it all filed. At WSCA there is a lot more to it than there was at WNEC. The students didn’t really get too involved because they were busy with classes and they’d be off for the summer. But here at the community radio, it’s like a beehive, really, people going in and out all the time. Everybody has something they’d like you to do, whether it’s printing out a top 30 list, there’s another DJ who wants me to mark off all the bands that have women in them because he wants to grab them and play those. We’re also trying to build out our station somewhat, so that’s going to be fun. The music I donated from WNEC is still sitting, for the most part, in a big mountain, and there is nowhere to put it ... We’re renting out a separate room, which we’re going to make our library. We’re still in the button factory on the little offshoot there at 909 Islington St., and we’re just planning on building out our regular studio and then changing (the current on-air studio) into a production studio, so we can have two studios running. Plus, there’s also discussion about possibly setting up another remote studio on Congress Street. There is just a lot going on at this radio station, a lot more than was going on at WNEC.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the remote station, why it’s needed and what it will be used for?

I haven’t heard too much about it, but I expect that they are trying to make it more centered in the community, so that it can get more interest and focus more on community activities since it would be right downtown. That’s what I expect. It’s more of a development project, so Rick Dirck is the guy in charge, getting that all going, and the engineers he’s working with. I haven’t really discussed it much. I know there is discussion of it and it’s moving forward.

We hear a lot about the way media is being consolidated and monopolized by large corporations. What role do you think this local, volunteer-run, community station plays in the Seacoast community?

Oh, I think it plays a great part in getting the music out there that is not the usual corporate-driven, mainstream stuff that you hear all over the place. People in general just complain that they’re sick of hearing the same songs over and over again. Even though they might want to hear classic rock, classic rock stations play the same hits over and over. So that’s our main thing, trying to get the other bands played that aren’t getting the chance. I think there is a great place for independent stations like ours to get the music out there that isn’t normally getting played anywhere else. Especially in a community station, I really think it’s important to focus on the local artists. You know, give them more of a chance to get played, because Portsmouth has such a vibrant music scene. That’s the great thing about going from Henniker to Portsmouth. Henniker doesn’t have anything going on there musically, really, and I knew Portsmouth really had a lot going on. When I was out in Henniker, I played a lot of Portsmouth music and Seacoast area music, so I knew I was going to a good place. I also enjoy that they are very organized as far as setting up events and announcements. You can easily promote bands that are playing in the area. We also have a couple of local DJs that bring in the bands to play live on the station. So we really do try, I think, already, to push the local music a little bit more.   

Do you have any new ideas for the radio station?

There are some nifty little things that I like, but I’m not sure if it will ever apply. I know for instance, WZBC down in Boston, they use a thing called Spinatron, where you type in your play list and it’s online, so somebody listening over the Internet can just look at the Spinatron list and they’ll see exactly what song you’re playing if you’re interested in knowing what it is. (It) is, I think, a really good plan, especially when we have the DJ Otis running (an automated DJ that randomly selects music), because there is no live DJ. They’re not telling you what music you’re hearing. We’ve had people call and say, what was that? Then (a station employee has) to look it up on DJ Otis. If you’re lucky, it’s still listed, and, if you’re not, you don’t know how to get into it and look. So that’s all something I think is important. If you’re promoting the new music, also be able to say what it is. We’ll have to see about that.

What kind of music do you like?

They called my show ‘indie rock,’ but it’s pretty much eclectic. You know, I throw in a little bit of obscure oldies from the ’60s, all the way up to brand new music out on the new stacks. My main thing right now is psychedelic folk, you know, like Hotel Alexis and that kind of thing.

Who would be the first artist you would play on the air, if you had your choice? 

I’m always playing Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. They’re from Wales. I play them often. There are other bands I play often, as well.

What are you looking forward to the most as the new music director?

Well, I’m looking forward to the new interesting music coming into the station that we can get out there for all the listeners in the Seacoast area. I’m also looking forward to getting some more specialty music available for the people that want to hear that. (I’m) also looking forward to all these new changes that they are supposedly going to be doing at the station: the new library, the new production studio, the new remote studio. All that stuff is exciting.