30 Years Ago: College Radio in 1995
Did you ever listen to WUNH or college radio?
It’s been thirty years since 1995, and I’ve been thinking about the music I was listening to at that time. I was DJing on college radio at WUNH 91.3 FM back then, surrounded by stacks of vinyl and CDs, handwritten playlists, and the kind of discovery that only happens when you have hours to dig, listen, and then share with others on air. There wasn’t any streaming music, and as a radio listener, you had to be patient, maybe listening for hours and taking notes, calling the DJ about a song you heard, then trying to find it in a store so you could play it over and over once you found it.
For me, college radio in 1995 was a world of indie rock and noisy guitars, alternative folk, my intro to the world of Jazz, and underground hip-hop, courtesy of The Mothership Connection on WUNH. College radio was full of voices that didn’t sound like anything on the commercial airwaves. You could hear Guided by Voices one minute and PJ Harvey the next. Bands like Huggy Bear, Pavement, Fugazi, and Sebadoh were everywhere—on air, on mixtapes, and on posters in our apartments. One of the great shows we had each week was the Indie 500, full of new underground, independent rock ‘n’ roll and pop.
Channel Live, Pharcyde, Non-Phixion, and Grand Puba were among the acts featured during the weekly hip-hop program. It was where you caught the underground stuff before it reached anyone else. It’s also where the DJs played full tracks off independent 12-inches, took collect calls for requests, and let instrumentals run long. One of the best shows in the history of WUNH.
To mark three decades since then, I pulled together a playlist of 24 songs from 1995 that were staples on WUNH and college radio. Some were big. Some were buried. But they all carried that same spirit, and it is impossible to forget them. Together, they tell the story of what 1995 sounded like when you tuned in to the left end of the dial. I hope you enjoy it.
The link to listen to the playlist is below.
‘95 Playlist
Indie Rock
Pavement – “Rattled by the Rush”
Smog – “Bathysphere”
Sonic Youth – “Little Trouble Girl”
Guided by Voices – “Motor Away”
The Rentals – “Friends of P.”
Air Miami - “World Cup Fever”
Belly – “Super-Connected”
Yo La Tengo – “Tom Courtenay”
Tortoise – “Tin Cans (The Puerto Rican Mix by Brad Wood)”
Seam – “Port of Charleston”
Sebadoh – “Ocean”
Archers of Loaf – “Harnessed in Slums”
Hip Hop
The Roots – “Proceed”
GZA – “Liquid Swords”
The Pharcyde – “Runnin’”
Smif-N-Wessun – “Bucktown”
Mobb Deep – “Survival of the Fittest”
KRS-One – “MC’s Act Like They Don’t Know”
The Nonce – “Mixed Tapes”
Gangstarr – “Alongwaytogo”
Black Moon – “Who Got Da Props”
Tha Alkaholiks - “All the Way Live”
Beastie Boys – “Get It Together”
Souls of Mischief - “Rock It Like That”
Until next time. Thanks again for reading …and listening!
- JB