Every semester at WYBC is exciting, and this last one was no exception. We called a national championship, put together several quality live shows and trained a brand new group of WYBC members, expanding our population to 149 members. This was all in addition to broadcasting fifty weekly shows on our online radio stream. Thanks to the passion and dedication of our broadcasters, our place on campus is becoming stronger by the semester.

In terms of programming, this semester we heard a variety of shows representing voices from all over campus and beyond. It’s hard to pinpoint highlights, but to get a feel for our shows, listen to high schoolers Kingsley and Malik (the first two students in our youth internship program, started by Caroline Lester and Evan Mullen, both ’14) at the board for Teen Takeover; The Wire Unraveled, an analysis of the TV show hosted by Steven Zwick ’14; and Chromatics, in which freshmen Jeff Zhang and Jenna Kainic explored a new indie artist every week.

Thanks to a new website design (by alumnus Sean Owczarek ’11), our online offerings have expanded. We’ve got more recordings of shows on our website and on iTunes, and a growing team of bloggers commenting on music and culture in the Zine section. All in all, this has been a successful semester for the station, and we’re looking forward to taking some time to reflect  over the summer before diving right back in this August. We hope you’ll listen in!

- Tara Abraham, Station Manager, SY ’14

Anti-Fling 2013

On April 12th, WYBC threw its largest and loudest event of the year: Anti-Fling. Envisioned as a companion concert to Spring Fling, which tends to attract big-name artists like this year’s Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, WYBC Anti-Fling is a showcase of lesser-known but rising talent.  The event drew hundreds of Yalies out to the venue – none other than the infamous Toad’s Place. The evening, orchestrated by Director of Records Colin Groundwater ’15, included four artists. The first performance was an electronic set by Beat Culture, the DJ alias of Yale student and WYBC member Sunik Kim ’16. Sunik’s talents have won him a devoted following among experimental pop fans; one of his tracks has been played over 250,000 times on the music hosting website SoundCloud. Following Beat Culture, rapper Mykki Blanco spat lines from her profane and insane mixtape Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss. Garage-rock group Oberhofer followed, and the night was closed by dark electro artist Pictureplane.

WYBC took full advantage of Anti-Fling to introduce the Yale community to some of the music we’re listening to. As a radio station, we are always watchful for the next big thing in music, and Yale apparently trusts our taste. The event brought a huge number of people together, from WYBC members to artsy types to rap junkies to the random folks wandering around outside Toad’s. And Anti-Fling certainly fulfilled its most important promise: to introduce listeners to something beautiful and strange. In this sense, live music is important not just as entertainment, but also because it collides people with music in a way that sparks excitement – which is exactly the spirit of Yale Radio.

- Max Weinreich, Assistant Records Director, BR ’16

Sports Update

A fantastic year for WYBC Sports ended in April in Pittsburgh when the Bulldogs beat Quinnipiac for the NCAA hockey championship! WYBC was there for the whole postseason ride (and regular season), starting with the ECAC tournament in Atlantic City. After disappointing losses in AC, the Elis snuck into the NCAA Tournament and played two games in Grand Rapids, Mich. to earn a first-ever bid to the Frozen Four. It was an incredible journey for all of us at WYBC Sports and one that we’re very thankful for. We gained invaluable broadcasting experience in professional rinks pressure-packed situations, made wonderful connections with hockey writers and other journalists, and most importantly, we enjoyed watching Yale history unfold before our eyes.

In Pittsburgh, we also enjoyed meeting a number of WYBC alumni. Included is a “multi-generational” picture of WYBC Sports alums from the press box at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh — and to everyone else we met at the hotel and the arena, we thank you for sharing your stories with us. It means a lot to know that we’re carrying on a proud tradition of WYBC sports broadcasting. And if you haven’t heard the news, we’re happy to be carrying on that tradition on WYBC-AM 1340 after a brief hiatus from over-the-air broadcasts. Our AM hockey broadcasts allowed us to reach more listeners than ever before and serve a hockey-hungry community in southern Connecticut. Listeners during the championship game even included incoming Yale president-elect Peter Salovey!

Once again, we thank you for your supporting during this incredible year for WYBC Sports. I think I speak for all of us at WYBC Sports when I say I’m more excited than ever to get back into the booth next semester.

Picture:  A multi-generational photo of WYBC Sports broadcasters taken in our booth during the second intermission of the championship game. From right to left: Dan Fleschner ’01, Alex Goldberger ’08, John Ryan ’14, Nell Meosky ’14, Chris Hudson ’07,  Evan Frondorf ’14, Konrad Coutinho ’13, and Ron Vaccaro ’04.

- Evan Frondorf, Sports Director, SM ’14

Battle of the Bands

The soon-to-be-Yale-Freshman shuffled about with clumsy footsteps, with a “Sorry” and “Excuse me” here and there. There was a strange sense of growing anticipation—the kind of anticipation you only really feel before a rock concert in a dingy crowded basement. The winner of the battle would open for Macklemore at Spring Fling, and the pre-freshman had no idea what to expect. This wasn’t like the other Bulldog Days events, at all. I’m sure half of them expected a series of a capella groups to materialize on stage, singing “That’s Why I Chose Yale” in heartfelt unison, but this was WYBC, Yale Radio.

And, as usual, it had a different side of Yale up its sleeve.

Suddenly Nathan Campbell, god of raw vocals and rock, materialized in a red, sparkling leotard instead. The audience cheered as Sister Helen took the stage. “This is sick!” I smiled at the pre-frosh who said it. “Yeah, totally.”

Nero, My Panda, followed, with their soft pop vocals and catchy beat. The audience bobbed up and down to the sound of more familiar summer tunes. Every band won over the crowd. Rain Brigade with brilliant rock violin solos, The Teaspoons with their new folk, Nine Tigers, A Streetcar Named Funk, they all came up and did something entirely new. WYBC had done it, again. Created something cool, and fresh, and different on campus…. and they do it every week.

They’re the reason I chose Yale, and after Battle of the Bands 2013, another solid reason why our freshman chose it too.

- Alina Aksiyote, BK ’16

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament ended on Monday, what do we have to say about the champion Louisville Cardinals? Also, our very own Men’s Hockey team takes on the Frozen Four this weekend. We will give you our preview for the HUGE games coming up.

Yale takes on the Frozen Four this weekend

            Tune in 4/12 at 8 pm for a super special broadcast w/ Ric  Leichtung, founding editor of the kickass Brooklyn-based music blog Ad Hoc, who is here to let listeners in the to sonic Afterparty before the party!

Listen and then head on over to Antifling, where you can see him DJ live.

xoxo

Length: 9 minutes 43 seconds

Translation Party – S1E08

In the professional realm of sports, money talks. It also buys happy meals for Joe Flacco. We also discuss the Lakers’ playoff chances. Download the podcast right here!

Back at full strength on Wednesday.

WYBC Yale Radio is very excited to announce that, starting tomorrow (Friday, February 1), all home games and select road games of the #7/8 Yale men’s hockey team schedule will be available over-the-air on WYBC-AM 1340.

This exciting partnership with the WSHU Public Radio Group will allow us to reach a much wider audience in New Haven and southern Connecticut, and we couldn’t be more excited. There are now three ways to listen to Yale men’s hockey on WYBC:

• 1. A live, direct stream of the broadcast on WYBC.com, available on computers and mobile devices.
• 2. A stream of WYBC-AM available on the TuneIn smartphone app (Apple, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry devices) and on TuneIn.com athttp://tunein.com/radio/WYBC-1340-s24123/
• 3. And of course, the over-the-air broadcast on WYBC-AM 1340.

Our pregame coverage of both games this weekend will start at 6:45 pm EST, which includes our interview with Yale head coach Keith Allain, but only on WYBC.com. AM coverage will begin immediately at 7 pm and will be identical to the WYBC.com broadcast.

Evan Frondorf ’14 will have the call along with Alex Eppler ’16 tomorrow vs. Princeton. Konrad Coutinho ’13 and Nell Meosky ’14 will be calling the game vs. #2 Quinnipiac. Tara Abraham ’14 will help engineer from the station.

So, 2012 has come and gone, and you’ve all read how everyone else felt about the year. There was a lot of good music, a lot of bad music, and a lot of middling material. But, our opinions matter the most. Hip-hop (and sketchy capitalization) ruled our charts, but there was a lot of diversity throughout the poll, with around forty different albums listed by WYBCers in their respective lists. However, we had to come to some conclusions using the power of weighted averages, and here they are:

WYBC’s Five Favorite Albums of 2012

1. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city
2. Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE
3. Grimes – Visions
4. Julia Holter – Ekstasis
5. Grizzly Bear – Shields

WYBC’s Five Favorite Songs of 2012

1. Kanye West – White Dress

2. Miguel – Adorn
3. Frank Ocean – Thinkin Bout You
4. Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
5. Burial – Ashtray Wasp

WYBC’s Favorite Free Release of 2012

Beat Culture –  Tokyo Dreamer

WYBC’s Three Favorite WYBC Parties Hosted by WYBC

1. The Halloween / Dress As Your Favorite Album Party
2. “Underground Dance Party”
3. Soulful House Rhythms

Average Hotness of WYBC Executive Board (1 – 5, 5 being hottest):

4.133

Choice Comments and Suggestions for the Coming Semester:

“get naked with [Mudkip]” (real name withheld)
“more dj set dance parties + projections & trippy visuals, etc.”
“…turn a profit, ya dig???”
“WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!”

Stay tuned for album reviews and other goodies. Sorry about the Carly Rae Jepsen…

Thomas Rokholt – General Manager

Tara Abraham – Station Manager

Leland Whitehouse – Treasurer

David Cruz – Programming Director

Kelsey Stimple – Office Manager

Brainard Carey – Community Representative

The future is bright for WYBC, if this pic of Tara gives any indication.

I gave three points of advice I think are important for all members. I thanked everybody who contributed to the past year of progress and discussed some of my favorite memories. And I ended with a call to action for all of us to preserve the immense history and traditions we uphold at this station. Listen in – you might learn something.

Length: 10 minutes 43 seconds

Also, the pic below basically somes up how I have felt for the past year. Thanks guys.