I’m a senior environmental science and policy major. I’m originally from Portland, Oregon. I’m on my way out. Beside this? Schoolwork takes a lot of time. I’m involved somewhat in cycling. There's a sort of cycling club, the Duke cycling club, but it's not very well organized, so I sort of ride on my own. What else do I do? Not much else organized.
      Freshman year I trained the first semester and had a show the second semester. 5-7 am and I’ve had a couple shows and been on the sublist throughout. I’ve been a regular DJ, this is my fourth semester. I was away one semester and just kind of on the sublist.
      I like music. I used to play in campus bands. So I was just into, I hate to say alternative music, but just kind of XDU music, we'll say. The station was kind of, I thought you know, there's college radio and it's kind of this cool sounding thing and I wanted to check it out. I just wanted to get more exposure.
      There was playlist stuff, which was, back at that time I guess it was somewhat similar to what it is now, it just seemed different at that time. A lot of it seemed kind of abrasive and it took me a long time to get into it. But it's kind of grown on me. I don’t know how to explain that. There are new bands out there that I’m finding out about before they're highly publicized or even slightly publicized.
      I’m a jazz DJ now so I have a jazz program. I hadn't had a lot of exposure to jazz, a little but not enough to have access to records, so I definitely developed that. I’d always tried to incorporate some jazz into my playlist shows and it seemed like it would be just a nice shift. Just to be able to spend more time playing longer tracks than playlist requirements allow for. It's easier, more lax requirements as far as what you can play. You can play longer songs I guess. If you have a regular show and you have to play 6 songs an hour and you want to play a half hour jazz piece, its kind of, it makes it tough to play some things I think. I think I’ve made great improvements, I’ve learned a lot more since my first show this semester. I typically try to stay away from...anything that you probably would hear on a regular jazz stations - like the soft jazz stations, they’re really horrible - so aside from that it’s just traditional jazz throughout the main states of jazz. stuff that you don't see anywhere, but there's a good selection here.
      I think it's really important that XDU’s something that the majority of students either don't know about or don't listen to or care about, it's a joke to some people I guess. But I think for people who are involved it's a service, especially those who are really interested in music careers. It's probably a good outlet for that. It's just a lot of fun for one portion of the Duke community and Durham community.
      It's neat to see...you go into your show and there's some student before you and there's not a student after. And you just get this interaction...The shows that XDU puts on or helps to sponsor, is a way of maybe just kind of running into parts of the community that normally don't come on campus, whereas they’ll come to a coffeehouse show. And you see people that are students too that you don’t usually see around campus. I think it's positive for Duke's community. I like Duke but I don't like Duke, so I don't know. it's got definite problems. I don’t' think XDU's going to solve them, but I think it's helpful.
      I think it's great that the university helps fund it, that's its part of the university. That it's an opportunity for students, both theoretically and personally...A lot of things the university funds, I don’t really care about. Not that I don’t' get benefit out of, but...I see them as different outputs I guess. I don’t think the station should change to develop larger student listenership necessarily.
      The atmosphere has improved. I think it's good that a lot of students are on the board, that students are the directors typically, they play a large role here...It feels more like a university-affiliated organization as opposed to something where students just pass through.
      As far as the station changing, it doesn't sem like it's changed that much, just my perception of it has changed. My perception of what's played. I guess the playlist has changed a bit, what kinds of musics are getting played. I don't know how it's changed, or how to express that. But I perceive the change. That's probably me changing more than the station.
      I guess I don't know who listens to the station...it's difficult to tell, you know how many less people...4 people instead of the normal 8 people who listen to you because the antenna's down. It's kind of been discouraging at times when you think...on one hand, it's kind of like, if you’re having a crummy day and you're messing up and you’re fumbling a lot, can’t find anything, and your show is crappy, you don't feel as bad because it's a low broadcast anyway, but it's kind of a bummer. it's like you're just talking to yourself. it would be nice to feel like it's a real radio station instead of getting on like, your ham radio.
      I don’t really follow what happens with the communication bills and stuff like that on the national level, but...a couple companies are buying up all the stations and you can go anywhere and hear the same station essentially. It's really kind of...pathetic. College stations serve to not only help the students do something productive and fun with their time and have access to lots of records, but I guess the difference is they play more interesting things.
      Necessary? Like I said, with all the homogeneity of all the other stations out there, I think you need something to get bands the exposure that you wouldn't hear on other stations, different styles of music. And I think it provides something positive for, maybe not a great number of students here, but students who a lot of times aren’t attracted to a lot of the other things the university offers. I guess on some fundamental level it’s not necessary, and I can see it being cut, but it would be a shame if it were.
      I was home one day and I got a call to turn in my summer grid and next fall’s grid and I’m graduating and going to be gone. In a way, it partially struck me as "Oh my god, college is over," but also I’m never going to do a radio show again, I’m not going to go to the station, which kind of bummed me out. Because it's a fun thing to do and it's an opportunity to be able to listen to tons of new stuff. It's neat to be on the air, it’s neat to have these capabilities.