Every Thursday night, juniors Jay Kahn, Chris Harte, and Matt Kulkin hang out and listen to music in the WMFO studio on the third floor of Curtis Hall. It's here - various rooms decorated with record jackets, stickers, and graffiti, and filled with CDs, records, speakers, microphones, and stereo equipment - where they broadcast their radio program, The Popychulo Show. Tufts Daily readers voted it Best WMFO radio show last year.
Kahn and Harte started Popychulo their freshman year as an all punk and ska show. "I actually met Chris the first day of school in Lewis," Kahn said. They've been friends ever since. The show was Kahn's idea, and he went through the six-week WMFO training program to get it up and running.
Kulkin joined the show last year. "I went down to hang out and see what it was all like," he said. Now he is Popychulo's unofficial manager.
On the air, Kahn takes the role of Popy, Harte is Chulo, and Kulkin is El Jefe. Kahn, who hails from Arizona, explained the show's name. Popychulo is a "West Coast term for a devil of a pimp," he said, obviously proud of his West Coast heritage.
When Kulkin joined the show, the original pimps dubbed him El Jefe (Spanish for "the boss") because he often organizes the show. "Jay runs the boards, Chris is the music guru. My specialty is prank calls, publicity, and bands," Kulkin said.
More importantly, Kulkin acts a bridge between the technical and creative aspects of the show - he keeps it all together.
True to their punk roots, Kahn, Harte, and Kulkin begin each installment of Popychulo with a sound clip of Howard Stern trashing the punk band NOFX and end the show with a NOFX song. Although Kahn and Harte envisioned the Popychulo Show as all punk and ska, the music they now broadcast is more mainstream.
Although WMFO boasts a collection of 10,000 albums, Kahn, Harte, and Kulkin find it easier and more convenient to use their own CDs.
"The selection of punk and ska at the station is limited," Kahn said.
"I provide most of the music now," Harte added.
Kahn also attributes the change from true punk and ska to more popular fare like No Doubt, Papa Roach, Green Day, and Blink182 to the show's increasing popularity. "We wanted to do more college-oriented rock," he said.
In addition to broadcasting popular punk and ska-influenced music, the Popychulo guys discuss sports and politics, make prank phone calls, and sponsor a dating game. Amidst the presidential election excitement this past week, Popychulo kept a running total of the vote count in the swing state of Florida via CNN.com and debated the relative merits of the candidates.
"We've changed from a democracy into an all-out war," Kulkin said.
Tufts Community Union Senate president David Moon joined in the discussion via phone, commenting that Gore's projected win of the popular vote may "undermine Bush's presidency."
During the course of their two-hour broadcast last Thursday, Popychulo also prank called a few people. Kulkin called the Suntique tanning salon in Medford, complaining that, during his last tanning session, his "package" fell out of his boxer shorts and is now strangely pigmented. Later, he called the China Sun Restaurant in Somerville and, to the bewilderment of the restaurant employee on the phone, attempted to order a pepperoni pizza, a calzone, a falafel wrap - any take-out food other than Chinese. Kulkin, with his slightly abusive sense of humor, has become Popychulo's master of prank calls.
Another Popychulo standard is a dating game they call "Meet the Random Freshman." Each week, they select random phone numbers from the Collegiate Web campus directory and call people up with the hope that they'll participate in the game. They set up either three girls and a guy or three guys and a girl to battle it out for a date. The potential new couple is matched through a series of five questions about their idea of the perfect date, favorite vacation spot, style of dress, and concert, and the first thing they notice in a special someone. The winners - the two people with the most matches - are put on the guest list at Avalon.
The Popychulo Show also hosts live bands from time to time. This week they're hoping to have The Miracle Orchestra, Bela Fleck, who will be performing at the Somerville Theater for four nights, or Reel Big Fish on the show. In addition, Kahn and Harte broadcast "the fastest two minutes in sports", and Harte gives a rundown of upcoming concerts in the Boston area.
Although Kahn, Harte, and Kulkin send out a chill, relaxed vibe during the show, they have to deal with production problems throughout the broadcast. "You never know what's going to happen," said Harte.
They try to perfect their timing and transitions between music and talk sections of the show to avoid broadcasting dead air. They also have to deal with the technical difficulties of working from an outdated studio. Most major radio stations today broadcast in a digital format, but WMFO still uses CDs and minidiscs.
"We've been pushing WMFO to go digital," Kahn said.
From time to time, the WMFO studios also suffer from a shortage of microphones and headsets. At one point during the show last week, Harte wondered, "Didn't there used to be three mics?"
"That was last year," Kulkin responded.
"The equipment is pretty old, but it runs fine. For what we do, it's fine," Kulkin said.
According to Kulkin, he and the rest of the Popychulo crew aren't interested in becoming professional radio DJs; they just like to produce Popychulo for fun. However, broadcasting has always interested Kahn, who has television as well as radio experience.
The Popychulo show is broadcast on Thursdays from 6-8 p.m. on WMFO (91.5 FM). Listeners can also hear it over the Internet at www.wmfo.org.
