WMFO is an individual spirit against commercial radio

The tedium of American Idol crooners, Abercrombie pop punk, and the general teen-o-tainment dominates popular radio. In the words of Sebadoh's lead singer, Lou Barlow, "Just gimmie some indie rock." Tufts' WMFO free-form radio is here to the rescue.

Broadcasting on 91.5 MHz, WMFO offers solace and refuge from the blandness of the Clear Channel radio empire. Since hitting the airwaves since 1970, WMFO has been wooing on-campus and community listeners ever since.

WMFO gives DJs ultimate control over the songs and musings they play. With over eighty weekly shows for listeners to tune into, the freeform format allows for diverse sounds to reach listeners

"The latitude of the freeform format allows us to basically play anything we want," Junior Alex Chassin, Training Director and Assistant General Manager at WMFO, said. "It's definitely worth a listen every time you pass it on the dial, just to see what's on, because it could be anything -- from white-boy rap to indie rock to 70's raregroove to underground dance."

"Students should listen to WMFO, because we provide an awesome alternative to the drivel and dreck that is commercial radio," Chassin said. "If anyone is tired of hearing the same five songs 24 hours a day for three months, then they should listen to WMFO."

Indeed, in these dire post-grunge times, we have come to realize that all a band needs to do in order to be embraced by the masses is slam a guitar and repeat the same hook over and over. That, or croon with relentless warbling ?  la the "divas" and "divos" that "American Idol" features.

Tufts students and surrounding community members, however, have been fighting the good fight against bland hooks and over-exposed pop stars during their weekly WMFO timeslots.

One example was sixteen year veteran Mikey Dee. His show featured live local bands that would come into the studio to play a 45 minute set and then talk on air with the him every Wednesday night from 9-12. Tragically, over the summer WMFO lost Dee when he passed away after a long illness from complications due to surgery.

Another long running show, "Hardcore Heroes" on Monday nights, has been on-air for over five years. The Hardcore Hero DJs are former Tufts students, still in the area and still active with WMFO.

"No U Turn" radio has been on for many years with an alternative news radio show that features speeches from people like Horward Zinn and Noam Chomsky.

Other WMFO favorites aren't as easy to define. "Promethean Jazz" is hosted by Hank Faunce who, as Station Manager Emily Ryan explained, "plays jazz and tells stories about hanging out with all the musicians when they were young. He also does some hilarious political commentary."

In the future, WMFO hopes to increase its power output from 125 watts to 250 watts, to grace even more enthusiastic listeners with its eclectic collection of music and commentary.