89.5 WSOU- Seton Hall Pirates Radio
So I've mentioned the radio a few times and i think they're worth a proper write up so here goes.
WSOU is a local college radio station out of East Orange NJ (the hood, no srsly, its fucking newark thats a terrible area) that plays (almost) non-stop metal. With that said there are a bunch of pros and cons to be addressed, i'll tackle the negatives first.
-its a radio station, so they play a lot of what i would consider to be junk/filler. Sometimes it'll just be shitty hatebreed type bands for an hour or 2.
-its a college radio station, so its all students. some of them are terrible, like they'll mispronounce bands and stumble over their words, sometimes they'll forget to lower the music while they talk or which microphone to use. tbh its kinda hilarious hearing them try to read a newsscript and choke on air
-its a college radio station, with SPORTS, so every now and then the'll cut the music to bring you LIVE AND EXCITING WOMENS BASKETBALL. or their hockey(?) or something, honestly once I find out that they're cutting away from tunes i change the channel. it might be good, but i dont really care about sports and i didnt go to the school so theres not really much there for me
a few drawbacks to be sure, but for the positives:
-its a radio station, THAT PLAYS METAL. honestly there isn't another one, or at least not around here, that plays proper metal. I'm in whats supposed to be the cultural capital of the world and every single other station is trash 99% of the time, heres one thats actually not bad
-its a radio station, and with that comes a huge variety of music, even while sticking to the same "genre". while their regular rotation is pretty stock at times they also have specialty shows (that i would personally Highly recommend). one night they'll drop 2 hours of power/viking/melodeath type stuff (Storming The Ramparts), another it'll be a block of doom/sludge/experimental (Blurred Visions). They have a night for punk/emo stuff if thats more your speed, as well as a few others shows. Mondays they usually have a new album that they play in full, usually with a few giveaways.
-its a college radio station, so no commercials. one of the biggest reasons i listen to them, my shitty car can't do other music so having something where im not getting constantly bombarded with ads is such a nice breath of fresh air
-its a local radio station, they play a lot of bands out of NY/NJ, its nice hearing little bands played alongside the megadeths and opeths. some are kinda good,
Thank You Scientist and
E-Town Concrete that I mentioned earlier are always a treat
-Its a college radio station, so no fancy soundbytes, they have a few liners but other stations that i listen to are all full of sound effect things, when folks are talking it sounds like it was recorded in a booth and cleaned up and dubbed over and just thrown onto a playlist, nobody is on the other side of the mic, just a computer. Here you can tell that they cant afford (or dont want) any of that fancy self-promotion/automation stuff, like i said before the djs will consistently fuck up but that roughness adds a layer of authenticity. I want my metal station to be a bit dirty and grungy and held together with duct-tape. thats keeping it metal
All told, its not perfect and I only really listen to it while im driving, but I drive a fuckload and i'm listening to this 99% of the time. I've found a lot of new bands by listening to them, and overall they're pretty good, just hope a good dj is on. check em out if theres a need for some background noise