By Jonathan Moniz, Staff Writer
Adam Lawrence, a DJ for UMass Dartmouth’s own radio station WUMD (89.3 FM), has a program called Broadband Noise that runs from 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. on Monday nights.
The show Broadband Noise offers a wide variety of music, picking from indie, rock, punk, post-punk, retro wave, new wave, and more. It features also a selection of songs over time, from the 60’s to now.
With the variety of music, the DJ rarely focuses on any one band, instead choosing from a collection of various artists.
It is listed amongst the alternative genre of programming of WUMD, the radio station’s various programs and details.
WUMD broadcasts on the radio frequency FM 89.3 and features a selection of shows, including Broadband Noise. It operates on providing different music and an educational aspect to radio that the broadcasting area WUMD goes out to doesn’t receive. In this way, it benefits the community.
It features an abstract variety of music as opposed to commercial radio, and without the need for playing popular hits. Regulars frequently call in to offer suggestions for music they’d like to hear, and the feedback from the community is fairly common, Lawrence says.
The content of Broadband Noise centers around music, and Lawrence stays away from doing talk shows and commercials. The only time when Lawrence usually takes breaks from music broadcasting is to take a call from the audience and hear suggestions, then subsequently play those.
Lawrence has been on production for over eight years now, starting with an LGBT show known as State of the Queer Nation. The show featured him as the main producer, and he has been continuing on with the program before also adding Broadband Noise to his programs.
He hadn’t done radio, and looking at the varieties of music, he “thought it would be fun to do music. I want to mainly feature music that I was interested in, but was criminally overlooked.”
One of the things Lawrence described that he loves about his show is the audience and the community interaction, citing it as not only being an enjoyable thing for him as a DJ, but also allowing him to discover new music. When listeners call in with a suggestion, often times it’s something he has never heard of and thus he gets to listen to new music as well.
Comparing his show to commercial music, Lawrence cited another aspect of it that he loves, namely, the “ability to chance tracks on a dime and not just listen to the popular songs.” Some bands he cited were Moog Cookbook and the Air, amongst others that he likes to listen to.
He prefers to give radio and airtime to less known music, bands, artists, and genres amongst the musical fields, as they are not heard often. It was the main inspiration for his show, and also the reason why he likes to continue with it.
This is also in keeping with the motif of WUMD, and features of its theme, to provide a more diverse array of broadcasts and content for listeners in the surrounding area than what is on popular radio. Lawrence says that the community it generates is devoted and likes to interact with the DJ as well by giving suggestions, creating a nice and welcoming community.
The ability to avoid commercial programming and advertisements are also what allow him flexibility in programming.
Broadband Noise is on FM 89.3 every Monday night from 7-10 p.m. For suggestions, information, or other important details, contact WUMD at by email or visit their website for show schedules and other information.