I decided to go to the University of Miami for all the wrong reasons.
I wanted to be a DJ at WVUM.
That was pretty much the long and the short of it.
Growing up in Miami, VUM, "The Voice," was a hidden gem at the ass-end of the dial -- a station that always sounded like it was being run by a hamster on a wheel but which consistently cranked out excellent music, brought to you by DJs who were either on the cutting edge of cool or who may have been in the nodding-off stages of their bong high. Either way, it was exciting stuff for a kid in high school, and I wanted to be a part of it. So when I got to UM, the first thing I did was throw my hat into the ring of DJ wanna-bes.
I got a regular show. Then I got a specialty show, where the rules were slightly relaxed. Then I became WVUM's most mischievous and occasionally insufferable problem child. And it was good.
As the years went by, WVUM got a power increase, a bigger studio, and started actually giving a shit about what their DJs sounded like on-air -- and this is the result: the station was just awarded the coveted MTV Woodie (whatever the hell that is) for Best College Radio Station in America.
I'll always have a very special place in my heart for WVUM, the place that launched my broadcasting career and whose all-student staff inexplicably laughed along with me while I and my tiny crew systematically tore the place apart from the inside out.
So congrats, WVUM -- and all hail the new kids.
Guess this means I don't have to return all the records I stole.
