Club Connect: Meet... 91.7 WLFR (Lake Fred Radio)
WLFR is just one way to get involved at Stockton University.
Galloway, N.J. – Back before Spotify and Apple Music dominated the music industry, and even farther before Napster encouraged college students to pirate music on the newly formed World Wide Web, people listened to the radio to get their free dose of listening entertainment.
Throughout the year, the station hosts many events, either at Lakeside Lodge (usually accompanied by canoeing) or at the Campus Center Coffee House. These events typically involve local or college student-run bands, such as Te Vista and the Neanderthals, who are popular bands that frequent the station’s events.
If you do want to get involved and join the station or even keep up to date with the station’s events, follow them on Instagram, or you can tune into the station at 91.7 FM on a radio or the station’s website. The website also shows what music the hosts have played and the station's schedule.
Stockton University students luckily have the opportunity to explore the precursor to today’s podcasts through Stockton’s very own radio station, 91.7 WLFR, better known as Lake Fred Radio.
WLFR started as WSSR or Stockton State Radio in 1984 and was created by students who wanted to be able to show their creativity via playing music for their friends. Originally broadcast over the airwaves and wired into the Housing 1 dorms, the station developed a community of listeners around the college and Galloway area. As the years went on, the station went on the internet in 2004 and is currently accessible by TuneIn Radio and RadioRethink online or your car stereo on signal 91.7.
The radio station in today’s day and age still thrives in the School of Arts and Humanities, providing internships and volunteer opportunities for students, while also having folks from the community host shows every day too. Currently, the station is also looking to recruit more students to be disc jockeys and radio hosts.
As Maryn Skylar Olsen, a Visual Arts major from Mays Landing who hosts Wednesday’s show “Weird Girl Static”, puts it, “The radio station is looking for people who are outgoing and have a story to tell, and people who wanna make connections and share things they are passionate about.”
Meanwhile, Niko Berardo, a DJ for the station and staff member for Production Services at Stockton, has an alternative perspective on who the station is looking for.
“We need people who are musically tuned in who know a little too much about a little too much and aren't afraid to be themselves through music because we are a non-commercial music station,” Berardo said.
Interested students can come by the station (on the second floor of the Campus Center, above Dunkin) or attend one of the many concert events they host throughout the semester. Typical meetings involve, “Talking about what we want to do as a station and new ways to get student involvement”, said Berardo.
– Story and photo by Conor Wasneuski of the Osprey Social Team
There are over 150 ways for students at Stockton University to get involved – explore the clubs and organizations on campus by checking out the twice-a-year Get Involved Fair or through OspreyHub.
