KSSU wins big at CMJ

Last Thursday, October 22nd 2009 The College Music Journal (CMJ) held their annual Music Marathon and Film Festival in New York that features top bands, films as well as college radio station awards and recognition. The awards highlight excellence in college radio in the United States and Canada. For the 2009 CMJ Awards, Sacramento State Student Run Radio won five of their twelve CMJ Nominations, including Station of the Year. The reactions from KSSU and others on campus have been appreciative.

College Music Journal:
There are thirteen total categories that CMJ recognizes to evaluate college radio stations: Station of the Year, Best College Radio Station, Music Director of the Year, Biggest Community Resource, Best Use of Limited Resources, Specialty Music Director of the Year, Best Group Effort, Best Online Only Station, Coolest (person), Best Website, Most Doing Something No One Else is Doing, Most Supportive of the Local Scene, Best Taste in Music. With more than 120,000 fans, artists, filmmaker, and radio industry people in attendance at the 29th year of the festival it has become a very prestigious event.

KSSU:
Over the past few years, KSSU has been gaining recognition from CMJ progressively. In 2007 KSSU won Best Music Director, in 2008 KSSU won for Best Use of Limited Resources. Now in 2009 KSSU has won: Station of the Year, Music Director of the Year, Biggest Community Resource, Best Use of Limited Resources, and Best Student Run Radio Station. Having been nominated and then winning the most esteemed award, Station of the Year, over other influential stations was great for the station and Sacramento State in general. This is the first year that any station other than KEXP Seattle has won this award for the past four years. This accomplishment for KSSU has been a source of pride to volunteers and Sacramento State students as well.

Reactions
KSSU Music Director, Tim Skalland attended this years CMJ festival and returned triumphant with news of the five awards. He was nominated for Coolest (person) and Best Taste in Music. His time at CMJ was described as “Musical, busy and victorious.” Skalland attended the CMJ awards for the first time in 2008 and was excited for the opportunity to return and represent his station. KSSU DJs who were not able to attend, such as DJ Roon a senior who has been with the station for his entire time at Sacramento State. “I was excited to win Station of the Year, but it was a real honor to win Best Community Asset. To get recognition for the station is satisfying and it gives hope for more campus exposure.” Not only were KSSU volunteers excited for the win but also members of the campus community felt the same. Environmental Studies student, Boris Leikman who is familiar with the radio station but not directly involved stated, “I am proud of these wins, they make me feel like warm banana bread.” Though Leikman was not aware of CMJ, he was thrilled to hear about the awards.

(Picture of Brit and Liana in the KSSU Studio. Photo credit by Tim Skalland)

On October 8, 2009, entrepreneur and clothing designer, Johnny Earle gave a lecture in the University Union Ballroom at Sacramento State on how he made it big. He discussed the story of his brand Johnny Cupcakes and how he went from selling shirts out of the trunk of his beat up car to becoming a multi-millionaire. He also gave out priceless advice on how he succeeded where many have failed before. The event was heavily promoted through newspapers and blogs and drew hundreds of fans that loyally followed Earle and what he came up with for Johnny Cupcakes.

The Lecture

The schedule start time for the lecture was 7:30pm, but it did not start until around 8:15pm due to the long line of kids waiting eagerly for his merchandise. Johnny Cupcakes shirts, notebooks, folders, pencils and oddly enough, glow in the dark vampire teeth were on sale before the lecture. University Union Unique Programs put on the event and worked the merchandise booth before and after the lecture. Earle spoke for almost three and a half hours while the time allotted for the lecture was around 2 hours. Sacramento State student, Sean Rooney had only heard of the brand when he decided to attend the event. Rooney felt that although the lecture went on for over 3 hours that all of the information was important. Rooney said, “I thought the lecture was entertaining and informative. It felt like I was talking to a friend, not a multimillionaire. It was inspiring.”

The Volunteers

Director of Unique Programs Zenia Diokno LaPorte has seen many entertainers in her time at Sacramento State University, but the Johnny Cupcakes event was truly original. LaPorte, joined by 26 volunteers who stayed until 3:30am, started setting up for the event at 1:30pm earlier that day which is earlier than usual. The volunteers remained busy throughout the event with normal duties like watching the doors to ones they rarely do, like selling merchandise and putting gifts on every chair in the ballroom. La Porte stated, “Although he had many requests, he was not demanding about them. He was really nice about them so you didn’t really notice.” She felt pleased with the 700 people that came out to see Earle speak and received a lot of positive feedback on the event.

The Tour Guide

Sacramento State senior Ashley Tapia had been a fan of Johnny Cupcakes for two years before she heard the news that Earle was coming to speak on behalf of his brand. She stated that she liked the brand because, “Everyone likes cupcakes and the shirts are making fun of pop culture. Whenever I wear his shirts I get compliments on them.” Tapia has spent many seasons working as a tour guide for people in Disney World and she played a similar role for the Johnny Cupcakes event. Her job was hospitality, which meant that she was supposed to be the liaison for the merchandise table and anyone outside of Unique. She picked Earle up from the airport and drove him back the next day. She also showed him around campus and did whatever was requested of her to make his lecture just how he wanted it. The excitement of having her favorite clothing designer speak at her college wore off shortly after he left. She felt that before meeting Earle she “put him on a pedestal expecting that he would be this amazing person. He was nice and knew what he was talking about, but I was hoping for more…maybe connections or advice for the future.”

Overall the event seems like it was a success with a packed ballroom full of fans that stayed until almost 3:30 in the morning to meet Earle. He told the audience that Johnny Cupcakes makes thousands of dollars in online orders each day so for now it is safe to assume that more shirts will keep being “freshly baked” for the kiddos to collect.

Photo credit to University Union Unique Programs October 2009

Behind the Scenes Profile

(Please see Liana Winternitz's for credit)

Susie Kuo

KSSU.COM Advisor

Susie Kuo is currently in her first semester with the title of Advisor at KSSU, Sacramento State University’s student run radio station. Her involvement with the station started seven years ago in her sophomore year. She decided to volunteer for the radio station as an on-air DJ. She worked her way from DJ to core staff assistant, hip hop genre director, special projects manager, and music director.

During this time she earned her master’s degree in art history, graduating in 2007. With the start of the fall 2009 semester she was promoted to the position of station advisor overseeing the management department. This promotion came due to her ability to understand what the station needs, allowing for consistency and stability in a difficult environment due to the high turnover rate.

Sac State student Radio

KSSU has benefitted from Kuo’s involvement in many ways. When the station moved over from AM radio to streaming online, Kuo did not allow that transition to negatively affect the principles of KSSU. Kuo promoted quality programming while maintaining industry connections therefore aiding the station in its growth. She was recognized for her efforts at the CMJ annual awards. CMJ, or the College Music Journal combines charts from stations all over Northern America and publishes these charts and other information as a reference for college radio stations on new music. She won the award for college music director of the year in 2007, and was nominated again in 2008 and is anticipating another win for 2009. The radio station itself is nominated for 12 awards later this month.

This recognition, along with seven nominations for the station last year have become a source of pride for not only the volunteers, but also Associated Students Incorporated. ASI is the body in charge of student run programs at Sacramento State University, including student government and student life and services. These programs offer opportunities for student leadership and involvement. KSSU is a program of ASI, so this recognition by CMJ is very important for their relationship.

Why Student Radio?

Sacramento State University’s student run radio station, KSSU provides broadcasting experience to students of all majors and backgrounds. Students do not need previous radio experience to participate, because KSSU provides all the information and training needed to produce and host a radio show. The station is free format, meaning that content is decided by each individual student DJ. This is different that mainstream radio stations, where programming is arranged by one program director.

Student radio is not only a great opportunity for students, but beneficial for listeners as well. Listeners get to hear other point of views and programming straight from their peers. KSSU station advisor, Susie Kuo stated, “The students are paying for this program to exist, so if you are paying for it, ideally you should be getting something out of it.” She feels that another reason to listen to and participate with student radio is because our tuition helps fund ASI and therefore KSSU.

By Brit Carter and Liana Winternitz see Liana's.

What do the Power Puff Girls, Bevis and Butthead, and the boys from South Park all have in common? These are the types of characters you can expect to see at Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. Sacramento State’s Unique Programs has booked the event for Thursday September 24th at 7:30 pm in the ballroom.

Director of Unique Programs, Zenia Diokno LaPorte booked the festival because, “It is a different kind of event and usually has a really good energy with a lot of crowd participation.” The festival used to show at the Crest Theater annually, but this year Unique Programs was able to premier the show. Unique has booked the University Ballroom in hopes of attracting around 800 people to enjoy the animation festival.
Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation is a collection of 20 animated short films. The festival has encouraged people to shout and yell in horror or amazement ever since it began in 1977. The festival features a different collection of animation every year and has been featured at film festivals such as Sundance and Cannes. Rachel, an English major in her senior year attends Unique Programs events on a regular basis. Although she has never heard of Spike and Mike’s Festival she feels that, “People familiar with those kinds of short films would be interested in attending due the advertisements posted around school.”
Another Sacramento State graduating senior, Fabiola works with students living at the Upper East Side Lofts and regularly recommends Unique events for them to attend. She stated, “ We are paying for these events with our tuition, so I always remind the students to attend.” She is very familiar with Unique since she started volunteering for the program her freshman year at Sacramento State University. Fabiola has heard of Spike and Mike and is a big fan of what they do in bringing together short animated films, as she is a graphics design major.
Unique Programs brings entertaining events to the campus all year long with various speakers, comedians, musicians, and movies. Be sure to check out the next event: Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation.