“Ben Calvin and Henry’s Toys Statuettes and Collectibles Review Hour,” hosted by Calvin Lincoln ‘20, Henry Adams ‘20, and Ben Ward-Dubois ’20 (who is currently abroad) is a radio talk show every Thursday from 9:00-10:00 pm on KWCW 90.5 Walla Walla. The eccentric show covers a variety of topics, from how to grill the perfect burger, the horrors of Halloween, to bringing in their friends for interviews.

The Fall 2018 DJ lineup includes of ninety-two student and community DJs include talk shows, as well as more traditional music-based styles of college radio. The wide variety of content shared through this platform is mirrored by the equally creative, if not outlandish show names.

“We were spit-balling for a long time and I just thought it would be funny to have an extremely long painful name. So basically we decided on that one. We have not talked about toy statuettes and or collectibles in any serious capacity since,” Lincoln said.

Paul Milloy ‘19, the General Manager of KWCW, also had an interesting story behind the name of his first show. Inspired by an episode of the Simpsons, the show was named from a server in an American-themed restaurant in Japan, wearing a shirt with the slogan “UCLA Yankee Cola”. In accordance, Milloy’s show celebrated Japanese music.

“In a place like KWCW, you will turn it on and you don’t know what you’re going to get. Am I going to get Norse mythology, indie music, or am I going to get metal?” said Milloy.

An on-campus club which extends towards the community, hosts are allotted one to two hours to, in essence, share whatever they would like. The radio serves students, community members, and listeners alike as a low-pressure means of creative expression.

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Katy Laliotis

“It is a fun creative outlet where I can just screw around, try new things, and do dumb jokes and people have to listen to it. After just sitting in class and doing a lot of routine work, having the freedom is nice,” said Adams.

Another key aspect of radio is the audience. As a result of the demographics of Walla Walla, a large majority of KWCW’s listening audience are prisoners from the Walla Walla State Penitentiary. Milloy references a show from the past hosted by Cillian Mitchell ’18, which specifically targeted prisoners.

“[Listeners from the prison] would be like “hey, I haven’t heard this song in twenty or thirty years, can you play it on the radio station?” said Milloy, commenting on the pages of song requests Mitchell received.

KWCW allows students to share their most niche interests, and for those who do not possess the same degree of creative freedom, to be reminded of it. The radio station is both a physical reminder of the past, old music posters and schedules adorning the walls and shelves full of records from decades ago, and a metaphysical reminder through the music and topics spoken shared.

In the future, both the hosts of “Ben Calvin and Henry’s Toys Statuettes and Collectibles Review Hour” and Milloy have ambitious plans. The former would like to include people with interesting or offbeat jobs, as well as more perspectives from on-campus.

“More powerful guests, like getting Kathy Murray would be pretty funny. It would be fun to get people we don’t know at all on the show, complete strangers. Interesting negotiating those first meetings in such a public place,” said Adams.

“I’m always trying to figure out ways to better involve the community, or have events that could be participated in by students and community members. To instill more local connections,” said Milloy.

KWCW is a channel for students to explore their peculiar interests, be it certain discussion topics or niche genres of music. The radio station has been a Whitman tradition since the early 70’s, and it is a student-run creative outlet that is here to say.