Sounds of State

For this week’s edition of Behind the Mic, I interviewed Amal Younis and Angie Campos, who host the music show, “And They Were Roommates.” Their show is on every Tuesday from 3 to 4 p.m.

On their show, Amal and Angie each play their favorite music. They play a lot of different genres because they both have different music tastes. Apart from playing music, they also have themes of discussion. For example, they have spoken about feminism, artists that have shaped who they are, Christmas, finals and dealing with stress. They also try to play songs that relate to the topic of the show. Angie and Amal explained that they try to show a mixture of seriousness and lightheartedness on the air. While they have talked about depression and anxiety, they have also told funny stories in order to keep the mood balanced. They try to make every episode not too silly or too serious.

They are always trying to grow as a show. However as Amal said, they want to make improvements, not changes. They plan on becoming more organized with the show every semester. Also, they want to start putting it on Spotify, and being more active on social media.

Amal is a second year, majoring in Journalism. She has been part of KCR since last semester. After joining KCR, she has become very interested in radio and wants to continue with it in the future. She explained that she likes the platform because it’s not as easy to censor or restrict as other platforms. Angie is also a second year, who is majoring in Communications, and minoring in Art. They have been roommates since their Freshman year. After, appearing on Amal’s show various times last semester, Angie decided to join KCR, and have a show with Amal. After being a part of KCR, she said that it is fun to play her type of music, and to hear that their listeners like their show. They also both enjoy blasting their favorite songs in the studio.

Amal and Angie describe themselves as Vine enthusiasts. On the first KCR meeting of the semester, they came up with the name of their show,“And They Were Roommates.” They were pressured to come up with a name for their show on the spot. Amal jokingly suggested “And They Were Roommates,” referencing the Vine. But it stuck, and actually ended up becoming the name of their show.

They believe that their show is special because they know each other very well and can easily have a flowing conversation on-air. Apart from that, the topics they cover on the show are things that are very important to them and to other people. They like being able to have a voice, relating to people and discussing things that they are incredibly passionate about.

Apart from their music show, Amal and Angie are very involved in KCR. Amal was part of the promotions department in KCR. She has gone to many KCR events. She described an event she went to where she got to DJ and play music. Now, she is in the video department. On the other hand, Angie writes for the KCR blog. She has mostly written about concerts she has attended, as well as other music related topics.

Make sure to continue following KCR’s social media accounts to stay in the loop, on all things KCR. Also, make sure to check out Amal and Angie’s Instagram account for “And They Were Roommates,” for updates on their show.

This week, I interviewed Khristine Samson, Rebeca Reyes and Ty Strong for Behind the Mic. They host a music show in which they each take turns playing their music, hence the name, “Pass the Aux.”

The group didn’t start out together, however. Originally, Khristine, a second year kinesiology major, and Rebeca, a fourth year majoring in journalism, had a show themselves. They met how many KCR co-hosts meet, at the first meeting of the semester. They decided to name their show “KNR” for Khristine and Rebeca. The duo mainly played alternative rock/indie music, and they spoke more on that show than they do now.

Ty is a fourth year majoring in computer science. Before joining Khristine and Rebeca’s show, he was part of another show called, “Bad Music, Bad Vibes,” which he hosted with a friend. There, he mainly played jazz music. After meeting Khristine at an Open Mic Night, while helping at the KCR booth, Ty began to make weekly appearances on “KNR.” Then, Khristine and Rebeca changed the name of their show to “Pass the Aux.” However, Ty did not become an official host of the show until this semester.

Now on their show together, they each play their favorite types of music. Ty described the music he plays on the show as calm R&B. Khristine explained that she usually plays songs that correspond to a theme. For example, this week she played Grammy nominated songs. Rebeca plays pop and indie music. Occasionally, the trio also ventures off into other music genres they enjoy. Rebeca and Khristine described a previous show where Rebeca played K-pop and spoke in Spanish. Khristine said that she played music from the Philippines and spoke in Japanese, for the duration of the show. The group unanimously agreed that the best part about hosting a show is that they have a place to escape and relax.

When I asked them what made them want to join KCR, they all had very different responses. Khristine said that she joined KCR because they had a cool booth, and she wanted to spin the wheel. Rebeca said a girl in her class told her about KCR, so she decided to join. Lastly, Ty said he heard about KCR through a mutual friend on Tinder, who later became his first co-host.

Make sure to catch Khristine, Rebeca and Ty on “Pass the Aux” every Thursday from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

This week, I interviewed Ahmad Dixon, Peter Swan and Joseph Hoang about their show, “The Diner is Always Open,” for another Behind the Mic. They asked if they could each be interviewed separately. Of course, I obliged.

The first person I talked to was Ahmad. He is a second year history major. While Peter and Joseph sat on top of a dumpster, Ahmad gave a detailed explanation of what he thought their show was about.

He said their show is, “An eclectic mix of comedy and surrealist diatribes about nothing in particular. It’s a show about nothing, like Seinfeld except, not as well put together as Seinfeld. It is like public broadcasting at its finest because it’s very amateur and it doesn’t take itself very seriously. It also changes from week to week because it has no plan.”

Their most recent show was themed. They were broadcasting from the Soviet Union into a gulag. They talked about “Twin Peaks” (the movie), and the David Lynch song and “The David Lynch Show.” And at the end of the hour, they did an improvised song.

Ahmad said that he named the show “The Diner is Always Open” because a diner is always open, it’s comfy and anyone is invited. He said that being in a diner is an experience because there is always a lot going on, and that’s what he wants his show to be. Since he was a little kid, Ahmad wanted to do college radio. Now, he has been in KCR for a year.

Next, I interviewed Peter, who is majoring in English and is also a second year. When describing what he thought their show was about, he said that there is not much continuity from week to week. He explained that the show is basically them improvising everything, trying to bounce off each other, and just having fun with whatever they do.

Peter then told me how he met Ahmad and Joseph. He said that he didn’t know anyone when he joined KCR. So, he approached Ahmad and Joseph, who knew each other, and asked if he could join their group. After making fun of his shirt, they told him that he could join their group. The next day, was orientation for KCR, where one of them came up with their show name.

After that, Peter described his favorite things that they have done on the show. The first thing he mentioned was that they always bring former KCR General Manager, Matt Hoffman, into everything they talked about. However, his absolute favorite thing they’ve done is make covers of songs at the end of the show. The first year, he said they covered Taylor Swift songs, and now they cover Lorde. He explained that the covers of the songs are not really any of the artists’ songs. It’s really just the three hosts making random music and making up a song as they go.

The last person I talked to was Joseph. He is a fourth year, majoring in history. When I asked him what their show was about, he said, “It’s about the music, yet we slowly have not played music in the past few weeks.”

I also asked him about the name of their show, to which Joseph answered, “I think Ahmad came up with it, but I don’t know what they said.”

His favorite thing that they have done was doing a whole show on reading the old comments on the CDs in the studio. He explained that some CDs in the studio have comments on tracks that people recommend listening to. However, others had comments that were funny to read on the show. He also mentioned that they always talk about Matt Hoffman because they love him. And, that Thomas Torres is frequently on their show because he gets them.

Joseph told me that he’s heard from a lot of people that he is the Ringo Star of the group, not the best out of the three but the most lovable one. Outside of KCR, he records music on his Tascam Analog Set Recorder and is in a band.

If you want to check out their show, tune into “The Diner is Always Open,” every Wednesday at 2 p.m.