WSU’s noncommercial radio station, KZUU, has been a creative outlet for students and community members since 1979. Now, the station is rebranding and making room for new traditions while embracing old ones.
In 1977, three WSU students recognized the need for a noncommercial radio station when KUGR, the station of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, could not accommodate more than a few DJs. KZUU also sought to steer clear of popular and overplayed songs and bands, demanding instead that its DJs play only underground and indie artists.
“Anything but Top 40,” said co-founder Jon Etherton in a 2005 interview with the Washington State Magazine.
This counter-cultural, community-building character has persisted, creating a decades-long tradition of DJs, writers and talk show hosts eager to share their creative talents. Membership and interest in the station dwindled after the pandemic, but it is now on the rise.
“We’re trying to elevate ourselves this year,” said Dayton Zimlinghaus, a senior environmental and ecosystems major and KZUU’s general manager.
Since taking on the position of general manager, Zimlinghaus said he has worked to rebrand the station and revitalize it to its pre-pandemic glory.
“When you hear a regular radio station, there’s a lot of breaks, there’s a lot of character and personality that comes out, and that’s really what our rebrand is focusing on, adding that to our station,” he said.
While the rebrand focuses on the listener experience, the station’s personality is clear inside its studio and offices. Inside KZUU’s studio, one is surrounded by music, with thousands of CDs lining the walls. Most of these CDs are sent by the actual studios and artists looking for the opportunity to be played on the radio.
For decades, music directors and DJs have cataloged the disks with fun notes. A WSU student and KZUU DJ wrote on an Idaho sample CD from 2000, “I luv it. Live stuff from melodic genius’ on treble 4-string gtrs. Play all this. Check out the Forbiddened EP. Brilliant!”
Polaroids of former DJs and inspirational notes cover the few walls not lined with CDs. The long-standing traditions of physical history and memory are being revived through current members’ ubiquitous collection of physical media.
“Physical media is super important,” said Cami Blanchard, a second-year music business and music technology major and the rock genre music director. “Some of my older Sinatra vinyl have love notes written on the sleeves, and I think that’s really special.”
Blanchard was part of the team that developed the 24-hour CD-thon to celebrate daylight savings earlier this semester. Using DJs’ collections and the countless disks in the studio, KZUU celebrated the music of the ’90s and 2000s. This event was the first major event of KZUU’s rebranding and one of the first independent events KZUU organized this school year.
In mid-November, KZUU hosted the Main Street Music Festival in collaboration with Promote Pullman, featuring local artists performing in downtown businesses affected by ongoing construction. Events like these cement KZUU’s involvement in the community and renew public interest in noncommercial, student-run radio.
KZUU’s rebranding looks to the future while keeping an eye on the traditions that built its community of music. Maintaining traditions is integral to the station’s spirit, which is most evident in the passion of its students.
“This club is my favorite part of all of college, all of WSU,” Zimlinghaus said. “I’ve just kind of got to be the best version of myself, and that was a place that nurtured that.”
