I first heard such bands as Fetchin Bones, the Orb, Dairy Queen Empire, Dead Kennedies, the Go-Devils, Bikini Kill, the Butth@le Surfers and others on WREK in 1989. And some of these bands became exceedingly popular later, or so my friends who listen to commercial radio tell me ("Hey, have your heard that new band called the Butthole Surfers? They're really cool.").
I think that the essence of WREK can be said to be a sort of Punk-rock/DIY/anti-commercialism mantra: Music is good for its own sake. Marketing, media hype, extreme fanaticism, and major label mayhem do not make a band sound any better.
Why I listened to WREK when I was in high school, and am going to start listening again through Cyber Radio 1 (if it compiles right!) in asheville now, is that there is no way to get bored with it. It's not like a pop radio station where for a whole hour they might not really play anythiing that even inspires the tiniest thread of feeling; instead, it's more like for a few minutes there is something you absolutely hate, but then the next song is this amazing thing by some band you've not even heard of and wow! What's more is that if you hear of something elsewhere on some indie label or some such and you want to hear it, or if you just have some crazy request, you can just call them up and they'll almost always play it. Unlike the f@cks at WRAS, when you call up and ask for something and they say, "I'll try to get it on for you," they actually mean it.
One time I had never heard the B-52s cause I didn't listen to pop radio much or watch tv. One day, someone played Rock Lobster for me and I really liked it and wanted to record it. So I called up this dj late at night and asked him to play it. He made fun of me for not knowing the band, but then played it, which was absolutely out of format, but it didn't really matter.
Millions of words couldn't describe how much I love WREK.
- dan kappus (dkappus@owl.warren-wilson.edu), Jan. 1997