Olivia Bradley-skill
Music director, WFMU
Radio artist, Radio Ravioli
“Try to get it out of your head that you need to be an expert and start experimenting.”
June 8, 2020
interview by Madeleine Campbell for Women in Sound
portrait by Maggie Negrete
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Every monday afternoon,
Olivia Bradley-Skill’s genre-bending show Radio Ravioli takes over the airwaves of WFMU, the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States, founded in East Orange, New Jersey in 1958. Her immersive three-hour program combines carefully curated new releases and vintage music with improvised sound collage, live performance and thoughtful conversation. In addition to her weekly endeavor, she serves as the station’s music director. Seven weeks into the Covid-19 shutdown, we spoke about how the station has adapted to keep their programs running remotely and how to start creating radio segments at home.
What does it mean to be the music director of a radio station? I imagine your job is different from day to day, but what responsibilities does it entail on a regular basis?
Being a music director is different from place to place, but one large common denominator is that you’re the contact person if somebody wants to submit music for airplay. Labels, promoters and artists reach out to me and send WFMU physical music mail. We get a bunch of LPs, CDs, tapes and 7-inches in the mail and one of my jobs is to go through that. We usually pick up from the P.O. box every week. Once I’ve gone through things, I add stuff to our new [music] bin. This is what DJs go through every week before their shows to see what has been added for them to play. Then there’s a music department email that I go through. I get at least 100 emails a day from people who want us to play their music.
WFMU is a really small staff so I end up doing a bunch of other stuff, too. We do ticket giveaways and I work with venues and artists to organize those. DJs will run them but I report the winners back to the venue. I try to do a couple events every year. Last year we did a “Plants and Synths” event, which was really fun. It was like a concert but there was also an interactive exhibit by a composer named Angélica Negrón where people could create sounds with various pieces of fruit.
Yeah, I remember reading about that!
It was fun. We also have our fundraising marathons and our [annual] record fair, and those are kind of all-hands-on-deck, so I’m helping out with those, too. But primarily I’m the person that labels or artists can reach out to if they want to get played on the station.
So DJs pick their physical media from the WFMU library instead of making playlists or using files?
Everyone has a different process. It’s definitely a mix for different people. On some shows the DJ plays only 45s and most of them are from their own collection. A lot of people get files on their computer and figure stuff out at home but then mix it with things from the [station] library. For people who play new music, even if they do plan, like, half their show at home, they also really dedicate time to look through the new bin and listen to it. DJs do that on the day of, in the hours leading up to their show. A lot of people carve out at least an hour, maybe more, to go through the new bin.
What has the transition looked like for the station and the DJs in the midst of Covid-19?
It’s been pretty intense. The mail has been very slim this last month, but usually it’s two mail tubs’ worth of physical mail at each pickup. It’s been difficult to figure out how we can share more digital promo with DJs. WFMU is really interested in preserving physical media. We have a huge library at the station. Right now we’re having to be more digital, but that’s not a permanent thing, hopefully.
Our fundraising marathon happened during the first two weeks of March. This is when we raise a big portion of our annual budget — $1.5 million to stay on the air for the next year. Towards the end of that, New York began posing limitations on group gatherings. We decided to cancel the record fair, which is a really big event for us. Vendors come from all over the world for that so we didn’t want to be too last minute with making the call. Shortly after the marathon the station manager Ken Freedman decided we could only have seven people at the station at a time, so DJs would need to do their shows remotely. A lot of DJs are so used to broadcasting from the station studio and didn’t have any gear of their own, so we’ve been working on getting everyone set up at home.
Ah, yeah. What does that look like?
Well, fortunately, we got a donation from an anonymous listener that allowed us to buy microphones and audio interfaces.
Nice!
Yeah. It’s been a huge help. WFMU has a history of livestreams from remote locations through the years, but we’ve never done anything on this scale. We’re doing it all over the internet. The DJ sends their music to a stream and we pick up that stream at the station’s end and air it. It’s so precarious. Depending on the internet connection, it can drop out or fall apart at any minute, so it’s been hard to adjust. We’re really a skeleton crew trying our best to just keep going.
Well, props to you all. Your work does not go unappreciated. It’s been amazing to have the great programming continue in isolation.
Thank you!
WFMU is a freeform radio station. What does “freeform radio” mean?
Freeform means the DJs can play whatever they want to play. There are no requirements or quotas in terms of playing new music that they have to hit. Some stations require local musicians to be played. We don’t have any of that. When you go on air, whether it’s for an hour or three hours, you can do whatever you want with that time. You can come on the mic [to talk] as much or as little as you want. There’s also no playlisting.
“Freeform means the DJs can play whatever they want to play. …For us, it’s definitely about preserving a human behind the board in charge of everything.”
What does that mean?
At some stations DJs are just going on air for mic breaks and the music is all chosen for them, so they’re doing a more automated and playlist type of show, but that’s not the case with WFMU. For us, it’s definitely about preserving a human behind the board in charge of everything. We’re freeform and non-commercial and listener-supported. We don’t have any corporate underwriting or sponsorship. No ads. Some stations apply for grants that can dictate their programming. If that’s the case, we won’t apply.
So the listeners’ support is literally how you keep going?
Yeah. That’s a huge part of it. We do get some grant money from the government but it’s relatively a very small amount. We have other little fundraisers here and there. We’re able to make some money off the record fair, though that’s not the overall goal of the event. We have our month-long fundraiser in October where listeners donate. For that, we have a smaller monetary goal. I think it’s something like $300,000. We’re about 95% listener-funded.
How did you start working in radio?
I started doing radio in college. I went to Princeton University. I’m from Los Angeles and I didn’t really grow up with radio. When I went to Princeton, [going] was a huge deal. My parents were waiters and wanted to be actors. Going to this big university was an awesome thing, but once I got there I was really lost. There was a lot of pressure. I didn’t feel good enough or smart enough. I just was not prepared enough to be there. My friend was hanging out at the college station. I went down there one day and it was just so cool. There were all these stickers on the walls and posters everywhere and a bunch of music. There was a big [music] library. I just really loved hanging out there. The people there were really humble and fun and creative. It created an escape for my college experience. Eventually I ended up having my own show and being the music director.
There was an educational advisor at our college station named Mike Lupica. He was kind of like the adult in the room. He actually worked at WFMU for, like, 10 years. So many people doing college radio didn’t know any history of college radio or what other students have done there or what was possible or how many people were really listening or what you could do with your time there. He was there to really inspire us. When I became music director, he’d give me resources to expand my musical knowledge. I was ignorant about a lot of music. I really loved music and was passionate about it, but I wasn’t hip with my knowledge. My parents really loved pop and soul music, so I had those down, but I didn’t know any punk music or sound art or experimental music. He didn’t tell me what I should like but he’d give me resources and encourage me to research.
That’s really interesting considering the musical direction your current show Radio Ravioli takes on a weekly basis. It’s been an education for me.
Oh, thank you! Yeah, I really have learned a lot from radio.
One thing I particularly love about your show is that it introduced me to the idea of radio as an artistic medium. It’s really a blend of a few different creative practices. How do you go about curating each episode?
It’s hard to answer that question. There are a few things I’m influenced by each week. Putting together the new bin for WFMU gives me a really good sense of the new music coming out. I’m definitely interested in playing a lot of new music and supporting current and emerging artists. I really want to discover new stuff that’s happening. I’m super influenced by radio art and sound art.
What do you mean by radio art and sound art?
I’m trying to think of how to define that. Basically, I mean poetic expressions and new perspectives of sound. I’m inspired by people looking at working with sound in different, non-traditional ways. I found out about this guy Gregory Whitehead when I was in college and he was a huge influence on how I learned to think about the possibilities of radio. Do you know his work?
No.
He’s a radio artist who made a bunch of work over the last several decades. He has one piece called Shake, Rattle, Roll that I heard when I was in college towards the end of my senior year. It’s a 20-minute piece. At some points he’s talking and then there are music interludes and then there are these weird, almost punching bag-like sounds throughout. I heard this and it really expanded my mind of what you can do with radio. I had never thought of non-storytelling types of radio pieces before. He also wrote and co-edited the book "Wireless Imagination" with Douglas Kahn, which is essentially an ode to and meditation on radio art, and I read through that again and again for a few years. People like Gregory Whitehead and Delia Derbyshire are a big undercurrent of what I’m interested in. I love playing with the voice and sound effects.
What tools do you use?
At WFMU we have a studio where people do their shows and there’s a big DJ mixing console that all our channels feed into. We have three CD players, three turntables, two cassette decks, two computers and an auxiliary input that you can put your phone or laptop in. That’s the main setup.
When I’m doing sound collage, it’s pretty much just putting up two faders at the same time or mixing between them. I use a lot of physical media. A lot of it isn’t thought of in advance. It’s more improvised in the moment. I’ll have something playing on a turntable and maybe fiddle around with that, hit fast-forward on the vinyl or rewind on the CD player. If you have the channel turned up really high, you can still hear the sound coming through it as that happens. I did a show where I cut up a bunch of 7-inches and reassembled them and faded in and out between them. I used a lot of reverb. There’s a reverb channel on the board and that definitely helps me smooth things out and blend sounds together. It’s a nice blanket for everything. Sometimes I do make things in advance, too, and for that I use Reaper as my software.
Reaper is great.
Yeah! When I started doing radio work, I used Audacity. It’s a great program but it kept crashing on my computer. Another DJ at the station who does a lot of professional sound design work turned me onto Reaper and it’s worked well for me.
Do you see distinct boundaries between music and sound art?
I think so, yeah, at least in my experience. I played classical piano growing up. I was really dependent on a score. My boyfriend is a musician and plays with people all the time. He’s a keyboardist and a guitarist and can pick up an instrument and just play it and it sounds melodic and fun. I don’t interact with sound that way. I’m not an instrumentalist. I don’t think in terms of formalities and playing with other people. Sometimes I improvise with other people but it can make me very stressed. One thing I love about being in the [WFMU] studio is playing with the channels. I love the tactile element of the equipment. I love being able to touch the faders and knobs. I have one synthesizer and a mixer at home. I think that’s why I find [digital audio workstations] to be not as fun.
What advice would you give to someone who is interested in working in radio but isn’t sure where to start?
I really like this question. I get it a lot, most often from women, I think because a lot of radio is very male-centric and very white. I think there is an air about it that to work in radio, you have to be an expert in music and understand all the moving elements and how to talk into a microphone. And there definitely are some DJs at WFMU who know a ton about a certain genre or about broadcasting because they’ve been doing it for so long, but because I came from college radio, I never saw myself as an expert. It’s never been a motivation for me to keep doing it. I’m always trying to learn and do something new. Try to get it out of your head that you need to be an expert and start experimenting. It can be with a free DAW and the microphone on your computer or phone. It might not always sound great but there’s a lot of room to play with that. Hype up the distortion. Layer things in different ways to see what they sound like added together. If you want to start practicing at home, pick some songs and sound effects and then come on the mic to talk about them. Post it on Mixcloud or Soundcloud or an internet radio station.
If you want to be involved in a radio station, that requires a lot of time and commitment. It’s a community that you’re going to get involved with. Volunteer! I was a volunteer at WFMU and things kind of organically happened. There was a random opening for a show and I had just submitted a demo. Sometimes they need a board operator and nobody else is available. I know it’s hard to balance 9-to-5 jobs that pay with volunteer positions. I had a couple different part-time jobs to fit in with my volunteer schedule and it was hard, but if you really want to get involved with a station, I think it’s a good way to go about it. Radio was the thing in my life that was cool when everything else sucked, so I had to figure out how to make it work. It doesn’t happen everyday but it was because I was there that the door was opened to me.
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Follow Radio Ravioli on Instagram, Twitter, through Olivia’s website and the WFMU archives.
Radio Ravioli airs from 3:01-6:00PM EST every Monday.