WUAG: Changes at UNCG's college radio station have listeners coming back for more

              PHOTOS BY LYNN HEY/News & Record
Serka, a Greensboro band (with Jeremy Fountain on drums and Robert Sinnott on guitar) perform recently at the UNCG Faculty Center in a concert
sponsored by campus radio station WUAG. The station has come to life since the university hired Jack Bonney, its first flill-time general manager.
Changes at UNCG's college radio station
have listeners coming back for more
WUAG'STOP
10ALBUMS
1. Kudzu Wish:
"Reverse Hurricane"
2. A Problem
of Alarming
Dimensions: "H­Hov-
Hover''
3. Decemberists:
"Her Majesty the
Decemberists"
4. Lost in Translation:
"Soundtrack"
5. Belle and
Sebastian: ''Dear
Catastrophe
Waitress"
6. These Arms Are
Snakes: "This Is
Meant to Hurt You"
(EP)
7. Mates oi State:
· "Team Boo"
8. Disband: "In Small
Rooms"
9. Mercury Program/
Maserati: "Split"
10. Quasi: "Hot
(Expletive)"
BY WILL AYERS
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO - . 0 n a cold Wednesday night in Oc­tober
on a campus where few
students show up for anything
with no free food , the UNCG
Faculty Center on College Av­enue
is packed.
Serka, a Greensboro band, is pounding
out bombastic yet intricate indie rock be­hind
a forest of swaying legs and longish .
mod haircuts. Blue light streams out the
doors, and wisps of cigarette smoke curl in
the air outside.
It's a free show put on by WUAG (103.1
\
FM), UNCG's college radio station. It's loud
and rocking. It's a good time.
· It's a miracle: Not long ago, WUAG (peo-ple
call it woo-ag) was a sick radio station.
"We weren't getting any feedb<Jck. We
only had one record player working, and the
rotation was not changing," says Jack Bon­ney,
the station's general manager.
For years, WUAG had languished un­known
on the fringes of the university's
hipster culture. Few students knew the sta­tion
existed. Indeed, it may have been called
"Woo-what?" more than its real name.
But since UNCG hired Bonney to work
as a full-time manager for the station iri
March - the first time the station has had a
full-time staffer- it has burst back to life.
Alumni writers are reading their works on
the air. CDs and vinyl are spinning 24/7 for
the first time in six years. Free shows are
being offered. None of these things has hap­pened
in a long time, and some, such as the
writing and theater broadcasts, are new.
See WUAG, Page 02
Jack Bonney (in yellow shirt) holds a staff meeting in his cramped office on campus. Since
Bonney took the helm, WUAG is on the air around the clock and is broadcasting programs
about writing and theater, as well as music . .
UPCOMING
EVENTS
What: Second annual
WUAG Film Night
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Jarrell Lecture
Hall, UNCG,
Greensboro
Admission: Free
Information: 334.·
4849
What: Trouble With
Sweeney, Forget
Cassettes
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 22
Where: UNCG Faculty
Center. Greensboro
Admission: ~ree
Information: 334-
4308
What: ' Style in Stereo··
fashion show
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 6
Where: Cone Ballroom.
U NCG, Greensboro
Tickets: $5, $3 UNCG
students
Information: 334-
4849