Off On A Tangent

Editor's Picks | BC's 'NCP'

"A Jesuit institution known for its Irish-Catholic traditionalism and its powerhouse football team isn't exactly where one would expect to find one of the best and most respected college radio stations in the country. But Boston College's student-run WZBC, which turns 30 this year and celebrates with two nights of indie rock in Central Square this weekend, is just that. 'Yeah, it is kind of ironic,' admits ZBC promotions director Brian Doyle. 'The DJs and staff are kind of a minority among the BC population, let's say, as far as their musical tastes go. But they would be the minority anywhere as far as their musical tastes go.'

And Doyle says that ZBC's commitment to 'NCP' programming and community outreach (nearly 50 percent of its jockeys are non-students) is doubly important these days. 'Media conglomerates are getting larger and controlling larger shares of the airwaves, and commercial radio is having less and less options on what to play. A lot of it is determined by the corporate office: what'll get the most listeners, what'll get the best ad rates. We're freer. We can do whatever we want. Every DJ is pretty much autonomous.

'I think we play the most experimental, the most progressive music in all of Boston. And we've been known for that for quite some time, in the community and in the music industry. We're just really cutting-edge.'"

ZBC rocks!