I had the opportunity to sit down with Honors student and WPUB radio host, Izzy Vargas, class of 26, to talk about their radio show, music, and getting involved at Pace!
Autumn: Tell me a bit about your show. When can people listen and what can they expect to hear?
Izzy: My show is called Out on Lover’s Lake. I originally intended to make it kind of like an indie-pop, dream-pop type of situation. It’s expanded since then because honestly I talk too much and there’s not enough dream-pop songs that I can bring up. So, it’s just ended up becoming a sort of amalgamation of just anything I like, and if it’s in the same key as the song before it, I’ll put it in the setlist for the week. It’s on every Friday from 7-8pm.
Autumn: How can people listen? Is this something you can access on your phone, your computer?
Izzy: Yeah, so, it’s through Pace University. If you go onto WPUB.live and scroll to the bottom, it provides a link for either mobile listening or web listening. In my experience, the web link is a little more reliable, the mobile link can be a little finicky.
Autumn: Good to know. How would you describe your hosting style?
Izzy: A lot. (laughs) I say that in the most loving way possible. So, usually, last semester, I started off with about 50 minutes in a setlist. I have an hour slot and it’s nice, if you have someone after you, that you end five minutes early so they can set up and you can clean up. I have no one after me this semester, but last semester I did. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to just stack like 50 minutes of songs and I was like “Ok, ten minutes should be enough time to talk between them.” No. I ended up having to cut my setlist a couple of times. So, this semester I cut the setlist to 38 minutes on average, thinking that would be enough. I’ve run overtime for the past three weeks now. To be fair, no one’s after me this semester, so it’s not bad at all to run over. So, basically how it works is that most of the time, it’s songs that I’ve liked for a while or songs that I think would go well just in a playlist together, sometimes my friends send me things. But usually it’s songs that I like, that people send to me, and then I just talk about, like, cute little stories that I have around the songs or memories or what have you. So, yeah, it’s pretty much just all over the place.
Autumn: What have you learned from doing this? Any lessons, any takeaways?
Izzy: How to get to the point when I’m telling a story. I’m really tangential in the way I connect things. So, I know I loosely have an hour, and I’ve learned to get to the point so that people who are listening are also able to follow along with what I’m saying and also give a little backstory. You know when you’re writing an essay and the professor says, “Introduce the topic as if your audience does not know what you’re talking about?” I’ve had to do that a couple of times because a lot of the artists I do play, some of my favorites, most of my friends are like “Who? Who are you talking about?” so I’ve had to introduce them [the artists] a bit more so that people who are listening get more familiar.
Autumn: Have you faced any setbacks?
Izzy: Equipment setbacks, mostly. I’m pretty sure WPUB is one of the oldest clubs on the Pace campus, but the problem is they don’t get a lot of funding because it’s not super active outside of people doing their shows and leaving. They renovated the studio last fall, but even still, some of the equipment will go haywire on you. I found that they re-did the entire aux cord setup. All of the cables are like bundled into a pile, so, if you accidentally hit it, it shifts and then it completely messes up the sound, makes it crunchy, or cuts it out completely.
Autumn: What inspired you to host your own radio show?
Izzy: I am a huge music person, it’s funny because I’m majoring in Econ. I grew up just constantly obsessed with so many different artists. I was a choir kid, I did all the stuff. However, I wanted to use it more as something I could get my emotions and feelings out into. I kept saying, “Oh, I want to write songs, I want to listen to more songs,” but I didn’t do that much until last summer before college started. At the end of the summer, I suddenly had way too much free time, so I just started listening to artists I had never heard of on Spotify through the ‘Discover’ option. There is one song I listened to, “Love in the Time of Socialism” by Yellow House, it’s a very calm indie-folk type song, but for some reason it made me think “Oh my god, wait, what if I did a show for this?” and then coincidentally that week WPUB sent out their announcement that registration was opening, so I registered and, yeah, that happened.
Autumn: What’s your personal connection to music?
Izzy: I’m the type of person to get very wildly interested in something and drop that interest very quickly. But for some reason music is like the one thing that I’ve actually held onto for most of my life. It’s like, I’ll focus on different aspects at a time. I remember in 2020, I was absolutely obsessed with rap, and then 2021 it was modern rock. I got obsessed with The Strokes and my Spotify Wrapped was literally 50% Strokes, it was wild, but I don’t know— I felt very connected to some songs. I will have very particular songs that I will go on a whole rant about. My friend asked me about one of my favorite songs, “Work Out” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise— you guys should listen to Rainbow Kitten Surprise— the song is four minutes long and I sent her an eight paragraph analysis of the lyrics.
Autumn: Would you say that doing this is an accessible opportunity for all incoming freshmen?
Izzy: Yes. I will say, I wish it was more popular. I know most of the e-board coming in is relatively new and I’m hoping that we could get a little more attention on the radio because frankly I was interested in it so I paid attention to my email. I had a couple people, including my boyfriend last semester— now he has a show— be like “Oh my god wait, when was the registration date?” and I said, “Buddy, it was a month ago.” He had no clue and I knew a couple of other people who wanted to register and had no clue. Usually they send out emails like two to three weeks before classes start, late August, early September, letting you know that you can sign up for a time slot. They usually ask you to give a couple time slots just in case. It’s really easy, you just tell them the days and times that work for you and then they’ll usually give you your first or second choice. Orientation is quick because the studio itself, there’s not much to fiddle around with, there’s four microphones that are all labeled. Just don’t mess up the aux cord, for the love of god. If it sounds good, don’t touch it. Also, don’t put anything underneath your computer, which is what you’ll be playing off of most of the time. Some people have talk shows; I would like to have a talk show, however, I like having it to myself. I know people are different though and you can do it with friends too. Yeah, it’s really accessible.
Autumn: What advice would you give to others looking to host their own radio show at Pace?
Izzy: I mean, if you want to host your own radio show I would definitely say, choose something you’re interested in. If you want to do it with people, make sure they are available for the time you’re doing it. Make sure you have a decent idea of what you’re going to talk about. I’m very tangent-y, I will keep talking about things, but usually on my show I have the playlist and I’m like “Ok, I can talk about this song and what this means.” If you’re a person who likes to plan things, it’s perfectly fine to plan your episodes ahead of time. I have my playlists made about three weeks in advance because I listen to a lot of stuff, so if I hear something and I think “Oh this song sounds good,” I’ll throw it into a playlist for a future week. I will say, if you’re interested in a radio show, just be conscious of the fact that if you have a time slot one semester, you’ll have to re-register for the same one, so it becomes kinda like The Hunger Games with people trying to get the same spots. I’d definitely say, know the people you’re gonna do it with if you’re doing it with others, if not, just know the topic that you’re talking about. Anyone could also just DM me about it, I’m @/issa.418 on Instagram and in my bio I have the link to my show’s account. Sometimes if you want to advertise, you can make an Instagram for your show and put up posters around campus. It’s really easy to advertise, it’s really easy to figure out what you’re doing if you want to get into it but have no experience.
Autumn: What’s the importance of radio as a medium and why would you encourage more people to participate in it?
Izzy: I feel like it’s nice to actually have your voice on something, especially if you’re passionate about whatever topic. I talk about music, my friends run a show about bugs that they like as well as music, my boyfriend talks about music…I would definitely say it’s accessible because no matter how you express yourself, your voice is always gonna be there. It also feels very nice to have people message you afterwards or have them mention something that happened in your show and you’re like “You listened???” It’s really great to feel like you’re being heard. It’s also a lot more popular than you think. If you go on the WPUB website, there’s a lot of people doing a lot of shows. It’s not just for Pace students, your family and friends can listen as well.
Also, if you start one and you’re nervous about it, there’s nothing to be worried about. Especially if you have a show by yourself like I do. No one’s up there so it’s not like anyone’s watching for you to be embarrassed, you’re literally just talking to yourself which is kind of nice in a way. Don’t be embarrassed, be yourself, people will like it.
You can listen to Out On Lover’s Lake every Friday at 7pm on wpub.live
Feature image via https://wpub.live/friday