Rosalie Mills (left) and Julie Mills (right) from the Folk N’ Rap Show.

By Jennifer Dickieson

Student radio is an acute reflection of interest and talent within the student body, and RadioEmily, online at www.radioemily.ca/listen, has plenty to offer for both listeners and DJs alike. RadioEmily allows student DJs the opportunity to share their selected audio and to create following, interest, and community around them.

Last week I sat down with DJs Julie Mills and Rosalie Edwards to talk about The Folk N’ Rap Show - a culmination of two tastes that create a great dialogue.

So who are the personalities of the Folk N’ Rap Show Julie, the ‘folk’ contributor, confesses herself as a CBC Radio fan girl. A 2^nd year VIAR student, she says that the CBC is how her interest in radio began, noting that Laurie Brown (host of The Signal on CBC Radio 2) is a personal hero. While Rosalie, the ‘rap’ counterpart of the duo, is a 2^nd year illustrator who regularly participates in the ‘Comic-Carr’ guild and publication. When I ask Rosalie about her extra curricular radio interests, she cites surrealist podcast “Welcome to Night Vale”—an inception-like radio drama about a small-town DJ hosting a show in a desert community. Bringing Julie and Rosalie’s interests together, different, but rooted in the community of the radio, makes the Folk N’ Rap Show an interesting diversion.

What won’t we hear on the high contrast show? “…Mongolian throat singing” says Julie; after a moment, Rosalie cuts in—“…maybe I could find a cool remix.” Sharing a playful banter, the pair prove they have the attitude for sharing and discovering music, and are making their show at RadioEmily as a genuine exploration.

RadioEmily is an important stage where students can share and bond over interests other than their discipline, and it creates and promotes a school identity. With RadioEmily’s recent acceptance into the National Campus Radio Association and an increase in student interest, more funding for better equipment and a designated space in the new school could be obtained. With better space and equipment, RadioEmily would have more opportunities for DJs and musically inclined students to produce exciting shows and include live performances.

When I talk with Kate Brooks, 2^nd year VIAR student and DJ of SubSpark Radio at the RadioEmily studio, she comments about having a place to share her interests and openly trace through the roots of music. Her studio time is spent sharing her discoveries. One of the most recent artists you can hear on SubSpark, Jai Paul, known for his elusiveness, is enigmatic to Kate. “Everybody loves a mystery” She says, as she trolls the internet, looking for more information to share with listeners. For Kate, the importance of the medium falls into her passion for music, equal to her work in visual arts. Representing Bass Coast Electronic Music and Arts Festival and scheduled to interview Philadelphia based band The War on Drugs on March 29, Kate’s connection to the music scene makes her radio program an informed hour of diverse electronic tunes.

Also on the roster at RadioEmily, is Brett Barmby, a 4^th year painter and DJ of One Foot 5.0 Thumpin’. Sitting in his shared studio space on the second floor of the south building he explainsto me the name for the show. “It’s a one foot grind with a boom-box balanced on the guys shoulder…” a skateboarding move, and it comes from the video game Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 1. Brett explains that the music he plays on the show stems from the soundtrack of the video game, which holds sway on his musical taste. The way he puts it, the soundtrack is “gate-way punk” and is related to a lot of punk sub-genres you’ll hear on his show. Brett picks a theme for each show, which range from more formal categories like ‘female-fronted groups’ and ‘bands from Calgary’ to what Brett describes as the “…shining moment of the show” where the theme was ‘pizza’. This comic scenario sets up the wisdom he passes on to future DJs of RadioEmily: “You’ll expand your library…I discovered more than I thought I would.”

In listening to the discoveries and musical exploration of DJs at RadioEmily, it’s hard not to stumble on something you’ll like; nonetheless, if you find the programming lacking your taste, RadioEmily invites students to fill the niche themselves. To take part in RadioEmily as a listener or as a DJ, check out RadioEmily’s page at www.radioemily.ca/; there you’ll find information about how to propose your own show. (New to radio as a medium? Don’t panic, orientations for the equipment and studio use are provided.) You can also find the live stream under www.radioemily.ca/listen, a full schedule of shows by the week, and check out DJs’ personal profiles and links to pages.

Julie Mills and Rosalie Edwards of the Folk N’ Rap Show can be contacted with requests and general inquiries through their Facebook page. Their show is broadcasted on Thursdays @ 4-5:30pm. https://www.facebook.com/TheFolknRapShow?fref=ts

Kate Brooks of SubSpark Radio updates the show’s Facebook page throughout the week and during her show on Wednesday @ 4-5:30pm. https://www.facebook.com/SubSparkRadio?fref=ts

Brett Barmby of One Foot 5.0 Thumpin’ can be heard Tuesdays @ 9-10:30pm and can be otherwise found in his studio space on the second floor of the south building, where he and studio-mate Andrew Oliver run “Studio Brew”- a barter coffee project.