35000 Watts: The Podcast

In the spring of 1987, MTV's 120 Minutes was starting to bring college radio and indie favorites into the mainstream with national TV exposure. This week, we look at three songs that got airplay in March of that year, with a classic '80s track and a couple of iconic college radio bands.

In this episode, we continue our exploration of the first decade of MTV's 120 Minutes. This week, we are exploring the music of February 1987, featuring a couple of college radio classics and a "mystery" song that was brand-new to everyone.

In this episode, we begin our journey through the first decade of MTV's 120 Minutes, one of the only national television showcases for your favorite college radio artists. We start with January 1987, where we find a couple of all-time great artists in The The and O.M.D., along with a delightfully unknown-to-us band called Dumptruck.

We know that many, many artists began their careers on college radio, but some artists made a bigger splash than others when they were first starting out. In this episode, we look at three of our favorite debut albums from artists who went on to become fixtures on college radio.

We had so many great cover tunes we wanted to talk about that we decided to do two episodes back-to-back just to try to squeeze in as many as we could. In this episode, we're digging a little deeper into the college radio catalog to highlight a couple of lesser-known artists, along with one of the mainstays of the format.

Some of the best cover tunes of all time were performed by college radio icons, and in this week's episode, we talk about three more of our favorites. The originals run the gamut from  obscure indie bands to titans of the music industry. 

We're back again with some of our favorite college radio one-hit wonders, and this time we're looking at two incredibly catchy pop gems along with one of the weirdest, funniest songs to ever hit the radio airwaves. Mild language warning for this one!

Was there ever an album that everyone around you seemed to adore but you just didn't quite get? Did you start to wonder if you were the only one who didn't love it? In this episode, Michael, Keith and Scott each choose an album to discuss that blew up on college radio but that they never fell in love with the way everyone else did. Feel free to roast us in the comments, we're ready for it. :) 

We are continuing our discussion from last week about our favorite rock documentaries, and this week we are talking about Dig! from 2003. This is a story of two bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre who are both dealing with the struggles of authenticity, "selling-out" and trying to be successful in the world of late 1990s indie rock. Let's just say they tend to go about it in different ways. 

In this episode, we revisit another early '90s album that made a big impact during our time in college radio: Smashing Pumpkins' breakthrough album, Siamese Dream. This album received heavy rotation on the college radio airwaves before breaking big into the mainstream. Does it still hold up over 30 years later? 

Have you ever loved an album but wondered if maybe you were the only one? In this episode, we take a look at three albums that blew us away but didn't seem to make a huge impact on anyone else. 

Many of us had our musical tastes and preferences shaped heavily by our time in college radio. But a lot of us continued to work as DJs in clubs, commercial radio or online streaming, which led to discovering a lot more new music after leaving the college radio booth. In this episode, Michael, Scott and Keith each choose a band they would have played in heavy rotation had they been around during their time in college radio.

Have you ever heard a fantastic album from a band you had written off because of their previous work? Michael, Keith and Scott have, and in this episode, they do a deeper dive on three albums that took them completely by surprise.

We are back again with one our favorite topics, college radio one-hit wonders! In this episode, Michael, Keith and Scott choose a few of their favorites from their time in college radio, including a few classics and a smash hit at KTXT and beyond from our friends, Hagfish (our panel's unanimous vote for "band who should have been much bigger"). Available now on our website or your favorite podcast platform!

How do you start up a college radio station from scratch? That is one of the big questions Lisa has for our guest for this episode, Michael Sanderfer of WLJS.

Easily one of the most-played "modern rock" albums of the 1990s, Live's Throwing Copper isn't often spoken of in the same reverent tones as other classic albums from the same decade like Nevermind or Ten. In this episode, Michael, Keith and Scott revisit the album thirty years after the peak of its popularity to find out if it deserves a spot in the pantheon of great 90s albums.