Boom Box

Why today's Captain Zero may be tomorrow's captain of industry

By Marion Blackburn
Photos by Forrest Croce

It’s 2 p.m. and a young man steps out of a basement room in Mendenhall Student Union. One knee peeks through a hole in his jeans and a playful mustache can be seen under his baseball cap. He looks much like thousands of other guys on the East Carolina University campus but many ­students will quickly identify him as soon as he opens his mouth. Meet Captain Zero, aspiring writer and host of the Blue Note Café, one of the more popular shows on the campus radio station.

Last year he was known as Marvin Gardens but most of the time he is simply Carson Johnson (right), 22, an English major and one of about 25 student announcers at WZMB 91.3 FM. “It’s a lot of fun,” he says. “There are so many different personalities, but there is always a common thread running through us. The DJs all have a real passion for the music they play.”

Saying the WZMB playlist is eclectic is an understatement. Listeners can hear Sunday-morning gospel on “Inspirations,” weeknight dance music on “Club 91” and weekends of reggae, rock and punk music. After midnight there’s “Music to Annoy the Narrow Minded,” a show whose genre defies definition.

Where commercial stations have cash giveaways and catchy jingles, WZMB has spunk and heart. There are no official ratings so it’s hard to know how many people listen. The station broadcasts with a power of 282 watts and can be heard throughout Pitt County. Anecdotal evidence suggests the audience varies with the program, but there are a lot of callers, whose requests are obliged as long as they fit the format of the hour.

Johnson began at the station four years ago hosting a world music program and today has two shows playing standards old and new, from Miles Davis to Diana Krall. You hear a lot of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix during his classic rock program. “This is music with real feeling,” he says. “This is real stuff.”

WZMB provides a taste of real-world broadcasting and communications that thrives on the particular brand of creativity, spontaneity and humor found among college students. For ECU, with about 1,100 students enrolled in communication programs, it’s a good fit.

Ken Robol is faculty adviser for WZMB and other student media including the East Carolinian, Rebel, Expressions and the Buccaneer yearbook, which is being resurrected. He also is ECU’s director of student engagement and communications instructor.

“WZMB is an outlet for news and information, plus it’s a training ground,” he says. “We don’t have to worry about the pressures some other stations would have, but we treat it as a real radio station.”

Demands include scheduling announcers, developing news stories, responding to record companies and entertaining listeners—while staying clear of Federal Communications Commissions violations.

“My role is to help engage them, to help them when they have a situation they need advice on,” he says. “It’s very important in communications to have a practical background to become a successful broadcaster. That’s what the students need.” If they are learning, they also are flourishing. The ­students’ majors vary as much as the music.

 “WZMB is a big melting pot,” says Dominique Womack (left), 22, also known as Chip Chaos, a senior communications major who co-hosts the Drive at Five show. “The first thing they look for when they ­interview you is your personality. We’re tight knit and we go out everywhere.”

Those many voices unify the station, says general manager Tia White, 21. “Diversity is extremely important,” she says. “The more ideas you have, that’s great. To me, it’s one of the most important things we can have. We have so many types of listeners and shows—almost every genre you can think of. When you don’t have diversity, some things get overlooked. People who are into different things can enlighten others.”

WZMB has served the ECU community since the late 1950s, when it first came on the air as WWWS. It was the brainchild of then-librarian Wendell S. Smiley. “One of his goals was to establish a radio station at ECU,” says Jim Rees, professor emeritus and adjunct professor of communication. “And he did it.”

For several years it operated as a public radio-type station, with classical and popular music, sportscasts of football and basketball games and student programs. When a windstorm ripped the transmission tower from the Joyner Library roof in the early 1960s the station disappeared, Rees says. The tower fell where the cupola sits today.

Campus radio moved to AM 570 and was known as the “Big 57.” “You plugged your AM radio into the wall of a dormitory and the signal was on the power line,” Rees says.

It reemerged in 1982 on the original FM frequency with new call letters and under direction of the ECU Media Board, a student organization. Last fall, a reunion brought together many of the people who had worked with campus radio over the years.

In addition to music programs, talk shows serve up candid views on sports, minority viewpoints and campus concerns. Expect straight-from-the-hip conversation from hosts who aren’t worried about ratings. Everyone is paid, typically at a rate of $4.20 an hour.

“We’re all friends,” Womack says.

Some advantages come with the job, she adds. “There are perks to being in the limelight,” she says. “It has my name written all over it.”

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