Leanne Smith is a senior English major, with a minor in French.  She is the recipient of the Russell Christman memorial scholarship and the Gravely Foundation award.  She is also the president and web-designer of the Poetry Forum (http://www.ecu.edu/org/poetryforum) and the ECU Folk & Country Dancers (http://www.geocities.com/ecufokandcountrydancers).  She runs a morning radio program here on campus.  Listeners can tune in Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:00am to 10:00am at 91.3FM WZMB.  I had the pleasure of sitting down with her and asking her a few questions about her choices in programming and tastes in music.

TCR:  What kind of music do you play on your show? 
Leanne:  Lots of different stuff.  Today I had a show that was supposed to be almost no English at all, so I played Chinese stuff that one of my Taiwanese friends gave me, and French stuff that my pen-pal gave me back in high-school, and Spanish meringue and salsa stuff.  I also like a lot of Eva Cassidy and some jazz.  I also like classic rock, like Queen.  Pretty much anything, but I try to organize it into themes.

TCR:  Do you do themes week by week?                                    
Leanne:  Well, I try to go day by day.  Wednesday I did sort of a guys and guitars thing.  It was really limited though.  I featured, Noah Paley, he's from Hatteras.  Also there's one of the guys from my English class, Blake Eason, he emailed some sound files, and I put them on CD, and I played them on the radio.

TCR:  What is your personal, favorite genre of music?  What you've listed so far is pretty eclectic.  If there were one type of program you had to pick that would be ideal, what would it be?
Leanne:  That's kind of hard, because I like it all.

TCR:  Well, it's a hard-hitting question.
Leanne:  Maybe a woman's show.  Probably.  I did one of those and I really liked it.  I played a lot of Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, and Judy Collins.

TCR:  Why radio?  What attracted you to it, since you're an English major?
Leanne:  Actually, it was orientation.  At orientation, summer of 2002, WZMB had a remote.  I think they called it, "First Night ECU."  So I applied in the fall, and I got the job.  I've just stayed there.  I did a rotation show, all new music.  Some of it's good.  Some of it's not.  That was my first semester there.   My second semester, which was in the spring, I did a Ska show.  That was fun, because I didn't know anything about it, but I got to learn a lot.  I researched it.  I divided up the themes by the different waves of Ska -- the old stuff and new stuff.  Now I just do the morning show.  So I get to play a lot of stuff that wouldn't normally be on the radio -- like on popular stations:  Mike Hamer, from the English department, and Lightning Wells, he's local and a lot of people from Ocracoke too, like Molasses Creek.  After I started doing it, I really liked it.  It's just sitting there pressing buttons and getting to play stuff that I like.  I think a big part of it has come from listening to Fiona Richie's "Thistle & Shamrock," Keith Weston on "Backporch Music," Jim Kelso's "Make Believe Ballroom," and OF COURSE Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion"...and I've recently gotten interested in Steve Cushing's "Blues Before Sunrise" program ... all on NPR ... Also, several years ago there was a comic TV show on A&E called "Remember WENN" that was set in the offices and studios of a 1940's Pittsburgh radio station. It was in color, so the costuming looked kind of funny because I'm used to seeing that style of clothes in black and white, but it was still a funny show.  The NPR shows I mentioned have been a bigger influence, though.

TCR:  Besides music, what other interests do you have outside of the English department? Leanne:  Dancing.

TCR:  What kind of dancing?  All dancing?
Leanne:  Well, not necessarily all dancing, I'm not into bump n' grind stuff -- Contra dancing, and salsa/meringue, that's pretty new.  I used to be a clogger with the Green Grass cloggers.  I used to do Highland dancing, swing dancing, and some Lindey hop.  That might be it.  I'm probably missing something.

TCR:  I think that you got them all.  I can't imagine there being any left.  Do you have a lot of freedom with the music that you choose?
Leanne:  Yes, in the morning there's just one rule: "NO HEAVY, DEATH METAL!"

TCR:  If you were trapped in an episode of "The Twilight Zone," and you could only play one song for all of eternity, what would it be?
Leanne:  Probably, Eva Cassidy, "Oh Had I a Golden Thread."

TCR:  You keep mentioning her.  I'm going to have to give her a listen.
Leanne:  Listen to my show and I guarantee that you will.

TCR:   If you could have any super-human power, what would it be and how would you use it?
Leanne:  The power to make hours in the day -- to make the days longer.  I could do more stuff.  It would probably lower everyone's stress level.  That would be using my power for good.

TCR:  That's a good one. Most people would say the ability to turn invisible, so that they could hang out in locker rooms.
Leanne:  That would be fun.

TCR:  It would probably get boring after a while.
Leanne:  If I limited myself to one thing, I would be bored probably.  I like doing everything.  The way it is right now I don't get bored.