Interview by Katy Green, Member Board of Directors
DJ Coco is the host of Golden Hour, Saturdays 5-6pm.
Tell me about your path leading up to you volunteering at WERU.
I’ve been a musician for many years now and I have typically made friends and found community through playing music. Since moving to Maine, it’s been harder for me to find folks to play music with so I thought community radio might be a good way to meet fellow music lovers and I was right.
How did you first get interested in music?
I’ve always cared about music and have been going to live shows since I was in high school but it didn’t really hit me hard until I graduated college. I was feeling a little lost and decided to teach myself bass guitar. I joined some bands, learned the drums, started going to live shows all the time, and now music is life!
What role has music played in your life?
It’s been my primary source of community and how I process the world. I love music that makes my hair stand on end or makes me so excited I can just feel deep joy and feeling building up inside my body. Music is that powerful!
I’ve found talking to WERU programmers that many of them have a secret, nerd knowledge base. What’s yours?
I’m a university librarian on the weekdays so I kind of know a little bit about everything, or least how to find information on just about anything! In high school I went through a big polaroid camera phase. I knew their entire history, all the camera models and film types. I have a big box of polaroid photos I took during that time that I cherish.
What makes you passionate about community radio?
It’s so many things! It’s community building in hosting live music events, playing local musicians on the radio, building connections with our members and folks who call in to make a song request… all those big and small moments of bringing folks together. The news portion of what WERU does is so incredibly crucial. We have producers bringing public affairs features about all aspects of Maine. From how climate change is affecting us to what different organizations are doing to improve our communities. Our public affairs people are reporting on stories and people that we simply won’t hear about in mainstream news outlets and that’s so important!
What’s one of your favorite memories about volunteering at WERU?
Anytime anyone calls into the station to say they’re enjoying what I’m playing brings me so much joy. I also love it when our Board President, Pat Pugh calls in to say hi. She’s incredibly kind and supportive of all the volunteers at WERU.
What advice would you give someone who was considering volunteering at the station?
Do it! There’s a place for everyone at WERU, even if you’re shy of the airwaves you can volunteer behind the scenes. If you can only volunteer once in a while you can do outreach tabling at a local event. If you do want to be on the air but have never done it before, you’ll get so much training and support you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
To learn how you can volunteer at WERU, either on the air or behind the scenes, please email info@weru.org with “volunteer” in the subject line, and we’ll get back to you with some information about how to get involved.