The station’s mission is to preserve the music of the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond — from the hits to the forgotten gems. It also provides weather and community announcements, and weekly programs like play-by-play coverage of local high school sports (namely the Wayne Warriors), big band music and Sunday morning church programs.
WSWO-LP is a low-power broadcasting station (hence the “LP” in the call letters), meaning its signal currently gives off as much wattage as an Easy Bake Oven — 100 watts, to be exact.
That meager signal gets a boost from a larger radio tower in Huber Heights, which then bounces off of a repeater tower, extending its range. If you’re driving south on Interstate 675, the station’s signal drops out around the Ohio 48 exit. But if you take South Dixie, the signal stays strong almost to Middletown.
Its radio waves are mainly concentrated around Huber, but programming can also be streamed online — with local and international listeners tuning in daily. In fact, more people stream the station than listen on terrestrial radio.
WSWO is run by people who do it because they love it. That’s the nature of low-power community radio.
Every Wednesday night, WSWO DJ Shelly Hulce sits behind the mic to host her program, the Wax Carnival. She’s also been President of Southwestern Ohio Public Radio for nine years now, and the only female at the station.
On the Wax Carnival, Hulce plays 60s and 70s deep cut album rock of the underground variety, pulling lesser known tracks from genres like prog, psychedelic, new wave, disco, glam, punk, funk and comedy.
“I like to say we play the songs you did not buy the record for,” Hulce said, amid playing a nearly 23-minute track from German electronic band, Kraftwerk. “Commercial radio is not going to play that. This is for the real music nerds, like the people who study the liner notes.”
Being a noncommercial station, WSWO has a lot of freedom in its programming. For instance, if a music icon passes on, the station’s Program Director, Tony Peters, will queue up a multitude of tracks in memoriam at the top of the hour for the first 24 hours after their passing.
Hulce says there are no underwriters, thus no one to answer to. Still, the station abides by FCC rules and has a general regard for daytime listeners, so Black Sabbath B-sides and Kraftwerk A-sides remain in the nightly blocks where all the specialty shows take place.
There are around 15 individual live shows a week, many of which are helmed by seasoned radio hosts. They have a broad range of interests, and they’re all volunteering their time to do it — often three to four hours a week. If no one is behind the mic, the station is in automation. Every Sunday night, Peters sits down and programs the upcoming week.
When the station started in 2004, DJs were using vinyl records and other physical media live on-air, with scratches and skips being ever-present. Since converting to digital, with around 15,000 tracks in the library, the station now exclusively uses pre-loaded, lossless files.
But vestiges of the before-times have accumulated in stacks around the station. Hundreds (but likely thousands) of vinyl records sit dormant, patiently awaiting needle to groove once again. Many of the records have been donated by listeners. Before the pandemic, the station would host a yearly record sale, the one and only fundraiser for the station.
During a break in the post-punk/new wave music block, Shelly gets back on the mic for her one-on-one with the listeners.
“Our biggest hope is to keep things like community radio going. As you folks know, newspapers have folded. Magazines rarely print things anymore. Radio has been decimated by AI. So we’re keeping the fight here. Community radio is more important than ever, especially since COVID. When our studio shut down, like many places did, our DJs started broadcasting from home. We kept people informed about what they needed to know in this community. We’ve got to keep that backbone going.”
Community radio is a community service. But WSWO is also a station of music lovers, programmed for music lovers — one that may go unnoticed, if only because the signal is just out of reach.
“I don’t know what I’m going to play until you hear it,” Hulce said, wrapping up the break. “Send me your psychic requests. Maybe I’ll pick something up from you there.”
Brandon Berry writers about the local music scene. He may be emailed at branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: WSWO-LP Oldies 97.3 20th Anniversary Party
When: 2-6 p.m. Sept. 28
Where: Yellow Cab Tavern, 700 E. 4th St., Dayton
Cost: Free
Website: daytonoldies.org
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