The SyndicateMetal Insider’s parent company, is a promotion and marketing company that has championed the metal scene for almost 15 years. In our weekly Radio Spotlight, we’ll offer a look behind the scenes of metal radio from some of the stations and outlets playing metal that the Syndicate works with to spotlight the newest underground music on the airwaves and the people that bring it to you.  Read on for a glimpse into one very outsized personality who tackles both metal and alternative music for his station with equal aplomb as he prepares for this year’s edition of the CMJ Music Marathon.  And yes, Freeman Thor Slaughter is his birth-name.

Station type:

College alternative

Owned by:

University of Oregon 

Frequency:

88.1 FM

Wattage:

1,000 W

Where’s the metal? 

On Bad Dude Radio, late night Fridays (fall schedule TBD)

What’s the goal of KWVA?

The goal of KWVA is to represent the under-represented. We want to explode on the airwaves with greatness every second of every day.  No one plays the game harder than us!

You just stepped up to Assistant General Manager.  How do you handle what is essentially three separate directorships (music, metal, plus this), and what’s it like?

Every pair of shoes I’ve stepped into at the station has been about one thing: I think I can contribute something that will benefit everyone. I became music director because there wasn’t one, and I thought I could do a better job than anyone.  There was no metal show anymore, so I created one to blast shred into everyone’s ears.  And I started doing work in the AGM role so that I could help the station be bigger, better, ballsier, and more destructive to the world around us!  It’s chaos, and madness to do so much, but I love the station and I love chaos, so i get to combine those two things and bury myself in work.  Who needs a life when you have metal anyway?

What do you try to do with both your metal show and alternative shows?

With a metal show I want to ease people in, show them a wide variety of metal and prove that it doesn’t all sound the same. The great thing about a metal show is that you can take on more of a personality when you talk on air. Metal is all about being yourself and being balls-to-the-wall while doing so, so it’s a ton of fun to scream into the mic and rant about how every child needs hours of shreddery a day to be healthy, it fits the music. During an alternative show, people don’t really want to hear an arrogant, over-the-top, handsome as sin, charismatic wildebeest of a man rant in between their favorite Modest Mouse song.

You won a couple of awards at CMJ 2011 (Best Newcomer and Will Never Sell Out) last year, before you were even doing metal.  What’s the goal for CMJ 2012?

Well, the goal for CMJ 2012 is to take New York by storm.  I’m talking Occupy New York, Thor Slaughter style!  The nominations last year were amazing, and I was truly honored, but for me, CMJ is really about being with some beautiful non-commercial fearless freaks. The nice thing about CMJ is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a music director, record promoter, band mate, or label rep when you’re banging your head at a concert and then stumbling in for pizza at 2am. I love people, and I love cool people even more than normal people, so my ultimate goal is to learn as much as possible and soak in as many people and bands as I can!

Where do you want the station and the metal show to go long-term?

I pull no punches when I say I want KWVA to take over the world. I want KWVA to eventually transform into a killer robot and wreak havoc on the American way of life! But in all seriousness, I want to do as much as possible, I want to be producing content that people want to hear, and I want to take everything to the next level.  I’m stubborn enough to try and compete with commercial stations, and I’ve got enough sunshine and willpower to win that competition! I want the metal show to have a definitive sound.  I want people to start recording shows and saying, “Man, did you hear that last episode of Bad Dude Radio? I recorded it onto cassette because it was so tasty.”  I want every episode to sound like a journey and a compilation, I want it to encapsulate what 2012 was like for a certain sound of metal.  I want Bad Dude Radio to be on the pulse of something that no one else is on.

Sample hour from Bad Dude Radio:

Autograph – Turn Up the Radio
Down – Stone the Crow
Black Spiders – KISS Tried to Kill Me
Corrosion of Conformity – Clean My Wounds
Sleep – Dragonaut
Torche – Kicking
Fu Manchu – Godzilla
Red Fang – Wires
The Sword – Night City
Mastodon – Curl of the Burl
Doomriders – Come Alive
Green Jellÿ – Three Little Pigs
The Sword – How Heavy This Axe
High On Fire – Serums of Liao
Periphery – Icarus Lives!

New At Metal Radio This Week:

The Last Vegas – Bad Decisions (Frostbyte)

The Chicago-based hard rockers’ new album is set to go down well with fans of Skid Row and classic Guns ‘n’ Roses.

Encrust – From Birth to Soil (Density)

Also from Chicago but decidedly much deathlier than The Last Vegas, the band formerly known as Hunters is putting out their stoned-out death n’ roll debut as the first release of Vagrant’s new all-metal imprint.

Obey the Brave – Young Blood (Epitaph)

The breakout Canadian deathcore band features former members of Despised Icon and Blind Witness.  They’ll be familiar to anyone who caught the first day of New England Metal & Hardcore Fest earlier this year.

The Syndicate, Metal Insider’s parent company, is a promotion and marketing company that has championed the metal scene for almost 15 years. For radio promotion, street marketing, publicity, event marketing and brand consultation in the world of metal, contact us here.

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