Students walking home from class Tuesday afternoon made the trek with unusual spunk in their steps as they passed Allison Hall. Two Allison residents were blasting the premiere of their biweekly afternoon radio show, “The Walk Home,” from their window in Room 3022.
Produced by their self-dubbed Radio 3022 Network, the show is an effort by Speech sophomores Joel Petrilla and Daniel Abramson to obliterate the late afternoon malaise of worn-out students returning from class.
“We’re just doing this to lift their spirits on their walk home,” Petrilla said.
The duo is known to their listeners – anyone within earshot of Allison – as Joe Banjo and Danny Hay. In their first day on the air, Banjo and Hay broadcast a vast array of songs compiled from their own CD collections and Internet downloads.
They opened their show with the Allman Brothers and proceeded to play musicians of various genres, from Dave Matthews Band and the Black Crowes to the Grateful Dead and the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack.
“We play whatever we have,” Petrilla said. “We’re going to play all sorts of stuff. People can call in and request what they want to hear.”
Though an occasional gust of the infamous Lake Michigan wind was enough to drown out the music at times, plenty of people couldn’t escape Banjo and Hay’s mix of rock ‘n’ roll and color commentary, courtesy of two really loud speakers and a microphone.
The DJs’ noble efforts were met with confusion by many of their would-be fans. Students walking by looked around curiously, trying to locate the source of the commotion.
“We were pretty confused,” said Daniel Escutia, a Weinberg freshman. “I thought it was part of the real university radio station.”
Escutia said he couldn’t focus on the broadcast’s content because he was too preoccupied figuring out “where the hell it was coming from.”
But others enjoyed the DJs’ efforts.
Sujata Jhaveri, a Weinberg freshman, said she heard the show from her dorm room but was not upset by the ruckus.
“It was cool that people were playing music,” she said. “My roommate and I liked ‘Ants Marching.'”
Future installments of Radio 3022’s “The Walk Home” will air within a block of Allison Hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 5 p.m. – at least until they move off campus.
