The Perch is back.
The student-run, online radio station at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is streaming again after a nearly two-year pandemic hiatus.
Ryan Mench works on his Perch show, “Capitalist Commodities Radio.”
First coming online in 2009, the Perch is a little underground. But that’s true of most American college radio stations, especially in the digital age.
Being underground also is part of the allure, said members of the station’s staff, who produce and host their own shows.
“There’s something cool about not having visuals. It is kind of retro,” said station Manager Hope Montgomery, a junior double majoring in art history and art education.
“There’s something special about it. Something cool,” she said.
Montgomery, along with Assistant Station Manager Navah Chestnut, Marketing Manager Ryan Mench and Outreach Director Fay Aregai all produce curated, music shows with chat in between the songs, something mostly forgotten on today’s music-streaming platforms with playlists generated by algorithms.
There’s also about a dozen non-staff students producing shows for The Perch, including other music shows and podcasts about current events and pop culture.
For now, the station is based in the same space as WUTC-FM 88.1 in Cadek Hall, but the hope is that it will eventually return to its original home in the University Center, said Haley Solomon, advisor for The Perch and a producer at WUTC.
Montgomery started her show “Tender Buttons”—an eclectic mix of new music and obscure cult classics—in 2019 as a freshman and loved the experience. Then the pandemic hit and, like the rest of the world, The Perch shut down.
So when she heard the station was coming back, she jumped at the chance to revive her show.
The name was inspired by a book of poetry by Gertrude Stein that later became the name of an album by electronica band Broadcast, one of her favorites..
Working at the station is “less of an obligation and more a passion.” It’s not in her major, but “it’s fun.”
Aregai, a sophomore majoring in psychology and minoring in music composition, grew up listening to the radio in her mom’s car on their long commutes to school and work.
The “Steve Harvey Morning Show” was her favorite because “it had everything,” she said. A little comedy, music and talk.
“I loved listening to the stories they told in between the songs,” she said. “They would talk about so many things. It would be something I’d think about all day.”
She started working at The Perch for her federal work-study job in the fall, hoping it would be a lot more fun than working anywhere elsewhere on campus. She was right.
With music composition as her minor, it’s a place where her passion and academics collide, she said.
“I’ve discovered so much more music. It’s a big deal for me,” said Aregai, whose show is called “Test Drive” where she plays everything from entire albums and soundtracks to a lineup of music that fits a particular theme.
The station can’t archive shows per FCC licensing rules that regulate the number of times a song can be played according to music purchasing agreements. But that gives the pre-recorded broadcasts a sense of being live, a tune-in-now-or-never quality.
Federal broadcasting rules and having to follow them, are what inspired Mench’s “Capitalist Commodities Radio” and its post-punk and indie music vibe.
Unlike radio stations, streaming services such as Spotify turn listening to music into instant gratification for most people, said Mench, a junior majoring in marketing.
“They want music on-demand. It’s the song you want to hear when you want to hear it. Maybe over and over and over again,” he said.
The Perch aims at a different audience, he said.
“I think the people who listen really care.”
