A Retrospective on Palmy’s Favourite Student Radio Station

Allow me to paint you a picture.

It’s a brisk July morning, you’re sitting in the middle of the Palmy campus with your mates discussing whether Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was better or far, far worse than Pulp Fiction (you’re a dude-bro film snob in this timeline) when suddenly, you hear it!

A pumping bass, rhythmic wubs and dubs exuding from the speakers situated amongst the bean bags. And interluded between them, a soft, husky voice: “Crabman, give me the juice.”

You zip up your thrifted Kathmandu parka that has seen far better days, sip your breakfast V, and retreat to your first lecture, all while wondering who is playing that sick as fuck music.

And then you look up, just above the tuck shop, seeing the glowing “on air” sign.

And you realise, the person operating the speakers, the one on the radio telling you it’s 11am… they are... In Control.

If your radio just so happens to find itself tuned to 99.4FM (Manawatū) between the hours of now and whenever, you’ll be treated to the sounds of Palmerston North’s own Radio Control.

Nestled away above the MUSA shop, right in the centre of Palmy campus’ Concourse, this student radio station has been broadcasting quality tunes since 1981.

With a focus on up-and-coming local musicians, be they from Palmy or wider Aotearoa, Radio Control brings students one of the easiest to access alternative listening experiences they can have.

Mixed amongst the tunes is a plethora of different shows and segments, bringing further variety to the already diverse range on offer from the station.

In a way, Control is to radio what we at Massive are to print – a kick-ass alt-media outlet, centered around student interests, brimming with diversity and sick as hell content.

In my time at Massey, I’ve had the pleasure to spend a fair few hours up in the studio, getting to know the various staff members, having a few drinks and yarns with them on occasion.

In the spirit of Music Month and celebrating years gone by, I decided to have a sit down with Radio Control’s station manager, Michael Tile Vamaua, to talk about what the station was like years ago, how they’ve grown with the times, some notable memories and even how students could get involved with student media through them!

How many years have you worked for Radio Control?

I’ve been here for… it’s coming up five years in July. I started working [at Control] in 2017, but I’d been volunteering on and off over the years before that.

I’d been taking part in what Radio Control’s doing since 2003, being a part of the local music scene in Palmy, performing shows, live to airs, sending content to the radio station. So, I’ve been involved on and off and been on the periphery for many years.

Considering the amount of time you’ve spent working with Control, have you seen many huge changes as to how the station works, the type of music that’s being aired?

Yeah, I’ve seen the music change… the sound of the station’s changed a lot. It kinda comes in waves, I guess same as music trends come and go. Way back when there was a lot of Palmy punk, garage rock, a lot of alt rock around that time… there was an indie wave around the late 2000s. When I started there was a lot more pop and hip hop, sorta urban stuff, and now I feel like the rock is coming back, so it’s just whatever’s in vogue.

At its core, it’s always been about emerging artists and supporting local artists, and being the incubator for local talent, local musicians.

Has the station had much of a relationship with us (Massive)?

We started trying to push student volunteers in Massive’s direction as well. We had a few volunteers who expressed interest in writing pieces on local shows, or album reviews and things like that, so we pushed them in the direction of Massive. Massive were printing our ‘Radio Control NZ TOP 10’ every week, just to have something there. That is definitely an area we wanna collaborate more on. Just provide more opportunities for our collective volunteer group. We’re doing the same stuff, just in a different format really.

In terms of studio equipment, how's that changed over the years?

Radio Control started out as Radio Massey; it’s had a few names over the years. It did start out in a small cupboard in May 1981… We’ve just turned 41.

Essentially it started out in a cupboard at the back of the old activity centre up here at Massey Palmy. It started off with ancient equipment, but we’ve got a digital desk now. So, you can do more, and it’s far smaller and all computer based.

When I was volunteering it was an old analog desk. There were CD players, tape decks, radio tuners, ADATs, [and a] mini disk. But it was a big ol’ desk, and all of the individual components, which are now housed in a computer, were kinda laid out in the room. It pretty much took up the entirety of the room. [It] looked like you were walking onto the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. So, when you went up for an interview, going up to perform, whatnot, you literally had a tiny corner where you could squeeze around the desk.

When I started in 2017, my predecessor had gotten the ball rolling on the updates and studio refurbishment, out with the old and in with the new.

And now we’re running on a digital desk, all computer based with all the inputs getting sent into the computer as opposed to a whole bunch of analog gear. It’s enhanced what we can do in the studio and given us a shit tonne more space, so we’ve had bands up there performing live to airs, we can film things in there. It’s a much nicer space with more space.

But even with all the new equipment, Radio Control is still using some of their OG stuff up at their transmitter, and even in the production room for their outboard gear.

We’re kinda a bit of hybrid, there’s a lot of new stuff in there and a lotta old stuff behind the scenes, but it all works. I feel like that’s a good analogy for the student radio network and for Radio Control. We celebrate the past, but we’re always looking forward to the future.

What have been your most awesome moments at Radio Control?

The one that stands out is probably the Dartz show we held on campus here. We’d all been through the level four lockdown, and it was just a good blowout, ya know? Just having some loud rock and roll, some live guitars and drums blasting through the concourse.

We have a little vocal booth called the ‘Control Cave’ which is where we voice our ads and whatnot. We’ve had a lot of fun trying to cram bands in there. So, if the bands willing and small enough we’ll do our best to fit them in the room. We had a few live to airs in there, probably the most fun one was Fielding’s Best Dancers. We crammed them into the little cupboard, and the drumkit was half hanging out, we had all the microphones in there. Our programming director was filming, housed behind the guitar in the very corner of the cupboard with ear plugs on, and after that I’m pretty sure their ears would’ve been ringing.

Finally, do you have any advice for our readers who want to get involved with student radio, or student media in general?

I think just do it! Just get stuck in, put your hand up!

We’re always on the lookout for new volunteers. Obviously, we play alternative, new emerging, predominately local but also international artists so we’ve got our own music taste that we showcase. But we’re also a training ground for broadcasters. We have so many student volunteers that come through who don’t know or care for the music we play, but they always say they’ve gained a lot from broadcasting, from hosting shows. Whether that’s from public speaking or boosting confidence.

We’ve also got a pretty strong alumni across the student radio network of broadcasters and politicians, who’ve come through student radio. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say their experience in student radio has shaped where they are now.

I think students should just get stuck in; we’re looking for volunteers all the time. There’s a lot more things we do as well, we’re not just hosting shows for two-hour slots. We try to get people to write pieces so we can feed them into Massive, we film a lot of video content, we wanna host more events when people are back. We’re always looking out for people who are keen to get involved and learn, whether it’s learning live sound or filming, or how to edit videos. Even if you’re not into the music just come up and have a chat. We’re happy to chat and are ALWAYS looking for new volunteers!

For me, Radio Control was where I started my student media run. Helping a friend (hi Anna!) present a 9am movie review show on a Tuesday was what got me in the studio. Seeing the inner workings, hearing the student news, the political side of it all, the healthy doses of activism and huge amounts of good times, it all lead me down the path to Massive.

I owe where I am today to Radio Control. Without them, I doubt I’d be here writing this.

So, on that note, here’s to 10 years of Massive, 41 of Radio Control, a lifetime banging tunes, and an eternity of kicking ass in the student-alt-media space.

Hear fucking hear.

Our big siblings at Control are always on the lookout for volunteers, so if you wanna get involved pop onto https://www.radiocontrol.org.nz/volunteer or drop into the studio!

If you’re not based in Palmy, look into the SRN networks across our country! Get stuck in!