MD of the Month :
Alexander Hsu & Rosie White
WCBN University of Michigan
How did you first hear about WCBN? How long have you been involved there and when did you become music director?
Alexander Hsu (AH): I’ve lived in Ann Arbor for 11 years (I’m 18), so knowing about WCBN was kind of a given. WCBN has always been highly involved in the broader Ann Arbor community, and I’d heard DJ sets now and again in the radio of my parents’ car, but I really started getting into the idea of college radio around the end of high school. I wrote about WCBN in my application to U-M and almost immediately attempted to join. I became a DJ at the end of the first semester, and I became Music Director quite recently, at the start of the summer. I’m looking forward to providing some stability to the typically high rate of turnover (one or two years) due to graduation, so my three years of tenure alongside the year that Rosie still has left should allow us to really make some progress on projects in and around the station.
Rosie White (RW): I first heard of WCBN through a friend who lived at the same student co-op that I was residing in at the time. I wanted to start being a radio DJ as early as my freshman year but failed to even hear about WCBN until my junior year (despite much googling!). I signed up for training as soon as I was directed to WCBN’s website. I’ve been involved ever since, which has totalled to about one year. Therefore, I became Music Director less than a year after joining the station! I was recommended for the role by a former holder of the Music Director title, and thus here I am.
Describe your job duties. What part of your job do you love the most and what do you find to be the most challenging?
AH: Being Music Director is probably the most labor-intensive position in WCBN’s exec board. I receive all new music donations, decide what to buy, choose what music should be presented for our weekly station-wide Music Review sessions, process reviewed music and add it to the library, keep our “new” music section updated, expand the capacity of our ever-growing library, etc. etc. etc. I always enjoy the Music Review sessions because many regular attendees are older community members who provide real insight and knowledge on topics I’m unfamiliar with due to my youth. The most challenging bit is keeping track of everything!
RW: As Alex has stated, this is a highly intensive position. Buying and receiving music, setting it out for review, managing the music library both in terms of what is in the library and how the collection is actually stored and managed… there’s a lot to it. Despite that magnitude of work, it’s hard to pick a favorite part, but I can narrow it to two aspects. Attending and leading our music review sessions is wonderful; I adore hearing students and community members alike share their insights on new and old music. Plus, sometimes we just sit around and go on musical tangents! My other favorite aspect is one I haven’t gotten to do much of as of yet, but I find a particular satisfaction in managing our digital library. Sure, it is underused, but as someone who manages her own digital library, I feel well equipped to handle it. Furthermore, I’ve been cataloguing my collection and listening on the forum RateYourMusic for a couple of years, so I am not new to making a collection look pretty.
What is the process for reviewing new music and what sort of commitment does the station have to exposing your listeners to new releases?
AH: Since WCBN is a freeform station, DJs have total creative control over what they want to play, though sometimes they have to operate within certain rules for a given rotational show (e.g. the Local Music Show has to play local artists). In addition, adding all the new music that we’re donated would demand far more shelving space than we currently have. The way we process new music is through a weekly Music Review session where DJs can choose to review an album of their choice from a pool of albums that I or Rosie choose out of all the donations from the past week. They submit a review containing information about possible FCCs, the sound of the music, and their recommended tracks. This provides more of a guarantee that some of these donations get played, as the DJ who reviews an album is more likely to play it on their show, and a DJ unfamiliar with an album can refer to the review, which is taped onto the CD/LP/45. Of course, we can never demand that people show up, much less play new music, but Music Review works to put new music on the air and make it more accessible. But, of course, some DJs will never play new music, and some shirk from the old; the DJ has full discretion.
RW: New music comes to Alex and I’s attention primarily by mail, but we try not to discount the overwhelming number of emails we receive from artists and labels. From there, we give it a brief listen (I try to listen to at least three or four songs) and decide whether or not we should welcome it into our borderline overflowing collection. Then, we tag the music and set it out in our weekly music review sessions for others to listen to, who then return with the music at a later date to give their thoughts. Finally, it enters the library in the “New” section, and we try to inform people of that music by printing monthly “New Adds” sheets with everything added to the library in the previous month. Though, it varies from DJ to DJ on whether new music will actually be played.
Who is an artist or band that you’ve discovered in the past year or so that has become one of your favorites? What is it about their music that you love?
AH: The music of Bumbo Krawczyk (Bumbo’s Tinto Brass Band, Bumbo’s Pinto Jass Band, Bumbo Records) is something that I discovered through Bumbo’s donations to the station and something that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying. Every time we get another record donated, I’m usually the one who ends up reviewing it, maybe partially because it is a little abrasive. Bumbo makes music kinda like the sound of the New York late ’70s–’80s no wave scene, like James Chance or DNA, but mixed with a harder-edged noise rock sound along the lines of Big Black, and also healthy Lounge Lizards-esque jazz influences. It’s thoroughly dissonant and absolutely a joy to listen to, and boosted by the fact that he operates out of Detroit.
RW: The recent standout artist to me is the former Duluth-based band Low (and by extension, the solo works of frontman Alan Sparhawk). This… is only half true, though. Some of the people who have worked with Low, such as Tom Fabjance, are actually family friends, so I’ve been aware of Low for many years, but I never listened to an album of theirs myself until this year. I posit the question, what isn’t there to love about Low? They have music that is slow and fast, harsh and calm, depressing and (occasionally) hopeful. Their music resonates with me as someone who has been affected by mental health, familial losses, and the horrors of love. My personal favorites of theirs include their final album, 2021’s HEY WHAT, which is their hardest listen but is perfect for letting all emotions let loose, 2001’s Things We Lost in the Fire (recorded by Steve Albini!), and 1996’s The Curtain Hits the Cast.
Do you have an all-time favorite artist or album you never get tired of listening to and find yourself always going back to?
AH: It’s always Fugazi. There are artists who don’t have a bad single, there are artists who don’t have a bad album, and then there are artists who don’t have a bad song. That’s Fugazi. They are the single greatest band of all time, and the pot is only sweetened by their ascetic, anti-capitalist ethics and practice. I will listen to Fugazi in any mood at any time of day. They have profoundly impacted the way I listen to and play music, and I’ve even met Ian MacKaye. In an absolutely shocking turn of events, it also turns out that Guy Picciotto is supposed to play in Ann Arbor as part of the Jim White Trio on September 2nd, which is especially crazy because he’s barely performed since Fugazi went on hiatus in 2002, and he’s choosing to play in my hometown.
RW: It is unusually hard for me to pick all time favorites, so again I will provide two examples: Talking Heads and Vic Chesnutt. Starting with Talking Heads, they are the band that got me into listening to music. Without growing up with my father raving about and playing their music, I’d never have become the person I am today, and I find myself constantly revisiting Remain in Light. As for Vic Chesnutt, he is far more special of a case. Vic was another suggestion from my father, and at first, I was actually apprehensive about his music. But as I listened to him more and more, he clicked with me. While he is another case of depressing music resonating with my personal struggles, his incredible songwriting, which was listed as some of the best among living songwriters once by NPR, contrasted with his simple guitar playing, brought about by a disabling accident when he was young, works its way into my head. At the Cut and North Star Deserter are likely the ones I revisit the most, but About to Choke is my favorite. Not only is plainly a great album, it is an album from my childhood that I remember fondly.
Is/Are there any upcoming 2026 release(s) are you most anticipating?
AH: I’m looking forward to the full release of the Tiberi Tapes sometime this fall, which were these recordings of John Coltrane made by Frank Tiberi in the early 1960s, just after he released Giant Steps. A preview was made available on record store day, and to be honest the sound quality is not the greatest, but hearing more Coltrane is always a good thing.
RW: Not really. I’m excited for Cameron Winter’s Live at Carnegie Hall to an extent, but I’m also not his biggest fan. Sadly, I haven’t been super on top of keeping up with what’s coming out this year, aside from what we have been getting at the station. I will say, however, there have still been some great new releases I’ve heard this year: Bill Callahan’s My Days of 58, Bill Orcutt’s Music in Continuous Motion, Erik Hall’s Solo Three, and Wendy Eisenberg’s self-titled. My favorite of these is the Wendy Eisenberg.
Who is an artist or band (or perhaps a few) you first heard as a kid or young adult that may have sparked your love of music and made you want to get involved with music on the level you are?
AH: Aside from Fugazi, Charles Mingus was a big influence on my interest in jazz. I first listened to him around sophomore year of high school, and it turned out that my school’s jazz band was playing “Moanin'” as part of their set. Seeing them perform that live and listening to Mingus really got me into jazz not from the more academic, wrong-note-right-note side of bebopery, but more into the emotional and textural aspect. Mingus’s compositions always sound like they’re bursting at the seams with life and zest. He had an excellent understanding of momentum and striking a fine balance between chaos and direction. Since then, I’ve been on a search for something that captures the same level of aggression and despair and joy and love that Mingus could write, and that’s been the foremost driving factor for my current explorations in jazz.
RW: I mentioned Talking Heads already, but there are far more than just them. The first is a cheap answer; David Byrne’s solo works are incredible and may have even done more for me than the works of the Heads. Gustav Mahler started a love for classical music that has yet to dive down. My father once referred to Brian Eno as my god, which is pretty accurate. Neil Young (and Crazy Horse) is superb and contextualizes so much of the music I love today. The minimalist composers Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich all inspired a love for the weird and experimental side of music. Finally, Robbie Basho and later Hayden Pedigo especially formed a fondness of my favorite genre, American Primitive Guitar.
If you had the power to instantly change one thing going on in the world at the moment, what would it be?
AH: I don’t know if you can count this as just one thing, but probably to give workers control of the means of production.
RW: Workers of the world, take over!
What event in your life would you say has shaped you the most as a person?
AH: Tough question. I don’t know if I’ve yet lived enough life to be able to answer this question well, but thus far, coming to college has been a really impactful experience on the way I see the world. Discovering leftism, meeting new people, having the time of my life—all of these are kind of bundled into my attendance at U-M. My worldview has been completely altered. But maybe tomorrow I’ll break both my arms and that would probably be my new answer.
RW: That’s a tough one. I have a lot of sad answers, but for a somewhat more inspiring one, getting into university. I’m not first-gen, but I joke that I “may as well be.” Getting into a university proved I could break the curse of redundancy in my family and escape the poverty-stricken pit that is Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I’m still learning what I want to do with my life, but I feel like I’m getting a better idea every day. I’ve met people who actually share my ideals and saw that not everyone in this world is a butt-hurt bigot like in the Upper Peninsula. To summarize, it’s given me a lot of hope. It remains to be seen if I’ll do anything with that.
If you could choose one, what time period in the past would you most want to travel back to visit and why?
AH: I actually study history and political science, so this is obviously a very important question to me. Probably either 1CE to figure out the whole hullabaloo around this guy Jesus, or the ’80s DC hardcore punk scene.
RW: I’ve said many a time that I was born to be a curious character exploring the wonders of the American West, circa 1870-1890, John Muir-style. I’ve always had a connection with nature, and seeing some of those wonders in their purest form, unmarred by humans, would be marvelous. I also hate the cellphone, so not having to deal with that would be nice.
Do you have a favorite restaurant in town that you’d recommend people try if they are ever in Ann Arbor?
AH: People will always say Frita Batidos, so I’m going to be hip and instead recommend my favorite all-time burger joint, Blimpy Burger. The premise is that you get to choose every ingredient of your burger and watch them make it in front of you, but the workers are kind of assholes and will act like you’re a troglodyte if you don’t follow their exact ordering process. It’s hilarious to bring your friends there and watch them fumble with the ordering process, and the burgers are great. They also let you deep fry vegetables other than potatoes, which are excellent (I like the fried mushrooms). They closed over the summer due to issues with their ownership, but they’re set to reopen this fall.
RW: There’s so much great stuff here, and again I come from a rural place with very few unique food options, so this is another tough question. But at the end of the day, Halal Bros 2 Go on South State Street is probably my most frequented.
What in your life brings you the most joy?
AH: My girlfriend, Alessandra.
RW: Cheesy answer, but my boyfriend, Margo. I have some qualms about his taste in art, but really, I’ve never been able to click with anyone or anything like I have with him.
Lightning Round:
Dog or Cat?
AH: Cat.
RW: Cats!
Morning Person or Night Owl?
AH: Night.
RW: Morning person (if I can brute force my way out of bed)!
City or Country?
AH: City.
RW: The country!
Beach or Mountains?
AH: Mountains.
RW: The mountains!
Watch TV or Read A Book?
AH: Read.
RW: Book!
Sunny or Rainy?
AH: Sunny.
RW: Rain!
Restaurant or Home Cooking?
AH: Restaurant.
RW: Home cooking!
Pants or Shorts?
AH: Pants.
RW: Pants!
Warm or Cold drinks?
AH: Cold.
RW: Cold drinks!
Do you have any current favorite shows you’re enjoying/binging? How about a movie (new or old) that you’ve watched recently that you loved?
AH: I’ve been watching The Diplomat with my girlfriend recently, and although I generally don’t enjoy shows because they demand huge time investment for little intellectual value, this show is really fun to watch for the political machinations. I suppose I haven’t really watched many movies recently that I loved, but I did watch Nolan’s version of The Odyssey and had mixed feelings about the writing and themes.
RW: I don’t really watch a lot of shows, but the last movies I watched for the first time that I really loved were Train Dreams and Hundreds of Beavers. Though more recently, I revisited Nosferatu — Phantom der Nacht and adored it.
Finally, if you could have a lifetime supply of anything, what would it be?
AH: Time!
RW: Mental and physical energy!
