An Interview With Josh Kapilian

by August Phillips

good timing or bad timing, depending on who you ask.

How was your experience at WKCR during the pandemic? And what was it like seeing the progress of the station as people started coming back to campus?

What positions at WKCR have you held over the years?

I was the WKCR Librarian and Sports head and, as of four days ago [May 17th], I am now a WKCR alum!

When did you join WKCR, and why?

I started working at KCR my freshman year. Growing up in Long Island, my dad listened to WKCR a good bit in the car. So when I saw the table for the station during the club fair, I was like, “Oh, this seems like a fun thing to join.” I really enjoy listening to jazz music, so that was my first in, and I was interested in programming shows and I just kind of ran with it from there.

So you joined your very first semester here, and was that Fall 2019?

Yeah, I finished interning right at the end of freshman fall and I did my first show over winter break that year. And yeah, Fall 2019. So

It was definitely really isolating during the year and a half when we were just putting together shows on GarageBand at home and then emailing them over. But it was definitely rewarding, getting to come back after almost two years, getting to do in-person shows again, and getting to see WKCR really flourish in a way that I didn't get to see pre-COVID. Because even then the community wasn't the same as it is now. When we came back, in what was my junior year, there were maybe six or eight people left that were licensed and knew how to use the equipment, so we were really building up from close to nothing. The folks on E-board that year did a really great job of getting people interested in WKCR again and building community in a way that really never existed during my freshman year.

Is there anything else that stuck out to you about the way WKCR changed in your time here, especially in the past year?

I think the big thing is, WKCR feels now like a place to socialize in a way that it never did, at least during my time there pre-COVID. I think to some extent it's also a function of the ways I'm involved with WKCR changing. Jazz shows just by their nature are more of a solo activity than doing Sports shows, organizing library cleanups, those are just inherently more communal. But I think also the culture of the station has changed for the better as well. You have folks just hanging around the station because it's a place to be now. When you go in there to do just a music show by yourself, odds are you're not the only person there.

You mentioned jazz shows. Is that mostly what you program, and have the shows that you program changed over time? Or have you mostly been doing the same shows?

Yeah, mostly I've done jazz. I've done a handful of classical shows, but the vast majority have been jazz. I started off on Daybreak Express and I had a regular Out to Lunch junior year. Since then it's just been assorted shows, picking up birthday broadcasts and so on. This past year has definitely been a shift into more of the sports stuff, so doing some directing in the studio and doing some live calling on air as well. But still sprinkling in a little bit of jazz to keep that part of my brain active.

Do you have any jazz recommendations or anything you've been listening to recently that you'd like to shout out?

Yeah, actually, two nights ago I saw Cecile McLorin Salvant at Jazz at Lincoln Center. And she did this kind of song cycle called “Mélusine” that mixes together some centuries-old songs with some originals of her own. And it was just really fascinating, really great to see live.

Going forward, is there any aspect of WKCR that you would like to see continue to grow?

Just from a personal note, getting to see Sports kind of grow from zero again over the past year has been really great. But I know the ceiling is ridiculously high and there's more room to grow. So I'm excited to see what you guys do with it over the next couple of years.

You recently graduated—congratulations! What did you study at Columbia, and how would you say WKCR has impacted your overall experience here?

I studied computer science and music. To some extent, WKCR kind of functioned as an intersection of those. Obviously, music as a radio station, but also the technical aspect of learning how to do a lot of audio engineering. I think it scratched a very particular itch for me, and I think that’s because there are so many aspects to KCR: you have the music shows, you have live music, you've got more journalistic things with NARTS and the Sports department. It really just found a way to continue to be engaging to me, in so many different ways, all in the same place. That's really what stuck out to me and what kept me involved so long.

What are your plans for after college and how do you think your time with WKCR will continue to impact your life beyond it?

I'll be heading out West to Seattle to do software work with AWS. I can definitely see myself getting involved with something radio or radioadjacent while I'm out there. I'm still kind of looking at what kinds of things are out there. And definitely in the back of my mind, the journalism aspect of things has definitely stuck with me and is potentially something I'd want to pursue at some point.

Finally, what is your favorite WKCR memory or moment from the past several years?

My favorite WKCR memory is an utterly ludicrous one. It was the week after they announced that classes would be on Zoom, but before they'd kicked us off campus, so I was still doing shows at KCR. The programmer after me couldn’t make it to the station but sent in a recorded show. And because we didn’t have the remote computer, I had to stay there physically sitting in the room while I had a Zoom class. I had to take the audio cable and stretch it about as taut as it would go to the other computer while this remote show was running. So I have this ridiculous picture in the studio with a stretched-taut audio cord and my professor lecturing in the background. I think at the time it was just the novelty of it all, recorded shows and Zoom, but now, three years later, it’s kind of a reminder of how far things have come, obviously for the better. It’s not necessarily the best KCR memory I have, but it’s definitely one that’s made an impression on me.

Jazz ‘til Dawn (cont’d)

Field Trip

Amazing Grace The Moonshine Show

The Tennessee Border Show

Monday Morningside

Out to Lunch

Cereal Music

Sunday Profiles

Afternoon New Music

Raag Aur Taal

SoundStage

Live Constructions

Back in the USSR

The Celtic Show

Coordinated Universal Time Phil Lives

PopTalk

Caribe Latino Honky Tonkin’

Tuesday’s Just as Bad Urbano Latinx

Transfigured Night Night Train

Nueva Canción Som do

Transfigured

Notes