Interview with Sarah Barlyn

by Maria Shaughnessy

Can you introduce yourself and what your positions have been at KCR?

I am Sarah Barlyn. I'm a senior at Barnard and my positions at WKCR have included Director of Engineering, spearheader of Live Constructions as well as Booking Coordinator.

How did you find out about KCR and what made you want to join?

I always wanted to do college radio, like always, but I'm a transfer student and at my former school, Fordham University Lincoln Center there was no radio station—there was only a web stream, and I got rejected. Then, I left Fordham and came to Barnard, and on Activities Day where every club at Columbia sets up their little tent, I came across WKCR and thank God I came across WKCR. And I actually ran into one of our WKCR alum, Olivia Mitchell, who I went to summer camp with as a little kid. And so I had recognized Olivia and we were talking, and since then I’ve been in WKCR.

So you founded/restarted Live Constructions, our live music program at WKCR. How did that happen? What made you want to do that?

I learned audio engineering in high school and then I shadowed Zachary Vanderslice a little bit for our live Friday Out To Lunch shows. I honestly forget exactly what compelled me to invite a band on, but I had met a local band at a show two years ago and I reached out to them and I just asked if they wanted to come on the radio. Their name was Foyer Red, and they said yes, and God bless them because we had no idea what we were doing. We had no idea. We totally forgot about monitors and headsets—we literally just put them in a room and gave them mics and called it a day. By we I mean mainly myself, Leni Bryan, and Kalen Richardson. And yeah, so then this became a weekly endeavor, which was actually a very big undertaking 'cause it consisted of consistently being in touch with local bands and their management and answering questions and preparing technical aspects, and, um, yeah. It would have been impossible without Leni and Kalen.

What would you say your proudest achievement at WKCR is?

I think representing women in a community that they're not normally represented in, like audio engineering. Being able to do that and being able to give all of these different bands exposure to women in audio was something that I was very proud of. And then I would honestly say having one of my favorite artists on, who goes by the name of Mavi, that was really fun.

Of all the Live Construction sets that you engineered, which one was your favorite? Dolly Spartans. They were really fun, because they were technically a bigger undertaking than we're used to, but they were very patient and it was like a very fun experience working with them. I would also say the Golden Dregs were really fun because they had just flown in from the UK and listening to them live was just a total treat.

What are you going to miss most about WKCR when you graduate?

I think I'm really going to miss—and this might be obvious—a community of people that I felt like I didn't have anywhere else. Music is a totally integral part of my identity, and it's a little bit frightening when you're not surrounded by people who share that part of your identity. In high school and early college I had nobody to go to concerts with and I had nobody to talk about music with, so I never took for granted that WKCR was a space where that part of my identity was kind of removed from the private sphere and introduced to the public sphere. I just love talking to people who live the same things that I do.

So who would you say that the coolest person that you met through KCR is?

My friend Maria.

Okay, we can wrap [laughs]. No, definitely my friend Maria. I think I've needed a friend like Maria all along. And it's also just nice to have a friend who also deals with music in a professional setting. But the funny thing is that we don't listen to the same music, but it's still so pertinent to both of our lives.

Do you have a favorite show?

It's got to be Live Constructions.

Catch Sarah's work on Live Constructions, every Sunday 10:00-11:00 PM!

What's coming for you after graduation?

I definitely want to stay involved in a community of music lovers and of humble music lovers. That's an important detail. Hard to find. Yeah, it's not easy.

You can also read an article by Sarah about the postpandemic rebirth of live performances on the WKCR airwaves, which she was elemental in achieving. The article is the Feature Piece in the December 2022 issue of OnAir, available online.