Despite last Friday night’s latest dumping of snow, spring is here at WMCN student radio! The station kicked off their April programming last Saturday morning with a CD swap. In the spirit of spring and spring cleaning, WMCN opened up the station to members of the Macalester community to bring in CDs, vinyls or cassettes and trade them with fellow music lovers. The event started at 1 p.m., with a rush of community members eager to get their hands on WMCN t-shirts, screen printed by WMCN’s Zoë Chinander-McFaul ’24.

The event was the idea of WMCN team member Claire Marko ’25: “I thought a CD swap would be a fun way for students to come together”. 

The event was the product of  WMCN’s desire to provide free, accessible and diversified music to the community. Attendees were encouraged, but not required, to bring in their own music to swap, so everyone from avid CD collectors to people who haven’t ever used a CD player could join in on the fun. The event also provided students the opportunity to go through or add to their music collection sustainably. Despite uncertainty surrounding whether or not people would have CD’s to bring in to swap, there was a great turnout, with people coming in and out of the station well into the afternoon 

“We had a few people come in with CDs to trade, and even more people picked up something new to them, and free,”Marko said. 

In an effort to ensure that everyone who attended the event could come home with something, the WMCN team pooled together a collection beforehand, so even the first students at the event had something to browse. The tables were stacked with CD’s assortment of music from Prince to Omar Sosa. Some CDs were from the WMCN team members’ personal collections, some were sent in as gifts from community members who are fans of the station and some were the result of generous parent donations. 

“WMCN staff member Abby [Bulger ’24]* brought a ton of CDs from her mother’s collection, which featured a wide variety of genres and a lot of albums from the 80s. This was a great contribution to the event,” Marko said. 

The WMCN team also burned copies of a limited edition team playlist, The WMCN Jester Mix, a nod to the event taking place on April Fools Day. The mix was curated by the entire team, and was burned onto CDs by team member CC Servon ’25,featuring a variety of April Fools themed songs and artists. 

You may ask, who even uses CDs anymore? The use of CD’s have declined significantly due to the digitization of music and the popularization of streaming platforms.

“Even at the radio station, most DJs play music from their computers,” Marko added. 

Yet there is something so sentimental about CDs, they are reminiscent of childhood for college-aged students. This very nostalgia was central in Marko’s development of this event. 

“CDs are a genuinely nostalgic technology for our generation,” Marko said. “My parents introduced me to some of my favorite artists in my childhood, playing CDs in the car on the way to school, or on the stereo at home.” 

Based on the reception to the event, a possible resurgence of the CD as a form of listening is on its way. Last Saturday’s CD swap will definitely not be the last for WMCN. 

“I hope we can put on this event again next year,” Marko said.   

The CD swap is just one of many events WMCN radio has scheduled for this month. Upcoming opportunities include Big Gig on April 21, and Late Night Broadcast on May 5. Follow @wmcn.radio on instagram to stay updated on these events, and support student-run, community radio! 

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