It was love at first sound -- for her at least.
She was depressed, broken-hearted and alone and the late-night disc jockey at WFRD-FM 99 Rock agreed to play her song request.
Though DJ Jim Donnelly '97 thought he would never hear from her again, he was completely mistaken.
The woman called back and managed to find out Donnelly was over 18. She decided to pay him a visit at 2 a.m.
"I had a friend up there with me luckily," Donnelly said.
But the visitor remained undaunted and continued to call him during his night shift for the rest of the year.
When you are on late at night, "you play bartender," Donnelly said.
DJ's at the most popular radio station in Grafton County may sometimes have listeners who are too hot to handle, but they are not complaining.
Arbitron Co., a nationally recognized rating company, ranked WFRD number one for the past two years, even though Dartmouth students were not included in the survey.
The company asked a sampling of people in Grafton County to record their listening habits, the Valley News reported.
There are an estimated 10,600 listeners in the area, excluding Dartmouth students, said Hank Broaddus '97, the summer general manager of Dartmouth broadcasting.
Twenty student volunteers are working as DJs this summer, said Donnelly, who is also WFRD's summer program director.
"Once you get the hang of it, it's kind of fun," DJ Matt Richardson '97 said.
DJs must undergo a training session before going on the air, Richardson said.
But DJs agreed learning how to use the equipment is not a difficult process.
It is "easy to learn how to do it, but tougher to learn how to do it well," Donnelly said.
The station broadcasts daily from 6 a.m. to midnight during the summer and from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m. throughout the regular school year, Broaddus said.
Broaddus said DJs usually begin their careers on later shifts to avoid stress.
The shift from midnight to 3 a.m. is great, Donnelly said, because DJs do not have to run advertisements.
WFRD is more of a commercial radio station than a college station, Broaddus said, and though listeners know Dartmouth students run the station, it is not identified with the College on the air.
"It's a unique opportunity to have what we have here," he said.
Tim Hoehn, head of the professional sales staff, said WFRD came into existence in the late 1970s.
Broaddus said the station gradually changed from playing jazz and classical music to become a classic rock station in 1990.
Dave Stefanowicz '97, the summer music and finance director, is in charge of deciding what new music to put on the air.
Although Stefanowicz said WFRD "is based in classic rock," he described it as "more of a rock station without the classic label."
There has been an increase in the number of new songs played, he said, which reflects the nationwide change in radio stations.
Stefanowicz said record companies call and send compact discs asking the station to play songs.
By gaining input from other people at WFRD, reading trade magazines and watching television, he decides what new material to put on the air.
"MTV is a good indication of what people want to hear," he said.
But sometimes record companies want to be the ones to convince the station what to put on the air.
Broaddus said the station recently received the new album of The Ramones from a record company -- along with a bottle of tequila.
"Sometimes the record companies send us pretty bizarre things" to convince the station to play their music, he said.
In order to prevent DJs from playing their favorite songs over and over again, the station maintains a strict rotation policy.
There is a "pretty rigid format in terms of rotation," Broaddus said.
DJs cannot play two songs by the same artist in a three hour period, he said.
Stefanowicz said the new music he decides to play goes into heavy rotation, which means it can be played a couple of times a day.
Donnelley said the station is actually putting money back into the College, though previously, the College had to bail the station out of debt.
Though the station receives its primary income from advertisers, the College also supports the station Broaddus said.
He said the station is currently a "commercial success."
But the station still faces some problems, especially because it is understaffed.
"It is tough to run a volunteer organization where you're expecting people to volunteer six hours per week," Donnelly said.
Students do receive payment for working during interim, Stefanowicz said. The station is legally obligated to broadcast during interim, so the salary is an incentive for students to stay and help out, he said.
