WNAA 90.1-FM is the broadcast voice of A&T.90.1, started in 1979 with Tony Welbourne, an A&T radio production teacher that worked at A&T’s first station WANT-AM, being one of the founding fathers.

It was courageously built by students in A&T’s Industrial Technology Department. 90.1 is paid for by the community and it caters to the alumni but what about the students that go here?

Do they get a say so on what the station plays?

After getting over 1,000 students to sign my petition that requested to hear rap and R&B artist from A&T on A&T’s radio station, I was appalled at what I discovered.

Over half of the students didn’t know A&T had a radio station and the other half knew we had one but said they didn’t listen to it.

“I don’t listen to the A&T radio station because I haven’t heard them play a lot of new school music,” music major Jay Pitt said.This is not surprising to me.

I would expect a young generation to want to hear the music of their times.

As a young musician myself, I know it’s hard to get music played on the radio because of so many rules and regulations.

One has to think about who is the demographic and will they like the music you play.

Next, one has to think about the time slot their music will get played.

If most people listen to the radio station on weekdays, during the daytime, all your songs will be done in vain if they are only played on the weekends at 3 a.m.

Even though 90.1 started out playing a variety of rap, it has morphed into a jazz, smooth R&B and gospel station for the most part.

They have steered away from hip-hop because all the other surrounding stations play hip-hop.

But ask yourself, should they abolish rap because other stations play it? Especially since A&T is an HBCU, the station should have a reasonable time slot for new school hip-hop because rap is apart of the African-American Culture.

If A&T wants their own students to listen to their own station and support their own people, we, as a school, have to continuously advance and improve with the times.

You paid for college, so why not get the full potential out of it? So call your campus station, (336)-334-7936, and request music with diversity because it’s time for a change.

Over 1,000 students have spoken, but will they listen?Billy Dee Williams can be reached at [email protected]

• Billy Dee Williams