ETSU’s radio station, The Edge, now has a hip-hop-themed show. The Pre-Game Show will be on the air every Thursday night from 8 to midnight with live, in-studio performances, entertaining hosts who play off one another nicely and a constantly updating and fan-responsive playlist.
Justin Mason, 23, Johnson City, and Kevin Cullins, 22, Denver are the hosts of the show. It is a concept they have been interested in for some time.
Senior undergraduate major Kelly Cline helped the show become a reality, and oversees much of the music aspect, while Mason handles the production.
“I had to fight for it because hip-hop has been strong and we’ve been missing that audience,” said Mason.
The show’s theme song was performed live by a duo of ETSU sophomores, who will be doing a recorded version later in the week to be used in the future.
Tony Windrow, 19, Nashville, is the MC while the DJ, who is also 19 and from Nashville, preferred not to give his real name, and would rather be known only as DJ Blaq (pronounced black).
Windrow and Blaq have been making music together and separately since attending middle school together.
“We had every class together in seventh grade,” said DJ Blaq,” and some through high school.”
Blaq has also performed at venues such as the Casbah, and Rafters, while Windrow has focused on developing his song writing abilities.
“However my day goes, that’s the mood I’m going to start writing in,” said Windrow.
DJ Blaq demonstrated his turntable abilities with the setup he brought to the studio which included 2 CD turntables and a mixer.
Both the live on-air scratching, as well as live rapping were said to have been the first time either had been done on ETSU radio airwaves.
The Pre-Game show provides a very interactive atmosphere. Artists who visit the studios are asked to sign the walls in the hallway.
Music news and a listing of upcoming album releases and area concerts were announced on the air.
The hosts fill more of the allotted break time with entertaining interaction, than the typical hosts on the station.
Listeners calls are also welcome, as they urged anyone to call in and put them onto artists they were not yet familiar with.
The song lineup featured many current well known hip-hop artists such as Kanye West, T.I., Three 6 Mafia, Lil Wayne, David Banner, Rick Ross and the Gym Class Heroes.
There were a few R&B songs from people like Ne-Yo and Chris Brown, as well as older songs thrown in the mix from artists like Eminem, Warren G, N2Deep and Sean “Whatever he’s calling himself this week” Combs.
Instead of just running through the same standard songs in the same format, some straying from the typical radio formula was in place as they played the full album from ETSU undergrad Lane Shuler during part of the first hour.
A non-single album track from Lil Wayne was put on the air, and they played the brand new E-40 & Akon song “Wake It Up.” They are also going to have “double shots” were they play two songs related in some way, back to back.
The Pre-Game show is one of three specialty shows airing on The Edge. This semester is the first time that the broadcasts are available at edgeradioalternative.com.
“I didn’t even know we had a radio station my first semester here,” said Cullins.
The station’s broadcasts were previously placed on campus cable channel 13, and served as the accompanying sound to the continuous slide show promoting upcoming events within the region. It can still be found there, in addition to streaming on the Web site.
“We just got it up and running over the summer,” said Mason. “We’re going to have news updates and other stuff, but we’re still working some things out. Everything will be up completely by next semester.”
You can check out the stations Web site www.edgeradioalternative.com for more information.

Author