Matthew Egan, co-founder of Roger Williams student run radio station, returned to campus to recap on his passion for radio. On September 16th, Egan stopped by WQRI’s booth to re-experience his radio days, meeting with current DJs at the station and answering questions.
Egan helped start what was known as WROG in 1976. At the time RWU did have a radio club but it was not yet on air, until Egan stepped in.
“I said, ‘Look here’s the charter, I’m going to the Senate. We’re going to get funny. We’re going to have a radio station. If you want to stay in the radio club, you knock yourselves out. You want to be DJs on the air in six months, then join me,’” said Egan.
Egan had done his part in the recruitment process, bringing along alumni from the radio club as well as advertising around campus; whether it was live on air or on paper. Egan believes the promotion process is harder today for the station when compared to its earlier years.
“It wasn’t as hard as today, where you’re competing with social media and all the other things that can distract your audience today from their time and attention,” said Egan.
Egan between the years 1976-1977 hosted a Saturday and Sunday brunch show that ran for three hours; occasionally having other hosts on the show. Egan mentioned that weekend mornings and nights were the most popular times for shows.
“That was the best show. It was a captive audience, everyone was hungover and eating in the caf,” said Egan. “Nighttime people are out, whether they are on campus or not. Those shows are popular too.”
WQRI is able to play music on the air digitally while for WROG they had waited for records to arrive to expand their playlists. Egan stated how many DJs at the time brought in their own records playing genres like rock and roll and funk.
After obtaining his degree in accounting at RWU, Egan followed his passion and began working for Merrill Lynch on Wall Street in New York.
“I graduated with an accounting degree, and I loved wall street. Tony was the finance professor, and I never sat in the front row in my life. I sat right in the front row for that class. I was totally intrigued by the wall street and the stock market,” said Egan.
When COVID-19 hit in 2020, it gave time for Egan to pursue a passion that he states life got in the way of for years; that being writing. Egan’s writing is going to be featured in a book he is writing titled 1974. Egan states it is still a work in progress and the book will circle back to his time at RWU.
“Where’s my heroes’ journey? I came back to the radio station, then I started writing. Man, that book was writing itself so fast it wasn’t funny,” said Egan.
Writing is a way that Egan was able to document his time as a student and as a DJ for RWU. The digital age today opens the door for many to document their college experience that much easier, which Egan believes new DJs should be taking advantage of.
“I would just document it, archive it. You’re going to really appreciate having all that stuff later. 10, 20, 30 years you’re going to look back on that stuff,” said Egan. “These are the best years of life. You got to enjoy these years here. This is a magical time.”
