Live radio show coming to Warwick Library starting July 20

Jennifer Rodrigues
Posted 7/18/13

The Warwick Public Library aims to bring the fun of live radio to the city by partnering with WRIU 90.3 FM for “It’s Your Pick: The WRIU Radio Game Show.”

On July 20 and again on Aug. 3, …

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Live radio show coming to Warwick Library starting July 20

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The Warwick Public Library aims to bring the fun of live radio to the city by partnering with WRIU 90.3 FM for “It’s Your Pick: The WRIU Radio Game Show.”

On July 20 and again on Aug. 3, the Library will play host to this live game show that will be aired on WRIU, the radio station for the University of Rhode Island (URI), starting in August.

Each day, there will be two shows, the first at 1 p.m. and the second at 3 p.m.

“It was an idea I had that I thought would be fun,” said Wil Gregersen, community services librarian, about the musical game show.

The show, which was designed by Gregersen and WRIU’s Chris Warren, requires contestants to pick songs they believe match the show’s selected theme through three rounds of competition.  The members of the live “studio” audience will select the winner of each round.

For example, the theme of the 1 p.m. show on July 20 is Best TV Theme Song. The three contestants will have to pick songs that could be the theme music for a TV show about their life. For each round, the contestants must decide a song for the show based on a certain genre: sitcom, gritty drama and children’s action cartoon. There is also a bonus round.

The themes for the remaining three shows are Finest Songs About Fighting, the Best Song About The End Of The World and the Most Obscure Song.

“They are open to pick any songs they want,” said Gregersen, adding that they must be selected prior to the show so the song can be in the queue, ready to play. Warren and Gregersen also need the songs ahead of time to be prepared with the song lyrics, which will be projected on screens so the live audience can read them.  

Because of the radio equipment and game show staging area taking up space in the meeting room, Gregersen said there are only 50 tickets available for each of the four shows. Tickets are free, and can be requested by mail by calling 739-5440 extension 221, or picked up at the Welcome Desk at the Warwick Public Library.

Warren, a student at URI who plans to graduate this fall, explained that the four shows are each about an hour long and will air on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. in August. He plans to air the shows as they are recorded, only editing in the songs after the fact for better sound quality.

“People will really be able to listen to the tracks and follow along,” said Warren.

Warren, who has been working at WRIU for four years and was the general manager during this past school year, said that 12 contestants (three for each show) would be DJs from the station. All of the WRIU DJs are either URI students or community members who have had shows for years.

“We figured it would be a way for our various people to match up their tastes,” said Warren, “for example, matching up a classical host against a hip-hop DJ.”

According to Warren, who may serve as host of the game show, the WRIU station has a number of DJs covering a variety of musical genres such as jazz, folk, rock, hip-hop and more.

“I think that it will be interesting,” said Warren of the event.

In addition to the event being free of charge for audience members, Gregersen said the event is costing the Library nothing. The staff at WRIU, who Warren said are all current URI students, is volunteering their time and equipment for the event. They have already spent time with Gregersen at the Library performing a test run of the equipment.

“Everyone is doing it for the love of doing it,” said Gregersen.

Gregersen came up with the idea to bring a live radio broadcast to the library because he is a fan of live radio and its ability to allow a listener to paint their own picture of what is going on. Gregersen believes a great example of this is listening to a live sports broadcast on the radio.

“A baseball game on the radio is just such an open experience. [The listener] has time to think about what is going on with no visual distraction,” said Gregersen. “It seems like a more intimate experience.”

He believes it can be the same way with music.

For more information about “It’s Your Pick,” stop by or call the Warwick Public Library.

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