The ground floor of the Marvin Center was all but deserted at 11 p.m. Monday night. But in the WRGW studios, a small revolution was taking place.
WRGW, which recently moved into its new studios, hosted a live rock performance on the air.
The station featured local group EBO on the “Locals Only” broadcast, a new show for WRGW. The show is the brainchild of a 16-year-old intern, Joshua Wolfe, who goes by the name “Jimmy the Intern” on the air.
“I spend my whole life with this music,” Wolfe said. “I know all the useless facts about the bands.”
Wolfe is a junior at the School Without Walls, a high school on campus. The school requires him to find an internship.
He originally went to WRGW to intern off the air, not host a show.
“We were just going to have him file CDs,” WRGW General Manager Jason Cohen said. Wolfe came to Cohen with the idea of the show and the station is giving it a try.
“He’s grown up to be an instrumental part of the station as a whole,” Cohen said.
For his third show Wolfe took on the project of booking EBO. During the one-hour show, the band played, and then Wolfe interviewed the members.
EBO is not unknown to WRGW. They are number four on the station’s top 30, and the band played at last year’s Fall Fest.
EBO, who is beginning a tour of college radio stations, released its second CD, Secret Weapon, Tuesday. The band members describe their music as, “melodic power pop with an edge.”
A crowd of WRGW staff gathered around the studio to watch the live performance, a historical moment for the station.
“This is the best concert seat I’ve had in my life,” said Duncan Autrey, a WRGW disc jockey and producer.
Many others took delight in watching Wolfe’s “ear to ear” smile while the band played.
“He’s having the time of his life,” said Raphael Rodriguez, a former co-host with Wolfe. “He could be doing homework now.”
“It’s really exciting that we have a studio with great visibility,” WRGW Program Director Eva Price said. “We can showcase the talent of the staff in getting this band.”
The band will be playing and signing albums at Tower Records Friday at 12:30 p.m. They will be playing a free show with Mary Prankster at The Garage, a new club in D.C., Saturday.
As for WRGW, the directors plan on having many more live performances. The station is planning to bring two more groups, The Sheila Divine and The Hippos, to the studio Oct. 10 and 11.
WRGW plans to begin live 24-hour Internet broadcasts at its Web site <a href=http://www.gwradio.com>www.gwradio.com.