I started out as a radio show host for The Dog at Drake University in October 2021. I originally was just a one man show, talking about whatever came to my mind and playing a wide variety of genres, anything from country, to alternative rock, to classic rock, anything. My last few solo shows were in December 2021 after Spotify Wrapped had been released for that year, so I based my last few shows off of my playlist for 2021.
The Rise of “Backtalk”
After the new year, I reached out to my friend, JD Snover, and asked if he wanted do a show together. He agreed, and we created the show, Backtalk with Will and JD, on Friday mornings at 10:00 am. We would talk a lot about sports since we are both baseball fans, but that’s not all we talk about. We talk about movies, different types of music genres we listen to, among many other topics.
There were a few shows throughout the semester where we would have a certain theme to each show. There was one show in particular I remember where we would play famous songs from different movies. We played songs like “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton (from “9 to 5”), “Lose Yourself” by Eminem (from “8 Mile”), and “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel (from “The Graduate”). There was another show we did where it was a similar them, but we narrowed it down to just the Guardians of the Galaxy movies since they were (and still are) popular among people in JD and I’s generation, with a few songs being played including “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone and “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede. It was a lot of fun getting to do this show with not only a second person, but someone that is a good friend and we were able to have a natural conversation on air and be able to entertain all of the listeners of our program
After a full year of being on The Dog at Drake University and doing Backtalk with Will and JD for the spring 2022 semester, we were awarded the “Top Dog” award for DJ’s of the year. It was a great honor to receive and we were both very grateful for it. We knew after won that award, we would have to work hard to earn it again the next academic year.
