Graffiti Radio: Delmarva Banking On Younger Sound

Delmarva Broadcasting Co. is betting the combination of new artists, young programmers and new technology will prepare the company nicely for the HD radio world of the future.

“If you’re an early adopter, you do it because you believe in it, there is a future, there will be a tipping point,” said Pete Booker, president of the company told delawareonlibne.com. “The time will come very soon.”

HD radio, which requires a special receiver, provides CD-quality sound for the listener, Booker said. For the radio station’s operators, it allows them to use the spectrum they already have to add additional stations.

So although WSTW advertises itself as 93.7 FM, it technically occupies the spectrum between 93.6 and 93.8, Booker said. That, he said, allows the station to squeeze three HD stations into its existing spectrum, he said.

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In the summer of 2005, they called together all of the company’s employees younger than 30 to provide their ideas for what a new radio station should be. In reality, it was the people in their early 30s who took the most interest in crafting the station – “Everyone thinks they’re younger and hipper than they are,” said Booker, who has been in radio since 1969.

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Graffiti Radio – “graffiti is a creative expression of contemporary art,” Booker explained – began broadcasting in October 2006, under the formal name WSTW HD2, or 93.7-2.  At first, the music had a much harder edge, reflecting the alternative music of the day, Weidel said.

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They later switched to a format which includes indie rock, funk, synth pop and hip-hop. In 2010, they hired two employees to program the station and be its on-air personalities. Today, they are Sabrina Sabia, its program director, and Amber Macey, its content producer.

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