How did you get involved in WBOR?
Peter Nauffts: It was during Ivies. It was one of those Ivies things.
Amanda Maisel: It was a drunk Ivies promise that actually happened.
Stevie Lane: It actually happened. I feel like I had ambitions to be better friends with both of these people, so this was going to be a way to do it.
What do you do on the show?
PN: Just play music.
AM: It varies. We’ve had a few thematic episodes where we talk a lot.
SL: We did a special for Valentine’s Day, where we had our friends call in and dedicate songs to other friends. They could request limericks, so we would write love limericks and recite them.
AM: Most of our show consists of Stevie and I embarrassing Peter exactly in the way that we are now.
PN: That’s true.
AM: And in between we play some music.
PN: That’s true.
What kind of music do you play?
AM: We play at least one song per show that one of our parents thinks is for them because it’s oldies. We play a lot of Fleetwood Mac.
SL: We’ve started this new thing where we pull a CD off the shelf and play the first song that’s on the CD.
AM: But before we got the CDs to work, we pulled a song and played it on YouTube, which is embarrassing.
What’s behind the name “Face of Radio?”
AM: Radio is for ugly people, so Face of Radio is supposed to be funny.
SL: Both ironic and incredibly unoriginal, which is maybe what our entire show is actually.
Who is your audience?
AM: Most of our show is playing oldies for me and Stevie’s parents.
SL: Also my aunt and uncle out in Minneapolis, they tune in, so we have a pretty wide, geographic—
AM: Intergenerational—
SL: Our geographic spread is pretty impressive.
AM: Peter has not told his parents that we have a radio show, so his parents aren’t part of the audience.
Favorite moments from the show?
SL: There’s a bathroom [in the radio station], and I’m really afraid of closed and tight spaces. I had to pee, so I went to the bathroom. And there are cinderblocks in there, and Peter and Amanda put a cinderblock outside the door, so I couldn’t get out of the bathroom, and I panicked at the time. Looking back, that was a highlight moment of our radio show.
AM: I think any time that we speak and Peter is similarly uncomfortable with us making fools of ourselves, as he is now, is a pretty great moment.
Anything new you’ve learned?
PN: We don’t play that much new music.
SL: Two weeks ago I learned that Peter doesn’t like gummies.
PN: What?
SL: Two weeks ago I learned that you don’t like gummies.
PN: Oh I thought we were talking about music.
SL: Well we’re talking about what we learned in the show.
AM: I feel like we all got to know each other’s music tastes a little bit, even if it’s oldies. Sometimes I learn of new music via Stevie’s parents’ requests.
SL: Traffic. Every time we play Traffic, we do independently because we like Traffic. But my dad texts me “Are you doing this for me?” And I’m like “No, I guess thanks for listening…”
Any listeners or callers you know of?
SL: We learned that the Brunswick High School girls’ basketball team likes to listen to us because they call in.
AM: Occasionally friends.
SL: We did get one guy from town who called in and requested a Paul Simon song, which is totally in our flavor, then said “good job, keep playing good music.”
Final thoughts for your audience?
SL: Peter, want to take this one?
PN: Nope.
AM: Everyone should have a radio show.
PN: That’s good, everyone should have a radio show, or try it.
AM: It’s really fun. If there is any take-away from this interview, it is that you don’t have to be very legit to have a radio show. You can just be figuring out music along the way.
Tune in to “Face of Radio” with DJs Lane, Maisel and Nauffts on WBOR 91.1 FM every Tuesday from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. or stream online at wbor.org. To suggest a DJ for DJ of the Week or an Artist for Portrait of an Artist, email Arts & Entertainment Editor Emily Weyrauch at eweyrauc@bowdoin.edu.