Jesse Sommer ’05, station manager of WESU, has been interviewed by the Argus so many times he’s stopped counting. But Jesse is more than a radio-lover caught in the crossfire. He is also a WESU talk show host, a former WSA presidential candidate, and perhaps the shortest-lived member of Prometheus and the wrestling team in University history.
MB: Tell me about your radio show.
JS: I genuinely believe I am the campus’ most legitimate talk show celebrity. I have a show on Sunday evenings at 10:30, which was recently reported to have close to 79,000 listeners per week.
MB: Wow. What’s your show about?
JS: It covers all realms of the political spectrum, and we have recently begun featuring campus musical and literary talent on the show. We encourage student contributors to the show who have no problem with surrendering all the credit to me. And perhaps the best feature about my broadcast is that, as station manager, I am absolutely unaccountable. Our topics include the political abortion that was the 2004 election, but I would say about 90 percent of the material revolves around my advocating the merits and size of my manhood. Radio is the best medicine for rampant insecurity because no one can see me.
MB: On what side of the political spectrum would you say your manhood falls?
JS: Both. It’s that big.
MB: I guess I kind of asked for that, didn’t I. Where do you find your other contributors to the political part of the show?
JS: Believe it or not, Wesleyan’s ability to produce fundamental political ideologies is actually great material for student activists who need to take themselves lightly now and then. Two of the personalities on my show are very engaged with campus issues, but often turn to comedy to formulate their true opinion.
MB: How much do they clash?
JS: Totally. I’ve never seen any type of perspective reconciliation on the show but when the aim is to entertain, our writers understand that disagreement is just another form of performance.
MB: Wait–are they writers?
JS: Some are writers. We have a few voice people, but the most crucial components to the overall attitude of the show are the people who are involved with its behind the scenes production, and the range of topics makes the show highly accessible to people who either tune in for our weekly news wrap-up, or to hear the 19 seconds of moaning for our boys down in the Connecticut State Correctional Facility. Our target audience is Middletown residents between the ages of 16 and 32.
MB: Okay, so going back to the lack of reconciliation–is this a Crossfire-style thing, where people are disagreeing on fundamentals, or is it liberal Wesleyan students arguing?
JS: Um, I would say the latter, but it’s certainly better structured than Crossfire, in that we’re actually good. But I would say there’s a pretty even distribution of political ideologies. For example, our producer voted for John Kerry and our head writer voted for Benito Mussolini.
MB: Oh! I didn’t know he was running. What other topics have you covered?
JS: Most recently, we featured the student minds behind the Sudan charity CD project, which was preceded by a lively debate as to whether or not the decision by that bangin’ 23-year old middle-school teacher to make a 14-year old’s dreams come true was really that morally questionable.
MB: What do you think?
JS: Of course, how horrible.
MB: Uh huh. How was being in Prometheus?
JS: Technically I was only in it for like a day. But in the hospital for four. And that had something to do with my decision. Prometheus was one of a long list of student groups and athletic teams that I joined and was ultimately convinced were not for me.
MB: Did you actually get to the part where you throw fire?
JS: Is there…fire in Prometheus?
MB: No, I was kidding. All right, how about the wrestling team?
JS: Again, hospital. But I suppose my most painful experience in the extracurricular field was the resounding defeat I unexpectedly experienced at the ballot box during my WSA presidential candidacy last year. The station manager position at WESU, however, has proven to be sufficiently political.
MB: What happened with the WSA?
JS: The students made a wise, albeit totally incorrect choice.
MB: What was your platform?
JS: I pledged to continue yelling “give us your daughters” to passing tour groups, thereby having a dramatic impact on the Administration’s attempts to handpick the freshman class. More than any other factor, I believe my contribution to inappropriate public discourse has helped give Wesleyan the identity it has so avidly sought to maintain.
MB: I guess I’ve never seen Emily Polak [’05, WSA president] yell at tour groups. Maybe I shouldn’t have voted for her.
JS: Yeah. It always strikes me as odd what voters consider to be “qualifications”.
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