WELSCH: Five college radio stations worth listening to

Aside from being the director of the Daily Nebraskan Web department and writing this column every week, I have another job on campus as a music director for our campus radio station, 90.3 KRNU. It's a nice job.

Doing that "job," I essentially get paid to listen to music – at least that's how it would seem on the surface. A lot more work actually goes into it. My responsibilities involve a LOT of phone calls to promoters and labels and sifting through their spin to find good music. It involves listening to a LOT of really bad music and a LOT of judgment on my part to determine what's good for our listeners. There's also a LOT of record-keeping, research and tech work.

It takes a lot of work to keep a quality college radio station up and running. But, a lot of times, a good station can separate a good college from a mediocre one, so it's all worth it. There are lots and lots of colleges, and most of them have radio stations. I listen to a lot of them via iTunes Radio to gauge how well KRNU is doing comparatively, and I have found some real gems.

Casey's Top 5 college radio stations (other than KRNU, of course)

1. WMHB 89.7 FM from Colby College in Waterville, Maine – I was drawn right into this tiny little radio station from the moment I started streaming it. The song that was playing was "Brothers on the Slide" by Cymande, one of my favorite funk groups. I quickly rushed to the station's Web site to see if they had a funk show like KRNU but was surprised to find out that the song was simply part of their general format programming. This is what is known as free form radio, or radio without a genre. WMHB has a large number of specialty shows that span all conceivable genres, from bluegrass to urban beat to Japanese pop. The variety is incredible, and the DJs are all on top of their game.

Song playing on WMHB while writing this column: "Can't Hardly Wait (Main Mix Clean)" by N'Dambi on the electronic show Pink and Big.

2. The Berklee Internet Radio Network from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts – BIRN is a collection of five different Internet radio stations that play a variety of music between them. BIRN 1 is the student-run station, playing whatever the hell they want. BIRN 2 is a live music and events broadcasting station. BIRN 3 and 4 play music of Berklee alumni, and with such noted musicians as Rivers Cuomo, Mulatu Astatke, Steve Vai, Johnny Ramone and Ripper Owens all coming from Berklee, the stations don't grow stale. BIRN 5 is a collaborative musical effort run by Berklee's international network of music education partners. With that kind of international collaboration going on throughout the 5 channels, nothing ever gets boring or normal.

Playing on BIRN 1 while writing this: "Carrousel" by Motion Trio on Accordions Can Smell Fear. Crazy, but surprisingly good.

3. Pulse Radio from London School of Economics – That's right, London. The real one. In England. I listen to this station whenever I want to hear how the music scene in England is shaping, and they're a good barometer for this task, as they play predominantly British pop and rock music, which is like American pop and rock music, but good. Also, I don't know much about content regulations in UK radio, but it must be a little more lax than in the states. With show names like "STK gets a BJ," "Holy Folk" and "Loose Beavers," it's almost like their trying to mock us and our little FCC.

Playing on Pulse while writing this: "Golden Skans" by the Klaxons.

4. WNYU 89.1 from New York University in New York City, New York – This station is pretty typical sounding of most college radio stations. It plays a lot of indie rock, underground hip-hop and avant-garde music. WNYU, however, has the distinction of being associated with NYU. In New York. Where all the indie rock, underground hip-hop and avant-garde music is made. This enables them to have the same stuff that all the other college stations have weeks before. This is the place to turn for new music before anyone else even calls it new, because no one has heard it yet.