Vinylthon: 29 hours of vinyl records to be played this weekend on Ashland's 88.9FM WRDL

A neon-purple glow softly illuminated the studio as Brynn Meisse turned up the microphone and spoke to an audience across 10 Ohio counties.

Listeners of the Ashland University station come from the urban regions of Mansfield and Wooster, the rolling dairy country of Holmes County and the flat grain fields in Crawford County.

More importantly, those who tune in to 88.9FM WRDL to hear the 19-year-old senior from Ontario and her fellow DJs span three generations, from teenagers to senior citizens.

That's why this weekend's Vinylthon event could be one of the station's biggest of the year when jockeys play 29 hours of vinyl records ranging from 50-year-old classics to newly released hits.

"I am super excited about it," Meisse said. "I've always loved records and stuff."

29 hours of continuous vinyl music

Vinylthon is an annual 24-hour event organized by the College Radio Foundation, a non-profit charity in New Jersey, explained Derek Wood, the station's manager and an instructor of journalism and digital media for Ashland University.

"It's the fifth year of Vinylthon on WRDL," he said. "We decided, to celebrate five years, we're going to add five hours to the program."

The show will begin 7 p.m. Friday and will run 29 hours until the end of Saturday night.

The program will set a new station record for time of continuous vinyl audio transmission.

From junk to highly coveted

Vinyl records have surged in popularity over the last half decade and have created a bond among generations of all ages, said David McCoy, Ph.D., the chair of journalism and digital media for Ashland University.

He was in high school when he bought his first CD. Everyone then considered vinyl to be obsolete, so stores quit selling stylus needles and consumers invested in newer technology.

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Suddenly, records were valued more for their album art than their audio quality. Turntables were just taking up space. Even the professor's parents pitched his boyhood record player.

"The needle went bad," McCoy said. "I went off to college... all it would have needed was a needle replacement."

Now, that so-called junk record player would sell for hundreds of dollars.

Vinyl albums found at flee markets and thrift stores around the turn of the millennium for a nickel or 10¢ can now be sold online for upward of $50.

And new artists are releasing their latest albums in record format.

"If you would have told me in '84, '85, that someday vinyl would out sell CDs, I would have said then you were crazy," McCoy said. "But it did last year and it did the year before that."

'A much warmer sound'

Vinyl's allure comes from its high quality audio and its nostalgic presence.

"It's a much warmer sound," Wood said. "I think it's a sound that allows the listeners to be what they feel is closer to the artists and the songs... to have that connection I think creates a unique sound across our 10-county reach."

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Records introduce younger generations to an auditory art unmatched by modern technology, and the format's return to popularity has rekindled a love for music in their parents and grandparents.

"When you drop that stylus, you get pops and hisses," McCoy said. "To me it's a comforting thing. It's almost akin to a campfire. If you really think about it and close your eyes, it's like being in a peaceful situation. For me, vinyl makes me draw back to when I was younger into a really happy time."

Vinylthon broadens musical horizons

Some of the records that students will play over the air this weekend are nearly as old as the station itself.

The station opened in 1966 with a transmitter so small students at the far end of campus couldn't even pick up the frequency. Now it broadcasts at 3,000 watts and is heard across the region.

The station's manager is proud of WRDL's branding statement of "More Music, More You" and his staff's dedication to playing more music per hour than any other station in the area.

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Five years ago, the station held its first Vinylthon event to celebrate the record format, to engage audiences of all ages and to teach students more versatile skills.

"We didn't have a turn table, so we bought one," Wood said. "We've got two now."

They pulled albums from the station's archives: Quiet Riot, The Doors, Pink Floyd and other classics. Some of the students heard the albums for the first time ever, most becoming instant fans.

Jockeys also played new albums released on vinyl, allowing older listeners to hear modern artists like Adele or Bruno Mars through a format from their childhoods.

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"It introduces old and new and really blurs the lines between the two," Wood said.

Anyone who tunes in during this year's 29 hours of Vinylthon will hear genres of all types played back-to-back, the only connection being that the music is coming from a vinyl record.

"Vinylthon is really a genre-less day," Wood said. "It doesn't stick to one decade, one group of artists. When you're playing that much vinyl in that amount of time, we're really broadening the horizons."

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