Music is an important part of KBPS radio, and the Chief of Music helps facilitate it. Nick Oates, the current chief of music, states, “As chief of music, I’m responsible for all of the music we put into KBPS’s library and play on air. So I do things like finding new music. I check charts and what’s trending on Spotify and on social media, and I see what’s a good fit for the station.” He also says that he edits out curse words and anything that isn’t appropriate to play on air.

However, he doesn’t have full control. Oates expresses that the decision to play Christmas music did not come from him, and that he voiced opposition.

He also says, “One of my goals is to set, kind of a guide on how to edit songs, because a lot of past chiefs of music kind of just chose the songs, but then didn’t do as much production work.” Another one of his goals for the year is to update the “Teen Sound” category of music on the radio, which is meant to be music that was released between one to ten years ago. He hopes to update it, as it still has songs that were released ~30 years ago. Oates says it is meant to be “hip and modern for the youth or whatever.”

Oates says he chose to run for Chief of Music because, “…I was already editing a lot of songs for the station, so I kind of just thought it was the best fit.” He originally wanted to be a Computer Science major, joining the class on his first day of junior year. He says he already knew most of the technical aspects, but adds, “I was still really shy, and hated the idea of going up to people and, like, talking with them, which I’d have to do if I go to, like, tech conferences or something. So I swapped to radio because I thought, you know, if I’m going to be in a major, it might as well be something where I’m going to be learning something, and because I liked Radio sophomore year. So I just swapped the second day of junior year, and it’s been going great.”