As you may know, WTUL runs out of the basement (yes, a real basement in New Orleans) of the Tulane University student center known as the LBC. When Tulane shifted to moving classes online, they cut the hours of the LBC, so we shifted our schedule too. We had a pretty serious amount of cleaning supplies in the station -- our hardware has never been sparklier. However, as the city and we as its citizens become more serious about staying in our homes to contain the virus, we think it's responsible to not have our DJs risk exposure and spreading by coming into the studio.
A week ago when our schedule changed, we hastily put together an automation system to air during nights that we're calling TULbot. TULbot draws from our digitzed vinyl archives, recent modern music additions, and some fun vintage clips. Having listened to tons of its selections, TULbot's got more personality than you would expect.
However, as a college radio station, we are philosophically the antithesis of automated music selection that is so prevalent in streaming services. WE ARE NOT AUTOMATION ONLY. Our DJs are preparing shows in advance from their homes to be aired, often during the hours you would expect them. Not all of our DJs have the technical means and know-how to do this, and we're working on that. It's going to be a slow start, but we hope to grow it into the vibrant schedule we had before.
In the meantime, TULbot's spins are on a separate twitter account than our @WTUL_Playlist. You can see what our robot chooses at @theTULbot.
Stay safe, listeners! I hope we can provide some good weirdness during these weird times.