Ben Borgers

3:00 a.m. Radio

February 10, 2022

Tufts has a radio station called WMFO, and my impression is that they have a ton of one-hour broadcasting slots to fill each week, so they have a ton of students coming into to each fill an hour of airtime. 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week.

I learned a couple months ago that someone I know from my pre-orientation backpacking trip is a DJ for WMFO, and that her slot was at 3am on Friday mornings. So every Friday, a bit before 3am, sheā€™d come down to the radio station and get ready to broadcast for an hour.

Thereā€™s something that I love about that idea. Walking down the hill in the dead hours of the night, when itā€™s completely silent on campus, to sit in the thick quiet air and talk into a mic for an hour in between music tracks.

Something about it feels extremely calm and therapeutic.

I guess thereā€™s something magical about being awake when almost no one else is. Whenever I wake up early to watch the sunrise (which, admittedly, is about twice a year at most), thereā€™s this great feeling that comes from driving when the whole world is asleep. It feels like the whole world is mine in that moment.

Thereā€™s also something interesting about broadcasting and not knowing whoā€™s out there listening ā€” or whether anyoneā€™s listening at all. Iā€™d imagine it takes the pressure off, but you can still speak as if youā€™re sharing whatā€™s on your mind with someone. In the process, you kinda talk things out with yourself.

Itā€™s a bit like this blog. I write things here, and I think some amount of people will read them at some point (I mean, you are at least), but itā€™s very different from telling people how I feel directly. If Iā€™m telling you something directly, thereā€™s this expectation that youā€™ll find what I have to say interesting.

On my blog, you only read if it interests you. Iā€™m putting my thoughts in a publicly reachable spot and saying, ā€œhere they are, take a look if youā€™d like.ā€ And if you read them, Iā€™m happy about that! And if you donā€™t, thatā€™s okay too. Either way, I enjoyed writing it.

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