On the ground floor of the Donohue Building on the Holyoke Community College campus sits college radio station WCCH 103.5 FM in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Blessed with several distinct spaces, the station has a cheerful lobby, a unique standalone on-air booth, and a podcast and live music base of operations down the hall. The aesthetically pleasing studios each have their own personality, making for a very welcoming feeling during my March 2026 visit.
Touring WCCH in March 2026
While WCCH is well organized and tidy, it’s definitely a creative, college radio space. Decorated vinyl records hang on pale green walls in the lobby near a hand-made “radio” sign, a collection of Vinylthon Golden Slipmats (earned for the station’s participation across many years), and a series of framed posters. DJs are known to bring in prized artifacts, including a Nirvana flag contributed by Student Manager Flynn Paul.
Down the hall, a podcast studio is surrounded by bright green and black soundproofing panels arranged in a checkerboard pattern. Just outside that room is WCCH’s “Studio B,” where live music sessions are recorded in the style of “Tiny Desk Concert.” This comparatively warm-toned stage is accented by a bright orange rug (General Manager Pat LaBelle described it as “the Austin Powers shag carpet”) and matching couch. Low black bookcases sit in the background near bright paintings and a “Good Vibes Only” sign.
Studio B Live Sessions
Before I walked in to “Studio B,” a group of WCCH participants had been hanging out and jamming in “guitar karaoke” style. In a jubilant mood, they offered to pose for photos on the set and in the podcasting room. One picked up a guitar as if performing in one of the station’s live sessions. They also pulled up an archive on the WCCH YouTube channel, sharing with me the final products from the multi-camera “Live from Studio B” recordings. Student Manager Paul talked about the process for doing the live music recordings, which utilizes a whole crew handling sound and a three-point camera system.
Funky On-Air Booth aka WCCH Sauna Room
While the live room and podcast studio feel sparkling and new, the on-air booth has the lived-in feel typical of a decades-old station. Unusual for college radio, the studio is a freestanding structure, resembling a large safe or industrial walk-in freezer, sitting within a relatively spartan room. Baby blue on the outside, only the studio door is plastered with band and radio station stickers. A wood grain-style sign reads “Broadcast Studio,” with another sign inscribed with “WCCH Sauna Room” sitting just below it. Two on-air lights are mounted at the top of the booth. LaBelle said, “tragically, our on-air lights just went out. They’ve probably been up there since 1976.”
In the Studio with DJ Daymen T
After pulling open the studio door, we spied DJ Daymen T (aka Daymen Toussaint) in the midst of his show. Sitting in a dark studio, he was singing along to the music, clearly enjoying his show, which included some college radio favorites from decades ago like Violent Femmes and the Cure. He said he’s been listening to a lot of The White Stripes, so was initially going to play music from other two-member bands like the Black Keys and the Royal Bloods. “But then I went off on a tangent with other stuff and I said, I’m not going to limit myself,” he shared, telling me that he ended up expanding that night’s theme to indie rock in general. His music choices vary depending upon his mood. The prior week he played R&B and “soul jazz club” music, ending with material that he referred to as “80s prom night.”
The compact WCCH studio booth contains many of the usual college radio items including two turntables, CD players, and microphones. High on shelf sits a framed “Updated FCC Policies” document containing a list of the words not to say on the radio. Toussaint noted that he had received the decorative frame as a wedding gift and since it had been sitting around unused, he figured he would donate it to the station.
WCCH on the Upswing in its 50th Anniversary Year
On an upswing, WCCH has around 40 shows currently. That’s a dramatic increase from the handful of participants when General Manager LaBelle joined in September 2024. An enthusiastic cheerleader for the station, LaBelle beamed with pride as he pointed to a copy of The Holyoke Sun that featured a front page article about WCCH.
WCCH History Snapshot: From Campus-Only AM in 1976 to FM Debut in 1977
In the midst of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the student-run station was established in 1976 as a campus-only carrier current station (WHHC 640 AM) and launched over class D FM in November 1977 (originally at 89.5 FM). In the early days, WCCH purposefully avoided edgier music like punk, heavy metal and acid rock, according to a November 26, 1977 piece in the Transcript-Telegram. At the time, the student station played jazz, classical, and Christian rock music and aired news and talk shows about movies and theater. During the WCCH reunion on April 30, more than 100 alumni returned to campus to share memories and mementos from their time at the station. LaBelle recounted that at the event “the love for college radio and WCCH was palpable!!”
Run as a club, LaBelle estimates that WCCH is comprised of 95% students, with a few alums and non-students “grandfathered” in due to their longevity at the station. In order to add more live shows to the schedule, LaBelle is starting up an alumni program and hopes to expand the programming schedule in the evenings and on the weekends. Currently during the late night hours, WCCH runs automated programming.
Wide-Ranging Shows across the Schedule at the Freeform Station
Just outside the WCCH studio, a large chalkboard displays the weekly programming schedule, which generally runs from 6am to 10pm. In addition to DJ names, show titles and times, the grid is also full of accompanying drawings that illustrate the variety of offerings. Some of the shows include “Noise Man,” “Genre Fluid,” “Cat Loaf,” “Freak Wave,” “The Lost Mix Tape,” and “Elastic Glam Radio.” DJs play a wide range of genres. LaBelle described the station as freeform, telling me that DJs play “everything from death metal to Taylor Swift.”
In commenting on the schedule, LaBelle pointed out various show hosts, noting, “everyone’s so creative and so different.” One example is DJ Wooper, who shares gaming news and plays rock music on the Wednesday afternoon program “Highscores & Hi-Volts.” As we chatted, another DJ, “Radio Royal,” popped by, chiming in about the importance of radio, noting, “There’s just such a huge community of people who like different music, but radio ties everybody in together.”
Public affairs and talk shows are also part of the line-up. Student Manager Paul was producing a show called “Science Saturdays,” as part of a final project in their STEM Scholars program. For the show, the goal was to collect interview with Paul’s “fellow scholars” and “staff members in the biology and other STEM departments” at Holyoke Community College.
Vinyl “Record Keepers” Display to Recognize DJs and Staff
WCCH likes to recognize its participants and one ongoing ritual is for DJs to decorate and inscribe vinyl records (many of which the DJs have brought in) with their names and years on the air. This “Record Keepers” display honors past station managers and DJs who have had at least “two successful semesters on-air.” In addition to the records on the walls, bins and shelves contain mostly older records from the past. Although the studio is outfitted with turntables, LaBelle said that records are usually only played during the annual “Vinylthon” celebration. For the 2026 edition of Vinylthon in April, WCCH played vinyl for 24 hours straight.
In addition to vinyl, WCCH also has a small collection of carts as well as vintage reel to reel tape and cart machines. LaBelle was enthusiast about the archival audio materials, saying, “these are like living history.” As I prepared to leave, LaBelle expressed his passion for WCCH. “I’m just…the luckiest guy in the world. I love, love, love college radio. Love what I do,” he shared, adding, “I often feel emotional here because…it’s bigger than radio.”
Thanks to WCCH + Station Tour Archive
Thanks to Flynn Paul, Pat LaBelle and everyone at WCCH for the wonderful tour. This is my 202nd radio station tour report and my 143rd college radio station tour piece. This is the final post from my flurry of March 2026 station visits in western Massachusetts. You can view the entire collection of my radio station visits in numerical order or by station type in the Radio Survivor archives.
