VLADIMIR SEPETOV
  • Amdrew Matson
  • VLADIMIR SEPETOV

'Tis a golden spring evening, and barefoot undergrads sling Frisbees through sakura petals on the UW campus. The scene is idyllic. But there is a missed opportunity: None of the students is banging the crucial cuts streaming on Rainy Dawg Radio. This student-run college station is not well-known in Seattle. It is, however, underrated and awesome.

Rainy Dawg was born in 2002 and is broadcast from recently built studios in the Husky Union Building (HUB). It represents radio at an amateur level, meaning nonprofessional, and for the love of it—students who show each other the ropes. Several current programs are worth listening to (tune in at rainydawg.org). For instance: U Know What It Is, with cohost Vladimir Sepetov—a shrewd hiphop selector and key figure in the future of arts and entertainment on campus (more on him in a minute)—the Slow Show, where everything is slow in tempo, and HUA-Voice, which is all-Mandarin and one of Seattle's very few Chinese radio programs.

The major Rainy Dawg news at the moment is the knockout show on campus on Thursday, May 15, which was booked by DJs and is free and open to the public. That would be the 11th Rainy Dawg Birthday Fest, a trippy, rappy, poppy (and other words that end in Y) bill featuring Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vic Mensa, ILLFIGHTYOU, Dude York, Nice & AO, and Mister Lies performing in the mystical Sylvan Grove outdoor theater.

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