Stephen Ainlay loves to tell the story of when he proudly called his mother in Indiana four years ago to tell her he got the job as president of Union College. His good news, however, was trumped by his younger brother, Chuck, who had just called home to report that he’d won a Grammy Award.
The divergent career paths of the Brothers Ainlay will intersect again on Monday night when President Ainlay sits in as the guest DJ on WRUC, the College’s radio station. Between 8 and 9 p.m., Ainlay will play the music of artists who have worked with Chuck, an accomplished music producer and recording engineer in Nashville.
Though Ainlay won’t tip his hand to the tunes on his playlist, it’s a safe bet the sounds of Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Sheryl Crow, Emmy Lou Harris and maybe even Taylor Swift will be heard throughout campus and beyond.
The guest gig came about when Zachary Pearce ’12 attended a dinner for sophomores that Ainlay hosted at Everest Lounge last month. Pearce, who has a show featuring classic rock on Mondays, thought it would be a “pretty cool opportunity” to have Ainlay take the mic for a night.
Landing the president is a bit of a coup for WRUC, “the first station in the nation.” In 1920, Union students used makeshift equipment in a shed behind the electrical engineering lab to broadcast 27 minutes of music through the airwaves, widely considered the first scheduled radio broadcast in the country.
In addition to playing music, Ainlay is scheduled to chat with Chuck, whose Grammy was for Best Surround Sound Album of 2006 for Dire Straits' “Brothers in Arms” 20th anniversary edition.
An English major, Pearce has been brainstorming for a name to promote Monday’s show, usually called “Wolfman Zach.”
“I thought about ‘The Rock Prof,’ said Pearce, “but he’s not really a professor. He’s our president.”
WRUC (89.7 FM) is based in the Reamer Campus Center. You can also listen through its streaming Internet feed at http://wruc.union.edu/.