KXSC wins competition, music to be played nationwide

This fall, USC’s student radio station will be heard in 1,000 American Eagle stores around the country.

KXSC’s music playlist will play in U.S. and Canadian stores starting in November, after the station won a nationwide competition, according to KXSC Music Director Jace Brittain.

“We are super excited about it,” said Brittain, a junior majoring in creative writing who is on the Daily Trojan staff. “It kind of just appeared one day. It’s a nice surprise to kick start off the year.”

Filter Magazine contacted KXSC staff in mid-August to see if the station — along with other universities nationwide — would be interested in creating playlists for a nationwide American Eagle Playlist Competition.

“I said absolutely,” Brittain said. “The music department and I immediately began making a little over an 80-song playlist and then submitted it.”

With this competition, Brittain said the station is not only expanding its staff but is also expanding its audience.

“We‘ve gotten a lot of new blood and new people this semester. We are always willing to grow,” Brittain said.

Promotions Director Michel’le Roddy said she was not expecting to win the competition.

“I was really surprised,” Roddy said. “I know people hear our music and that we have quality program, but wow­ — American Eagle.”

Roddy, a junior majoring in international relations and public relations, said she believes KXSC was chosen was because of  its “upbeat” music.

“I know we all have a range of music tastes … We were looking for songs that you could shop to,” Roddy said.

Although KXSC will not gain a monetary prize for winning the competition, Brittain said the station is excited about the publicity and credibility that the station will gain nationally and within the USC community.

“I think this will show the level of taste that we have and it shows the work we are willing to put into just making a playlist,” General Manager Karl Nickenig said. “Winning this competition drives the sort of passion that everyone has at the station for what they are doing.”

Nickenig said this competition brings attention to the different promotional tools being used to explore the music industry today.

Roddy, who has been a part of the station for three years now, agreed.

“I think in the past, people may have thought of us as not being a part of USC, but now, I think that American Eagle choosing us is going to open people’s minds up to the radio station,” Roddy said.