On first sight, three walls of the small, crowded room appear to be covered with highly textured, multi-colored wallpaper.  Closer inspection reveals lacquered wood shelves, into which thousands of CD cases have been wedged. Cardboard markers jut out from the walls. Labels scratched out in a variety of colored, felt-tipped pens are taped onto the shelves to differentiate genres of music.  Five young people dressed in a riot of color huddle around an L-shaped desk covered in a jumble of wires, laptop computers, microphones and soundboards.  The windowless room struggles to contain the energy exploding from the hosts of KWVA’s Friday afternoon show.
    Today’s show is a special two-hour block of the hosts’ favorite cheesy-movie-soundtrack songs.  As “Top That,” from the climactic scene of “Teen Witch,” fades away, the station’s request line rings.  A young man picks up the phone and relays the caller’s message to the rest of the room.  “He says we don’t have any balls and the music we’re playing doesn’t either.”
    Kelsey Wallace’s brunette bob swings wildly as she glances from side to side exclaiming,  “Do I need male genitalia to prove that I have good taste in music?”
    Wallace is a radio personality for the University of Oregon’s radio station, KWVA.  Her Friday afternoon show features an eclectic mix of music and personalities, as well as anecdotes from the hosts’ personal experiences.  The real entertainment however, might be reserved for the select few who are granted access to the station’s studio while the music plays and the microphones are off.
    As the group discusses which songs to play, Wallace bops to the beat of almost every song, suggesting songs from classic movies like “E.T.” and “The Goonies.” In one instance, the whole studio sings along to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” as a sendoff for a guest host who needs to go to class. In the dim light of the studio, Wallace’s bright red tights almost glow, and the curling line of blue thread that runs across the left shoulder of her cream-colored cardigan perfectly illustrates her on-air personality, a looping pattern of all-out-goofy excitement and in-the-moment seriousness. 
    Wallace first became interested in working for the campus radio station when she attended a Halloween costume roller-skating party sponsored by KWVA in 2006.  After winning the “Skates on a Plane” themed costume contest dressed as flight attendants, Wallace and a friend were given flyers advertising an opportunity to be a part of the radio station, and she decided to give it a try.  Her first broadcast was in February 2007, and she says her slightly bumbling ways have been with her since the beginning.
    “I accidentally played a song with the F-bomb in it,” she says.  “I hadn’t screened it carefully enough, and someone called in. I make mistakes all the time.”  Cable catastrophes and microphone malfunction continue to pop up from time to time, she says.
   Cables and censorship won't hold her back from participating at the KWVA, but Wallace says she couldn’t imagine being a commercial radio deejay because of the loss of freedom.  “We get total control over what we want to play here [at KWVA].”
    Wallace seems to use her time in the KWVA studio as an escape from the reality of her work as a University of Oregon graduate student and teaching fellow. She and her co-hosts chat about their favorite John Hughes movies while they aren’t on air, discussing 80’s “Brat Pack” movie star Molly Ringwald’s best and worst romantic decisions.  A debate arises about the controversial ending of “Pretty in Pink,” when the pretty-but-slightly awkward female lead character chooses the attractive-but-shallow rich guy over her longtime friend and all-around “good guy.”
    “I just never really wanted them to be together in the end,” Wallace says of the fictional relationship.  “Not like in ‘Sixteen Candles.’  He was rich, but he was nice.” 
    As the group continues to passionately debate various iconic songs from movies, the song “Win In The End” from the “Teen Wolf” soundtrack prompts Wallace to ask listeners who was the cuter “Teen Wolf”: Michael J. Fox from the original, or Jason Bateman from “Teen Wolf Too”?  When a caller casts a vote for Bateman based on his more recent role in the television program “Arrested Development,” Wallace becomes jokingly defensive.  “You can only choose based on ‘Teen Wolf’!” she exclaims.  “Otherwise you have to consider ‘Back To The Future’ for Michael J. Fox!”
    Wallace has been a fan of pop culture since childhood.  She remembers the first tape she bought—MC Hammer’s “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em,” released in 1990, and her first CD—1991’s Boyz II Men hit album, “Cooleyhighharmony.”  Wallace loves music old movies and has a knack for holding on to bits of obscure trivia.  She and her co-host, Leslie, recall aloud film producer and former Monkee Michael Nesmith’s mother’s occupations—secretary and inventor of Liquid Paper, of course!
    “I’m a nerd with stuff like that,” she laughs. “I like movies and music, and I think my brain holds onto that stuff better than some other stuff.”
    When it comes to her own listening tastes, Wallace says she mostly listens to KWVA and National Public Radio.  She admires NPR personalities like Ira Glass, host of “This American Life,” and Peter Sagal, host of the radio quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”  Asked about her television habits, Wallace favors “30 Rock” and Bravo’s culinary competition “Top Chef”.  Her guilty pleasure, according to her blog, “Fun With Feminism,” is Tyra Banks’ “America’s Next Top Model.” 
    She writes: “I realize that a reality television show about women in the modeling industry might not exactly jive with my feminist ideologies, but what can I say? I am a sucker for wigs and high heels.” 
    As she sits in the KWVA station, Wallace reflects on her life with her friends.  One guest on the show remarks, “That’s what grad school really is—an extended vacation from reality.” 
    Though Wallace clearly enjoys her time in this “non-reality,” she is also firmly rooted in reality.  Her opinions expressed on the show are those of an educated woman who is not afraid to let listeners hear her ideas or get to know her confidently dorky, trivia-loving self. For now, she can enjoy her present reality, which just happens to be an escape from the real-world conservative suits and business politics. For now, she can continue debating the “hunkiness” of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, and spend her Friday afternoons singing along to “Magic Dance” and “Playing With the Boys.”