Meet Mary Papetti | DJ & Promotions Director at Album 88

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mary Papetti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mary, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Right now everyone at Album 88 is working hard to grow our success back to how it used to be the past few decades. I think a huge part of that is our long-time listener base. Many people have been tuning in since the 1970s and still make the effort to support us! As a non-commercial station, we feature a lot of smaller artists and unique music that you can’t find on a lot of other stations, which is why people still listen, even when radio isn’t as big as it used to be. We also give students the opportunity to express themselves and learn more about music and radio by volunteering as DJs, and without everyone here we wouldn’t exist.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are a non profit, and we only play smaller and rising artists that aren’t featured on commercial radio. We also have specialty shows tat are full controlled by our student DJs, so they have creative freedom to choose what genre and who they want to play. I’m proud of my own shows, because I get to feature all female vocalists. I can play amazing female musicians that don’t normally get airtime in many genres. All DJs have to start on graveyard and work from the bottom up to show hosts and management, so that isn’t the easiest. It’s a right of passage to show up at 3am and be in the booth in the dead of night. I did learn how to use everything correctly and be comfortable talking on air in a low pressure environment since it was so late, so I’m glad we do it.
I just want more people to know we’re still going strong, and we’d love to reach new listeners every day! You can tune in on 88.5FM from 7pm-5am to hear something different to add to your library. We’re also starting podcasts soon, and planning our annual WRASfest concert, which is exciting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I grew up around Atlanta and we’re all students here, so I’d say we have some fun places to hang out. I’d definitely take them to a show on Friday or Saturday at 529 or the Masquerade. There’s usually some cool music playing there, and they’re fun places to meet people. A fun place to go drink/dance is also MJQ. We’d have to go to Waffle House after, of course. A good place to eat brunch the next day would be Flying Biscuit (still delicious) or we could get tacos for lunch at El Rey in Doraville. My friends and I usually hang out at boba places up there, and there are tons of good places to eat. Honestly, the most fun I have in ATL is just exploring different thrift stores and restaurants, not necessarily the big tourist stuff. That’s what I’d recommend to someone visiting.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our listeners deserve a huge shoutout of course! The people who tune in every week to hear their favorite show or every night to hear something different. Our management team also works very hard to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes. Our general manager, Joseph, cares so much about accomplishing the goals he’s set for the station, our music directors (Kim, Finn, and Jidenna) make sure new artists are added to our rotation every week, and our program director, Tre, keeps us on track and recently has been working with artists to prepare for WRASfest. There are many members here who do so much, I could name so many people! As a station, we’re all super grateful to be a small part of the Atlanta music scene’s legacy.

Website: wras.org

Instagram: album88atlanta

Twitter: album88atlanta

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Youtube: Album 88

Image Credits
Tre Williams and Mary Papetti