Q&A with Cam and Brett, hosts of WDCE 90.1's “The Show, Pt. 2”

At 7 p.m. every Friday night on WDCE 90.1, seniors Cam MacKinnon and Brett Schoppert host “The Show, Pt. 2": an in-depth, captivating music talk show built on four years of friendship and a shared passion for music.

THE COLLEGIAN: Can you tell me a little more about your relationship? How did you two meet and start working together?

BRETT SCHOPPERT: We met before school even started. It was day negative one. We met at a hotel before coming to campus, the night before moving in. We came to campus the day before. We met as we were unloading our cars. Cam came over to me…

CAM MACKINNON: No. I did not want to. My parents were like, "Look, I bet that's a Richmond kid," and I was wearing this big Richmond sweatshirt. I was like, "I don't want to talk to this kid. I'm so nervous…"

BS: Oh, I'm so happy that was me.

CM: But then Brett came over and we talked. It was a good talk, you know. He was wearing a Minnesota Twins lifting shirt.

BS: I do remember it very vividly.

CM: It was really romantic.

BS: We hit it off. It was kind of like friendship at first sight.

CM: And then I walked into Econ 101, day one, and he was there. So I sat next to him, and it kind of took off from there. And our friendship is solidified through ultimate frisbee. We see each other like every day. Push each other to be better on and off the field.

C: How did the show begin? Have you always wanted to do a radio show?

CM: We were going to do it freshman year, but it just kind of fell through. That's kind of why it's "The Show, Pt. 2" because we were going to do it freshman year. I don't remember how I heard about it, but I know we both liked music, and I thought it would be fun to do. 

BS: [Cam] knew about it, pitched it to me, and we were interested. This summer we were like, ‘we should do it.’

C: What is the show about?

BS: It's a music talk show. So, we play music about half the time and then talk about the music we played for the other half. General format is we both go back and forth picking songs on a certain theme. Last week, we did guilty pleasures. So I play a song and we talk about it, and then he plays a song and we talk about it. 

C: Why wait until now, your senior year, to start the show? 

CM: Once we decided we didn't have time for it freshman year, at least for me, we just kind of forgot about it. And then, end of junior year, we got closer and were like, ‘Why don't we just do that radio show?’ Senior year is the last time we [could] do it. I feel like, at that point, we were bonding more over music. Our hangout sessions were basically just, like, our radio show. Just throw Spotify on the TV and be like, ‘Yo, check this out.’

BS: I think it also, when we were younger, seemed like there were a lot of barriers to entry, and it would be tough to do. A plug for the station: it would be very easy to get a show, so if people are interested, definitely go on the website and give that [a] shot. They're looking for more shows.

C: How do you come up with the themes for the show each week?

CM: I'll just get a text randomly. Not like, "Hey, Cam, what about this?" It's just like, "love songs." That would be the text, and I'll be like, "oh, yeah." And then the next week, I'll be like, "do you want to do this, or do you want to do that," and we just kind of come to a consensus.

BS: We haven't had many major disagreements.

C: What have been your favorite and least favorite episodes so far?

CM: I think one of my favorites was songs our parents love, because it really got our audience involved. Plus, it was on a day where the rest of the [ultimate frisbee] team was driving down to a tournament as we were on the air, so they were all listening to it in the car. So, that was pretty sweet. But, usually my answer to this is just the last one we did. I feel like we just keep getting better, and the last show is always so fresh in my mind and how fun it was. We're probably just going to keep getting better until the last episode, which is good.

BS: One of my favorites, "songs we Shazamed," had a natural narrative component to it because there's a story behind where you were when you Shazamed it, why you Shazamed it, who you were with. And, I think our show lends itself to storytelling, and we had a lot of content there with that.

C: As seniors, is this something you want to continue with after graduation? If not, what do you want to do?

CM: I'm going to be working in Boston doing accounting. It's a good job, I guess. I don't know, I'm kind of having, like, a quarter-life crisis about what I want to do because I love being creative, and I don't know if I want to look back when I'm an old man and be like, ‘I spent all those years as an accountant, I could have done something I loved.’ The thing I would do is probably video editing. I love doing that.

BS: I'm working at KeyBank in D.C., and if I don't like that, then I'll pivot and do something else. I'm just going to see if that works for me. I don't have another thing that's pulling me in another direction right now, but I think I'd like to go to business school in a couple years. But that's my current plan.

CM: The dream is if we end up in the same place, we would go to the local radio station and get something cooking there. 

BS: Live in the same place and get something on the air. “The Show, Pt. 3” would be crazy.

CM: That would be nuts.

C: Is there anything exciting coming up for your show?

CM: We only have a couple more weeks of the show, sadly … Spotify. It will be on Spotify. 

BS: We have archives of all episodes from this semester, so those are going to hit Spotify. 

Contact features writer Emily Weiner at emily.weiner@richmond.edu.