Since 1995, the a cappella show "Vocal Chords," which spotlights vocal performers from around the world, has played on the 90.3 KRNU airwaves every weekend. Associate professor, KRNU general manager and “Vocal Chords” creator Rick Alloway debuted the show at the start of a cappella's renewed popularity.
"All of a sudden it became kind of cool to be in an a cappella group," Alloway said. "My interest in starting the show serendipitously began about the same time there was a sort of groundswell of national interest in a cappella."
Around the same time, "the father of contemporary a cappella," Deke Sharon, established CASA, the Contemporary A Cappella Society, creating a community between singers and fans of contemporary a cappella. Coupled with the recent launch of the internet, Alloway tapped into online discussion boards and listservs to say, "I'm thinking of starting an a cappella radio show, has anybody got any recordings?"
Alloway heard back from so many groups that wanted him to play their music that he was no longer worried about having enough content for a weekly show. Some of those initial groups Alloway still plays on the air and others he's become friends with from having them on the show for interviews or through social media.
"It was a really nice entree into the community," Alloway said. "It's pretty tight-knit and there's not a lot of drama—people all support each other and are always willing to give a boost to new young groups coming up."
For the first twenty years of the show, Alloway did it live and live-tweeted throughout each episode, connecting with the vocal groups and their fanbases. It's a promotion example he uses in teaching today, to promote the artists you play on the air as an opportunity to grow both audiences.
"It's been a tenet of this college forever and ever and ever that our faculty are expected to come to the table with these skills, to be able to work with our students and show them this is how you do stuff," Alloway said.
For Alloway, that means being on the air and keeping up his own vocal performance skills. It also means adjusting to industry changes in broadcast programming—from technology upkeep to marketing practices.
"We went from queuing up records to playing tapes to playing CDs to now downloading files and working those into a playlist," Alloway said. "And now making those connections with the audience and marketing your show has become an ever more important part of what personalities do because they find that you are your own brand."
Having worked in the industry when radio stuck to more station-centric branding, Alloway has learned personal branding along the way and thinks of Vocal Chords as a version of freelancing—but more importantly, it's his passion project.
He's interviewed almost 100 vocal performers from around the world and has never been turned down for an interview.
"It just speaks again to the a cappella community," Alloway said. "Everybody likes to talk about their music and they're all very supportive, there are constant collaborations between groups that should be competitors but aren't."
Curiosity comes naturally to Alloway. For every song he plays on Vocal Chords, he knows when it was first composed, who initially performed the song, background stories on the group performing, etc.—Alloway calls it "six degrees of a cappella separation."
Alloway is also the faculty advisor for four of the six a cappella groups on campus: Bathtub Dogs, Boots and Cats, Take Note, and The Red Keys. Throughout the years, UNL a cappella groups have performed live on the air—helping to promote their work, provide local coverage for the station, and allowing Alloway to record original tracks that are unique to the show.
In “Vocal Chords'” 30th season, Alloway plans to look back as much as he looks forward, having episodes that feature local groups, looking at music from the show's earliest recordings, including the song that started Alloway's love for a cappella as a kid — “Sincere” by The Buffalo Bills and Robert Preston from the original Broadway soundtrack of The Music Man.
"As with everything we do in the media business, we are constantly looking for the next new, shiny object," Alloway said. "I don't think we reflect as much as we should on what got us here and the people that we owe thanks to."
Vocal Chords' biggest supporters and collaborators are Alloway's family members. His wife, Shelley, is the principal researcher for finding songs that echo women's empowerment, and his youngest son, Chris, frequently makes artist suggestions for the show. Alloway and Chris, who are the bass singers of the family, have plans to start their own podcast that features bass singers they enjoy listening to.
Another of Alloway's supporters is the aforementioned "father of contemporary a cappella" Deke Sharon, who wrote a letter for his promotion file that helped Alloway get tenure. Among making an educational case for all the production work he does for the show, Sharon wrote something Alloway will always treasure—that "Rick is the a cappella community's Wolfman Jack."
And like Wolfman Jack, Alloway is passionate about using the power of music to help people connect over the airwaves.
"I tell my students at the beginning of every class, I'm all about connections," Alloway said. "If I had to come up with a single word for what I do here and what we all do, it would have to be 'connections.'"
It's why, when an alum comes back to visit campus—like Rob Ford ('95, '10), who happened to pass by Alloway's office while he was being interviewed for this story—they can reminisce about Ford's live comedy show from 30 years ago.
Connection is also the reason Alloway does the college presentation at New Student Enrollment each summer. Every year, there's at least one new student who hears about Alloway's involvement in UNL's a cappella community and he gets to help connect them to it.
"I was a nerd all the way through school, so it's important to me that people from the musical and arts community feel like they've got a place they can come in and just talk," Alloway said. "We're in a society right now that wants to separate us, and music connects us, it makes us better people and helps us get through our day."
Alloway can't imagine a day without music or singing. Some days, he'll close his office door, crank the speakers up, throw on a great album and sing along—which is also how he encourages Vocal Chords listeners to enjoy the 30th season.
The 30th anniversary season of “Vocal Chords” kicked off in July with a look back at the show's origins, featuring tracks from groups that inspired the creation of “Vocal Chords.” In August, Alloway played popular songs from the show's first decade and showcased some of the world's best international vocal groups from the past 30 years.
The Vocal Chords anniversary celebration will continue through July of next year. Listeners can tune in on Fridays, Sundays or Mondays from 8 to 10 a.m. CDT on 90.3 KRNU or online at krnu.unl.edu.
"I love to do it, and if I can help others share that same love and that same musical connection, then by God, I'll keep doing it as long as I can."
