Siobhan Rushin pictured showing her love of music. (Courtesy of Sofia Donohue/The Fordham Ram)

When Siobhan Rushin, FCRH ’26, began her first year at Fordham University, she was immediately drawn to WFUV — a nationally acclaimed radio station located on the Rose Hill campus. From a young age, Rushin has been a large fan of music. On a typical weekend you can find her commuting to Manhattan for a Maggie Rogers versus Taylor Swift SoulCycle class, camping out in the rain to see Noah Kahan on Saturday Night Live or seeing one of her favorite artists in concert. 

“I’ve always been enamored with music, and once I got to Fordham my freshman year and heard about WFUV, a real radio station on campus, I immediately wanted to get involved,” said Rushin. 

Rushin wasn’t exaggerating when she told me that she wanted to get involved immediately. Rushin first discovered WFUV winter of her first year and had secured a job at the station by the spring. While WFUV contains numerous departments such as promotions, music, news and sports, Rushin was drawn to the promotions department primarily because it falls under the music department. During the academic year, WFUV’s promotion department consists of three student workers, a “small but mighty” team as described by Rushin. A major part of the job is contacting concert promoters and overseeing concert ticket giveaways. While managing spreadsheets may seem boring to the typical Fordham student, Rushin appreciates the backstage perspective WFUV’s promotions department has offered her.

“I definitely want to work in live music and I honestly wasn’t sure what aspect of it until I joined WFUV, but now I’m really interested in the marketing side of it. It’s a big learning process and it’s very exciting to learn how the behind-the-scenes stuff works in the music industry,” Rushin noted.

While Rushin has helped promote and execute events during the school year, such as WFUV’s “Holiday Cheer” concert in December, Rushin also works at WFUV during the summer. She describes summer at WFUV as “less office-y and more fun.”

“This is where the fun stuff comes in. I’m a music and concert nerd so I enjoy emailing concert promoters during the year but the summer is more hands-on,” said Rushin.

Throughout the past summer, Rushin attended numerous concerts and worked WFUV’s promotional booth in Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. As my roommate at Lincoln Center this past summer, Rushin has gifted me a fair share of WFUV hand sanitizer and chapstick (they’re all-natural!). While working events, Rushin got to see some of her favorite artists in concert — however, her favorite performer was Zach Bryan. On her way to the venue, the train schedule was convoluted so Rushin arrived at Forest Hills early enough to enjoy Bryan’s soundcheck. 

“I got to hear one of my favorite artists play in an empty stadium with just me and my friends,” Rushin reminisced.

A few artists whose performances received honorary mentions from Rushin included Maggie Rogers and Boygenius. As an aside and a testament to her music knowledge, Rushin told me that Rogers’ first album, “Heard It in a Past Life,” came out exactly five years ago. 

“Maggie Rogers is my favorite artist so it was surreal working a show through WFUV for an artist I’ve looked up to since high school.”

Throughout the past year of working at WFUV, Rushin has met a variety of different people whether they be strangers in a concert crowd, her fellow coworkers or longtime WFUV listeners. However, her favorite part of working at WFUV is working in a fun environment and getting a glimpse of what the music industry has to offer. 

“My favorite part of working at WFUV is definitely getting my foot in the door of the music industry. That’s definitely something I see myself pursuing as a future career,” said Rushin.