If you were lucky enough to tune in to RadioUTD between 6-9 p.m. on Thursday nights, you may have caught this semester’s most recent addition to the late-night lineup: “The Bookshelf.” Designed by Caleb Jenkins as a reading playlist for those wanting a more relaxed vibe, “The Bookshelf” offers music ranging from indie to ambient tracks to jazz and classical. Caleb tends to play longer tracks on the show, which sometimes backfires. 

As Caleb described it, “It’s a wide variety of music, but I try to make sure it all meshes and blends under the umbrella.” However, it’s not only music that’s discussed on-air. As a Literature major with a love of performing arts and film, Caleb sought to incorporate multimedia such as books and movies into “The Bookshelf.” “I try to interconnect it all, because there’s a lot of interconnectedness in art that I like to explore. I like things that blend mediums… So I wanted to capture that sort of ethos with this show.”

Caleb attributed his humble beginnings in radio to his father, who started his own career at a college radio station. “It was partly [wanting] to continue that lineage,” he explained. (Caleb’s family does listen to the show — he fondly recalled a time he’d played a 22-minute long track and his grandma texted to ask if the record was stuck). Though his father definitely influenced Caleb’s love of classic rock and 90’s hip-hop when he was younger, Caleb cited his own exploration of internet culture as another source of inspiration. “There’s a lot of terrible things [on the internet], but yeah, I’ve discovered so many things about the world, so I want to play a part of that.” From having an emo phase in middle school (complete with the usual repertoire of Panic! At The Disco, My Chemical Romance, and Twenty One Pilots), Caleb has now journeyed to enjoying more hype, danceable music that he loves to blast when driving.

In addition to hosting “The Bookshelf”, Caleb had also written concert and album reviews for Radio UTD. According to Caleb, music was only a small part of the entire concert-going experience. “It’s the venue, it’s before you get into the venue. You have to set the scene… it’s the performance, it’s the crowd.” While reminiscing on a punk rock show where he was kicked in the face, Caleb fondly explained how interesting it was trying to put that moment into words, and how he’d find himself thinking about specific moments over and over again. “It’s not that much of a step further to think about how I can put that into words,” he said, going on to describe the thought process behind writing his articles. 

When asked about his favorite part about working at Radio, Caleb laughed. “This is a stock answer, but the people.” Radio UTD gave Caleb the opportunity to meet people he never would have otherwise met. Take Luna, for example. “He’s like a senior, or maybe a super senior. I think maybe, normally, I would have never gotten to meet him.” But as a result of RadioUTD, the two were able to bond over their shared love of film. Luna even featured in Caleb’s short film, “Weird Lamp.” “Weird Lamp,” which was recently entered into UTD’s Cosmic Film Festival, asks the viewer exactly what makes a lamp weird, and serves as Caleb’s first foray into filmmaking, which is one of his ultimate goals in life. “I want to write and direct, among other things. I kind of want to make art of all mediums, which goes back to what ‘The Bookshelf’ was about: The intersection of all these media.”

For listeners interested in Caleb’s future plans, a new show may be something to keep an ear out for. “I’m thinking of calling it ‘Heart and Seoul’,” he said. Inspired by Korean indie and R&B, “Heart and Seoul” began as an idea that struck Caleb when listening to Korean music for fluency practice. The show would focus and highlight more obscure and underground tracks that Caleb hopes will showcase the richness and variety of music coming from South Korea. In the future, Caleb looks forward to discovering and exploring different types of music and sharing them all with eager listeners at Radio UTD. “That’s another good thing about having a radio show. I discover a lot of new music in searching for music to put on the show.”