Hot Mustard and Cold Turkey to host ‘The Sandwich’ on KSYM

“The Sauce,” the morning show on college radio station KSYM 90.1 FM, aired its last program Friday, but it is being replaced with “The Sandwich” debuting Monday.

James “Hot Mustard” Velten, radio-television-broadcasting sophomore and creator of “The Sauce,” will now co-host a new morning show with Robert “Cold Turkey” Purkey, radio-television-film sophomore. The show will premiere 7 a.m. Monday.

Velten said he wanted to end the show after graduating in May, but decided to stay because no one else was available to take over “The Sauce.”

“I had decided to leave because I graduated,” he said. “It was time to go. You got to let somebody else take over. But there’s nobody else to take over.”

It is difficult to find students who want to host a weekday morning show, Velten said.

“I’m lucky because I work graveyard,” he said. “I’m either getting out of work or I get up at 2 in the morning.”

The new show will also feature local news and album-oriented rock music.

“It’s basically classic rock,” program director Charlie Castleman, radio-television-broadcasting sophomore, said.

“The Sandwich” will continue regular segments from “The Sauce,” including The Ranger on Mondays, Student Government Association on Tuesdays and “Speaking of SAC” with President Robert Zeigler on Thursdays.

“The Sauce” premiered May 11, 2009, after Velten submitted a proposal to general manager John Onderdonk, radio-television-broadcasting professor, for a COMM 1335, Survey of Radio and Television, class.

“Everybody had talked about doing a morning show, but nobody actually went for it and put it on paper and tried to work things out,” Velten said.

He said the show originally played night alternative music.

“When we started the show, we were getting a lot of hate mail, like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.

Velten said listeners were initially against the idea of a morning show.

He said listeners tuned in because the format was music and not talk.

Positive feedback increased once “The Sauce” transitioned to a blues format.

“We started noticing that we were getting more phone calls,” he said. “A lot of older folks are awake in the morning, and, you know, it was summer time. It’s going to be heard to find college students who listen in the morning.”

“The Sauce” was a runner-up in 2010 for best radio show in The Current, a local alternative weekly.

Velten said the show is expected to end in December when Velten will transfer to a university and Purkey will graduate.

Velten said he hopes someone will continue the show.

“After that, then there might be nothing. We don’t know. So we have a new batch of students coming in this semester for the radio experience (RTVB 1150, Radio Experience 1) course, and, hopefully, we can get some of them interested in doing a morning radio show,” he said.

For more information, call 210-486-1373.

To make a request, call 210-486-5796.