THE QUARTERBACK
Executive Producer of Lovercall
THE MUSICIAN
Lovercall Producer
RADIO REBEL
Lovercall Producer
Hello!
We are The Quarterback, The Musician and Radio Rebel: producers and hosts of the radio show Lovercall, right here at Fredonia. Lovercall is an anonymous late-night talk show about love, relationships and more. Students who are guests on the show use codenames to protect their identities when discussing potentially personal topics, hence the codenames of the writers of this column. This is your reminder that none of the hosts or guests are professionals, and everything stated is based on personal experiences.
“The Quarterback” is a 20-year-old cisgender man who uses he/him pronouns and is a junior at Fredonia.
“The Musician” is a 22-year-old gender-fluid person who uses they/she pronouns and is a senior at Fredonia.
“Radio Rebel” is a 21-year-old transgender man who uses he/him pronouns and is a senior at Fredonia.
On each episode, the hosts and guests of Lovercall participate in a variety of segments. The cast discusses a relevant news story, a date idea, a wacky game and a main topic for the episode.
Listeners can submit their questions or seek advice either via Fredonia Radio’s Instagram, @fredonia_radio, on YikYak or through the QR code provided in this column.
We answer your questions live on the radio, then add them to this column in case you missed the episode.
The show will broadcast weekly throughout the semester on Wednesday nights from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. on WDVL 89.5 on www.fredoniaradio.com.
This column runs in conjunction with Lovercall and can be found in print and online at fredonialeader.org.
Date idea of the week
We hope to provide fellow students with a fun and unique date idea in every episode. These date ideas aren’t just for romantic partners — you could go with your friends, classmates, or can even go solo for a fun activity in Fredonia.
For this week’s date idea, we’re suggesting that you have a PowerPoint night!
The idea of a PowerPoint night gained a ton of popularity in 2020 when people couldn’t physically get together because of the pandemic.
Many friend groups, like The Quarterback and his high school friends, got together over Zoom and made PowerPoint presentations about anything under the sun.
That’s one of the perks of this date idea, too; it can be done with a romantic partner, friends, family or anyone else!
The presentations can range from silly, to sad, to romantic and everything in between.
With friends, you might make goofy presentations like ranking the various Papa Louie games or assigning superlatives to everyone in the group like “most likely to somehow injure themselves while walking to class.”
In a family setting, you might choose something a little more heartfelt, like a collection of photos from a recent trip or all the reasons you love Grandma’s homemade brownies.
However, if you find yourself having a PowerPoint night as a date with your partner, here’s where you can really dial up the romance.
You could go for a wholesome topic, maybe something about all the things about this person that you love, or maybe a recap of all your favorite moments together.
Or, you could make it not quite as wholesome — and we’ll let you decide what that means for your relationship.
The whole point of this date idea is to be as creative as possible, and have fun with it!
There are a lot of different ways you could go with it, and that’s what makes it a date idea worth trying!
Reproductive Rights
This week’s topic was reproductive rights, which is definitely a hot-topic issue in our current society.
Reproductive rights are the legal rights people have regarding their own bodily autonomy. It affects all genders, though in the discussion of politics, female autonomy is more focused on. This includes topics such as abortions, miscarriages, contraceptive availability, funding for reproductive healthcare and access to life-saving surgeries, medication and treatment regarding anything having to do with the reproductive organs.
Guests this week discussed the importance of having these rights.
New York is considered a “safe state” for being a woman or someone with female autonomy.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade started to trigger laws in various red states, restricting access to medical care for female autonomy. One of the topics that was brought up is how many of the trigger laws relate to restrictions on abortion.
It was discussed how restrictions on abortion do not prevent abortions but only prevent legal, safe abortions. With this, people who have abortions and miscarriages do not have access to the proper medical treatment.
Another point discussed during the show is that people who do not identify as female yet have female autonomy, such as non-binary people or transgender men, are also restricted by these laws.
Cisgender men are ‘safe’ in many of these aspects, only affected by the emotional turmoil they would have to face when the women around them do not get safe and proper treatment with their reproductive organs such as miscarriages, cancer or other involuntary life-threatening medical issues.
Lovercall Calling…
Every week on Lovercall we answer your questions anonymously — all about love, relationships and more. Here’s another reminder that none of the hosts are professionally trained, but we are college students living through the same experiences you are.
This week we got a Lovercaller who asked about how to help her transgender partner who has dysphoria. She explained how her partner has been experiencing dysphoria, but since her partner is a transgender man, and she is a cisgender woman, she knows she cannot fully understand his situation.
“Is there anything I can do to help him get past this?”
Yes! But first, dysphoria is part of many trans people’s experiences, and not a lot can be done for someone else to be able to get rid of it completely.
A few suggestions on the show were to create a safe space for your partner.
It’s only natural that you want to help your partner so they can feel the best that they can, and it’s difficult to watch them suffer.
That being said, there is only so much that you can do. You can be there for them, be a shoulder to cry on or cheer them up when they’re sad. As a partner, it can feel like you are not doing enough to help, but being there for them is the most important thing.
Another thing you can do is to praise them, compliment them and convince them to go to the kind of therapy that would best suit them. Offer to go with them if they are worried about going alone, or help them see what other options they have by doing online research.
It’s very difficult on both ends of the spectrum to experience dysphoria and also to watch someone you love experience it. This hard situation can be navigated by communicating with your partner and seeing what options would be most beneficial for them.
Reach out! Do you want to ask the authors of Lovercolumn a question? Do you need advice? Fill out the form by using this QR code.
Interested in being a guest on Lovercall? Email wdvlonair@gmail.com or visit Fredonia Radio Systems, located in McEwen Hall 115 and open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“The Quarterback,” “The Musician” and “Radio Rebel” are members of Fredonia Radio Systems and are involved in the production of Lovercall.