THE QUARTERBACK
Executive Producer of Lovercall
THE MUSICIAN
Lovercall Producer
BUMBLEBEE
Lovercall Producer
Hello!
We are The Quarterback, The Musician and Bumblebee: producers and hosts of the radio show Lovercall, right here in 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 21-year-old cisgender man who uses he/him pronouns and is a senior at Fredonia.
“The Musician” is a 23-year-old gender-fluid person who uses they/she pronouns and is a senior at Fredonia.
“Bumblebee” is a 19-year-old questioning person who uses he/she/they pronouns and is a sophomore 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 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 is 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 or online at https://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, you’re going to spin the Wheel of Compliments!
This is a new idea, just recently developed by The Quarterback in his infinite wisdom of date ideas.
To get started, you can either make the wheel through an online generator or build an actual wheel to spin.
Our guests agreed that making a physical wheel could be another fun idea.
The wheel should have several different categories, such as physical appearance, personality traits, favorite memories and so on.
You and your partner(s) can take turns spinning the wheel, and whatever the wheel lands on, you give them a compliment as it relates to that category.
For example, I might land on “personality traits,” and I might tell my partner that I love how bubbly and sweet she is.
Like some of our other date ideas, this is something that doesn’t have to be done within the confines of a romantic date.
You can create a wheel with friends, family or even yourself!
As some of our guests mentioned, this probably isn’t something you’d spend the whole night doing, but it can be used as a creative and sweet way to fill time every now and then.
Have fun and spin away!
Expressions of Love
How do you express love?
It’s kind of a loaded question, and it’s a question with lots of different answers.
Love can show up in the little things we do for each other.
It’s taking time to listen when someone needs to talk, checking in just to see how they are doing or remembering something small that makes them smile.
It’s about being there, going through the fun times and the hard ones, and showing patience and care even when things get messy.
Sometimes love is as simple as trying to understand where someone’s coming from or giving them a bit of grace when they need it most.
Expressing love also means being real and open with people. Love shows up when you’re honest about how you feel, when you support someone’s goals or when you can laugh together until it hurts.
It’s not always about big, romantic gestures; it’s often in the everyday stuff, like a text that says “thinking of you” or a quiet moment spent together.
At the end of the day, expressing love is about choosing to care and showing it in ways that make people feel seen and valued.
It’s also important to note that expressing your love can be through verbal communication and even nonverbal communication.
For example, you can express your love for someone with simple compliments or reassuring words while also helping a partner or loved one with simple tasks.
Both actions can help express your love for someone and make them feel happy, loved or both.
It’s important to note that these expressions of affection are different in every relationship. Just like how everyone is different in some way, so is that affection.
Some people like to express their admiration for a partner with different love languages, with things they’ve seen online, actions that they saw their parent(s) do and more.
Everyone also values these expressions of love in different ways.
For example, some people love making food for their partner, but they don’t like receiving gifts for their partner.
On the show, we had guests rank different expressions of love from kissing to making playlists, and the results were surprising.
While there were some actions where everyone agreed that the expression of love was valued around the same, some actions ranged from C to S tiers.
This is due to the fact that everyone has different perspectives on the different actions and while all the actions do show off the person’s love for someone, depending on the person it can be valued differently.
So, while you may love showing off your love for someone with handholding, they might like being hugged more and it’s important to know both actions are ok and aren’t worth less than another.
Reach out! Do you want to ask the authors of Lovercolumn a question? Do you need advice? Fill out the form using this QR code.
Interested in being a guest on Lovercall? Email mvolz@fredonia.edu 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 “Bumblebee” are members of Fredonia Radio Systems and are involved in the production of Lovercall.