The five-disc changer Chris Wisbrock (University of Missouri, 1997) got for Christmas in 1989 sparked his passion for collecting music.

How do you get started?

At the time, it was undisputed that compact discs (CDs) were superior in every way in terms of sound quality, digital conversion, all that stuff. It had been a format that had been around for a few years, but they were expensive. So I wanted to make the transition, but I had a conscious thought that I wanted to upgrade my music taste in the process if I was going to spend all this money on something like that at the time.

You wanted to upgrade your music taste. What were the first couple of CDs you got?

I started by purchasing three albums. They were New Order, Technique, The Cure, Disintegration, and Erasure, The Innocents. Those were my first three CDs. The Cure and the New Order discs would be in my top ten albums. I’m partial to them because they are such early influences in my musical taste.

How did you find new music?

At that point, the internet was still budding. So the way that I essentially would learn about new music was by going to my local used CD shop. There were several of them in St. Louis. My favorite was one down in the West End of St. Louis. It no longer exists and was called West End Wax.

I started reading about who did the artwork and who produced and who remixed things for albums. I had another buddy who was into music. So we influenced each other’s musical tastes.

Things started spreading from there. I would read about music and would pick up other stuff on the radio. It just kept growing. Then I started getting allegiances to specific labels. I particularly enjoyed two labels. The first was Factory Records, out of Manchester, England, New Order’s label. There were many bands on Factory Records that I supported as well, and the other label got inspiration from Factory Records and was called Creation Records. Creation Records is the home of more popular bands that people are aware of, like the band Oasis, who they discovered.

When did you realize your collection was getting significant?

I probably realized in college because I put up a CD rack in my room at the fraternity house. Once I got more tenure in the chapter and got a bigger space, I brought my CDs from home. That was the first time I displayed them all together.

Once it was on display, I realized, “This is a large rack.” People kept commenting on it. When they’d come to my room, they’d be like, “Wow, that’s a lot of compact discs.” It’s funny now because the rack I have currently is probably ten times the size of what I had in college.

What was it like working for Mizziou’s radio station?

One of my high school buddies, who was not a Delt, and I had secured a radio show on KCOU, the campus radio station. We ended up getting a terrible spot, the 6:00 a.m. show on Sunday mornings.

We had pitched a show that was a little bit more focused and niche, but the station wanted us to play general alternative music. It was a pretty broad group of bands. What we played specifically was more like the new British invasion music at the time. Essentially, it was lots of early ambient and Brit-pop.

We would DJ in the mornings. As part of working at a radio station, especially a college radio station, it was everybody’s job to review albums and write reviews on the new music. So, as new music would come in, we would do the reviews, but there were also often promo copies of things. So it’d allow me to sample a lot of other stuff, and then typically, we got to keep those promo copies. So my collection grew from there. Plus, there were two or three excellent record shops in Columbia as it is a college town.

What should people do when looking for new music?

I think that there is so much music past, present, and future potential out there. People who only listen to the radio or what’s popular are just scratching the surface. Everything is influenced by something else. Find what influenced your favorite musicians and listen to those artists. Go deep down those holes to discover new music.

What is your favorite piece in your collection?

I always get asked that question, and I don’t have one. When pushed, I say my absolutely mint condition True Faiths single by New Order is my favorite. It has a blue background with a golden leaf on it. I’ve always admired that piece of artwork for that single, and I’ve always loved that song.

What is it like having an actual collection with everything digital?

Many people nowadays don’t collect music in physical formats. I get it. If I were growing up now, I probably wouldn’t care. I like having hard copies of things to touch and feel and look at. I think that’s been the allure of vinyl. That is why vinyl is getting big again. I still believe compact discs are a superior format, but I do enjoy my vinyl. 

Western Plains Division President, Chris Wisbrock (University of Missouri, 1997)