HFCC's radio station, WHFR (89.3 FM, www.whfr.fm), just keeps pumping out the hit shows. Being considered one of the top college radio stations is no surprise, thanks to all the great music continually offered to listeners.

This time, however, it's all about the metal. J. Priest and Mike Tuff, co-hosts of Dark Recollections every Monday night from 6-9 p.m. (right before The Zone, have one of the most successful shows on WHFR, but the show wasn't always as smooth as it may seem now.

"We started in June, but it hit a few snags due to inexperience with the program and having not taken the (TCM 139) class. So I was off the show for awhile, took the class, passed, and now I'm jamming records again," said Priest.

The show started from the inspiration of Priest and Mike's love for "blasting tunes together and discussing the various merits of different albums." They figured since they liked it so much, they may as well force other people to listen too.

"It's only fair," said Priest.

They got into radio because they hound out with Meatlocker Matt and Jugular Joe when the two former DJs co-hosted the metal show for WHFR. "We talked about having an interest in it, especially Mike Tuff said he had the experience from before," said Priest. "After Matt and Joe retired, we called them up asking if we could carry on where they left off."

He said that they "evolved from having a basement-dwelling fan interest to hob-knobbing around with burnt out heroes and playing in our own band.

Priest also said that they chose metal over any other genre because "it's more palatable to us, more relative to our own experience. Music made for the postindustrial wasteland, sometimes escapist, sometimes realist, always relying on driving guitar work and booming organic rhythmic drive. Punk does the same for us; same with classic rock. We'd even play old blues if it were considered metal enough.

"That's one thing we don't care about: rigid metal criteria. We're mostly offended by modern metal bands on the bigger indie labels who define themselves as 'metal core' or 'power metal' or whatever other genre band-wagoners. This is probably why most of the stuff we play is old."

Priest said his biggest inspirations in metal from its start to now would be Slough Fed from San Francisco, CA and Blackholicus from Austin, TX. "Both are awesome, explosive heavy metal acts. I'm also a big fan of a new band from Finland, called Sammohan. They make totally original off-the-wall stuff!

"Mike and I have slightly different tastes in metal," continued Priest. "We like to keep things interesting by surpirisng each other with stuff we haven't heard before."

Priest has strong feelings about metal and shows his passion for the art. "I definitely hate mainstream metal," he said. "It's all clowns in costumes with lawyers and management. There's nothing authentic about it nowadays. At least the bigger bands from the 70s and 80s had musical integrity, (bands) such as Iron Maiden, early Scorpions, Judas Priest, Helloween, UFO, Accept, old old old Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer, Mercyful Fate, etc."

One might think new ideas fade quickly because of the repetitive play of all the oldies. Not for these guys.

"We play in bands and go to shows constantly," said Priest. "We're always in touch with what goes on in the least pretentious corners of the so called 'metal scene.' We tend to avoid posturing, costumed cartoon bands with big management teams, and go more for the bands slugging it out on the road who would enjoy a beer or ten with us."

Shows like Dark Recollections also make you wonder about the impact on listeners and supporters. Priest and Tuff get to see the impact they make on their fans by "going to shows and getting their various critiquing points for any specific part of the show that rubbed them the wrong way."

"We sometimes have people give us music to play on the show if they feel it's good and we like it," said Priest.

At the same time, the message Priest and Tuff try to get across is that they are just having a good time- all of the time- and the duo's biggest goal is to get authentic, real metal from all eras and souns to the listeners' ears.

"This is a passion by conviction," said Priest, "and a hobby by force... thanks to society!"