Alumnus Nick Keleshian graduated from Rutgers-Newark with a degree in Marketing, but his path to entrepreneurship began at the campus radio station, WRNU.
As station president, Keleshian, who graduated in 2018, learned how to be a boss, oversee budgets, and how to appeal to a diverse campus audience through the station’s programming with a range of DJs and talk shows.
“I learned how to manage staff. I learned how to write an invoice, how to write professional emails, how to request budgets and work with spreadsheets. Basic things I use every day I learned from the radio station,’’ he said.
Today, Keleshian is the co-founder of bunkr., a production studio and creative hub for DJs on Halsey Street in downtown Newark.
Founded by Keleshian and Joshua Garcia, bunkr. serves a growing international community of DJs, drawing artists from around the world to record there and network.
“Anything related to DJs is part of our businesses,’’ says Keleshian, who is from West Orange. “We’re the only space like this.”
Nick Keleshian
Keleshian credits some of his success to the diversity he experienced at RU-N, which was reflected in the radio station’s programming.
At its peak, WRNU featured shows hosted by students from a wide range of cultures, faiths, musical tastes and academic interests.
“The diversity is huge and it taught me a lot,” Keleshian said. “The radio station alone had every type of person you could think of. Looking back, it was really helpful learning experience.’’
His career as a DJ began in his teens, before YouTube tutorials and today’s technology. “Now you can DJ on your phone, but back then you had to invest money in equipment,’’ said Keleshian, whose DJ name is NKNX.
In high school, he began landing paid gigs. By the time he arrived at Rutgers-Newark, and WRNU, he was a pro. But the radio station, founded in 1967, was in bad shape and on the verge of potentially shutting down.
Convinced it deserved support, he spent months building relationships with university staff and advocating for improvements. His efforts helped secure roughly $50,000 in renovations and keep the station alive. It continues today, streaming online at WRNU.
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“I was a sophomore. I barely knew what I was doing,” he said. “But I was passionate enough to know there should be a radio station on this campus.”
When Keleshian launched his business after graduation, he chose to remain in Newark. His proximity to campus has helped maintain his connection to Newark’s arts and music scene and the RU-N community.
He plans on renewing his Rutgers-Newark ties at the Homecoming celebration on October 24.
“It feels like home,” he said. “I know everyone here and I love the people here.”