WAGA-TV and later WSB-TV. Alumni of the station span the range of media, from executive positions at the major recording labels and cable networks to air talent at radio and TV stations across the country. Album 88 has won numerous awards, frequently beating out commercial radio stations, from the former Atlanta weekly Creative Loafing, the monthly Atlanta magazine, and the former College Music Journal. And for a student station with no budget for promotion, the station was also unusually successful, according to the Birch, Arbitron and, more recently, Nielsen ratings. While most student stations in the pre-internet era self-consciously eschewed popularity, WRAS sought to play a wide variety of music while gaining the largest audience possible. The station's impact on record sales in Atlanta led to the inclusion of Album 88 as a reporting station to Billboard magazine for a time in the 1980s. With the increasing number of stations on the FM dial in Atlanta since the 1990s, some commercial stations have increasingly targeted segments of the traditional WRAS audience. Keeping true to its roots, Album 88 today airs a wider variety of music to reflect the much wider range of music genres and sub-genres which have developed in the post-internet era. Album 88 has played a crucial role in "breaking" a wide range of artists including R.E.M., Deerhunter and Outkast. Several platinum and gold records hang in Album 88's studios and offices. According to Bob Geldof, he penned the Boomtown Rats hit song, "I Don't Like Mondays" in the Album 88 office after reading a telex report of the schoolyard shooting on which the song is based. On March 14, 2008, an F-2 tornado struck Atlanta's downtown core and led to the evacuation of students and employees from parts of the Georgia State campus. Album 88 was forced to suspend broadcasting for nearly two days. (See 2008 Atlanta tornado) Album 88 Programming and Productions Album 88 has over 50 student volunteers who host many of the programs. Among the specialty shows on Album 88 have been: Melodically Challenged (poetry and alternative music, nationally syndicated), The Georgia Music Show (dedicated exclusively to artists from Georgia), I Don't Care (punk), Soul Kitchen (funk, soul, disco and related), Crossroads (blues), Jet Lag (international psychedelia), New Theory (chillwave), Beatscape Lounge (ambient, electronica and nu jazz), Subterranean (drum and bass), Cowtipper's Delight (classic country and alternative country), Dot Dash (post-punk), Mighty Aphrodite (female