Wildfires and high winds ravaged through land and homes all throughout Southern California last October, destroying acres of the area. Now, students and others have a great opportunity to help those victims affected.

KSSU and Unique Programs are having a benefit concert on Tuesday, February 12 at 7 p.m. in the University Ballroom.

The concert is called The Frequencies of Love and will feature five local bands. The concert is a fundraising event for the Southern California residents who were affected by the wildfires.

Students and the general public will have a chance to contribute funds by paying only $10 for admission and all the proceeds will go to Direct Relief International’s wildfire relief fund.

According to CNN.com, the wildfires burned at least 1,641 homes and left 85 people injured while NBCSandiego.com reported that nine people died from the firestorm.

This event will span three different genres of music including rap/hip-hop groups Righteous Movement and Live Manikins, punk rock groups No Admission and Kepi The Band and country singer Richard March.

Zenia Diokno, Programs Adviser for UNIQUE Programs, said this concept was thought of by KSSU in October when the fires happened.

Robert Young, KSSU station manager, and staff, collectively created the idea of The Frequencies of Love after hearing about the fires happening in Southern California.

“We were just so angry that we couldn’t do anything to help our friends and family down there,” Young said.

Young has two aunts, an uncle, a cousin and a close friend who lost his house who all live in Southern California.

He is very happy to be working with Unique Programs for this event.

“We’re becoming good partners as well as good friends with Unique,” said Young.

He also attempted to work with other campus radio stations to hold their own benefit to donate funds to Direct Relief.

Young asked around 30 stations throughout California and they were willing but not able to be involved due to scheduling conflicts or other reasons. Six other stations were able to participate for Direct Relief. The other campuses involved are Chico State, CSU Humboldt, Loyola Marymount University, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego.

The concert’s name was inspired by the band Gogol Bordello’s song “Dub the Frequency of Love.” Young decided to use the song title since the concert is happening on the week of Valentine’s Day.

The bands will be performing at the show for free but have permission to sell their own merchandise at the concert. So far, No Admissions and Live Manikins are going to donate a sum of their merchandise profits to Direct Relief to help the victims themselves. The groups have not yet decided just how much money will be donated.

“We haven’t decided how much of our profit we’re going to donate but we will donate something,” said Adam Jennings, the bass player for No Admission.

Adam Jennings said he is happy to do a benefit show.

“We just love playing shows. Personally, it’s awesome. It gives a warm feeling inside to do a benefit show,” Jennings said.

Ron Florente from Live Manikins, also known as Rated R, said he too is looking forward to the show.

“It’s good to do a benefit concert. It shows what we have to offer,” Florente said.

Florente sees this event as an opportunity to promote the group’s music and network with other bands to do future concerts.

“It’s a pleasure to see what other local bands are out there,” Florente said.

This is not the first benefit concert that Live Manikins have done; according to Florente, the band did a concert in January 2005 for Tsunami victims.

He also said Live Manikins are willing to play at other campuses if it fits their schedules.

Robert Young says he’s leaving the name of the concert open for possible future events. In the meantime, he is looking forward to the Frequencies of Love concert to happen next week.

“We’re really excited to do it, and we’re glad to work with Unique. It’s great to see different stations come together to work for one purpose,” Young said.

Aaron Villegas can be reached at [email protected].