Mixed Signals II

Dear Dec,

This letter is in response to the article by John Crotteau on student radio at the university, particularly WIRE, and more especially Ms. Amy Briggs's silly reaction to Mr. Crotteau's article.

In defense of Mr. Crotteau, he did take the time to come over to WNRN and talk with our Operations Director about the station in researching his piece. Ms. Briggs from WTJU, on the other hand, has either never listened to WNRN, or has never listened to a commercial modern rock station like WHFS or the Buzz, where "modern rock hits" really are "spoonfed in a rotation." I would like now to shed some light on why there is not a "college radio station" at the university.

Although radio is, and ought to be, about music for listeners, doing radio for an audience is not. Doing radio involves not only music, but research, programming, marketing, engineering, and much more. Prospective university students who want to get seriously involved in radio or related media tend to go to schools with media departments and professional leadership where learning can occur, and where real radio, that serves and audience, can be executed. While we at WNRN have had few problems finding students to do proficient jobs in all levels of our organization side by side with community members and professional staff, many of those who could actually start and maintain a broadcast service as a student organization (as on many campuses) don't come to Charlottesville. Never was this clearer than during the years 1990-95, when WIRE was showered with over $65,000 (roughly double the money we received from all sources to put our station on the air, and while frequencies were still available). No one at WIRE ever contacted a consulting engineer, found FCC legal counsel, or filed an FCC application, and further, they chased away all professional efforts to assist their station in getting on the air. At a university with a Mass-Comm department and professors, grad students, and professionally oriented undergraduates, it is fair to surmise that things would have unfolded differently.

There are those at the university who believe that diversity, individual input, and the "chance for [their] thoughts, tastes, and beliefs to translate to the airwaves in their purest form" are the foundations of a radio station. The foundations of a radio station are the input, thoughts, tastes, and beliefs of a defined audience, and the development of a strategy to use this information in service of that audience. The former is enjoyable enough for those who do it and their circle of friends, and is even more fun when you can corner a couple of hundred thousand a year of taxpayer and student dollars with which to do it. It leaves listeners who have tired of commercial radio hype, but who don't have a contempt for popular culture or students' tastes in general, out in the cold. We at WNRN believe in diversity as much as anyone (check our schedule); we simply have the professional discipline not to allow the pursuit of diversity to outweigh a level of identity we need to survive in the marketplace, something WTJU does not have to worry about. We leave for our audience the choice of finding what we don't offer somewhere else, including on WTJU if they wish.

We at WNRN offer our listeners a choice and our volunteers a chance to participate in something relevant and to grow professionally. We also constantly welcome students' and other volunteers' music and programming ideas, and seek to have them reflected in our programming in a timely manner.

Sincerely,
Mike Friend
President & Gen'l Manager, WNRN