For WESU, some frustration, and a lot of new attention

By Dan Bobkoff and Marissa Brostoff

Features Editors



Before the recent controversy surrounding its programming, Kim Lippman ’06 rarely tuned in to WESU.

“I would immediately switch the station when bad reggae came on and forget to check back later,” she said.

While not yet finalized, the current plan almost ensures that WESU will be using program feeds supplied by Fairfield, Conn.-based public radio station WSHU. This will reduce the number of hours offered to students and community volunteers under the station’s current “free-form” format. Whatever the final outcome, however, the controversy has boosted awareness and interest in the station.

“Once I heard that the integrity of WESU programming was potentially at risk, I decided that it was my responsibility as a Wesleyan student to evaluate not only the issues being debated, but also the programming currently offered,” she said. “To make sure that I was getting as accurate an understanding as my schedule would permit, I decided to leave my radio on WESU no matter how much bad reggae it was emitting.”

WESU currently has no way of measuring how many people are listening to the station, but the station’s presence on campus seems to have increased in the last month.

While WESU volunteers are nervous about the impending changes, the increased attention among Wesleyan students is a silver lining for at least one disc jockey.

“I think it is great that despite the aggravation, the attention, and the potential for terrible or wonderful things to happen, it definitely has increased WESU’s profile on campus,” said Program Director Dave Ruder ’05. He added that over this semester, more Wesleyan students than usual have trained to become DJs.

For the station workers, though, it’s still a waiting game.

Justin Harmon, Director of University Communications, said the hours and nature of programming turned over to WSHU have not yet been determined.

“There’s not an absolute agreement,” he said. “Everyone is operating on the assumption that they’re going to use some feeds.”

Before Monday’s meeting, which featured a panel discussion including President Doug Bennet, members of the WESU board and representatives from the Pacifica Radio Foundation and WSHU, the mood at WESU was grim.

“I’ve found the entire WESU situation baffling, and also distressing,” said Andrew Inchiosa ’07, a DJ for the station who spoke before the panel. “I’ve been feeling pretty desperate, because I don’t know quite what I can do—I even asked my parents to send an e-mail to the president, which they did.”

For some at the station, the panel discussion proved that things could be worse.

“It’s really the least bad plan [under consideration],” Ruder said. “The current plan involves less of a stream being imposed on us and more of us being able to choose the content of the stream. [Our role] is much more active than we had feared.”

Still, Ruder said he is frustrated that the station will have to compromise its autonomy. He sees the function of WESU as fundamentally different from that of an NPR affiliate.

“I don’t see why we can’t just focus on ourselves,” he said. “I don’t see why we have to increase our listening audience.”

Following the meeting, many involved were confused; not only has the fate of WESU not been finalized, but the purpose of the panel itself seemed murky to some.

“Some students understood the panel to be a forum to discuss alternatives to a WSHU association—no doubt their suspicions were strengthened by the fact that a Pacifica rep and a community radio rep were present,” said WESU treasurer Elizabeth Wolff ’06. “Clearly the panel ended up being a time for WESU and President Bennet to present their new compromise regarding the WSHU association.”

The battle over WESU even attracted outside media attention. Articles appeared in The New York Times’ Connecticut section and in the Hartford Courant.

In the meantime, Lippman is happy listening to WESU as it is.

“I heard Alice Cooper’s ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ followed by some 90’s indie music at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday,” she said. “You can’t get that anywhere else!”