Every so often, someone will write a column with ideas about how to get young people interested in a career in radio. If you talk privately to your friends in the business and the topic comes up, most would probably suggest that you steer any young person interested in radio to another field, but if the individual insists, give them all the help you can.
Recently, my friend John Shomby had a nice column in Radio Ink, “Radio’s Next Generation Is Closer Than You Think” where he wrote about the amount of talent out there now on college campuses. He presented the opportunity from the standpoint of bringing new talent to commercial stations. It’s reassuring that so many college students still find radio/audio fun and want to be part of it.
While it may not mean bringing more people into the business long-term, I’m working with an interesting college situation. Earning three degrees meant I spent a lot of time at universities. Being a radio person from the beginning, I spent ten years in college radio in the ‘70s and ‘80s, including one stint as a student general manager and two as a program director.
Like many of you who spent some time at college stations, it was a riot. You made friends, you entertained your fellow students (if you call starting a record on the wrong speed or stumbling over words on-air entertaining), and you even had some responsibility. If you were supposed to do a shift from noon-2 or midnight-2, you showed up and did it.
When I decided to move to beautiful Bowling Green, Kentucky over two years ago, I learned that not only did Western Kentucky University here in town have a Broadcast Communications department, but it also had a student radio station, WWHR-FM. It’s branded as “Revolution 91.7” and runs a bit over 1,000 watts. That signal won’t cover the nine-county metro, but it’s just fine in the biggest county, Warren.
If you read this column regularly, you know that I’ve been taking classes at WKU since arriving here, and as a student, I thought it would be cool to do an airshift, considering my last one was in 1987. Having been a corporate type since then, I understand that the technology in broadcast studios has changed a bit (what…no vinyl or carts?), but I assumed I could learn and adapt.
I heard a live show on the station in August 2023, but since that time, WWHR has been automated. The format is sort of a wide AAA, typical for a college station, but while the station is on the air, that’s all that it is. My assumption is that most students and locals don’t even know it exists.
Fast forward to now, and yours truly is adjunct faculty at WKU in the aforementioned Broadcast Communications department. Thanks to a recent meeting, I will be the faculty advisor to the station, starting this month.
My view of “faculty advisor” uses the football field analogy. I’ll set the “out of bounds” lines meaning what students aren’t allowed to do, but everything “in bounds” is up to them. Need advice? I’m here. Otherwise, you’ll have successes and disasters, but they’re yours and that’s part of learning and growing.
Here’s the problem: most college stations have a steady flow of staff, and when some graduate, others move up. WWHR has been dormant for two full academic years and must start over.
Where to begin? How do you attract a staff from scratch, including student managers? I’m not sure what the budget is for the station, but it does have an on-air studio, a production studio, and another larger room for interviews, podcasts, etc. complete with video capabilities. In other words, the facilities are in pretty good shape.
I understand that students don’t use broadcast radio much, perhaps in their cars. However, we can add apps, better streaming options, etc. But how do you market these options to people who didn’t grow up using the medium?
Despite the hurdles, I’m excited to get started on the quest to resuscitate WWHR. I have a number of ideas in my head, some more practical than others.
Here’s my request to you: I have many friends in the business who will help me out in this endeavor. However, there are plenty of you in the business now or recently retired (or sadly, on the beach) that may have ideas, thoughts, or experiences that will help get the station restarted and give it the best chance for success.
Please reach out to me at doctoredresearch@gmail.com with your thoughts and ideas. No, there’s no money in this, but you’ll be helping a fellow broadcaster and perhaps some aspiring ones.
Let’s meet again next week.
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