I am the Station Manager of WESU. Over the past two months, I have been consistently and unfairly misrepresented by both the Wesleyan administration and the unaffiliated “Save WESU” student groups. The administration has over-emphasized the extent to which contractual decisions have been made, while several student groups have usurped our struggle and severely compromised WESU’s position on the eve of its critical revitalization project. In a last ditch effort to refocus our support base, I am attempting to address these misconceptions now, and clarify the many facets and interests surrounding the WESU question.
In an e-mail to WESU student and community supporters, a leader of one of the “Save WESU” coalitions referenced the Board’s negotiations with the administration about a possible affiliation with NPR, and charged that “the Board stands in a strange position where [it] has the potential to sell us out.” This is categorically untrue; the station was actually “sold out” two years ago when a former station manager transferred ownership of the station license from the Wesleyan Broadcaster’s Association, (an independent student corporation), to the Wesleyan administration. However, recent evidence now further suggests that the WBA went defunct in 1990, and that the station operated illegally for thirteen years until its acquisition by the University, during which time neither students nor the administration owned the license.
In another e-mail, the WESU Board was indicted for “not informing any of the other DJs about the situation until a month ago.” This, too, is simply incorrect. That claim was issued by a WESU activist who is not a WESU member, and was not at the first all-DJ meeting of the semester. At this meeting, all WESU DJs were informed that the University, as the new licensee, owner and liable party, was going to implement major changes at the station which might include National Public Radio programming. Since the spring of 2004, when several Board members approached the administration begging for some assistance and oversight at WESU, the Board has publicly renounced the NPR plan. Feasible alternatives, however, have proven scarce.
In the Dec. 3 issue of the Argus, the Students for Democratic Action published a letter in which they stated: “The Administration is saying that we are unable to run our own radio station.”
The reality of the situation is that we ARE unable to run our own radio station. We’ve been plagued by equipment and furniture theft and have no official membership list or screening process. Our Board members don’t come to board meetings or do their weekly board hours. Our DJs don’t come to the monthly all-DJ meetings, do their mandatory service hours at the station, or even show up to do their shows. Our training program is in shambles, DJs have no knowledge of the FCC rules and regulations they break on a daily basis, and the station has absolutely no system for maintaining the proper documentation that federal regulations require. There is no respect for authority, our Constitution has been rendered totally ineffective, and the Board has essentially no degree of managerial control due to a despicable lack of resources, oversight, and administrative support.
We’re the largest group on campus, yet we have no faculty advisor. We’re one of the most powerful college radio stations in Connecticut, yet we have no General Manager. For the last three years, our Board has been plagued with unsupported and ineffective leadership. We have been doomed to fail by the neglect and indifference that the student body and the administration have shown us since our relocation from the basement of Clark Hall. WESU and, by extension, Wesleyan University (as the liable party) runs the risk of incurring thousands of dollars worth of fines every semester. A veteran community DJ has stated that up to a third of our DJs would be purged from the airwaves if the Board were in a position to implement proper guidelines. We’re disorganized, we’re struggling, and we’re desperate. WESU is in a state of utter disrepair, and we need help.
WESU requires a full-time, paid General Manager to function. In order to make this position lucrative enough, a full-time salary and benefits package must be provided by the administration, as it owns the facilities this person would manage. Administrative support is unquestionably necessary to achieve this goal. And yet several student groups have demanded that the WESU Board terminate all negotiations with the legal owners of the radio station.
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