WUSO recovered from slump with revitalized staff and content
Abby Reynolds
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: News
|
On Wednesday, Jan. 20, to give campus a sense of these internal changes, WUSO had an open house in its studio, boasting new staff and a sense of revival. With the goal in mind of getting people excited about WUSO and encouraging involvement, members passed out t-shirts and offered free Domino's pizza to those in attendance.
"We saw a lot of the same faces from the open house again," said junior Chelsea Remster, WUSO's General Manager. "This is good news because it means that WUSO is retaining more interest. Though the open house successfully encouraged greater involvement and now WUSO has twelve live shows, we still have room for a lot more."
Originally, WUSO had three executives, but that number has since grown to twelve. This increase in leadership is due to the fact that WUSO members are more eager to help out and reach out to the campus. The WUSO board has added several additional music directors and new positions, such as Promotions Director, to create a more diverse and active managerial environment.
One new approach WUSO is taking to expand its variety is adding a news segment to the program. Sophomore Nishant Makhija, the newly appointed News Director and creator of the news show, said that everything from activities on campus to events at the national level have the potential to be covered.
"The goal is to have reporters eventually out in the field, but for now the first steps will be reading the news on the air," said Makhija.
WUSO executives said they hope a news segment will give students interested in new broadcasting the chance to gain experience. They also said they believe the segment will help keep Springfield updated and connected to the Wittenberg campus.
The idea of broadcasting the news is still in the very beginning stages, but eventually WUSO hopes to report the news every day from information gathered using its own sources.
"It's a big endeavor, but it can be done," said Makhija.
WUSO also offers opportunities for students to express themselves by sharing their favorite music, or talking about matters of interest. Located in the basement of Firestine, the WUSO studio is equipped with recording equipment that allows shows that are originally recorded live to be looped and played again later. Listeners can play WUSO's music and segments from their own laptops or I-pods in addition to listening to the station on the radio.
"We have a library of CDs that labels send us all the time that people can use," said Remster.
They also have old vinyl records that are free for use.
WUSO is making other changes to update the station, such as adding more variety to the shows that are looped, and converting the music library into MP3 format.
WUSO is planning on conducting general meetings on the first Tuesday of every month. Anyone who is interested can sign up for a time slot at the meetings or email Remster at s11.cremster@wittenberg.edu. For those interested in news broadcasting, there will be a general information session on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. in Shouvlin 201.
Be the first to comment on this story