WGUR back broadcasting

Despite some frustrating technical difficulties last semester, GCSU’s student radio station, WGUR 88.9 F.M. The Edge, is back up and “putting the ‘edge’ in Milledgeville.”
Brian Grooms, a senior mass communication  major and general manager of WGUR, has big plans for the new station.
“We have 25 new D.J.’s that are already on the air,” Grooms said.  “We have 36 hours of weekly live broadcasts Monday through Thursday from 2-10 p.m. and Friday from 12-4 p.m.  We’re also going to make the station more of an open forum this year so there will be a lot more student input”
Students can also enjoy the comeback of “Strictly for the Grown and Sexy” with Emmanuel Little, Thursdays from 8-10 p.m.
“Everything about the station is going to be better this year,” said Little.  “We are all working very hard, but more importantly, we all like each other.”
The GCSU radio station is run by experienced student management and practicum students from the mass communication program.  Their efforts are overseen by advisor Sonya Barnes, a GCSU instructor and a seasoned veteran of the television and radio industry.
“We’ve got a lot of exciting events planned for this semester already,” said Grooms.  “We’re having our grand opening on Front Campus Jan. 31 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Fool’s Day Out is also coming up soon.” 
The station was scheduled to be up and running last semester, but instead had to play a continuous selection of pre-recorded music interrupted only by legal identifications that the station is required to play.
“The situation was a little complicated,”  Grooms said.  “Basically, we got about $10,000 in equipment that was so advanced we had to subcontract technicians from Clear Channel in Macon just to use it.”
Many of the practicum students who were supposed to be D.J.’s last semester found themselves selling T-shirts and moving equipment and furniture into Lanier Hall, the new location for the station.  The students were required to earn 45 hours of experience in order to get credit and were understandably disappointed that this time wasn’t spent while on the air.
 “It was a little frustrating that we weren’t on the air last semester,” said practicum student Jason Long.  “But overall it was still a positive experience just being involved with events like Buffapalooza, and learning to build a station with little or no budget.”
Sonya Barnes, the staff adviser to WGUR, is pleased with the work the practicum students have done.
“All of the things the students had to do tie directly into the radio station,” Barnes said.  “We are not allowed to sell ads so the only money we get is either given to us by the school or raised through our efforts in T-shirt sales and other fundraisers.  We’ve had some challenging opportunities but we have a lot of hard workers, first class equipment, and the institution believes in us so we’re back and ready to rock and roll.”
WGUR Promotions Director Jamie Murray is also working to set up the station’s first Web site, which should be up soon.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 19 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry