The Day Independent Radio Took a Step Back

The Impressions - Keep on Pushing - Keep on Pushing (Paramount 1964)

Yesterday morning I woke up to the worst possible news concerning the radio station that I Music Direct for and is near solely responsible for bringing Audiversity to life, WLUW-FM Chicago, Listener-Supported Community Radio:

from the Chicago Sun-Times:
July 13, 2007
BY ROBERT FEDER Sun-Times Columnist
When it comes to WLUW-FM (88.7), Loyola giveth and Loyola taketh away.

Five years after university officials gratefully turned over day-to-day
management control of their struggling campus radio station to Chicago
Public Radio, they're asking for it back.

At the time of its transfer in 2002, WLUW was operating at a deficit,
and Loyola sought help in managing and fund-raising from the nonprofit
parent company of WBEZ-FM (91.5).

Since then, under an operating agreement with the public radio
station's board, WLUW has been thriving as a listener-supported
community-based station.

Now Loyola reportedly plans to return the station to its roots as a
student-run operation and make it part of the curriculum.

Pending a deal between Loyola and Chicago Public Radio bosses, the
management change should be completed by next June.

So as you can see, come next June I'm out of a job and Audiversity's future will be in limbo, though I am going to spend the next year building as strong as contacts as possible to keep the website alive.

This is an excerpt of the email we received from our Station Manager shortly after:

"As some of you already know from this morning’s Feder column in the Sun Times, and per provisions of the operating agreement between WBEZ and Loyola University, the university has decided to exercise its option to take back WLUW. The details of this transition have not been communicated to us. We understand that the station is expected to continue its current programming until June 2008. All current staffers are welcome to stay until that date. At this point we do not know the status of those staffers after that date.

You should know that this decision is not based on anything that has gone on at WLUW. It is indeed ironic that this happens just at the moment WLUW has had its greatest successes as a community radio station. The decision is a function of the university wanting to establish a new School of Communication for which WLUW will be an academic component."

But really, I have only been with the station for a year-and-a-half, and there are DJs and volunteers who have been producing highly-regarded shows for the last decade. These are the people I feel the worst for, because once Loyola takes the station back over (which coincidentally comes after we've grown enough to reach our yearly financial budget for the first time thanks to the very kind souls of listeners who donated their hard-earned money to our cause), they may not have an outlet to keep on producing their excellent programs. And our Program Director, Shawn Campbell, has spent the last eight years of her life building the station from the ground up just to have it plucked away from her at it's highest state of popularity. It's an absolute shame Loyola has decided to take these actions and, in turn, demolishing one of the strongest radio outlets for independent music, progressive news and community programs, and denying listeners an option for independent, heart-felt radio here in Chicago. Do I regret spending so many under-paid hours helping develop the station's music library and musical image? Absolutely not. It's been a wonderful learning experience and introduced me to the most hard-working, immensely creative community I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I sincerely doubt that we will just pack it up and head in our own separate directions. Radio needs it's independent outlets more than ever before, and I guarantee that this is not the last you will hear from us. There is nothing like a little oppression and defeat to inspire bigger and better endeavors.

Thank you to everyone who has listened to Audiversity: The Radio Show and WLUW-FM. The show should run for a few more months uninhibited; from there we'll just play it by ear.