Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Pouya Dianat

When it became clear last year that a Baltimore public radio station was eyeing campus-based WMUC's 88.1 frequency, the undergraduate DJs spinning records above the South Campus Dining Hall screeched the vinyl to a halt.

The music resumed, of course, as it always has. But some have wondered how long it will last. Like many college stations, WMUC - whose frequency reaches only a small radius outside the campus - is fighting a battle on several fronts.

Not only is the station still scrambling to avoid being bullied off the air by Baltimore's WYPR, a National Public Radio affiliate that aims to increase wattage to reach Washington's suburbs, but the Recording Industry Association of America could kill the station's last chance of being heard: webcasts.

Stations' intrusion on rival frequencies is nothing new: The Federal Communications Commission was created to regulate the practice in 1934. But WMUC is exempted because of their low power, which keeps it from infringing on other local broadcast outlets. But with webcasting, the station's free form format is in danger if the RIAA wins a court battle to charge a fee on every song played.

Most stations, WMUC included, would be unable to pay the fees because they depend on shoestring student group budgets.

The station's fight for relevance mimics a dilemma college radio stations across the country have faced over the past decade. Many stations depend exclusively on webcasting, having lost control over their broadcast antennae.

Today, college radio is often viewed as a rag-tag operation of students more interested in spinning records than cracking books, leaving students to defend themselves against a crunch of crowded airwaves and the commercialization of nearly every other station in town.

"The definition and the business of radio for at least the last 25 years has gotten so that the romantic notion of college radio is an antiquated dream that needs to be brought up to date," said Stephen Yasko, the General Manager at WTMD, Towson University's radio station, which switched formats in 2003. "The very model that everyone plays what they want to play is unreliable," Yasko said. "That's not something attractive for people to listen to."

Towson is just one of the handful of local university-owned stations to seize control from its students in favor of more profitable endeavors. In the Washington region, WMUC stands alone as the last college radio station of its kind. Others, like American University, have succumbed to playing NPR and talk shows that rely on professional management and membership drives.

That wasn't the case in the 1970s, when John Lennon dropped WMUC's name during a concert, bringing the station an uncommon cultural following. Then came the '90s, when focus groups began dictating playlists and the federal government deregulated, allowing large companies to gain ownership of several stations in each city.

The airwaves in Washington are so crowded, WMUC has perhaps achieved survival because of its low frequency. So it came as a surprise when the station was told WYPR will flip the power switch next month.

"They're not gonna care if they knock us off the air," said WMUC's General Manager Adam Winer. "To them, they look at us like we're taking up their station. The fact that we're going to survive this is pretty amazing from our end."

Winer, who is also a Diversions writer for The Diamondback, said WMUC looked at several options over the past year to overcome any interference WYPR's move may cause, options like moving to another signal, changing or increasing the station's frequency, adjusting the height of the antenna on top of the station or getting a new antenna all together.

WYPR did not return several messages seeking comment, but an e-mail by the station's General Manager Anthony Brandon earlier this month said the station is going forward with its plans.

"We will increase power later this year, although we certainly will not reach Washington and may not have much effect on WMUC," Brandon said. "As a precaution, we have worked with [university officials] to find an alternate frequency so that service might actually be increased and all parties would benefit."

But Stephen Gnadt, the university's adviser to WMUC, said an engineering study showed WYPR's move would impose on WMUC.

"It's not gonna blow us off the air, but it probably will shrink the coverage that WMUC has," Gnandt said. "The administration has been very supportive of WMUC as has the school of journalism. They funded the cost of doing the engineering study."

"It's an easy target. An unfair target, but an easy target," said Sue Kopen Katcef, the head of WMUC's Alumni Association and a professor in the journalism school. "A lot of us had the intention of a career. Now, its kind of a hobby outside of sports and news. ... I think it needs to broaden its horizons."

That rattles WMUC DJs like Scott Maxwell, who also serves as the station's operations manager.

"I don't think you can get much more broader horizons than college radio," he said. "One of the reasons college exists is to offer more adventurous programming. You're not trying to please advertisers, you're not responsible to record companies. We just give students a three-hour block of programming and say let your creativity fly."

Contact reporter Owen Praskievicz at praskieviczdbk@gmail.com.

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