For 10 years, Dorian Hall has spun hip-hop records on a
radio show called “The Hot Spot” on WRUR (88.5 FM), the University of
Rochester’s student-run radio station. And call-ins by students and community
members have been the lifeblood of the show, which is broadcast live Thursday
evenings from 6 to 8 o’clock.
While local
station WDKX (103.9 FM) plays hip-hop, Hall’s show caters to a more adventurous
crowd. Those who tune in will hear songs by A Tribe Called Quest, not the hits
of Beyonce or Alicia Keys. Hall’s is a one-of-a-kind voice in the community.
Doing a
show live lets Hall take audience requests, promote local events for his
callers, and give away CDs. After a CD giveaway, Hall connects with listeners
by meeting them at WRUR’s studio on the UR River Campus.
But this is
the last week Hall and other WRUR DJs will broadcast live. Starting Monday, May
24, shows will be recorded. In the future, RUR DJs will submit their tapes to
station manager Jared Lapin and chief engineer Steve Carlton, who will review
them for content and put them on the air the following week. During the week of
May 31, listeners will hear reruns: shows taped next week will replay that
week, while new taped shows are being reviewed.
The reason for the change:
University of Rochester officials’ concern about new Federal Communications
Commission rulings, which upped the fines for “indecent” content in broadcasting. Now, one off-color comment could result in a
fine of $500,000.
The FCC
guidelines are vague, and the UR Broadcasting Corporation, which owns WRUR, is
among the nation’s broadcasters not taking any chances. In a recent memo, UR
Broadcasting vice president William Green and associate vice president
Anne-Marie Algier stated: “We have become increasingly concerned with the
content broadcast on 88.5 FM due to new FCC rules.” Green and Algier are also UR
officials.
“The
current climate for broadcasting makes it advisable for all radio stations to
monitor their programming carefully,” Green told City Newspaper last week. “We are trying to be cautious and to do all we can to respect the general
concerns of the FCC.”
WRUR is not a
traditional radio station. Shows hosted by community and student DJs bring
reggae, indie rock, folk, classical, and jazz music into Rochester’s
Clear-Channel-dominated radio scene. Singers and bands not covered by large
record labels often get their first exposure on college radio. WRUR played Dido
when she was just another no-name singer from Britain,
before she catapulted to multi-platinum, international success.
RUR station
manager Jared Lapin and former FM programming director James Camara say that
pre-recording will benefit the station by introducing more regularity to show
schedules. Instead of depending on the schedules of student DJs, who often
become bogged down with schoolwork at certain times of the year, programs will
play consistently at the same time each week.
“We
can’t build listenership if your times keep changing,” Lapin told DJs at a
meeting last Wednesday.
Because the
station can’t afford to hire producers to listen to and edit DJs’ shows live,
Lapin said, pre-recording is a viable way to keep WRUR’s one-of-a-kind shows on
the air and avoid fines. While he and Carlton
will screen hours and hours of shows each week for content, UR Broadcasting
will have the final say on what is and is not acceptable.
Listeners
will notice a difference. For example, Lapin told the DJs not to refer to the
day or the weather from now on. “It’s got to be sort of a generic flavor,” he
said.
The change
has its supporters. Ruth Elaine Tarbox, a community DJ who plays jazz LPs and
goes by the name “Ruth Elaine” on-air, believes that U of R Broadcasting’s
decision may have more positive effects than negative. “I think it may be just
absolutely great, especially if you can listen to ways perhaps that you can
better your show,” she says.
But there
are plenty of critics. Some are suspicious that pre-recording is another step
toward making the station’s offerings more bland — or that this may forecast
a takeover by public broadcaster WXXI. NPR programming now fills several blocks
in WRUR’s schedule, with shows like “Morning Edition” and “All
Things Considered” broadcast every weekday. The partnership began as a
pilot program last summer.
Those
concerns were heightened recently when many of the station’s DJs — some of
them longtime WRUR contributors — lost their shows. Station officials say
that all of the DJ’s had been asked to come to a training session to learn how
to use new digital equipment provided by WXXI. Those who didn’t receive
training don’t know how to use the equipment, station officials say.
But the community DJs who had
their shows cancelled say the training session was poorly publicized. Many say
they didn’t get a notice of the meeting. And, they say, it’s significant that
of the station’s 47 DJs, 35 were told their shows had been cancelled because
they didn’t show up for the training.
To some WRUR fans,
the regularity Lapin promises isn’t enough reward to balance the sacrificing of
live programming.
“That’s
not what college radio is about,” says former WRUR DJ and recent UR
graduate Jennifer Smith. Smith received 14 calls during one two-hour time slot
of the indie rock show she co-hosted with senior Chuck Mosier this past year.
Those calls helped her plan the show’s direction and understand the elements
that were going right.
“College
radio is about free format — people calling in and making requests,” she
says.
Dorian Hall
agrees. “The call-ins generally dictate how independent music is being
received in its market,” Hall says. “A lot of people tend to interact
with my show.”
“The
music scene is already a controlled market,” he continues. “College radio has
always been a market for independent music. Electronic Music, drum and bass,
hip-hop, progressive house, funky house, disco house: everything that you would
normally not hear on a commercial radio station is heard on a college radio
station. How else would independent artists get their music out there?”
This article appears in May 19-25, 2004.
