Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

All that jazz: WSIE will keep longtime format

EDWARDSVILLE -- WSIE will keep all that jazz, while administrators are improvising its future programming.

The station's format has been under debate for months, as a committee appointed by Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift debated whether to keep its longtime jazz format, or go in another direction entirely with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's radio station.

One thing's for sure at this point, Vandegrift said in his annual address Wednesday: WSIE will retain its jazz format. His announcement was greeted with applause in the crowded hall, as rumors had been circulating for months of the station's demise -- a short-lived Facebook group had even popped up titled "Save 88.7!"

"What led me to keep (the jazz format) is that it was our brand," Vandegrift said. At the moment, WSIE is the only all-jazz station in the St. Louis market.

The nonprofit station has been a frequent internship and practicum for SIUE communications students since its launch in 1970. It has been a jazz station since the early 1990s, but it lost its NPR affiliation a few years ago due to low audience numbers.

Since then, the level of student involvement has dropped, particularly when the station stopped paying student workers for economic reasons.

That coincided with a decline in radio interest among students, according to mass communications chairman Gary Hicks.

"At one point it was half-manned by students," Hicks said. "But there's been a definite decline in interest in radio. ... Students need jobs that pay, and (the cut in student pay) happened simultaneously with the change of direction."

The radio production classes eventually were merged with video production, so there is no separate class in radio anymore. A few years ago, the on-air DJs were eliminated. Currently the music on WSIE comes from a satellite feed, with news broadcasts twice a day.

Soon it will switch to featuring SIUE's own jazz program, which consists of 35 students, four full-time and four adjunct faculty members. There are several ensembles, including big-band, vocal and guitar groups.

Brett Stamps, director of jazz studies, said the discussion of how to implement the changes is still going on. "This is in the very beginning stages," he said. "We're all very excited about the possibilities ... The idea would be that the programming (on the station) would reflect things going on in our program."

But it would be impossible to fill 24 hours with just SIUE jazz, so there will be regular features spotlighting programs on campus, according to Elizabeth Keserauskis, the director of marketing.

In this new plan, WSIE will now be part of the marketing department instead of mass communications, and will be used as a marketing tool for the university.

Hicks said there was "no contention" in moving the station out of mass communications and into marketing. "It was not serving the university," he said. "It very much reflects the changing media industries as well. ... We still hope we can use it as a forum for training our students."

WSIE's station director and news director work for the station, not a particular department, Keserauskis said, and they are staying on staff. She too expects that communications students will get training at the station.

Keserauskis said her vision of WSIE's new direction will include spotlighting SIUE programs, increased broadcasting of SIUE's athletic programs -- garnering more interest now that the university is in Division I -- coaches' shows and "other things that are not unusual in a Division I school," Keserauskis said.

As to exactly how it will work, they're still working on it, Keserauskis said. And there are a lot of eyes -- and ears -- on them as they figure it out. "It's been an interesting process," she said.