Board of Visitors- SAVE WTJU!

Keep Announcer Based Programming at WTJU

Greetings,

As you may have heard, WTJU, The University's radio station, is going through a time of changes that will establish its mission into the future.

WTJU first broadcast from Lefebvre dormitory in 1957. From the beginning, it broadcast according to a mission, which to this day DJs uphold. That mission, which can be found in its entirety at http://wtju.net/record/mission, states WTJU's objectives.

º To present original, rich, and diverse programming of music and other forms of expression free from the direct constraints of commercial interests, reflecting the broadest educational goals of the University.

º To provide the University and surrounding communities with a significant alternative to other broadcast media within the station's service area.

º To provide educational, entertaining music and public affairs programming, and information on issues and events of interest to the community.

º To serve as a communications link between the University and surrounding communities, bringing the resources of the University to its neighbors, providing opportunities for participation in the creation of programming and the experience of broadcasting, and fostering closer contact among different groups.

º To archive selected recorded material acquired or produced by WTJU.

Earlier this year, our long-time station manager, Charles W. Taylor III, retired. The DJs were saddened, but hopeful. With a new station manager, with new blood, might come new ways to tackle some old problems. The DJs were concerned about the effect the recession had on our fundraising. They were concerned by what they felt was a dearth of student involvement. The announcers felt that they could do more to broadcast over the internet. DJs felt that they could do more to fly the WTJU flag and be as much of a part of Charlottesville as they could be. The announcers had hoped that Burr Beard would be the man to help them.

Instead, Burr Beard has said, in effect, nothing WTJU has done so far has worked, so everything must change, and we'll start with the programming. You have a couple of weeks, and then we start doing things my way: we will institute rotations (in which one third of the songs played would come from a short list provided by a music director) and we are going to institute one format from 6AM to 4PM. Burr Beard had Americana in mind for the format.

DJs were horrified by the message and the way it was delivered. Many DJs who had been with the station for over twenty years were finding out that they had one or two shows to say goodbye to an audience who listened every week. Even more horrifying to DJs was the implicit devil's irony of asking for change, and finally receiving it, only to find that the change would seriously compromise the mission of the station they love.

To date, WTJU's DJ's have always been allowed to choose every piece of music they play. The DJs and the DJs alone are in charge of their own programming. They stand behind every sonata, ballad, rondeau, improvisation, dub plate and remix. If you call the station, they can tell you all about what you're listening. They play the music they love. They play music that entertains and educates. They play music that inspires. Ask any musician from Charlottesville, from John D'Earth to Boyd Tinsley to James McNew, what station they listened to, and chances are they will say WTJU. They will point towards WTJU's love of going deeper, to WTJU's unwavering alternative to the music you could hear anywhere else, in any town, on multiple stations. And many of them will say with pride that they were DJs themselves.

Burr Beard's proposed changes will destroy what not only the DJs but the community audience feels is the heart of WTJU, which is to present original, rich and diverse programming that is a significant alternative to every other broadcast media in the Charlottesville area. A rotation takes the programming out of the hands of the DJ. In short, a DJ is being asked to play a song s/he may not love, like, or even know. No longer can a listener call up, ask the DJ what s/he's playing, and have a conversation about a song s/he loves. The DJ can no longer educate. In short, the DJ is just a voice playing faceless, interchangeable records.

I am not asking for anything radical. What I want is a chance for the announcers to prove the worth of what they do to Mr. Beard, who, it seems, is not really all that familiar with the station or the community it serves. The Office of Public Affairs stepped in once when the DJs asked for more time to absorb the information that was being dropped on them. Now I ask for more time, in order for the DJs to work with Mr. Beard, to marry his radio experience with their zeal and their knowledge of Charlottesville. I hope that you agree, and that I can count on your continued support of WTJU.

In short, I ask that you step in to ensure that WTJU can continue to meet it's mission, that announcers retain full control of their shows, that individual shows remain (rather than block programming) and that no department is cut from WTJU scheduling.

[Your name]