Viva la media: Save our organizations
Posted on April 29, 2010 by Mat Payne, Guest columnist
Things looked grim for the future of “Pub Row” on Apr. 20, when campus media organizations were notified that their office space was going to be drastically reduced or taken.
Members of the affected Pub Row organizations (Wake Radio, The Howler, The Student and 3 to 4 Ounces) were informed the next day and immediately began brainstorming how they could save their already-limited space.
Within 24 hours, members of Wake Radio had taken the initiative and began flooding the blogosphere and social networking sites with “Save Wake Radio” posts, raising awareness of their plight.
In addition, an official letter-writing campaign expressing specific individual’s complaints and voicing the perspective of the organization began.
It’s hard to gauge how much weight this activism carries, but it undoubtedly gave members of the media organizations hope derived from sheer numbers.
Over the course of the week, junior Nathan Bedsole, chairman-elect and station manager of Wake Radio, has received over 40 letters from DJs, alumni, frustrated parents and unaffiliated students expressing their concern.
As a member of Wake Radio’s executive board, I, too, was dumbfounded by the speed in which people were willing to respond and the efforts that they were willing to make for our cause. One of the biggest surprises to anyone was the amount of alumni support exhibited in these first days.
Every Wake Radio station manager from 2002 to present has written a letter to Ken Zick, vice president of student life, expressing his/her disappointment with the university’s decision to reallocate the space.
Though it has been an extremely rough week for everyone, there have been some unexpected positive effects stemming from the chaos.
The biggest of these is the unification of campus media organizations — working together as a whole instead of constantly pushing and pulling each other, as has often been the case.
More than ever, we are now working together as Wake Media, one of, if not the, largest non-Greek organization on campus.
With all Wake Media organizations working together for the common good, an open dialogue was established between members of the Media Board and the administration Apr. 26.
Since then, Media Board members have been on-call 24/7, scrambling to pull all possible resources together and often working until 4 a.m. on assorted projects.
These projects were not always fully discussed with staff members because of the expeditious changes being made constantly and the sensitive nature of details.
Though these circumstances were unpleasant for some, they have also generated some awkwardly amusing conversations on “Pub Row” that generally go something like this:
“Did you…that thing”
“Ya, it’s…”
“So ya…there*head nod*…after”
“Ya.”
Despite the frustrations, the nights of little-to-no sleep and the weight of over 100 people on the shoulders of a few, positive changes were made Apr. 27, leading to the eventual leak of information that other campus organizations will be gaining space on the fifth floor in addition to the present Pub Row.
It’s safe to say that an unimaginable amount of work has been put into this cause by all of those involved. Everyone who enjoys any Wake Media publications should be grateful.
At this point (with things on the up side of unsure), it’s important to say that, regardless of the university’s decision, the unification of all individual organizations under the title of Wake Media and the reopening of closed communications are invaluable occurrences that will promote the overall advancement of student-produced media.
Mat Payne is a sophomore communication major from Asheville, N.C.
Things looked grim for the future of “Pub Row” on Apr. 20, when campus media organizations were notified that their office space was going to be drastically reduced or taken. Members of the affected Pub Row organizations (Wake Radio, The Howler, The Student and 3 to 4 Ounces) were informed the next day and immediately began brainstorming how they could save their already-limited space.
Within 24 hours, members of Wake Radio had taken the initiative and began flooding the blogosphere and social networking sites with “Save Wake Radio” posts, raising awareness of their plight.
In addition, an official letter-writing campaign expressing specific individual’s complaints and voicing the perspective of the organization began.
It’s hard to gauge how much weight this activism carries, but it undoubtedly gave members of the media organizations hope derived from sheer numbers.
Over the course of the week, junior Nathan Bedsole, chairman-elect and station manager of Wake Radio, has received over 40 letters from DJs, alumni, frustrated parents and unaffiliated students expressing their concern.
As a member of Wake Radio’s executive board, I, too, was dumbfounded by the speed in which people were willing to respond and the efforts that they were willing to make for our cause. One of the biggest surprises to anyone was the amount of alumni support exhibited in these first days.
Every Wake Radio station manager from 2002 to present has written a letter to Ken Zick, vice president of student life, expressing his/her disappointment with the university’s decision to reallocate the space.
Though it has been an extremely rough week for everyone, there have been some unexpected positive effects stemming from the chaos.
The biggest of these is the unification of campus media organizations — working together as a whole instead of constantly pushing and pulling each other, as has often been the case.
More than ever, we are now working together as Wake Media, one of, if not the, largest non-Greek organization on campus.
With all Wake Media organizations working together for the common good, an open dialogue was established between members of the Media Board and the administration Apr. 26.
Since then, Media Board members have been on-call 24/7, scrambling to pull all possible resources together and often working until 4 a.m. on assorted projects.
These projects were not always fully discussed with staff members because of the expeditious changes being made constantly and the sensitive nature of details.
Though these circumstances were unpleasant for some, they have also generated some awkwardly amusing conversations on “Pub Row” that generally go something like this:
“Did you…that thing”
“Ya, it’s…”
“So ya…there*head nod*…after”
“Ya.”
Despite the frustrations, the nights of little-to-no sleep and the weight of over 100 people on the shoulders of a few, positive changes were made Apr. 27, leading to the eventual leak of information that other campus organizations will be gaining space on the fifth floor in addition to the present Pub Row.
It’s safe to say that an unimaginable amount of work has been put into this cause by all of those involved. Everyone who enjoys any Wake Media publications should be grateful.
At this point (with things on the up side of unsure), it’s important to say that, regardless of the university’s decision, the unification of all individual organizations under the title of Wake Media and the reopening of closed communications are invaluable occurrences that will promote the overall advancement of student-produced media.
Mat Payne is a sophomore communication major from Asheville, N.C.
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It’s gratifying to see Wake Radio has the passion and support to fight for its space. Thanks to all of you for your hard work. I’m wondering why OGB failed to mention the Wake Radio studios were initially established by a sizable endowment by Wake Forest radio alum Ken Johnson (’68) in honor of three colleagues, and that he gave another gift LAST YEAR on behalf of Wake Radio for a fourth colleague. Two of those names are supposed to be on a plaque dedicating the station manager’s office to them. (If that plaque is no longer on the station manager’s office, where is it?) As for WFU admin, shame on you for not notifying Johnson of your plans to carve up that space in Benson. Apparently, Richard Greenberg (’67) and Bill Stracener (’66) are expendable since I’ve heard of nothing being done to address the loss of their “home.” Bad move for alumni relations.