WSRU Seahawk radio history

By: Amy Saramago
Posted In: Entertainment

Although the radio station might seem new to most students it has actually been around for many years. WSRU was first officially recognized as a student organization by Salve Regina University in 1998, but the studio was only completed in the newly renovated garden level of Wakehurst in 2000. However, because of the battles between radio college stations and bigger consumer radio stations for FFC licenses, Salve wasn’t able to secure a FCC radio and couldn’t broadcast.

After a few years of somewhat successful broadcasting the radio station seemed to die in 2002. Over the years, attempts were made to revive this fallen media outlet on campus, but those attempts were all fruitless. “Long story short, there were technical problems with the connections between the Wakehurst Student Center and Monroe (IT Department), insufficient equipment and a lack of interest on the part of students,” said WSRU advisor Bart Carithers. “This is a student radio station and without significant student input the station cannot survive. We’re fortunate to have a very motivated staff this year. I’m hopeful that trend will continue.”

Finally in fall of 2006, a few students resurrected the radio station by successfully acquiring new needed equipment in the station and by purchasing a license for Live365, which is the program that allows them to broadcast online as they now do. “We couldn’t afford a FCC license to broadcast over the airwaves. As a result, we’re limited to online broadcasting. By broadcasting online we reach a broader audience: the world,” said Carithers. The first online broadcast at Salve Regina took place on Monday, February 26, 2007 and got the ball rolling on WSRU radio once again.

Besides an FCC license costing a lot of money, Ryan Caranci, Programming Director, believes, “I think this online version of the radio station is better for Salve because every freshman has a laptop and internet so they have the capability to listen, while most students don’t have radios in their room.” He thinks it’s unfortunate that students can’t listen to the station in the car and that we aren’t reaching Newport residents (unless they know about us), but that this station is for the students of Salve and this is what works best for this campus right now.

Another great aspect of having WSRU broadcast online instead of through a FCC channel is because “a lot of DJ’s have friends from other schools and family members from back home listen to their radio shows on WSRU and that’s only possible through the web,” said Caranci.

Purpose of the station

From Salve Regina University’s perspective the station serves a number of purposes. “First, it offers students interested in broadcasting an opportunity to learn and refine their skills. Second, the station offers students across campus a source of entertainment,” said Carithers. “Third, it provides a meaningful way for students to contribute to the quality of campus life.”

Often these students start to support their friends and become habitual listeners of the show because they enjoy the music or discussion and sometimes they even like to participate by calling in requests or questions.

“I do often request songs on the shows that I listen to and know the DJs of. I also like calling in my comments and opinions on some of the discussions they have on air,” said Faiteau. “Sometimes I tend to just IM them song requests or comments about the show because it is easier for me.”

Most student listeners agree that the biggest improvement made since the beginning of this year has been the new official WSRU radio station website, which takes you directly to the online radio player. “I love that they have their own website now because before they did it was so hard to go to Salve’s site search for WSRU. Then from there go to that page and link over to the actual radio station player,” explains Faiteau. “Now I just go directly to www.wsruradio.com and click play to listen to it.”

Faces behind the Voices

Despite all the technology that’s in the WSRU radio studio the most important piece of equipment is its DJs. Without these students devoting their time and energy to find the best music to play, the funniest stories to tell, the most educated discussions, or the most up to date sports information for students WSRU would be boring. The DJs bring the spunk and the flavor to the radio station and make each one of their shows unique and entertaining in its own way.

Unfortunately, since the radio station is still growing and fairly unknown, these DJs aren’t getting the praise they deserve for all their hard work. “Please if someone is telling you to listen to the radio station never, ever, ever, say, ‘we have a radio station at Salve?'” pleads Caranci. “That is like a dagger, that’s like shooting the DJ in the heart because they feel like they are putting so much work into the show and people don’t know about it.”

For anyone who may ever consider wanting to become a DJ everyone at the station agrees that you should just come out and try it if you are interested. “There are no qualifications for being a DJ other than a strong desire to host a show and the commitment to follow through with responsibilities. The station management trains all perspective DJs and most folks pick it up rather quickly, said Carithers. “We expect students to make mistakes, but so far everyone has learned from them and the DJ’s continue to get better and better over time.”

In fact many students did decide to step up this year and take a chance by hosting their own radio show and ended up liking it and continuing with it. “At the beginning of the year we only had two shows from 7-9 p.m. the whole week, and now we have shows from 3-11 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday and 5-11 p.m. on Mondays,” said Caranci. “Also we never thought we’d get people to do shows on Saturdays and Sundays and we now have three shows on Sunday and one on Saturday. It’s awesome to have so much involvement and dedication.”

Although WSRU Seahawk radio seems to be Salve’s best kept secret the group has big plans to continue to grow next year and to advertise the station and student shows more aggressively. But mostly Salve students just need to give the improved radio station a chance. “If you are doing homework or hanging in your room instead of turning on the TV, turn on WSRU radio and listen to Salve’s own. Check it out,” said Caranci.