Jack Casey, GM, Leaving WERS

[blackgold]

I wish they'd bring back the free-form block programming that they used to have over the years. You know, reggae, world music, jazz, hip hop dance music, Celtic music, etc. People that could play the music they wanted.

 

[TheBigA]

I wish they'd bring back the free-form block programming that they used to have over the years. You know, reggae, world music, jazz, hip hop dance music, Celtic music, etc. People that could play the music they wanted.

How would they pay for it? That's the driving force in non-com radio now. If there's membership money in it, they do it. That's what Boston U did with WBUR. Somehow UMass makes enough with WUMB to keep it afloat.

 

[Delete My Account]

There's multiple "Freeform" college stations in the market. WERS fills a niche and trains people who have gone on to work for stations of significance, which is also valuable.

 

[vmorrison99]

Correct. That's why the very next sentence in my post was "I am pretty sure the folks at Boston University think they've done a better job in all three categories."



My sense is that Casey ran the station with an iron hand. He told the students they had to play the music he told them to play. It's harder to get volunteers when you treat them like employees. But he wanted to give them a real world experience.

My sense is that your sense is correct. Around 2010 the Mass Communication Department eliminated radio as one of the concentrations you could study simply because there were not enough students interested in taking classes that concentrated on radio.
ERS always had high end well maintained equipment many had to adjust quickly when their first job was at a small AM with old equipment that often didn't work properly.

 

[vmorrison99]

When I worked at major public broadcasting TV and Radio station the sales people were always trying to figure out how to get around the restrictions. For example, only one product could be visible in the spot. I remember a endless back and forth to determine if a box of a dozen donuts was 1 product or 12. If the sponsor or the sponsors representative appeared in the spot no more than one customer could be shown. The toy manufacturers like Hasbro who were major sponsors of the children's programming were prohibited from showing toys in their messages. And I will never forget when Smith and Wesson was very interested in sponsoring a series on the old west. Needless to say, I was unable to convince management that we should take the firearms manufacturers business.