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College radio closures due to Coronavirus

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

Already heard that WNHU at University of New Haven won't have live DJs on due to Coronavirus situation.
Now in our area-This tweet from WMWM 91.7
Salem State University Radio:
"The station will be closed from Saturday March 14th to Sunday March 29th. The university has chosen to close the week of March 23rd to clean its buildings. Shows will begin again on March 30th. This month's Gen Bod meeting has also been cancelled as a result. Thank you!"
(The station airs automation when no live
DJs are on.)
 
raccoonradio said:
Already heard that WNHU at University of New Haven won't have live DJs on due to Coronavirus situation.
Click to expand...

That will likely bring to an end a long, long tradition at WNHU on St. Patrick's Day. A local couple has been doing a program of Irish and Irish-American music for eight hours on March 17 for decades -- not just traditional Celtic music but hokey period pieces like "Clancy Lowered The Boom" (Dennis Day) that don't get played anywhere at any time. Most of the music is by request, which means that a half-dozen versions of "Danny Boy" might be played during the program. I'm not Irish, but I've always listened to an hour or two in the morning every St. Patrick's Day since the '80s. I wonder if the station has any old shows stored or if it's possible for the show to be done from a remote location.
 
Brian Young host of WMFO's Crash Course for the Ravers on Facebook:
"It has been decided by Tufts administration that no student groups may continue to operate, including WMFO. We will be stopping all human WMFO programming this Saturday 0:00 (Friday night is the last night)...Tufts will help assist as needed to keep automation up. The earliest date programming is set to resume would be April 30th (tentatively), and I will keep you updated as new information arises. I will broadcast tomorrow Friday the 13 from 4am to 7am. The only open slot before shutdown. ☹️"
(Note--not sure if he really meant Mar 30)
 
According to DJ Bob Dubrow on FB WMBR 88.1 at MIT is closed for business till further notice.And they may not have automation.
 
A WMFO DJ has mentioned it to me a couple times--"weird, but WMBR does not do automation.At MIT!" Maybe it's changed but presumably they go off air when there's no DJ.

They do stream.Again if they have since added automation please speak up...
 
raccoonradio said:
A WMFO DJ has mentioned it to me a couple times--"weird, but WMBR does not do automation.At MIT!" Maybe it's changed but presumably they go off air when there's no DJ.

They do stream.Again if they have since added automation please speak up...
Click to expand...

If they stay off very long, a pirate might take up residence on 88.1. One would think they would have something in place, perhaps built with used equipment, but maybe a day or two off the air due to snow would be their expected worst case scenario.
 
TheBigA said:
Funny...you'd think someone at MIT would know a thing or two about automation.
Click to expand...

WMBR does not have automation (yet). It's not that the volunteer MIT students and alums who maintain the station themselves (without any assistance from MIT itself) wouldn't know how to develop a system, it's that they haven't had time to do it yet. MIT is a high-demand school for the students, as are the careers of the alums! There is a digital music playback system partially installed, a project not yet done. It's a student/alum project that been at about that status for at least a few years.

One thing about MIT students/alums, if possible, they usually want to build and/or at least configure equipment as much as possible themselves rather than just buy stuff or purchase it even partially pre-configured, regardless of whether it takes longer. The station was originally completely built by MIT students, including with completely home-made studio boards, as a student hobby around 60 years ago (it went on the air in April, 1961). The station wasn't originally MIT's idea, students just acquired the building space for an electronics project, and when done, MIT had a radio station. Despite the community outreach and listenership it has developed, it has always since been maintained with that philosophy. That was why it was the last college station in the Boston area to finally go stereo in 1987.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
One thing about MIT students/alums, if possible, they usually want to build and/or at least configure equipment as much as possible themselves rather than just buy stuff or purchase it even partially pre-configured, regardless of whether it takes longer.
Click to expand...

That's what I figured...these are genius types who could improve any technology we're currently using.
 
The tweet from earlier today:
We are halting station operations, including broadcasting, from 2pm onwards today. While this was a difficult decision for us to make, we are prioritising the health and safety of our members. We are continuing to work with MIT as a part of their response to COVID-19.
 
WMWM uses Simian I believe.Our stream submits our songs and elements, whether by automation (current) of DJs and a list of this is kept for a week on onlineradiobox.

22:35 Apple Betty - Take Me There - Lets Play
22:33 Carissa Johnson - I Always Will - Talk Talk Talk
22:30 DOOMSTAR - Handsome Man - Rainbow Bloodsucker
22:30 WMWM - JINGLE Classical LEGAL ID - WMWM PRODUCTION
22:29 PSA DIGITAL - World Vision Help Kids Shine PSA (Add 20190602) - PSA DIGITAL
 
WZBC is on via robot

WZBC was going to go dark like WMBR, with no automation system in place, but at the last second figured out a way to run automation with input from the DJ's - so now the WZBC Robot, fully immune to Coronavirus, is playing their music.
 
Brian Young of WMFO on Facebook:
"Good news Ravers! I should be doing some A.C.C.F.T.R. (A Crash Course For the Ravers--local rock) shows from home on this internet station based out of the U.K. within a few weeks. I needed to order some equipment. Stay tuned!"
 
WMBR came back on the air yesterday, after the volunteer in-house MIT student/alum tech. crew completed building a remote transmitter control and monitoring setup.

They are currently broadcasting a stream of archived programming from last fall that also began running on their web stream last week, while they are building an outside server that will be connected to the station to upload and automate new shows recorded by DJ's who have home studios, or at least a viable home computer setup with a music tracking program with reasonable mic and audio quality. These shows may not be live in real time, but should be recorded within a few days before airing.

This is only until the pandemic eventually passes and they return to live programming when MIT opens up to personnel again, but this should finally give WMBR a means to stay on the air with automated recorded programming 24/7 at times when no students or other volunteers are available to do live shows.
 
(Oops didn't see other thread) Not college radio but supposedly WPLM shut off their webstream to save money/virus cash flow problems.
 
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