I'm not here to criticize WERS's decision in any way. I view this as a thought experiment by someone with a lot of college radio experience, and several good friends who are Emerson and WERS grads...
It does seem odd that Emerson would elect to put a paid professional on the morning drive shift. Emerson is one of the few colleges in the country where their FCC licensed station is tightly integrated with a curriculum of instruction. Not necessarily that roles at the station are simultaneously parts of a class syllabus, but it's pretty close. AFAIK, the students at WERS are all TRF (TV, Radio, Film) majors and most have a radio-heavy courseload outside of WERS. And historically, demand for work (both on-air and off-air) at WERS by the student body has always far outstripped supply. I would find it quite unlikely that student interest in WERS has dropped off SO much that they can't fill the morning drive airshifts with students.
That said, WERS has an excellent signal and a music format that really ought to attract more listeners than it does. Concordantly, Emerson...like almost any private higher education institution...has seen some rough budget numbers for the past few years...and WERS is not cheap to operate. There's a lot of high base costs (tower rent, etc) plus quite a lot of personnel costs (I think it's 4 or 5 FT staff already, plus the 3 to 6 FT staff in the TRF department...like engineers...that routinely support WERS) I could see that Emerson has decided that WERS is underperforming in terms of revenue and have decided to spend money to make WERS more fiscally self-sufficient. As good as the Emerson kids often are, a consistent professional airstaff in morning drive will likely do wonders for WERS's ratings, which in turn should improve their underwriting.
I think there is something lost in the sense that it's not an "all student" airstaff. But that's branding more than reality anyways. It's not like there won't still be plenty of airshifts for students to cut their teeth on. I think there's some merit to the "slippery slope" argument but not all that much. Morning drive is the real moneymaking timeslot. Maaaaaaybe Emerson would put a FT pro for afternoon drive, too...and that might be a bit concerning...but I doubt they'll do that. I think there's more benefit to Emerson in fundraising and branding (and not paying another FT staff person's payroll costs) in leaving the rest of the schedule (outside of morning drive) for student DJ's.
TEACH the kids how to be better. Do your job as managers, and manage the student staff and mentor them.
Most of what makes someone good at a task is years of experience doing it. That's, by definition, impossible to do with student employees who - on average - are only really available for about two years, maybe 30 months, tops. (between time learning the craft freshman year, semesters lost to study abroad, and the overall lack of usefulness of seniors with one foot out the door) The managers can keep them in line, and the course curriculum can jumpstart the process somewhat, but outside of the occasional "diamond in the rough" you will never have student DJ's that're as good as professionals. That's rather the point.
What happens to the pros when the farm system is completely gone?
What farm system? The smaller station concept is dead and buried. There are only a handful of such small-market places left that still employ warm bodies, and most of those jobs are snapped up by the hordes of well-experienced professionals who're desperate for work after massive consolidation-related layoffs at every level. Even with Emerson grads...many of whom are the best grads in the biz...very, very few of them have a chance in hell of working in the industry after graduation.
