WZRD Lockout/Shutdown

[klewis]

http://tinyurl.com/collegeradiounited

"Just heard from a current WCBN/former WZRD member that WZRD-Chicago (NEIU) has been shut down and its volunteers locked out."

"WZRD Chicago, 88.3 FM has experienced a hostile take-over by the campus administration of Student Activities at Northeastern Illinois University. Today, with less than 24 hours notice, the membership of WZRD was called into a meeting with a secret agenda: The destruction of WZRD. No one was given an opportunity to respond. The staff of the radio station from the station manager on down was locked out of the station effective immediately. WZRD has been taken over by the I-Tunes play list courtesy of Student Activities. Good-bye "Democracy Now!" Good-bye "Free Speech Radio News" Good-bye solid community reputation of NEIU! Not to mention all of the artists who are scheduled to interview and perform at the station this summer. The station is closed!

Please support of WZRD by friending us on our Facebook Page, and stating your support of the station, or by writing:

President Sharon Hahs
Northeastern Illinois Univeristy
5500 North St. Louis
Chicago, IL 60625

 

[davideduardo]

"WZRD Chicago, 88.3 FM has experienced a hostile take-over by the campus administration of Student Activities at Northeastern Illinois University.

OK, so Northeastern Illinois University is the licensee before the FCC of WZRD. How is action by the licensee a "hostile takeover"?

 

[klewis]

Not giving the students or community notice and physically locking out programmers is hostile. It is a college station with an NCE license, as such NEIU are acting as stewards of the public interest. They have a responsibility to the community and even more so -- to the students and alumni. It would be different for a commercial license.

 

[uncamark]

Is there any legitimate news link about this?--and I don't mean Twitter or Facebook feeds.

 

[klewis]

Only the NEIU & WZRD posts so far. Radio Survivor will report later today.

 

[klewis]

Radio Survivor update
http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2012/0...n-wzrd-and-switches-to-automated-programming/

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

There has to be one interesting back-story to this event.

Second thought: There are likely several back-stories with several versions of the event.

 

[uncamark]

There has to be one interesting back-story to this event.

Second thought: There are likely several back-stories with several versions of the event.

Time Out Chicago had a story about the last time--unfortunately, it's not on their site anymore. It seemed to me that there was also a problem regarding use of activity fees for an activity that is primarily staffed by non-students--something not unusual these days in college radio. I'm guessing that the organization was deactivated for that reason.

If I were NEIU, I'd give the station to the folks at Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP), who've been running an Internet stream with live DJs 18 out of 24 hours a day while waiting for an LPFM frequency to open up in Chicago. The stream is up, running, well-organized and funded (with heavy hitters like the MacArthur and Dreihaus Foundation giving grants) and could go on 88.3 as soon as the LMA is signed, the affiliation agreement with Pacifica that gives WZRD "Democracy Now!" and "Free Speech Radio News" could be transferred and the transmitter-to-studio link made. (Since the CHIRP management programmed those shows when they were running WLUW some years ago, I assume they would have no objections to keep those shows on WZRD.) Since CHIRP isn't as "free form" as WZRD (jocks pick their own music but follow programming guidelines made by management so that there's a consistent sound and not a "new station every two-to-three hours" syndrome--there are no specialty shows on the stream), some of the ZRD hardcores might complain, but a transition to a compatible sound would be smooth and I think would be well-received by its audience. And what kind of following can the ZRD jocks have when you're not allowed to give your name on the air?

CHIRP's current site with a link to the stream: http://chicagoindieradio.org/

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Did I read the original stories correctly? WZRD missed filing a license renewal application on time... and now the university is under-the-gun to get a application completed. I can imagine some of the behind the scene conversations that could be taking place: "Who should have taken responsibility for the original filing? Now that we have the FCCs attention and must do the "remedial" work correctly rather than just send them the jibberish we might have gotten away with the first time.... " I can see where the relationship between the university and the "boots on the ground" that actually have been making the station function could have found themselves trying to negotiate solutions while "walking a Wallenda Class high-wire" in their hike toward the FCC office.

 

[klewis]

It sounds as though the station has been all student run since 1987. I didn't see the Time Out piece, but I did read this one that said the last lockout was in 2005 when it was discovered the license had lapsed: http://radiofreechicago.blogspot.com/2005/02/wizard-is-silenced.html?m=1

 

[Tom Wells]

I'm about a half mile from WZRD, have been listening since the early 1980s when I lived in NW Indiana.

A new station every three hours is a GOOD thing, and has always been one of the main advantages that WZRD
offered.

Reception of both WZRD and WNUR were essential and critical in defining where I looked to buy a house.

A friend was a student and WZRD "Wizard" in the late 80s and 90s, and since that time it was
my understanding that to participate in any way on WZRD, it was necessary to be student at NEIU.
Which I would have loved but travel and work made this impossible for me.

I would have loved to volunteer engineering services for them but the strict students only policy kept me away.
Even while I spent $$ on my wife's degree from NEIU I was still unable to participate.

Over the years, WNUR, WZRD, and WLUW have changed quite a bit, and while I used to keep car radio
presets for all three, I only rarely check out what they're doing anymore.

As more and more mainstream tastes are being ..ahem..."'offered" on these stations, they simply
become irrelevant. The greatest reason such stations were great is that you never what you were going to hear.

I do know that NEIU has been "at odds with" WZRD and the "Wizards" themselves for a long time.
Dunno where the station got booted off to after it was in the basement of the student union,
but that was a major blow to the sound and feel of the station.

Now I wish I had an aircheck with the old promos where WZRD refers to itself as a "commie rock" station,
and another great one where they asked the question "What kind of a station is WZRD?"

"We're Burlesque!".. cue big-sound 1950s burlesque show music, not David Rose' The Stripper, something more intersesting

As years have gone on, I undrstand it has become difficult to find enough students to participate,
leading to the situation where some are clearly beyond the scope of the avg 4 years at college/university.

As the school has grown, it has become less populated by nearby students in shared apartment housing to
more of a commuter college with many coming from far outside the WZRD zone.

I suppose this combined with fewer students being of an "alternative" mindset (let alone radio-mindset),
this probably looks like ideal time for university to squash the remaining wizard-ness out of WZRD.

WLUW suffered a similar fate and became irrelevant years ago.

I'm sorry for what we'll all lose if WZRD has been steamrolled.

If I needed a web streaming choice, I already could be listening to WFMU.

The whole point is, I want to continue to have a similarly great station locally operated here in Chicago.
Entities such as universities have a way of appropriating things they feel they need.

It will be interesting to see where NEIU goes with this.

I wish the best to all Wizards past and present.

I suspect what's happening behind the scenes is much like the scenario in "Animal House", where
Dean Wormer decides he's going to squash Delta house.

 

[tvnut]

Why do I think this will come down to a bunch of kids and 20-somethings not longer allowed to play radio because they didn't follow the school's/FCCs rules? Maybe they can start an Internet station and take it from there. That, at least, would give them a wider area to reach, only with a different form of electrons.

 

[Tom Wells]

Why do I think this will come down to a bunch of kids and 20-somethings not longer allowed to play radio because they didn't follow the school's/FCCs rules? Maybe they can start an Internet station and take it from there. That, at least, would give them a wider area to reach, only with a different form of electrons.

The "rule" at WZRD traditionally was that the school kept completely out of the way and did nothing to influence the
students in their choices.

I don't think they were any better or worse than any other station about FCC rule compliance.

The internet is a void of non-existance, compared to the tradition WZRD built over the last 30 years that I've been a listener.



My AT&T bill is scorching hot with three phones and computer data card. And even at that price, there's no place I need to be
that the service works enough for a fully mobile phone call. They always drop out.

I have never once in my life yet been able to stream audio through the car radio without lots and lots of
full drop outs, long waits for buffering, and/or total loss of stream.

And when you answer a "phone call" on a smart phone, and you've been listening to the "radio" on the "phone"...
streaming the audio to the car radio via bluetooth or something.....do you get to turn down the volume on the rado yourself,
exactly as much as like, so that you can listen for the weather or traffic, so's you can tell the incoming call to be quiet just a sec while you catch the Radio info?

Or does streaming just stop when the phone is in use?
I wonder if it's possible to tune through a bunch of different stations quickly on a smart phone, while you're talking on the phone. ???


If WZRD mutates into another homogenized untized sanitized souless entity I will not be 'sprised.
I won't ever completely get over it.

A disappearance of the "former programming", really an anti-format, a format that continuously reinvents itself,
onto a webstream for me is as good as non-existant until the whole cell-thingy begins to work properly everywhere.

And yet.... WZRD's 100 watts was normal reception back in the early 80's, 45 miles away across the lake in Hobart In.
Until Chesterton In, High School put a signal on 88.3.

Here in the Chicago area today, the range of WZRD seems to average about 10 miles for in-car reception, but folks at home with
"real" FM antennas can probably still pick it up 45 miles away like I used to.

Awaiting further news....

 

[tvnut]

Why do I think this will come down to a bunch of kids and 20-somethings no longer allowed to play radio because they didn't follow the school's/FCCs rules? Maybe they can start an Internet station and take it from there. That, at least, would give them a wider area to reach, only with a different form of electrons.

The "rule" at WZRD traditionally was that the school kept completely out of the way and did nothing to influence the
students in their choices.

I don't think they were any better or worse than any other station about FCC rule compliance.

The internet is a void of non-existance, compared to the tradition WZRD built over the last 30 years that I've been a listener.



My AT&T bill is scorching hot with three phones and computer data card. And even at that price, there's no place I need to be
that the service works enough for a fully mobile phone call. They always drop out.

I have never once in my life yet been able to stream audio through the car radio without lots and lots of
full drop outs, long waits for buffering, and/or total loss of stream.

And when you answer a "phone call" on a smart phone, and you've been listening to the "radio" on the "phone"...
streaming the audio to the car radio via bluetooth or something.....do you get to turn down the volume on the rado yourself,
exactly as much as like, so that you can listen for the weather or traffic, so's you can tell the incoming call to be quiet just a sec while you catch the Radio info?

Or does streaming just stop when the phone is in use?
I wonder if it's possible to tune through a bunch of different stations quickly on a smart phone, while you're talking on the phone. ???


If WZRD mutates into another homogenized untized sanitized souless entity I will not be 'sprised.
I won't ever completely get over it.

A disappearance of the "former programming", really an anti-format, a format that continuously reinvents itself,
onto a webstream for me is as good as non-existant until the whole cell-thingy begins to work properly everywhere.

And yet.... WZRD's 100 watts was normal reception back in the early 80's, 45 miles away across the lake in Hobart In.
Until Chesterton In, High School put a signal on 88.3.

Here in the Chicago area today, the range of WZRD seems to average about 10 miles for in-car reception, but folks at home with
"real" FM antennas can probably still pick it up 45 miles away like I used to.

Awaiting further news....

Good luck, but there are a bunch of other stations on 88.3, notably WXAV on the south side. Plus stations in Arlington Heights, Downers Grove and Palatine. Methinks the reach of WXRD, whatever is on its air, is more limited than you'd like. But an Internet stream can be heard in Fiji. A void of non-existence? I think not. We're here.

 

[stereolane]

:

CHIRP will be waiting a long time. Nice people, but when you really get to know them, they have a "my way or the highway" attitude, and a warped sense of entitlement. I am sure if you asked them, they would tell you thanks, WZRD isn't sufficient, and someday soon we'll have an LPFM. Someone needs to put down the crack pipe.

There has to be one interesting back-story to this event.

Second thought: There are likely several back-stories with several versions of the event.

Time Out Chicago had a story about the last time--unfortunately, it's not on their site anymore. It seemed to me that there was also a problem regarding use of activity fees for an activity that is primarily staffed by non-students--something not unusual these days in college radio. I'm guessing that the organization was deactivated for that reason.

If I were NEIU, I'd give the station to the folks at Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP), who've been running an Internet stream with live DJs 18 out of 24 hours a day while waiting for an LPFM frequency to open up in Chicago. The stream is up, running, well-organized and funded (with heavy hitters like the MacArthur and Dreihaus Foundation giving grants) and could go on 88.3 as soon as the LMA is signed, the affiliation agreement with Pacifica that gives WZRD "Democracy Now!" and "Free Speech Radio News" could be transferred and the transmitter-to-studio link made. (Since the CHIRP management programmed those shows when they were running WLUW some years ago, I assume they would have no objections to keep those shows on WZRD.) Since CHIRP isn't as "free form" as WZRD (jocks pick their own music but follow programming guidelines made by management so that there's a consistent sound and not a "new station every two-to-three hours" syndrome--there are no specialty shows on the stream), some of the ZRD hardcores might complain, but a transition to a compatible sound would be smooth and I think would be well-received by its audience. And what kind of following can the ZRD jocks have when you're not allowed to give your name on the air?

CHIRP's current site with a link to the stream: http://chicagoindieradio.org/