About 200 volunteers and supporters gathered July 12 for a much-anticipated town hall meeting to discuss the future of WTJU, UVA’s community radio station. It seemed to bring to a close a contentious period between some members of the 53-year-old station’s volunteer staff and university administrators, who shelved plans that DJs feared would put an end to the station’s “free form” format.
|
WTJU General Manager Burr Beard, hired in April after the retirement of former manager Chuck Taylor, told community members last week that he had operated “very much in private” since being hired, then asked to join DJs in steering the station. |
“My plan is off the table,” said Burr Beard, the station’s general manager, who said he had been hired in April to implement changes at the station. “I’ve operated very much in private,” he said. “Please let me join you.” Plans to make the station “consistent and reliable” were at first postponed, and by Monday seemed to be on indefinite hold.
But nerves remain tender. A former volunteer named Aaron Margosis said a group of about 70 alumni had raised $20,000 in a weekend. The donation is “contingent upon the soul of WTJU being preserved.” Some volunteers asked that administrators reach out to volunteer DJs like Pete Marshall, who quit following Beard’s initial announcement.
DJs in turn presented an alternative plan, greenlighted by the station’s four departments, that they said would build on the station’s free form legacy. Volunteer suggestions included improving student outreach and the station’s online presence, as well as refining changes to the station in a long term, open process.
At 7,500 weekly listeners, rarely more than 500 at any time, WTJU has the lowest number of any noncommercial station in Charlottesville. While Beard emphasized that the station is “not in danger of going belly up,” he said that its future success depends upon increasing underwriter contributions and listener donations. UVA also hopes to increase student involvement at the station.
“We’ve taken a lot of criticism, and you know what? We deserved it,” said Carol Wood, of UVA’s Department of Public Affairs. “And if we don’t learn from it, shame on us.” Wood also noted that the ongoing controversy has gone a long way to making WTJU the household name that, perhaps for lack of advertising, it hasn’t been in some time.
One highlight during the town hall’s public comments: John Parker, an associate professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature at the university, said that in his profession, “I know a little something about feeble revenue streams,” and “nobody has ever asked me to change what I teach.”
That, however, was nothing compared to this T. Boone Pickens-style harebrained scheme: A man named Adam Silverman stood at the podium to read a legalese statement he claimed was on behalf of an anonymous donor, who was prepared to purchase the station to preserve its integrity. “The individual I represent is bona fide serious, and ready to purchase a local frequency,” he read. “Consider this a guarantee of intent.”
It was perhaps the wrong message for a roiled group that included Tim Snider, host of Sunday Opera Matinee. “It concerned us that WTJU’s programming could be considered a commodity,” he said of Beard’s original plans for the station.
“WTJU is not for sale,” Wood responded to cheers. “It will never be for sale…Seeing all of these people in the room, we’re going for it.”
On Friday, July 16, a WTJU support rally at Random Row Books turned to revelry for UVA’s reconsidered approach. “It’s a celebration of everything WTJU represents,” said WTJU DJ Dave Moore. “And a testament of what the community can do.”
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.