Board Blog: Stay fresh for summer

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.”

Those classic Gershwin lyrics have stood the test of time, but they don’t necessarily apply to student media. Because when the fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high, most of our students are somewhere other than at their campus media outlets.

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Greg Weston, CBI President

For student media, it can be a challenge to continue to produce content throughout the summer. But, if you’re an FCC-licensed radio station, shutting down for the summer can put your station in jeopardy. And, even if you’re not, having compelling year-round programming is essential to maintaining your audience.

In this day and age, there are plenty of technical options that will take care of the bare minimum of keeping your programming running, but anything more than that takes real people.

Here at WPTS-FM, we have a few strategies to keep things fresh over the summer:

• We open our schedule to community members. During the school year we have a students-only policy. We have a number of community members who return year after year and, this year, the students have focused on better promoting this opportunity around town.
• We relax the requirements for students. In the fall and spring semesters, we have pretty stringent requirements for DJs regarding attendance, off-air “staff hours,” and the like. The idea of doing a show without having to worry about that stuff is very enticing for some of our DJs. Losing those staff hours does hurt us behind the scenes, particularly with CD reviews, but it’s a trade-off we’re willing to make.
• We reach out to alumni and former student DJs who are still on campus. Many alumni are eager to relive their glory days but don’t think about a summer show until we give them the idea. We communicate with them mainly through Facebook and word of mouth. The former DJs still on campus often left because they were too busy with classes and couldn’t complete their staff hours. Those students often jump at the chance to do their show in a more relaxed atmosphere.
• We utilize work-study students. We can’t give our directors stipends during the summer, so we can’t require them to be around. But we can pay an office worker. We hire from our pool of DJs so they are qualified to go on the air if needed. In addition to whatever office work needs to be completed, they also help train the community members that come in for the summer, and keep us in compliance with FCC minimum staffing requirements.

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