Re: Boston talk / Pacifica

["elipolo@earthlink.net" <elipolo@earthlink.net>]

>From: Sean Smyth ssmyth@suscom.net
>Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 01:30:05 -0400
>To: elipolo@earthlink.net, boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
>Subject: Re: Boston talk / Pacifica

>Eli writes:
>> unless perhaps more MIT students (rather than community volunteers)
become 
>> involved with the News Department (which is now just barely beginning to 
>> happen).

>What is the ratio of students working at WMBR to community members working 
>at the station?

First of all, It's all volunteer, so it's not "working" in the literal
sense.

I'm guessing the program slots are filled by about 30% students at the
moment.
The actual ratio of student members including those who are training or who 
haven't committed to a program may be a bit higher.

A small percentage of the remaining community members are MIT alums and
staff 
members of various sorts (which I am neither).

The station management is mostly MIT students. MIT requires that the GM
(and 
PD, I believe) must be MIT students. MIT would like to see a higher
percentage 
of student involvement, since the on-campus portion of the station's
funding 
comes from the student activities budget, and it is the highest-funded 
"student activity" on campus. 

Still, that only covers a small portion of the yearly operating,
maintenance 
and renovation expenses of the station (our own internal radio station 
expenses and renovations, not MIT building expenses or renovations). We
make 
up the rest with just one on-air fundraising week every fall.

At the moment, WMBR management is not allowing new outer community members
to 
join, only MIT students and staff until further notice.

As far as I know, MIT as an institution never set any actual policy
regarding  
community member involvement. They never said community people could join,
but 
also never said they couldn't. It just sort of happened over about 40 years.
However, they do communicate with our current management regarding their 
opinion of the current ratio. 

There have been periods that I've seen many years ago when the ratio of MIT
student time slots on the schedule was only about five percent, which was
very
unhealthy for our relations with our MIT hosts. 

WMBR is currently trying to negotiate plans with MIT for renovation and
modernization of the building we're in, which doesn't have (and never had)
air 
conditioning. The ventilation system in the building was designed in 1917,
and 
is not designed to accept air conditioning. Along with it is a very erratic 
and faulty archaic heating system in the winter, practically impossible to 
regulate properly. These will be expensive renovations, and MIT will be
more 
likely to spend the money if they are relatively happy with the percentage
of 
MIT students there doing radio.

Eli Polonsky




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