Boston U, WBUR, and John Silber

[Sid Whitaker <sid.javanet@rcn.com>]

"A. Joseph Ross" wrote:

> WBUR used to be staffed by Public Communications students as part of their curriculum, as
> I believe is still done today with WERS.  I don't understand why Boston University changed it
> to this big behemoth that it is today if it didn't make money for the University.
> 

Because longtime BU president (now chancellor) John Silber would never
dream of giving students access to a high-power urban FM signal. After
Silber became prez in '71, he took WBUR away from student control (he
also shutdown the student newspaper and turned it into a mouthpiece for
the administration) leaving students interested in radio with only WTBU,
the carrier-current AM. (BTW, print journalism students launched their
own newspaper (The Daily Free Press), which still publishes. In Silber's
view, BU students were too radical, dangerous, and they couldn't be
trusted to operate their own radio station. As older readers will
readily recall, the early 70s were rough times on college campuses, and
BU was no exception. In the early 70s students protesting Vietnam  (and
the administration's academic and residential policies) frequently
occupied administrative offices, walked out of exams, and managed to
cancel one commencement. I think Silber feared students turning WBUR
into a weapon against the administration in those days. 

The unfortunate legacy here is that BU students desiring actual, on-air
radio experience were left with few practical options. In my day, WTBU
was poorly funded, poorly organized, and basically irrelevant.
Internships are great, but they are no substitute for the
responsibility, decision-making, and other skills learned in an actual
job. At WBUR, people I knew who interned there said it was largely a
waste of their time...(fetching coffee, making copies, typical grunt
work). I know some interns did newswriting and some basic producing from
time to time, but on-air work was out of the question.  

As a former BU student, there was a positive side to this, however:
there was nothing to stop you from making a tape and looking for fill-in
or weekend on-air work at a commercial station out in the suburbs...then
you could ask your advisor for internship credit for your job, make a
little beer money on the side, and get some real on-air experience, all
at the same time. Worked for me. (Thanks to Scott Fybush, who pointed me
in that direction in 1993.) (and I had more fun than classmates who made
copies and maintained the public files at the big stations in town...)

Sid Whitaker
(BU '95)