RE: WJUL "Lowell SunRise"

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 02:34 PM 10/4/2003, Dave Faneuf wrote:
>Aaron wrote:
>
>"but the execution was rocky due to a larger than anticipated resistance 
>from the student staff."
>
>I have been reading the various posts on this subject wth some interest, 
>being an alum of the station myself.
>
>Please, explain to me how student resistance contributed to the very poor 
>quality and execution of the Sunrise program, because I am missing this 
>connection.
>
>Dave


I will add a caveat first - I'm basing this speculation on what I've read 
on the official WJUL message boards at http://wjul.shoegaze.net

The resistance is in the form that the station management (all students 
AFAIK) has apparently been attempting to raise holy hell over this entire 
deal.  There has been many attempts at a PR campaign against the deal...I 
say "attempts" because most of the time they've been preaching to the choir 
(from what I can see).   But nonetheless, they've been getting press in 
college outlets (the UML paper) and in regional outlets (the Lowell Sun 
itself, the Phoenix, the Globe even) that have all painted the deal in a 
very negative light.

I *have* to believe that this has forced the school to go into a defensive 
posture and waste time & energy on creating good PR to counter it.  Time 
and energy that could've been spent on getting more ready for the 
show.    Some community volunteers of the station - with student management 
knowledge and no doubt approval - even approached one of Lowell's city 
councilors about the deal and attempted to get him to try and block it.   A 
futile gesture, and since he (Rithy Uong) no doubt wanted to look good for 
the voters, he weighed in saying he thought the deal was a bad one.  A 
simple move for him since he knows full well he has zero say in the deal 
one way or the other, so he can look good without taking any risk.   This 
was all reported, perhaps ironically, in the Lowell Sun (but the articles 
are no longer online as it was several weeks ago).

Also, while the student management offered studio space for the Sun to 
produce the show in, they have also been extremely nasty towards the Sun in 
many public forums.  The most flagrant of which is the aforementioned 
message board, where (as an example) the Music Director's "signature" on 
his posts was, for several weeks, "Fuck the Lowell Sun!"    He only changed 
it after another poster mentioned that it made his case against the Sun 
only weaker to be so unprofessional.    An oft-quoted slogan on the boards 
is "Don't Let the Sun Shine Underground!" (a reference to WJUL's slogan of 
"Real Underground Radio").    And yet people wonder why the Sun isn't so 
interested in having the radio students help run the show?  Jeez...I wonder 
why not???    That's valuable experience and knowledge that's been 
permanently forced out due to ego.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA