RE: WJUL "Lowell SunRise"

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@shoreham.net>]

Aaron Read writes:
> 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..

It's a bad deal for the students, the university and the community, at large,
that's why.

(the
> Lowell Sun
> itself, the Phoenix, the Globe even) that have all painted
> the deal in a
> very negative light.

Ibid.

> 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.

Sezwuh?!  Do you honestly believe that even _if_ the school "went" anywhere
other than the bathroom, that those people were even _remotely_ related to
pre-production and design of the on-air product? Please.

 (Rithy Uong) no doubt wanted to
> look good for
> the voters, he weighed in saying he thought the deal was a
> bad one.

Rithy is a Cambodian immigrant.  He's the first ever from that community to be
elected to the Lowell CIty Council, a city of over one hundred thousand very
provincial people.  The Sun show threatened a morning show that was dedicated to
Cambodian and other SE Asian immigrants.  Rithy was responding to that.  To
suggest it was purely for political capital <edited for television>.

> 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.

Ibid.  What did you expect, a warm towel and fluffy pillow?

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, "<snip>
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.

So, do you have Sun inside information to this effect?  Are you suggesting a
link between the inflamed emotions by dedicated students?  Most of that was over
the portent loss of control over operations by a politically-laden newspaper
riding on a no-bid state contract.  "Valuable experience and knowledge" and
whatever the Sun can offer _radio_ constitutes a leap of faith.

I've said all along that this kind of program makes sense.  But only if it's
university-driven.  Up until now, WJUL has been blessed to be very, very
isolated and insulated.  There has been clear acknowledgment by the station that
it would make much sense to <referencing a prior post of mine in this space>
incorporate the resources of the many colleges on campus, bridged with the
resources of "The Connector" the student-run paper, to do far more to bring a
news show to the air.  Remember, the mission of the school, the problem it meant
to solve, was NOT to bring news to the Merrimack Valley, but to better represent
the university to the community.

Bill O'Neill