PBA inquires about managing WREK
Public Broadcasting of Atlanta (PBA) is proposing to take over a significant amount of airtime on WREK radio, the student operated radio station, for public radio broadcasting.
In a letter to Institute President Wayne Clough, PBA stated that with their management team, the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative (AETC), they would create an 'improved and stronger WREK.'
"Basically, the proposal I've been told is that PBA will pay for WREK to go digital, maybe even moving our antenna to Stone Mountain. And then they'd also pay to get all WREK staff an HD radio, but in turn PBA will then get WREK air time from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., 14 hours of air time," said Jeremy Varner, general manager of WREK radio and a sixth-year Civil Engineering major.
Clough said that there is no formal proposal, but that what has been happening is only a discussion of opportunities that might be promising.
"There is no contract. I have never gotten anything in writing. Public Broadcasting Atlanta just approached us saying 'We know you guys have a great radio signal...we think there might be a possibility for a partnership... It might be a win-win situation,'" Clough said.
Clough asked Jim Fetig, associate vice president of Institute Communications and Public Affairs (ICPA), to head a committee to create a formal recommendation to Clough as to the future direction of WREK radio.
"I see my role as taking the lead of an inclusive process in giving recommendations to Clough. [As far as the] future direction of WREK, there are multiple possibilities. I intend to write the equivalent of a term paper for Clough. Starting with questions like why do we have WREK? Who owns it? So I get the basic facts correct," Fetig said.
According to Fetig, the recommendation process will include meeting with Varner and Alison Graab, undergraduate student body president, to discuss the options for WREK.
Reaction from students associated with WREK has been generally negative towards an outside company taking control of all or part of the radio station.
"I think it's bad for WREK students, students overall, the Institute. Basically the only people that benefit are GPB. As far as WREK students...it limits the amount of air time we have [and] the amount that people can do with their own air time. We do a lot of special things during the day we can't do at night, like covering the Klaus Computer Building opening," Varner said.
According to Varner, PBA taking over the radio station for even part of the time will limit the amount of interaction the students have with the operation of the station.
"It limits the amount of control students have over engineering. The reason WREK started is because of the Electrical Engineering department. If WREK kids can't do engineering any more, that would really limit the amount of real-world experience you can get at the radio station," Varner said.
The one benefit of PBA having time on WREK is that they would pay for the station to switch to High Definition (HD), a goal that WREK has been seeking for years.
"Our optimistic time line to go HD is summer 2007....We are saving the money by airing Tech sports," Varner said. Because WREK is so close to becoming HD on its own, the thought that an outside entity feels that it can use HD as an incentive strikes a cord with the WREK staff.
"The idea that anyone outside of WREK could give us more in the way of technology or engineering is insulting not only to WREK students but to Tech as an institute of technology," Varner said.
According to Clough, the plan has never been to eliminate student control over the radio station.
"The fact of the matter is we always want student programming on WREK radio....The question then is can we serve our students, the most important constituency, and serve the community," Clough said. This is not the first time that a proposal has been made to let an outside group take control of a portion of WREK. In 1997, WCNN proposed to take over a portion of the radio station's programming, but WREK successfully fought the proposal.
