Student radio stations to undergo program changes
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article was released earlier that contained errors. This is the revised version.
Students have been working since the first day of school to bring hip hop and R&B to the WMHW-FM Central Michigan University student radio station. On Feb. 15, they will have succeeded.
Both student radio stations under WMHW-FM, Moore Rock 91.5 and Mountain 101.1, will undergo program changes at midnight Sunday, welcomed by a full week of nonstop live DJs. Mountain programming will move to the 91.5 signal, which gets a wider reach. The 101.1 signal will switch to a hip hop format. The change was driven by Moore Rock losing popularity and a need for funding.
"To my knowledge, this will be the first time that 91.5 won't be a rock station since it first went on the air, which was 1972," said Audio Laboratories Manager Chad Roberts.
The decision to move Mountain programming to the larger signal first started being discussed about a year ago, Roberts said.
"We are here to make money to support ourselves, and businesses really aren't conducive to working with us because of the format that we have," he said.
Rock music found on Moore Rock typically doesn't get played in commercial businesses because the music is more abrasive than programming on Mountain. This is why The Mountain's programming is switching to the larger signal, Roberts said.
Though WMHW-FM student stations are noncommercial, they still can get money from underwriting, which means mentioning businesses on air without including a call to action, qualitative statements or prices. The option to be played in more businesses with a bigger signal could potentially translate to more listeners and money for the station.
The signal change was an administrative decision, but students at the radio station decided it was time to reformat 101.1 to hip hop and R&B. The station will be called 101.1 The Beat, with the tagline "hot tracks and throwbacks."
Program director Josh Scramlin has been one of the students at the forefront of rebranding the rock radio station to a whole new genre of music.
"We needed to just figure out how to connect with more people," he said. "With college (students) right now, hip hop is huge and has been for about four or five years now."
From contacting record labels, training new DJs and helping pick a new song library of 500 plus songs from scratch, Scramlin is anxiously anticipating debut week. He is excited to see his hard work come to life and see the station be more relevant among students.
"We were completely irrelevant around campus, and the surrounding community, but especially campus," Scramlin said. "I feel like I hear people say all the time there's no good stations, but hopefully that changes on Feb. 15."
Music director Abby Johnson said she is excited to see peoples' response to the change.
"It's a different energy, a different sound," Johnson said. "A lot went into it. For a while we didn't have (ideas for a new) format. We just knew we were going to change it, we knew rock wasn't working for us."
The radio stations are hosting promotional events on campus for their debut of new programming starting on Monday.
91.5 FM will continue to provide its live seasonal coverage of CMU women’s basketball, softball, men’s baseball and Mount Pleasant High School Football.
Both 91.5 and 101.1 can be heard over the air and streamed worldwide at www.wmhw.org
