University of South Carolina Libraries
Tim Q "IBatfettk Serving USC Since J 908 Lee Clontz, Editor in Chief Chris Muldrow, Viewpoints Editor Editorial Board Erin Galloway, Wendy Hudson, Susan Goodwin, Allison Williams, Jimmy DeButts, Ryan Wilson, Carson Henderson, Radhika Talwani The Great Radio Controversy WUSC "war o the worlds" demands compromise If you walked up to WUSC, the university's radio station, some time over the past few weeks, you might have gotten the impression the DJs were broadcasting "War of the Worlds" again. The talk of invasion, of an alien life form approaching the radio ? station, is menacing, secretive and somewhat paranoid, much like the H.G. Wells fantasy. The threat of invasion, however, is very real. The man piloting the flying saucer with death ray aimed at WUSC is named Patrick Bryant. Bryant is a broadcasting student here at USC, and he intends to run for station manager of WUSC. He and a group of associates have devised a totally different organizational structure for the radio station. Currently, the station has a policy of requiring disc jockeys to play a certain number of artists from "rotation." In other words, the music director of the station picks new CDs and puts them in a rack, and the DJs must pick music out of that rack for a certain percentage of their total show. Then the DJ can pick anything else to play for the rest of the show, with two exceptions: artists who have hit the Top 40 any time in the past 20 years and artists who are supported by larger outlets. Bryant's proposal eliminates the ability of the DJs to pick their own music the night of the show. Under his plan, the station manager and music director would establish a play list for DJs to use on their shows. The DJ might have some initial input over what mu sic to play, Dut the freedom to choose I HO SCODOil SnOUM K0ep music would be lost. Its free-form character. Further, Bryant proposes polhng H the students at USC and deter- WKJUm, IKJWOVer, open mining what kind of programming UP ItS format to more they would like to hear. This pro- choices Of IVMISlC. gramming would be used to set up the play lists and would probably eliminate the "no top 40 rule" and the "larger outlet" rule. Bryant has commented that the proposed format has not yet been determined. Bryant claims this format more closely resembles that of a commercial radio station, thus providing valuable experience for DJs who work at the station. People currently working at the station have recoiled from Bryant's plan, saying it destroys the freedom the DJs have. They claim that, as an educational radio station, WUSC's diversity is beneficial. Under the system now in place, DJs can program African drum music next to ska next to heavy metal next to country, so listeners experience a wide variety of music. Both parties in this argument, however, have made mi stakes in their thinking. Bryant has never worked with WUSC before, and thinking he can be hired for the station's top position is overly ambitious. As in any business, experience is required; Bryant has not paid his dues and put in the hours required to take over the station. Further, the regimentation of the radio station is wrong. DJs have traditionally had freedom at USC to play what they wanted, and a play list would drive DJs away from the station. Also, polling students will mean only music enjoyed by the majority at USC will be played. This will destroy WUSC's appeal to minority music interests. The station has been the haven of very unusual types of music in the past: ska, a specialty blues show, zydeco, Canadian bands, punk, jazz, country, rock, rap and experimental music have all found a place on WUSC. The current WUSC staff could encourage this diversity even more by easing up on the "no top 40, no major outlet" rule by continuing to use this rule on music put into rotation, but eliminating the rule for the music DJs get to choose on their own. The big argument the current staff uses is that the station is educational and allows people to hear different kinds of music. If DJs could play whatever they wanted to play, thus possibly introducing more popular music to the station, it would draw in more listeners. These new listeners would get to hear the music they already enjoy, and they would also hear the more unusual and educational music from the music director's rotation. This rule change would also encourage a more diverse staff to work at the station. People have been discouraged from working in the past by station managers who told them the music applicants currently listened to was crap not worth playing on the air. This elitist attitude greatly limits the number and type of people who want to work at the station. Student organizations should try to encourage participation from the entire student population, not criticize and scare people away. So we have one group that would educate us by restricting DJs' freedom of choice and by making the station more like a narrowly formatted commercial station, and we have another group that would educate us by saying they allow diverse radio when they actually have tight restrictions on what music is played. In "War of the Worlds," germs killed the invading aliens. In ; USCs "War of the Worlds," the defending radio staff members must open their minds. Let's lift the restrictions on DJs and have true free-form radio that everyone will want to listen to, radio that has something for everyone. lOW ,4, News: 777-7726 rJJSSSL ilSfffirrrnrR Advertising: 777-4249 Laur.D.y \JOJ I IvUIUV FAX: 777-6482 Creative Director Jim Green Art Director Lee Clontx Jimmy DeButts TieRs Harper Elizabeth Thomas Editor in Chief Ryan Wlbon Tina Morgan Graduate Asst Chris Muldrow Sports Editors Ass. New, Adv. Graduate Asst. Viewpoints Editor Kim Truett Jamrs Ponce Kenee Gibson Carson Henderson Photo Editor Asst. Photo Marketing Director Radhlka Taiwan! Ethan Myenon Ben Pillow Christopher Wood Copy Desk Chiefs Ryan Sims Stephanie Sonnenfeld Asst. Advertising I Erin Galloway Graphics Editors Ass..Features Manager Wendy Hudson Gregory Perei Larry Williams Erik Collins sESSL Desigp Editor Faculty Advisor 1 Susan Goodwin All Ansaar Keith Boudreaux 1 Allison Williams Jmon Jeffers Circulation Editor Features Editcrs Cartoonists LtttWS Policy 1 The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. ' University of South Carolina and is published Tuesday Letters should be 200-250 words and must include full ] through Friday during the faU and spring semesters, with nsme. professional title or year and major if a student, the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Letters must be personally delivered by the author to Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the The Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 333. editors or author and not those of the University of The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for South Carolina. style, possible libel or spaoe limitations. Names will not ' be withheld under any circumstances. I l * lanwcock VIEWgjft r itttoue^youstoulpk tuctl omhe^rp so part) 0'ew.os argui about j^n0w'mets\lpul.pbe,s* Own Unouoti "Many (rape) victin because they sho< Liberal policy i A couple of weeks ago I wrote on the topic of public education and the obsessive attempts by the radical left to indoctrinate America's children. Today, I am going to offer my opinions on what is wrong with America's failed public education system and what must be done to fix it. Many of our intellectual-type, elitist policy makers (insert "liberals") believe the answer to improving education is by constantly increasing funding (at taxpayer's expense), moving children around for racial balancing (busing programs) and incorporating more social-political programs into the curriculum (e.g. gay rights, environmental interests). This is exactly what has been going on in most public school systems for 25 years. It has been an utter and complete failure. The single biggest problem with public education lies with the teachers unions and professional organizations (such as the NEA). The leadership of the NEA, for example, officially favors teacher frilreB' cnntrfli>ontiva fin Q/tVlAnl o V VWA1VA MVV^/VITV VA1UV1 lMUVIUil \11Jl 0V11VV1O/) special rights for gays; it opposes merit pay for teachers, parental choice, voluntary school prayer, home schooling, English as the official language;,drug, alcohol and AIDS testing, First Amendment Rights; the Boy Scouts of America, and God. Does this bunch of leftist-hippie holdovers represent most parents, teachers or students? NO! Absolutely not! For instance, according to the NEA's own polling, 69 percent of teachers favor merit pay, and a majority of teachers voted for Reagan and Bush. Also consider this: numerous research studies have asked American parents Odd week inspi It's been too weird a week to attempt to institute some form of order to the ol' column today. Instead, 111 offer a multifaceted hodge-podge of totally unrelated and unintelligible gibberish I like to call "NEWS OF THE BEARD!" (This announcement should be followed by thunderous applause. Thank you. Please, don't send money. Or at least much money.) First, you might remember that my last column mentioned some problems we've had in my apartment with the sprayer on the sink and the oven. Amazingly, maintenance people came in THAT DAY and fixed the sink, and the oven got fixed yesterday. Now everyone I know is begging me to list their housing problems in the column. The maintenance guys were, as usual, pretty cool about helping us out, and I thank them. Now, if i couia just get a hot tub put in the living roomSpeaking of housing, a big bunch of people camped out at the Russell House this week to try to get a spot on the Horseshoe. I woke up early last year to get a spot, but I didn't even dream of camping out. I'm thinkin' housing could, instead of offering a microfridge (It cooks! It cools! It looks like a droid from Star Wars!), offer some kind of concert tickets at housing sign-up. That way, when people from Clemson ask about the housing lines, we can say, "No, man, I was waiting for Stones tickets. We always get the rooms we want." I defended my senior thesis this week, too. A senior thesis is a long paper designed to suck your blood veins dry and leave you a wasted shell of flesh. This is one of those ink-jet draining, reamof-paper stripping, fingernail-biting, 60-page pieces of hell we have to endure. The prospect of actually finishing this opus has confused all my brain's resources. At this point, I think I'm a flowerpot. I've noticed lots of construction around campus lately, too. Though they've probably been there a while, I just noticed the new handrails at the liorary. They're pretty dang ugly, not that the li ITS ? Now 7 At w I isifi I IHIIVIK. Wfc K?js(TiA,L REALLY GO'NSTO 9fc... BEMEFiT FRCYA G.O.P. IMF'GWTI^G... s believe no one win believe them. They may feel M have seen it coming. Very frequently, victims b Eileen Korpita, Director of the Office of Sexual Assault Services of improving edu T0MMY T0UCHBERRY J what they want from the public schools. The re- J suits show the most popular responses to be: (1) Teach our children how to speak, write, read, think 1 and count correctly and (2) Help them to develop 1 reliable standards of right and wrong that will < guide them through life. The teaching of core sub- 1 jects, basic skills and moral standards are exact- ( ly what the NEA has repeatedly opposed. The only way to cut through this bureaucracy, remove these radicals from power and truly reform education is to let the public school system ? join everyone else in the market economy. The great Dig ne 01 me estaDiisnment is mat puoiic r education will be destroyed if parental choice is \ allowed. Two points need to be made here: (1) Why c not destroy something that is a complete failure, t don't we owe America's kids a decent education? ? and (2) Higher education operates in a fashion very similar to the proposed voucher-choice system. Public schools such as USC have prospered c anyway. Why? Because the market economy forces c USC to find ways to offer a solid education at as c low a cost as possible (even though they whine c about a lack of funds all of the time!). Another valid question is this: Why shouldn't v each American parent have the opportunity to choose which school to send their child to (whether ^ ires Beardman H CHRIS MULDROW ^ Viewpoints editor fun brary is a monument of architectural hipness. I She wouldn't mind a few students slipping and break- side ing their heads open if we had left those rails off. and There's a huge pit beside the Coliseum, too. I ] think the whole athletics practice facility thing is unc a scam. I think they're actually sinking a nuclear as \ missile silo right beside the journalism school. Ei- ren ther that or one of those pools with the waves like son; they have in Japan. That way, we could start a 1 surfing team. mei TV*o rvnl 1 'n Tl 1 jl tic pvncii o pi cnj tiiiciv cu uuiiu campus, it iur i looks like that butter salt powder my mother used oth< to sprinkle on popcorn. (I found it doesn't taste proj quite the same, though.) Being extremely aller- as p gic to pollen, I'm living in a haze created by lib- deni eral intake of antihistamines. Along with the the- and sis confusion, I'm chemically altered. Maybe I'm is th not a flowerpot but a blue Ford tractor. ^idi Because of my allergies, I'm forced to carry around pocketfuls of Kleenexes and to sniffle ^ through every class I have, and I'm convinced I aSe? look like Rudolph the red-nosed Viewpoints edi- tlon tor. scor To further cause problems, my computer's battery is on its last leg. These portable computers mi^ have limited battery lives, and the time you can as ^ use them without a power cord drops. Mine now runs for one minute and 32 seconds between mov recharges. That means I have to cany around the mov power brick, a bulky gray box with a serpentine cord that hides itself when the computer is about s 1 to run out of power. sma Speaking of computer power, I see the battery's sour just about dead agai... 3 f , * ? JT- V * % ' r. e c - * -1 t*v . , .. ^ r - . l MENflcN E WERE - I 2ATIC j GWiGS? | -J f V 3T ' like they're at fault lame themselves.'' cation failed t be secular, Protestant, Catholic or Jewish)? I >ur current system, the upper classes (derogs lively called "the rich" by liberals) can afford t send their kids to the school of their choice. Fc nstance, Chelsea Clinton goes to a private Chris dan school; Uncle Bill wouldn't dare send her t he crime-ridden D.C. schools. On the other han< nost in the middle classes and everyone in th ower classes can't afford private school for the: :hildren. Most would like to send their kids to >e?er scnooi, dui tney just don t nave the mor ;y. And these liberals complain that Republican :ater to the privileged few! Here is an issue th? :ould drastically improve the lives of the middl ind lower classes. Such hypocrisy! You might ask how the liberals can be so ii ational? It's quite simple. The liberals do nc vant real competition in the schools because the ontrol the educational establishment. They sc he rules, they direct the curriculum, they are th ines who make sure that a bad teacher cannot b ired. As is the case with welfare, health care an ither entitlement programs, the liberals wan ontrol. They thrive on dependency. They are nc ut to help anyone to move up the economic lac ler. I must conclude now, but I will be back nex veek with more commentary on the educatio [uestion. Oh, by the way; "Go Razorbacks ? Bea he Heels!" TIERS TO TW Enrol roposed changes arent tally changes at all Christina Rojas wrote an excellent story about roup of students who are seeking to change the damental idea underlying USCs college radio. ! provided a well-written, clear depiction of both ? of the issue, and that is something journalists 1 media consumers should cherish. From her story, I believe I gained an accurate lerstanding of the reformers' claims and goals veil as those of the defenders of the station's curt format. And what I understand I find worrile. h the article, Bryant appears to want to implelt changes which will debase the entire reason he existence of college radio ? to play what the ?r stations in the area are not. Bryant's other xised changes are not really changes at all, such irnvirfincr sirraaa tn tlio airuiovao for TT<5P ohi. ts and mediating the events and ideas of college community organizations and activities. WUSC le broadcast medium for USC and has been prong such event information ever since I began ming to it, and, I'm sure, long before that. Iryant's plan to poll the masses, take an averfind the standard deviation and have the staplay only the kind of music falling within zes of +/-1.5 will dilute the music spectrum of SC and Columbia, not increase the diversity of ic styles in order to appeal to a wider audience ryant and sons claim. ly impression of Bryant's intentions is not to e the station from one plane to another, but to e the WUSC clique of operations from the curset to his buddies, in which case WUSC will be called "Wussy," will still be controlled by a 11 percentage of the student population and will id like every other loser station in Columbia. Herb Hollar Mass communications graduate student