The student disc-jockeys of the radio station, 90.7 WCLH, do their best to keep the old workplace up and running as a full-time medium for their own music and talk shows.
Located on the third floor of the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center on South River St., the fully functioning station is easily passed by. On top of that, it’s old and makes use of technology that the big-time corporate stations would have hauled to the dumpster decades ago.
Though not obsolete, station E-Staff member Corey Martin describes the technologies as “outdated in the sense that used as a learning tool, we aren’t getting the right knowledge using old equipment.”
“I think that something needs to be done about the look of the station,” host Andrew Grandinetti explains. “I feel like we need to repaint the studio and just make some changes to make the entire place a bit more appealing and friendly.”
More than anything, though, the Wilkes radio station is meant to be a learning station, so it would only make sense that the communications department has gotten updated control boards for the students to use, to be made available this semester.
Currently in the process of being installed in both the on-air control room and audio production room, these new, state-of-the-art control boards are among the most substantial new equipment components recently acquired by the station. Station manager Renee Loftus estimates the cost of acquiring and installing the new equipment to be $30,000.
The DJs are excited about the new control boards coming in. Trevor Kurtz hosts a show every Wednesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. called “Vital Vinyl.” The show features the use of the studio’s turntables to play classic rock on vinyl records, expresses his hopes for the new technology, hoping to use it to make his own show run more efficiently.
“With the new board, hopefully we will be able to hook the turntables up so when the turntable is turned on the board, it will start the physical turntable,” Kurtz said.
With the new systems being set up, the students behind the station expect the overall efficiency of the WCLH station to improve with the start of the new semester.
The radio staff is always looking for new members to join. Any students who are interested can stop by to the 3rd floor of the Dorothy Dickson Darte center and talk to station manager Renee Loftus, or call 570-408-5909.