May 12, 2009 issue
I came to EMU in fall 1967. I transferred in from Wayne State and went
to school year-round. I wanted to finish before I got drafted. In 1968,
we had assassinations (of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy) It
was a real turbulent year. I wasn't here for the experience of that on
campus. I was in the service at the time.
I remember coming back. I was in Vietnam on a Friday, came back and was
taking master's classes the following Wednesday and teaching
classes the Monday after that. I spent the next year working
on my master's and finished in August 1971. At that time,
WEMU had created a new producer position and I got the
job. Then, the University was attempting to increase
the (radio station's) power from 10 watts to what it is
today — 16,000 directional.
It was not until 1979 that we were actually able to increase the (station's)
power. The studio moved from Communication and Theatre
Arts to University Relations.
I've had other opportunities to leave. None of them seemed to have the
potential for personal growth and the ability to build
the station that WEMU had available. We were a new station.
We had fairly young students and professionals. We grew
up together. In some ways, it was much like a Judy Garland-Mickey
Rooney movie. Here it is a Monday afternoon. Let's put
on a Broadway show Friday night.
We did live music broadcasts from the Detroit Jazz Festival and published
four record albums in 1984 from music we recorded there. We did our first
national broadcast carried by 200 stations. What the heck did we know?
We were new at this stuff.
It's fascinating to me how loyal and passionate people are at this radio
station. We've been so successful in terms of service, audience loyalty
and employee loyalty. It's hard for me to believe there are other stations
out there with those same qualities.
Because we have such a small listening area, we couldn't survive without
EMU's support. They pay for six full-time people and student
help. Everything else we get through grants or fundraising.
We did our first fundraiser back in spring 1981. There have been very
few times we didn't make our (fundraising) goal. This year, we hit our
goal and it (goal) was $10,000 more than the year before.
The loss of newspapers in Detroit and Ann Arbor presents a challenge
of service for us and other media. I don't know that there
are any easy answers. I think what will be missed will be the public knowing
that they'll have that paper in their hands the morning or afternoon.
But we can provide some information in different ways.
Probably the biggest thing I enjoy about WEMU is that I see it as a service.
We provide the public with something they say they can
consider valuable. They donate money (to the station) and thank
you for taking it.
I hope WEMU will always be able to serve Washtenaw County. I hope we'll
always be able to provide the services that people want
us to. It (WEMU) does the kinds of things the University
should do to serve the community. It's part of our social
responsibility.— Contributed by Ron Podell
