Hi Geoffrey (and others),

Wanted to jump in and add some ex-GM context.

I cannot speak for the state of WNUR since spring of 2023, but I do know that in the year that Catie and I were GMs, we came into the role with a lot of enthusiasm but were ground down by the lack of support and guidance from NU broadly, and the difficulties of relying on student volunteers who also tend to be actively engaged in other facets of student life, are juggling student jobs, taking academically intense classes, etc. There’s also the inherent struggle of dealing with a new executive board every year - passwords, priorities, important documents, etc get lost, and knowledge transfer doesn’t happen as it should. I’m sure the GMs after us experienced many of the same issues, if not new ones. I pretty much disengaged from the station after graduation for that reason - the frustration of having wanted to do more, but not being able to stung. Based on conversations with previous GMs, this seems common.

During Catie and I’s time as GMs, we had a sit down conversation with Northwestern’s central finance that went poorly. Maybe it was because the new president had just come in, but the questions about WNUR seemed to portray a complete lack of understanding of what the station does, how it’s run, and how it’s funded. Even conversations with the SoC dean - who knew what WNUR was, thankfully - didn’t have details on when or how they intended to support the studio space in Louis or invest in WNUR. Outside of higher-ups, having worked a half dozen student jobs during my time at Northwestern, I do not have much confidence that replacing students with staff would be the panacea some think it would be. TL;DR - if some hope for the University will be a lifeboat for the station, I would temper your expectations.

The summer - in my experience at WNUR - was always rough. Students are on vacation, and since students run the station, basically no one is running it. It is not an ideal situation - it’s something I tried to paper over at Streetbeat and then with Catie as GMs - but there isn’t an effective way to regularly encourage students to stay in Evanston all summer and run down to Louis to help out when needed (out of the kindness of their hearts) instead of doing literally anything else. Our solutions ended up relying on folks who already happened to be in Evanston in the summer for some other reason.

None of what I wrote is to disparage or disagree with the general top line message - I don’t think folks should give up on WNUR and I’m hopeful that the next GM(s) will be able to manage the station well in spite of all these issues. But I encourage folks to keep all this in mind when interacting with the new execs. If they’re anything like those Catie and I worked with our year as GMs or the years before, they’re passionate folks who care about what WNUR stands for as a unique space on campus for student and community expression and I wish them the best in navigating through all these issues to the best of their abilities.

Stay rockin’ & ravin’,
- Edwin Chalas Cuevas

> On Aug 10, 2024, at 8:41 AM, Geoffrey Fenton - gdfenton at comcast.net <wnur-staff@lists.wnur.org> wrote:
>
> Let’s not give up on WNUR.
>
> For a few years now, it seems as if the commitment to WNUR by those with the privilege of station leadership has declined. The very recent problems — dead air, no transmissions, no backup programing (Zetta), equipment malfunctions and lack of repairs — and the tolerance of these issues and lack of official communication about them — are all deeply concerning. This used to be one of the nation’s best and award-winning student-run radio stations — and a university of Northwestern’s reputation deserves nothing less. There needs to be a serious conversation with the right people —students, staff, on-air hosts, university administration — on the status of WNUR and its future.
>
> For those of us who give our time, energy and passion (and donations) because we believe in the power of music, expression and community to help heal a fracturing world, if only in one- or two-hour moments, we are grieving.
>
> Let’s not give up on WNUR. The world needs us more than ever.
>
> Please get WNUR back on the air and figure out how to run it (and staff it) consistently and reliably.
>
> Geoffrey
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