Facing waning student interest and decreasing advertising revenues, WFRD-FM, the College's student-owned and operated FM radio station, is at a crossroads of sorts -- and trying to redefine itself.
WFRD, better known as "99 Rock," has organized a task force consisting of students and the Dean of Student Life to try to regain its footing. The task force hopes to develop new ways to market the station to attract new clients, to increase the revenue and to boost student interest in working for the radio.
The station is also actively staging promotions. It participated in this year's Activities Fair and is engaged in a full-court press to recruit new people willing to make a substantial time commitment to the radio station.
Program Director Kendra Kosko '99 puts it in simple terms: "We have to sell ourselves."
But the biggest change of all, according to Kosko and station General Manager Brent Laffoon '98, could be a modified format. Kosko and Laffoon have considered changing WFRD's format, but the decision ultimately is in the hands of the station's Board of Overseers.
"It doesn't happen overnight," Kosko said of the expected improvements. "We're a very competitive station, but I would like to see us as the best station in the Upper Valley."
There are many reasons for WFRD's struggles, but executives at the station argue that it largely comes down to students' reluctance to make the huge time commitments that were commonplace in the 1970s, when WFRD was founded.
Most students who worked at the FM station in the 1970s made it their only extracurricular priority, Laffoon said.
But since "today is a different time and age," Laffoon said, students become involved in so many different activities that they are no longer willing to make the same time commitments.
A more immediate source of the difficulties was federal regulations, which a year ago compelled beer companies -- whose advertisements were one of the station's main sources of income -- to stop advertising, and meant significant revenue decreases.
The fact that alcohol-related incidents on campus were often blamed on radio commercials was also responsible for the beer companies' decision to pull the ads.
The station receives no financial support from the College and draws its entire revenue from advertisements.
Station executives of course relish the independence, but it can also be a burden, as Laffoon concedes: "We have a lot of responsibility that other college radio stations don't have ... This is a real-life situation. We're running a business."
Laffoon said he is optimistic about filling the gap that the beer companies created by withdrawing their advertisements. WFRD receives substantial support from other clients who advertise regularly as well as from new businesses in the Upper Valley.
"There's not going to be any problem. Our salespeople are great, they're doing a wonderful job, and we have a strong support base in the Upper Valley," says Laffoon.
The station is also collaborating with the Tuck School of Business Administration, which is doing market research about both music preferences and financial possibilities for Dartmouth Broadcasting.
"We have a lot to offer," says Laffoon, "it's simply a matter of making us attractive."
