The directorate of Dartmouth Broadcasting would like to respond to the column written by William Meland in The Dartmouth on Jan. 28 entitled "Change the Channel." Mr. Meland comments that 99Rock does not show the true diverse musical voice of the Dartmouth community. While we agree that 99Rock does not represent all of the musical tastes at Dartmouth, we argue that this is not its goal. This is the goal of Dartmouth Broadcasting's other station, AM1340,WDCR. Mr. Meland claims that he would like to see "students and community members signing up for two-hour slots of playing whatever they want, as long as it's interesting and legal." But this is precisely what WDCR is. We find it interesting that Mr. Meland does not once mention WDCR in his column. Perhaps he is not aware of the existence of WDCR?
It seems unbelievable that a Dartmouth student could be so ignorant as to write a column without knowing the single most important fact in the issue. Or perhaps he knew of WDCR, but chose not to mention it with the purpose of making his argument stronger. Again, it seems implausible that Mr. Meland could write a column that misleads the audience by leaving out key facts. In either case, his argument does not hold much water when WDCR is considered.
Mr. Meland offers Louisiana Tech, UC Irvine and Tufts as examples of schools that have free-form stations that he suggests that we emulate. The frequencies of these stations are 91.2, 88.9 and 89.1 respectively. Once again, it seems that Mr. Meland has not done his research. If he had, he would have known that all frequencies below 92.3 are designated to be non-commercial in nature by the FCC and therefore have significantly fewer expenses than a station in the commercial bandwidth, like 99Rock.
Mr. Meland also fails to indicate the signal strength of these other stations. WDCR is broadcast at 1,000 watts, which though of slightly lower quality than an FM signal, is still significantly better than 125 watts and 200 watts at Tufts and UC Irvine. Louisiana Tech broadcasts at 4,000 watts, but their student managers get paid. The funding that the Louisiana Tech station receives from the administration is significant; Dartmouth Broadcasting, however, is financially self-sufficient, meaning that we get no money from the College. Perhaps, then, Mr. Meland is complaining that the other stations have more DJs playing different types of music. This is certainly not the fault of Dartmouth Broadcasting -- anyone can come to us at any time to sign up for a shift as long as the format is "interesting and legal" and they complete a simple two-hour training session.
Dartmouth Broadcasting is a unique entity in the world of college radio. We have yet to find any other college radio organizations that have not one, but two distinct stations offering two very different kinds of educational experiences for students. 99Rock is a professional, commercial FM station where students are exposed to the real-world business of radio. Students can DJ, make programming decisions, create and execute promotions, produce commercials and broadcast Dartmouth sports. Completely student-managed, we compete with corporate conglomerate Clear Channel for market share throughout the entire Upper Valley community . Broadcasting at 3,400 watts, 99Rock has an average listening radius of 30 to 50 miles outside Hanover and an estimated average listening audience of over 30,000 people. Mr. Meland suggests that we "benefit the larger listening community" and we couldn't agree more. However, that larger listening community is made up of not only Dartmouth students, but lifelong residents of the Upper Valley who have been listening to us for over 20 years.
Many students do not like the realities of the corporate world and have no interest in learning what the business of radio is all about. They would rather simply explore their own self-expression. That is the raison d'etre of WDCR. We see tremendous worth in the experience of a free-form radio format. It is simply more creative, diverse, interesting and has at its heart the experience of a liberal arts education. Many of our rival Ivy League schools have long since sold off their FM stations because they proved financially unfeasible. The commercial nature of 99Rock allows Dartmouth to have the benefit of a free-form station without costing the school anything. Our annual operating budget for both stations is larger than that of all the COSO organizations put together, and all of that money is made from advertising. In an era when the school would cut a Division I swim team to save $250,000 annually, does Mr. Meland really believe that Dartmouth could absorb the cost of changing 99Rock to free-form? And why do so, if Dartmouth already has a free-form station? Is it simply because Mr. Meland wants to be heard in stereo instead of mono?
Finally, Mr. Meland complains that Dartmouth Broadcasting is run by a "tiny number of student leaders." Again, this is misleading. Applications for next year's Directorate are available now and anyone is welcome to apply. We are always ready to accept with open arms any and all radio enthusiasts with or without experience. It is a shame that after three years at Dartmouth, Mr. Meland did not bother to explore this avenue to voice change instead of writing an inaccurate column insulting the dedicated students of Dartmouth Broadcasting.
