Campus radio station KWVA is in the midst of an extensive renovation that is expected to cost more than $150,000 and will switch out old analog radio technology for new digital equipment.
But the renovation is overdue and over budget.
The renovation process began May 2003 after the ASUO Student Senate approved $118,438 for new equipment and labor. Since then, the project has faced numerous setbacks, including wiring problems and equipment failures.
“We were hoping to have this done by December,” KWVA General Manager Charlotte Nisser said, adding that she expects the upgrade will not be finished until May.
The excess cost of the project forced Nisser to go to senate for an additional $31,794, which the senate approved on Feb. 18.
However, an ASUO Executive veto of the allocation might be in the works. Sen. Steven Lockfield said the Executive agreed to veto the allocation after he and Sen. Rodrigo Moreno asked them to do so. Lockfield said ASUO Vice President Eddy Morales “wrote the veto.”
Morales, however, said he had not vetoed the allocation and is “undecided.”
According to the ASUO Constitution, the ASUO president, not the vice president, holds power to veto Senate allocations.
ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh Foster affirmed that the Executive had not vetoed the allocation.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily likely, either,” Foster said.
The funds are crucial to the completion of KWVA’s renovation, according to Nisser. The campus radio station continues to work with analog equipment, but commercial stations have turned to digital technology. Nisser said she hopes the upgrade will create a more realistic training ground for the 250 students and community members who work at KWVA.
The station will have two fully operational digital studios and a digital production room upon the project’s completion.
“We’re trying to simulate, as much as we can, a real-world working environment,” Nisser said.
Meanwhile, disc jockeys, production technicians, news staff and others are forced to endure cramped conditions while the renovation takes place.
But if the Executive vetoes the allocation, KWVA’s project will likely face further delays while the station requests the money from ASUO’s surplus fund, a reserve account that includes incidental fee money from higher-than-expected enrollment.
Lockfield indicated KWVA would have little difficulty convincing senate to approve an allocation from the surplus fund.
“Most likely they’ll be able to get it,” he said.
KWVA’s studios, which are located on the Mezzanine floor of the EMU, are cramped, and the radio station still uses sound cards that look like eight-track tapes. Decorating touches, such as carpeting and band stickers, help create a friendly ambiance in what was once a women’s bathroom.
Nisser said the station offers a unique service to University students. KWVA doesn’t compete directly with Eugene’s corporate radio stations, which play a different format and, unlike KWVA, are licensed to run advertising.
“There’s so much of that Top 40 stuff out there that it’s hard for us to justify competing with that,” Nisser said.
Instead, KWVA has carved out a niche playing a wide variety of songs not usually heard on the upper band of the radio dial. A song by Boards of Canada or The Staple Singers would get more play time on KWVA 88.1 FM than Britney Spears or Blink-182.
KWVA DJ Peter Weinberger, a 45-year-old Eugene resident who graduated from the University in 1981, said he enjoys wide discretion in deciding what to play.
“I found out you get to play whatever you want,” Weinberger said.
Nisser said KWVA employs several DJs, like Weinberger, who aren’t tied to an academic schedule because they help keep the station running when students leave town for breaks.
Whatever happens with the Executive veto or construction delays, Nisser said KWVA will eventually provide a state-of-the-art office for students to learn the ins and outs of the radio business.
“It’s just procuring the funds and finishing up,” she said.