For KWVA campus radio, there’s an odd opposition between what’s heard and what’s seen. Given the selection of music, listeners tuning their radio dials to 88.1 for the first time might expect a luxurious broadcast room lurking behind the scenes. But in actuality, the station is nearly hidden in a small corner of the EMU. It was formerly a women’s rest room.
KWVA general manager Charlotte Nisser said diversity is what fuels the station. The drawers and shelves of the station’s music archives include material that neophytes might be tempted to label ‘obscure’ — plenty of unknown artists that can be roughly organized into genres such as reggae, Latin, world, hip-hop, electronic, and so on.
“The mission of KWVA is to represent the underrepresented,” Nisser said.
The station, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2003, remains in contact with other local radio stations to determine competition and keep their music selection diverse. They receive play lists from 104.7 KDUK and 97.9 KNRQ in order to avoid playing more popular material.
The station is budgeted at $65,000 a year, enough to employ eight or nine senior staff members. Nisser said the station is underfunded and its equipment outdated — which she described as “stone age.” Nevertheless, the station continues to run.
KWVA employs roughly 200 volunteers, including DJs and reporters. Programming director Alexis Murray has a schedule full of gaps of airtime which need to be filled.
“We need people. We’re hiring, and we will continue to do so through the beginning of the school year,” she said. Murray and other DJs have been covering the empty spots in the interim.
KWVA’s employees are not weighted in any one academic discipline, and non-University students are encouraged to apply as well.
“For most people, this is just a hobby,” News Director Patrick Wilson said.
Internet broadcasting has become a significant issue for the station over the course of the year. KWVA began broadcasting on the Internet in 2000. Even though the station’s Internet streaming software allows only 50 listeners at any given time, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed by Congress in 1998, will impose universal fees for all radio stations broadcasting on the Internet.
KWVA broadcasts with a nonprofit educational license from the Federal Communications Commission, but the legislation set fees, which were finalized earlier this summer, imposing blanket costs on all radio stations attempting Internet broadcasts. Nisser estimated costs that would have to be paid to the Recording Industry Association of America at $10,000 per year.
“Its outlandish. We’re not here to make a profit, we’re here to provide music to the community,” Nisser said.
Nisser expressed disappointment in the new rules. Her views seem to reflect many other campus and small radio stations, who have signed on in opposition to the fees on the “Save Our Streams” Web site, www.ruf.rice.edu/~willr/cb/sos/.
Despite the legislation, Nisser said the station continues broadcasting for two reasons: The RIAA apparently doesn’t have the means to enforce the fees and regulations which it has set, and Nisser said the RIAA and National Public Radio struck a deal earlier this year, giving NPR affiliates with fewer than 10 full-time employees the option to simply not report their playlists, thus not being subject to broadcasting fees.
According to Nisser, documentation of the deal was made available on the Internet but has since been removed. Nisser said she was told by the station’s Intercollegiate Broadcasting System representative that the deal has set a precedent for smaller campus radio stations such as KWVA, which has no full-time employees.
“Why should we have to do
the reporting if NPR doesn’t?” Nisser said.