By Gabriela Flores and Michela Arlia
Brooklyn College’s student-run radio, WBCR, went back on air on Oct. 11 after its COVID hiatus. Despite challenges with mold and damages in equipment, the radio station made its return with the support of several faculty, administrators, and students.
“I’m looking forward to hearing people from different backgrounds,” said JD Duncan, the station’s general manager/president. “Our literal tagline is ‘diverse sounds, new ideas.’ And trust me, based on the pitches that we’ve gotten, that is something that is coming.”
Since 2004, WBCR has provided a freeform space for students to build their repertoire and experience operating a station. Once the pandemic hit, the station was forced to close its door, prompting a nearly three-year pause in streaming. With former e-board members becoming alums or dispersing as COVID unraveled, the Television, Radio, and Emerging Media department looked to find student leaders who could take over. The department’s efforts led to Duncan and Kaylin Guzman, the station’s business manager/treasurer and Vanguard’s photo editor.
Once the duo began working on relaunching the radio, they were met with unprecedented challenges for WBCR. Due to a lack of both ventilation and maintenance of the equipment, there was mold and other physical damages within the station, with other spaces such as science laboratories at Brooklyn College having been affected in similar ways. After transferring to Brooklyn College while the station was not physically active, Duncan and Guzman began setting the groundwork for WBCR’s future.
“That was really my motivation behind getting this up and running – it was for future students, the future radio enthusiasts, the future producers at the station, who will come here and they shouldn’t experience what I did,” Duncan said, noting they enrolled in BC for its radio, but were disheartened to find it not streaming.
Working extensively with radio experts and professors, the pair have gradually built their own skills, worked alongside the college to remove the mold, and compiled a list of equipment needed to let future content thrive.
“We have a great space that we’re not able to harness the power of because of 18 year old equipment,” Duncan said. Together, Guzman and Duncan worked on a proposal initiated in February 2022 that requested $38,572.34 in funds from reserves, which are accumulated student activity fees that WBCR have garnered over the years.
The proposals included purchasing new microphones, sound boards, and other necessities that will allow the radio to become a digital station for future use. As a student organization, WBCR was tasked with presenting their proposal in front of the Brooklyn College Association, a non-profit that oversees club and student activity fee spending. Though their request was passed last Friday, Oct. 14, WBCR’s proposal was reviewed extensively and questioned by student government representatives, who form part of the BCA board.
“It was a stressful week with a good ending, or a satisfactory ending I would say, because we got what we wanted,” Guzman said.
Proposing the budget to BCA was a significant challenge for the radio station. Some student government representatives had concerns about the request’s large amount and the lack of maintenance provided by former WBCR members before and during COVID. For Aharon Grama, the president of the Undergraduate Student Government, the necessity for the equipment was evident but needed to be questioned as student representatives “would scrutinize any larger amount.”
“We have a judiciary responsibility,” said Grama. “[…] We were elected, we’re supposed to at least in some capacity, to take care of the money that we’re told to look after. I’m not going to let just someone to come in and say, ‘I need $40,000,’ and let them walk by without asking questions. That’s the minimum that is expected from me.”
Initially, Grama proposed having USG or preferably Information Technology Services own WBCR’s equipment and permanently loan it to the station to secure maintenance if members are inactive or unable to do so.
To Guzman and Duncan, the idea of USG owning the equipment would have contradicted a new clause in their club constitution that states the Television, Radio, and Emerging Media department chairperson will step in if emergency circumstances lead to WBCR not having a “functioning e-board.” Though Friday’s BCA meeting also held discussion of what led to the station’s current damages, Duncan and Guzman think the circumstances WBCR underwent during COVID were understandable.
“It wasn’t us [current WBCR members] that did it. It was a responsibility that everyone shared, and everyone pretty much let each other down,” Guzman said, noting “nobody is to blame” for what occurred while the station was closed.
Graduate Student Organization President, Louis Di Meglio, asked Duncan and Guzman in an email prior to their proposal approval about how their request would improve student enrollment at Brooklyn College and post grad job opportunities. For Di Meglio, given the college’s student enrollment declines, it’s necessary for student organizations like WBCR to address how their requests for student activity fee funds will draw interest and student engagement to the college.
“The bottom line is, it’s all hands on deck, it affects everybody. And it’s just making that point that we cannot sit idly on the sidelines. As students we have an opportunity to do something,” Di Meglio told the Vanguard, noting that a similar framework of questions posed to WBCR should be asked to other organizations.
Though WBCR is backed by student activity fees that are dependent on undergraduate student enrollment year-by-year, the current members opined that the questions of enrollment boosts were not applicable to a student-run station.
“We are a radio station and a service to the school and community. The college has a marketing team, we do not do marketing for enrollment,” said Duncan.
Other trials and tribulations for getting the station running included taking student’s ideas and bringing them to life. Looking ahead to plans for the station going forward, Guzman explained there is new content lining up, including various shows and segments by students. One show in the works is “The Get Back,” a sports centered broadcast where all major sports teams, as well as BC related teams and games, will be covered.
“It’s huge being back on air, gives the students a well needed platform to speak their minds about topics and have fun,” said Luis Flecha, a student who will co-host the upcoming show that is set to premiere in a week. One of the show’s producers includes T.S. Richards, who helps Flecha and WBCR’s leading duo.
“She’s really the best, she lets our minds get creative and our ideas heard as well,” Flecha said. “We have a lot of ideas we want to implement and I plan on making them happen at some point eventually.”
For the time being, the station will be streaming music as its main content, with a possibility of playing back past broadcasts featuring WBCR alums.
While the equipment in the studio may be on borrowed time until its replacements come in, Duncan and Guzman’s time as Brooklyn College students is as well. Duncan is set to graduate this fall, and Guzman within the next year. Though there is no set date for when their requested purchases will be made, the two are confident the radio will go on without them and will succeed in ways they feel confident in laying the foundation for.
“I left the conditions in place for the next generation of students to make damn good radio,” commented Duncan, as Guzman added that as long as there is passion, there’s no need to worry about the future.
One takeaway from the week’s highs and lows that will stay with this team is the overall outpour of positivity from the surrounding students and faculty.
“The wins that we’ve had is that the community has welcomed us with open arms,” said Guzman.