To the Editor:

I have just read the editorial column (“Our View”) in the April 19, 2005 edition of The Pacer. As the faculty advisor of record for WUTM, FM 90.3 “The Hawk”, I would appreciate the opportunity to clarify some of the issues raised in the commentary.

Your information about hours of operation for college radio stations is right on. All members of the broadcast faculty at the University of Tennessee at Martin (Dr. Gary Steinke, Professor Rodney Freed and myself) have been tracking this for some time now. While WUTM is probably not in any immediate danger from being infringed upon, this possibility is a real concern to us. We do not intend for this to happen to WUTM.

Last summer (2004) was the first time that our station has been off the air during the entire summer. This decision was made due to several factors. The Communications Department lacked the necessary funding to pay faculty to supervise the station. Additionally, the number of students who signed up for radio practicum (which is where our station’s staff members come from) had dwindled significantly, to the point where it was no longer cost effective to offer the course. In fact, the last time that WUTM was on the air (summer, 2003), only three students took the practicum course. It seems that many of our Communications majors and minors work or participate in internships during the summer months. Also, last summer was spent installing new computers, software and other equipment in the station. This took a great deal of time, so the station would most likely have been off the air anyway.

There are other issues that the editorial raised. One was the hours of operation, currently 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 midnight, Monday through Friday. The logistics of finding communications students on the weekends to staff and run WUTM is difficult, since many students go home on weekends. Now that we have new automation equipment installed, we have the capability to run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Our new equipment allows for “voice-tracking,” which allows a station to be unmanned, and still sound as if we had live air personalities on the air. This we hope to be able to do by the end of this spring semester. The only obstacle that prevents us from doing this now is that we need to have a computer system in place that will notify a faculty or staff member by telephone if the station goes off the air, or develops technical difficulties. Otherwise we would be guilty of running an unattended radio station, a violation of FCC regulations. Professor Rodney Freed (our Communications Department computer guru) tells me that is waiting for approval to be ordered, and that our Senior Broadcast Engineer, Harold Cochran will install it as soon as feasible.

As to our hours of operation, this has also been discussed for quite some time, at least since I arrived at UT Martin in the fall of 2001. Once the appropriate and necessary equipment is in place, we do plan to expand station hours on the air. Initially, this will include summer hours, and perhaps weekends. Ultimately, my preference is to operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This would allow us to broadcast live campus events, because there are a lot of events on weekends at UTM, which includes both sports and academic offerings.

I would like to point out that WUTM has made some rather great strides over the past few years. Some of these include the installation of computer-assisted production rooms, audio editing software, a new transmitter, new digital-capable audio control boards, new remote broadcast equipment and portable recording devices. This has allowed us to provide additional programming, including the broadcasting of academic speakers and local university forums, sporting events (such as the Duke/UTM basketball game from North Carolina last fall), more local campus news coverage and the airing of more local UTM and Weakley County public service announcements. More students are involved in the inner workings of our station, and we have developed a superb student executive staff that is constantly working to improve WUTM, so that we can truly serve our campus community and be “the campus voice of the University of Tennessee at Martin.”

So in regard to the suggestions in the editorial, I am delighted to say that we have already examined or addressed them. Thanks to the administration of the UT Martin, we now have in place what we need to stay compliant with FCC regulations, as well as continuing to serve this campus and the surrounding community.

As for the recommendation that we pursue an affiliation with National Public Radio—that has been examined also, on numerous occasions. This area is well covered by other NPR stations, and the cost to become that type of station is quite prohibitive for this university. What this would require would be the addition of five (5) non-faculty staff members, a larger and more expensive transmitter, a new tower and an operational budget that would be substantially higher than what we work with at the present time. At this time, there is no such “partial affiliation” for the airing of NPR programming.

I am pleased to know that you, like many of our students, tune in and enjoy the programming on WTUM. We will continue to attempt to provide programming for the campus community and hope that you will continue to support us. We exist to serve our campus, and most importantly, to serve as an on-air laboratory for our students to train for careers in broadcasting and communications. WUTM has produced quite a large number of respected broadcast professionals.

Finally, if someone had contacted us before writing the piece, it could have changed the approach. All of the issues raised have been addressed. Make no mistake—I have no problem that an editorial appeared concerning WUTM. My concern is that someone didn’t even bother to check out what was going on with an official source. In the future, in regard to any story or editorial, please ask a reporter to give us a call. As a former radio news reporter, I was always taught that not allowing sources from the covered subject to provide information was one of the cardinal sins of journalism. Check the facts with a reliable source. Remain true to journalistic standards. We journalists have enough problems in the areas of fairness and credibility already. So next time, please ask someone to give us a call. That would be appreciated.