Rick Fatica

“I don’t think our feature stories are long enough,” frets junior Megan Roberts as she scans reports being fed into Ohio University Public Radio, WOUB-91.3 FM. “Some of these are only a minute or two long.”

Megan locks eyes with fellow student Thom White through the glass separating the control room and Studio B in the Radio and Television Building. She’s directing and he’s hosting the live news program “Afternoon Edition” that airs at 4 p.m. weekdays. Today’s show is no different from any other for the summer student crew. But then, every show can be a real pressure cooker.

“With live radio, we’ve had everything go wrong. You just have to work around it,” says longtime WOUB producer John Ray, gently nudging radio newcomer Misty Caldwell to operate the control board.

In feet-to-the-fire fashion, students learn to manage on-air emergencies, from equipment mishaps to the bumbling freshman at the mike.

“And all this started with one student who wanted experience,” Ray says as he surveys the two studios packed with the latest radio digital technology.

  Ray’s referring to the stubborn determination of John Metzger, who enrolled at Ohio University in 1941 and promptly convinced administrators the campus needed a radio station. The operation was rather modest, broadcasting via transmission lines strung throughout residence halls. But by the beginning of the next decade, the university had developed one of the nation’s first FM radio stations, WOUB, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this fall.
 

WOUB archives

Jerry O’Conner was WOUB’s chief student announcer in the late 1940s and early ’50s.

A piece of history
Now a veteran within the regional media market, WOUB-FM and its AM sister station have served as an in-depth training ground for thousands of students as well as a vital news and entertainment source for a weekly audience of about 44,000 residents in three states.

The university’s Telecommunications Center is recognizing the station’s half-century milestone in November by organizing a reunion of alumni who developed an affection for the airways while student volunteers there. “That place was a real turning point for me,” says Fox Broadcasting Chairman  and CEO Roger Ailes, one of the station’s most influential alumni. “I did some growing up and got a lot of experience. I miss those days when I used to get up and turn on the transmitter and get the station warmed up.”

Through the years, the Telecommunications Center — providing students experience in radio, television, online services, community outreach, engineering and distance learning — has garnered a national reputation for turning out graduates with professional training. Even in the station’s early days, students were the foundation of the operation.

“In order for students to get a job in broadcasting, they had to have worked in broadcasting,” says Archie Greer, BFA ’49 and MFA ’53, who managed the station from 1953 to 1967 and taught broadcasting until 1994. “Internships weren’t popular back then, so students ran the station.”
 
Greer came on board just three years after the Federal Communications Commission granted Ohio University a license to develop a noncommercial FM station, the first in Ohio and among only a handful in the country. With a 10-watt signal, WOUB reached only the very heart of Athens.

Students, many of whom were enamored by the popularity of the 1950s disc jockey, began working at the station in increasing numbers.

“The disc jockey had become a phenomenon,” Greer says. “They were idealized, and students flocked in here like there was no tomorrow, not realizing disc jockeys were so terribly paid it was ridiculous.”

  Students teamed up for news and sports programs, comedy shows, radio dramas and interviews with faculty, administrators and community members. Music was restricted to instrumental and classical, and more mainstream music, such as country-western, was off limits. One of Greer’s responsibilities was to drop a spot of fingernail polish on inappropriate music selections to make sure they weren’t played.

Rick Fatica

Senior Jessa Goddard works on a news story in the student newsroom that serves both WOUB radio and TV.

But some pranks slipped through. During the 1950s, two students hosting a morning show called “Yawn Patrol” announced to listeners that a 707 airplane had touched down at Ohio University’s landing strip, then on East State Street.

“You couldn’t land a 707 there if you took it apart and brought it in by truck,” Greer jokes. “But the sheriff’s department was down there checking it out and everything.”

Most students took their on-air jobs seriously and now claim their radio training — which included experience at an AM station that came along in 1957 and today remains student-operated as WOUB-AM 1340 — instilled a strong work ethic.
 
“Professors insisted on hard work and dedication,” says Columbus TV veteran Jimmy Crum, BS ’52, who covered sports at WCMH (Channel 4) for 41 years. “Anybody in radio or TV will be the first to tell you that it’s not like being a banker and working 9 to 5. But it’s never been work to me — it’s been a hobby and an avocation all rolled into one.”

  WOUB-FM began evolving into the station it is today in 1969, when the FCC approved a power increase from 10 to 50,000 watts so the university could offer classes via radio to students at the emerging regional campuses. Many students from outlying areas began driving to the nearest reception point to listen to Psychology 101 and history lectures over their car radios.

The power increase also signaled a shift in radio programming.

“The balance had changed,” says Joe Welling, director of the Telecommunications Center from 1970 to 1995. “Students still were involved, but we started offering more programming that would be of practical use to the folks living in Appalachian Ohio.”

That included more regional news, consumer and health information and bluegrass and acoustical music for audiences in southeastern Ohio, western West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The same year, National Public Radio was created, and Ohio University was among the first to carry its news and entertainment programming.

  Carol Ford, BSC ’76, used the station’s expanded role to her advantage by immersing herself in every aspect of the operation.
  “I did the traffic, the public service announcements, the on-air jobs and the production,” says Ford, now a disc jockey at an R&B and oldies station in New York City. “It literally was our sandbox to play in.”
 

Rick Fatica

Longtime WOUB-FM producer John Ray (top right) helps students prepare for the 4 p.m. weekday news show "Afternoon Edition." Students are (from top) host Thom White, director Megan Roberts and technical assistant Misty Caldwell.

Real-world experience
“I feel like I’m going too fast and stumbling,” mumbles a flushed Thom White after he reads the final line of the weather report over the air.

John Ray ignores the self-criticisms.

“Remember to smile. People like listening to someone who’s smiling,” Ray says, pointing to his own big grin.

Ray, who’s been producing WOUB-FM programs for 40 years, is one of the station’s most encouraging, and patient, staff members.

“I’ve always said that no one would design a business modeled after the way we operate,” Ray chuckles. “I have a different student staff every day during the school year. It’s constant turnover.”
 
But it works — and well. Today, the Telecommunications Center trains more than 200 students of almost all majors each year.

“We’re really proud of the student training,” says center Director Carolyn Bailey Lewis. “We treat our students as professionals, and they get good jobs in the industry.”

The center’s reputation is widespread — and to some, beyond belief. Baffled radio and TV producers often call WOUB staff to confirm that graduates actually have the extensive skills listed on their resumes.

Lewis keeps a folder of e-mails she receives from recent graduates updating her about their job searches. Two e-mails at the top of the stack represent the average correspondence: Geoffrey Reddick tells her he’s landed a job as a radio feature producer at WKNO in Memphis and Jim Jackson writes to say he’s a Web producer at The Chicago Tribune.
 

Rick Fatica

Mark Hellenberg, who began volunteering at WOUB-FM in the late 1970s, graduated from Ohio University in 1993 and now works at the station as an announcer and producer.

 
And that’s just the green grads. Experienced alumni are behind the mikes and in front of cameras in large cities and small communities throughout the world, some of the more prominent being NBC “Today Show” co-host Matt Lauer and CNN “Early Edition” co-anchor Leon Harris. Others who found impressive niches include Nancy Cartwright, the voice of cartoon character Bart Simpson, and Bob Lamey, BA ’62, commentator for the Indianapolis Colts. Many alumni are producers, directors and managers in radio and TV, including Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Mel Harris, MA ’65 and PHD ’71.

“Most of our students know they’re not going to be an NBC anchor, but they start out in small markets and work their way up to being a Matt Lauer,” Lewis says.

Such is the case with alumna Lisa Kick. After graduating with a broadcast journalism degree in 1992, she went from working at a small TV station in Steubenville, Ohio, to serving as the morning anchor at WBNS (Channel 10) in Columbus.

“It’s really rewarding,” she says. “I remember doing ‘Afternoon Edition’ at Ohio University and feeling like I had arrived. I thought it was so cool that I had the chance to be on the air, and I’m still doing it.”

Voice of the future
Today, WOUB-FM and its four satellite stations in Cambridge, Chillicothe, Ironton and Zanesville continue to pull programming from a mix of student presentations, staff-produced shows and National Public Radio favorites, such as "All Things Considered" and "Whad'Ya Know."

In the fall, programs will be added as the station expands from an 18- to 24-hour service. A new transmitter will allow both the radio station and WOUB-TV to broadcast day and night. What's more, WOUB-FM plans to increase live studio productions and send more students into the station’s 38-county coverage area to dig up colorful news and features.

"We’ve got to fill the airways somehow and we want to do it better than ever," Lewis says, smiling.

Even if it means doing it 1,800 seconds at a time.

 Melissa Rake is assistant editor of Ohio Today.