WIDB History Chapter 20

A Little More Background..

One of the reasons the administration supported the concept of a "campus radio station" grew out of concerns about maintaining control amid an atmosphere of enthusiastic student activism. By the late 1960's there were more students than ever at SIU. Many were assertive and ambitious about blazing new trails and rejecting old boundaries. There is a parallel between the macro group of students generally, who questioned university and national policies, and the micro group who saw unmet student needs and wanted broadcast experience. Both groups intimidated administrators and others. As discussed in earlier chapters, Buren C. Robbins and the Broadcast Service were intimidated by the early efforts to start a student station, and President Morris was intimidated by the 1966 efforts to protest student expulsions. The apparent arson of Old Main and the Ag Building bombing were intimidating. Compared to this extreme, the prospect of a radio station run by a guy like Jerry may have seemed more acceptable.
When assertive students sought change, the likelihood of success was greater hen students acted in groups. There was an inkling of this in 1966. While few student participants from the 1966 riots were still in Carbondale in April, 1970, administrators who were there in 1966, led by still-president Delyte Morris, were not only present but still in charge. It is doubtful that WIDB could have successfully started without President Morris' approval. It is presumed that Morris was frustrated by the ineffective efforts to communicate with the students as a whole in 1966. At that time, there was only the Daily Egyptian and WSIU-FM. One reason that efforts to create a student radio station were discouraged was that it was understood that a student radio station could be very powerful when students acted in a group and the radio station transmitted a singular student voice. Who would control this, and for what purpose would this power be used?

To avoid valid student criticism, some administrators continued to deny that critics of the administration spoke for any number of students. The apparent official attitude was that almost all students WANTED the administrators and other officials to exercise all the power and make all the decisions. Only a few "lunatic fringe" students, joined with "outside agitators" were critical. If these could only be removed (and the end justified the means) then everyone would be happy. This attitude may have been partially true about certain issues and extreme actions. Believing it to be true about all dissent leads to a closed door against reasonable protests and demands. It became more difficult to maintain the attitude that only a small minority "lunatic fringe" of students were disgruntled, when hundreds of students took to the streets in 1966.

But after a few years, memories faded, and administrators began to believe their "own" propaganda. While the numbers of students in the streets in 1966 could not be denied, it was rationalized that large numbers of students were aroused not by acts of the administration, but were inflamed by misinformation propagated by the lunatic fringe/outside agitators. Under this rationalization, almost all students, in their "regular state," either didn't care or supported the administration. Thus, when Jerry told the administration in 1968 and 1969 that the new radio station would seek input from all sides, including the administration, the administration heard something that resonated with their rationalization. Also, to the administration, it appeared that there were several powerful student groups behind Jerry's effort. Jerry knew that, as long as students maintained their will power, passion and energy, the students would remain in control. Administrators believed that Jerry's efforts, if successful, would, at worst, supply a middle-of-the-road channel of communication to students to counter the efforts of the so-called lunatic fringe.

In some respects, the administration attitude in 1970 was far from reality. From the beginning, Jerry had devoted significant efforts to supporting a station goal of supplying information to students. Jerry knew that this was the key to serving an important student need. Yet organizational enthusiasm was generated more for music programing. It was important to attract staff members, as well as listeners. It was important to establish WIDB as an integral fixture of campus life in the short time between sign on (April 12) and the end of the quarter (early June). It was generally felt that music programming was most important in reaching this goal. News and information were important, but (it was felt by staff members) these would be developed on an ongoing basis; few students would be motivated to tune in WIDB to receive news and information. This attitude and the administration's attitudes would prove very, very wrong before WIDB was one month old.

end of Chapter 20