Joel was a LaGrange native who worked at Lyons Township High School's WLTL. He had been the enigmatic and elusive "Sgt. Preston" of the "Sgt. Preston and his Mounties" show on WLTL (from which no tapes have ever surfaced). Later, he served a very brief tenure as the "Virgin Jock" at WIDB (of which no recordings survived). He hosted a WSIU show where he played show tunes and MOR music, and no tapes ever surfaced from those, either. Fortunately, Joel's administrative skills and accomplishments presented a far more lasting and impressive legacy.
There had been certain expectations in the air at WIDB as winter turned to spring. One, that the riots would return as the weather got warmer. Two, that WIDB would soon be selling commercials. Both seemed to be pretty safe bets in March, 1971. The war was still going on, (as was the draft), the anti-war groups on and off campus were as strong as ever, and nothing had really dented the great dislike (to put it mildly) most people had for the war, for differing reasons. Dean Moulton had assured Jerry in 1970 that, once WIDB had "established itself" (read: "students could run their own station") for a year, then advertising would be allowed.
Both expectations turned out to be wrong. The indispensability of a galvanizing event was overlooked with respect to the riots. Remember, when Nixon authorized bombing and the Cambodian invasion one year before, only 150 demonstrators came out. Only after police shot dozens of students at Kent State, and local police attacked hundreds of SIU students did the army of five thousand plus students shut down SIU in 1970. There were no such galvanizing events in 1971. Things remained relatively quiet through spring quarter.
In 1970, WIDB had barely been able to get its administrative act together. The staff had been preoccupied with securing and preparing a space, recruiting programming staff, getting transmitters installed and working, and promoting the new WIDB. The news department was barely functioning when the need for news became critical. As we know, the staff rose to the occasion, but at that juncture, there was no time or energy to push for the right to advertise. Even if granted, the station was ill-equipped to proceed in 1970. It was thought that the university, once committed to WIDB, would cause WIDB's funding to be maintained, especially if there was no other revenue source. So, as of spring, 1970, it seemed to make sense not to push the advertising issue at that time.
A year later, things had changed. There was a critical need for money. The need was critical not for salaries, a jingle package or a fancy piece of production equipment, but to keep the transmitters on, to re-connect the news wire, for the station's survival. The difficulty in obtaining even a few hundred dollars of emergency survival funds suggested the unpredictability of WIDB's revenue stream. As WIDB proceeded further into the circus-like 71-2 annual student activity fee allocation process, this inherent instability was painfully obvious. Also obvious was that the months of hoopla, back-dooring, and hijinks indigenous to each allocation process would happen every year. It was almost like running for congress; even if you won, you had to, almost immediately, begin campaigning for the next election. Unlike other student activities, WIDB had more important things to do: serve students' needs.
The station could either spend a lot of time and energy politicking and cultivating relationships with student government, planning and executing "dog & pony shows" for the fee allocation hearings, and fighting with the administration to release the damn funds months after the fiscal year started, or the station could channel that energy into doing what almost every other radio station did for money: sell time. Which choice was more consistent with WIDB's purpose of supplying students with experience for a broadcast career? Which choice was more consistent with WIDB's purpose of serving as a (financially) independent and objective source of information for students?
Charlie Muren and others at WIDB were beginning to mull this over in April of 1971. It seemed like no big deal. After all, Dean Moulton promised them a year ago that sales would be authorized after WIDB operated for a year. And, the year was up. As a courtesy, Charlie mentioned to Dean Moulton that WIDB was planning to sell time in the fall. His response began a chain of events that led to WIDB's greatest challenge and triumph, and the university's priority being exposed again as a mainly a dysfunctional economic handout to Southern Illinois, not an institution of learning.
Joel was showing up once a week for his news shift. He also had his shift at WSIU. Joel lived in Stevenson Arms, a freshman-approved off-campus dorm, so he could not listen to WIDB. "I saw a WIDB poster at Papa Ceasar's," Joel recalled. "I walked into WIDB and met Tom Scheithe and Woody Mosgers. I was expecting to see a real radio station. Instead, there were portable walls, a big board, and lots of people trying to put on a radio station."
Joel noticed a difference from his experience at WSIU. "WIDB wasn't such a big sterile atmosphere as WSIU was," Joel thought. "It felt comfortable." Within a few more weeks, Joel availed himself of an important tangential freshman benefit of WIDB: a party at a staff head's off-campus apartment. In this instance it was Jim Hoffman hosting the blowout. "I remember coming in looking around, and I thought, 'this is really cool' and I looked forward to more parties."
Joel also met Robbie Davis. Rob, who had been a jock at WIDB from the beginning, was interested in doing more at the station. He wanted to be WIDB's first sales manager. Rob encouraged Charlie to do whatever was necessary so that sales could begin in the fall. It was expected that some prep work would be needed. Naively, Charlie and Rob figured that if they started getting ready in June, they could be ready in September.
Like many other projects, this was stumbled into sideways and backwards. Charlie was getting ready to graduate, so after the budget was assembled and submitted, and the courtesy call to Dean Moulton about advertising in the fall, Charlie must have been thinking he was pretty much done. But then an ominous call came from Dean Moulton: before WIDB could advertise, it must submit a written proposal which would set forth how WIDB operates, a description of its audience, how it is (and would be) financially supported, how the sales department would operate. So Charlie and Robbie pieced together the original WIDB sales proposal, dated May, 1971.
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