Dale Gardner spent many creative years at WIDB, as Music Director, Program Director and General Manager. But a recently unearthed “lost tape” of Dale’s early production involvement in Wright I clearly demonstrates the emerging genius. We suspect Alan Matthews, and others, were involved here but we do not have the whole story.
Here are two the 2 rediscovered promos for the “Ralph Edmunds Brown Bag Lunch Hour,” circa 1986.
What did this show sound like?
Does anyone have tapes?
WIDB would go off the air immediately and forever UNLESS SIU forked over the cash NOW and allowed WIDB to sell advertising.
That’s the threat WIDB General Manager Joel Preston fired off, ON THE AIR.
It was December, 1972, and the station was out of money. Joel had been GM for about a year and tried SO HARD to get $ for the station. He “schmoozed” Student Senate honchos during fee allocations and got the station $25,000, but this was eschewed by George Mace, Dean of Students, who decided WIDB would get $6002.37 instead. Joel tried to run commercials and was forced to cease and ask permission. In less than nine months, Joel had WIDB’s advertising proposal before the Board of Trustees in September and again for December.
People were leaving the station when advertising was not approved in September.
December was here, the $ had run out, it was time for a big move.
Senator Buzz Talbot, Joel, and WIDB Sales Manager Robbie Davis created “Students to Save WIDB” (supposedly a grassroots student uprising) and they took out ads in the Daily Egyptian.
The ads asked students to cut it out and send to the Board of Trustees. Just as all of this was happening with the Board of Trustees meeting in a few days, WIDB aired “My 2 cents Worth,” which was essentially an editorial. You can not only hear it, but also how it was aired during the Kevin J. Potts show. After you listen, read the epilogue below.
EPILOGUE: The Board of Trustees got over 1200 letters in support of WIDB, but did nothing for WIDB. The station did go off the air in December, as usual. Winter quarter started January 4, 1973, and there was no WIDB. The administration had called Joel’s bluff and he followed thru on his threat. The station was still open during the day but no one was on the air. There was a void in the Student Center. It felt weird to many. This got publicity, and lots of people were talking about Joel’s ballsy move. Suddenly Joel got a phone call that money had been “found” for WIDB. The station resumed programming last week of January.
In WIDB’s third year, the station had enough to make this power play. This led to the approval of the advertising proposal, but that took two more years.
June 26-27-28, 2015
Reunite with WIDB’ers past and present at he 45th WIDB Anniversary Reunion in Carbondale and Giant City June 26, 27, 28, 2015!
We have secured all Giant City Cabins for this event! Lodging is also available in C’dale.
Here is a tentative schedule of events:
Fryday June 26, 2015:
3-6 pm Check in at Giant City
8pm-? Informal gathering at Pinch Penny Pub; check-in there also.
Saturday June 27, 2015
7am Breakfast at Mary Lou’s (Free Biscuits & gravy for reunioners)
8am Smokie Linx Golf Teeoff
8:30am-11am Open House at WIDB (Student Center)
11:30am-3pm Picnic at Giant City w/kegs-o-beer, grilled and cold food, softball, etc.
3pm-5pm Halftime (breathe!)
5pm-6pm Cocktail hour: open bar at Giant City Lodge lounge
6pm Banquet Dinner at Giant City
7:30pm Brief award presentation
8:15 pm-2am Pool party Giant City Pool w/more kegs-o-beer, food, music, etc.
Sunday June 28, 2015
9am Breakfast at Giant City
10:20am Last call for breakfast
Noon Check out
12:30pm Optional trip to Cape Girardeau for Cajun seafood
2pm-? Optional party at Misunderstudio, Murphysboro.
Click Here to register to receive updates and reunion info.
Keep checking this site for Reunion Sign-Up announcements.
This will include Giant City cabin reservation info for Reunion weekend.
by Chris Wissmann
Our man in C’dale
Harder economic times than usual have struck Carbondale, and legendary institutions on the Strip like Gatsby’s (where the great Minnesota Fats used to stop in and hustle college students at pool) were forced to close.
The sun goes down on the building that once housed
the now-defunct Gatsby’s nightclub.
We certainly hope you’re already getting excited about 2015 and WIDB reunion XLV.
Is there a better time and place than the reunion to reconnect with the people and places around which we have found such a special bond through WIDB?
Reunion highlights always include the gorgeous setting of Giant City State Park and a return trip to the studios of the radio station we all called our second home (or even our primary residence) when pretending to study at SIU, plus the moderately dignified banquet and the bacchanal tides washing through the pool party (remember: Don’t fez the pool— it will turn black)… and, of course, the climactic call-in show.
As for Carbondale, ground zero for so many of your formative adult experiences (or, in my case, the entrenchment of perpetual late-period adolescence), well, the times they are a-changin’. I live here, so sometimes my perspective gets a little cramped, and Forest for the Trees Syndrome kicks in. But I don’t know how to avoid invoking the ancient Chinese curse when I write that interesting times abound in Carbondale.
During the last few weeks, in a surprise move, Mayor Joel Fritzler, also an SIU employee, resigned to take a job at a university in Arizona. City councilman Don Monty will succeed him. Corene McDaniel, who stepped down from the council in May 2013 after serving twelve years on the council, will fill out Monty’s council term.
Let’s not candycoat things where SIU is concerned. The city has a lot of challenges ahead because enrollment at SIU has fallen like a stone through the Kingdom of Hades and is hurtling toward the pits of Tartarus. We have not had so few students at SIU since 1965— well before Lyndon Johnson began to escalate the Vietnam War. Previous SIU administrations, perhaps seeking a smaller and more controllable student population in their efforts to quash the university’s party-school image, intentionally caused the initial enrollment declines. Unfortunately, they’ve sent enrollment into a death spiral, and the most recent administration has found no successful way to change course.
After Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn exercised his legendary capacity for incompetence, he managed to replace SIU president Glenn Poshard’s staunchest allies on the university’s Board of Trustees (a long and fascinating story for another day). Poshard appeared to see the writing on the wall and tendered his resignation, effective this summer. In mid-February, the Trustees appointed former SIU professor Randy Dunn to succeed Poshard. Expect many other personnel changes in the upper administration by the time of the reunion.
The truth is, the whole enrollment situation is damned baffling, because SIU remains a terrific university in many respects, and it’s still set in the state’s most gorgeous region. The university as a whole may appear to have drifted from its roots as a blue-collar school that stressed hands-on learning into an institution devoted more to research, but that’s neither wholly true, nor, to the extent it is, has it necessarily fallen into conflict with SIU’s historic emphasis.
In the Radio/Television Department, for example (now Radio, Television, and Digital Media, by the way), SIU students provide regular sports updates on WSIU-FM and they run theSunrise Sports radio-magazine program. They produce and work on alt.news, a WSIU-TV program that regularly wins regional Emmys against competition from commercial broadcasters in Saint Louis and Chicago. They also do most of the work on Studio A, an excellent WSIU-TV program that features local and regional musicians in live studio performances. (Yes, Carbondalestill boasts the best and, per capita, largest music scene in the nation!)
By the way, a WIDB alum, Jeff Williams, manages WSIU-FM, and the entire WSIU operation is overseen by another ‘IDB alum, general manager Greg Petrowich.
And, of course, WIDB keeps on keepin’ on. The station, as always, faces challenges with funding. Last year student government punished WIDB for years of fiscal responsibility. The station had slowly built up a reserve fund to pay for internet-streaming royalties and as an insurance policy against the kind of electric surge that nearly destroyed the station in the late 1990s. Student government saw those reserve funds and decided that WIDB didn’t need any appropriations for operations until it spent the savings.
In addition, fewer students in the SIU body mean fewer people paying fees that could go to WIDB or other organizations, so competition for a shrinking pool of funds grows ever more fierce. Furthermore, fewer students mean a smaller pool from which WIDB can draw its staff, creating serious membership challenges.
All that said, the quality of the WIDB experience remains undiminished. Students continue to staff and program the station with cutting-edge music and specialty shows, and the sports staff in particular has sparkled during recent years. The station remains independent of the Radio/Television Department and still gives students the opportunity to learn on their own, even through mistakes— though R/T professors have grown largely sympathetic to the spirit of the station and provide help whenever asked. Currently, at least one professor is pushing the staff to submit airchecks, produced spots, news- and sportscasts, and other WIDB work for regional and national competitions. He’s confident that WIDB staff will sweep these contests if only they’ll enter— and he’s certainly right.
Indeed, WIDB’s Marketing and Promotions Director, Sarah Maher, was recently named a finalist for the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System’s Student Station Management Award for Best Promotion Director. Congratulations to Sarah and the station!
L-R, Marketing/Promotions Director-Sarah Maher,
Metal Director-Malcolm Turner, General Manager-Mike Maxwell
So, as an aside, if I could make a pitch to those of you with children, I somewhat but not entirely selfishly ask that you consider letting them know about the advantages that can come from attending SIU. And maybe then you can find excuses for coming down to visit WIDB far more often than every five years!
But until next time, that’s where things stand down here, at least from my perspective. More to come as the reunion approaches.
By Randy Lynch
My first exposure to punk rock was in late 1976, when I saw The Ramones at the Red Lion in Champaign.
The Red Lion…Then
…And Now
A friend of mine was a roadie for the opening band, Games; so I was on the guest list. Otherwise The Ramones would never have been on my radar. I was into Bowie and Rundgren, Steely Dan and Rick Derringer. I liked prog rock. Musicians for whom the production side really mattered. But hey, I got in free, The Ramones did have a record out, which Games did not, so I stuck around for their first set.
The Ramones Debut
Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it, thought they sounded like Chuck Berry, only loud and fast.
So on one level, I got it; but I didn’t really get it. And I remained a bit clueless about what punk meant until I worked overnights at WIDB.
It was April or May of ’79 when I successfully auditioned for a slot on air at ‘IDB. It was a lot easier to get in if you were there in the summer. And as a beginner, you knew you were getting Midnight – 4am or 4am – 8am slots. And working one of those shifts in the summer meant you could usually count your audience on your fingers and toes.
Alright, on the fingers of one hand. Which is a perfect situation for beginning the craft of performing live radio. And is also very punk rock, as I came to understand.
In particular, and exclusively, the Midnight – 4am slot is the punk rock shift. Yeah, it’s tough to go in to do a shift at 4am. You learn that you have to sleep for at least a little while before you go in. You learn that coming in at 4am is about showing commitment and about taking the opportunity to get your practice in, and when your shift is in the last hour you have an audience. At the end, you leave in the bright sunshine. Maybe head to Mary Lou’s. But for Midnight – 4am, it’s different. Punk Rock.
Not that you play punk rock for 4 hours. I personally never felt comfortable playing punk after 2am. Just felt like my peers would be ready to wind down a bit at that point in the day, and chose to push my choices in other directions. But the start of a Midnight shift was often amped up, coming in from good times with friends who would be listening to the beginning of your show. Or just knowing that someone at the station would be listening…you knew that you were expected to entertain.
So you create the waves you crave to ride, knowing that by 4am you should probably be wound down. And you spit yourself back out onto the street at 4am, alone. And you imagine you are like one of The Ramones, rocking out full bore ‘til 1, then a rockin’ encore, then you somehow wind down. And when you hit the streets at 4am, you’re hungry. And you hit the 7-11 for a microwave burrito. And if you follow the directions on the package, you’re in for a punk rock slice of heaven. So sweet. So sad. But a little more sweet than sad. Because it’s 4am, and there is absolutely no one to share this with.
And you realize that you don’t need to share this, because you are doing it for yourself. Yeah, it’s for everybody. But if it’s not for you, it’s not for anyone.
So when I caught The Ramones backing Iggy Pop at the Aragon in ’88, I completely appreciated what they were accomplishing. And it brought me back to the sandwich tacked up on the wall, with a bite out of it. Authentic punk rock. I learned it firsthand at WIDB.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The “sandwich on the wall” represents an iconic moment of WIDB’s punk era and will be featured in an upcoming post. Until then it may remain mysterious to those who aren’t
“in the know.”
Ramones at The Red Lion……Isn’t the Internet great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ligJQEAegHI
