New Radio Show Seeking Writers

Wesleyan student Claire Maguire has started a new radio show about writing on 88.1 FM WESU and she is looking for unpublished writers of short fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry to come read one or several pieces on the air and talk about their creative process. Pieces sent in could also be read if the writer can't be there in person, though they are strongly encouraged to, as the interview would be informal and fun! The show is every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month at midnight starting February 19th, but the show can be prerecorded to accommodate guests. For more information or if you are interested in being a guest on the show please contact Claire via email: cmaguire@wesleyan.edu

Do you like listening? Prove it.

Do you like music? Do you like listening to NPR news? Do you like having one place to go to every weekday at 5pm to hear about things happening around town, more events than one could possibly attend? Do you like listening to the radio all day long and not hearing the same 8 songs played multiple times each? Do you like listening to the radio and not hearing advertisements, or DJs testimonials about products and services that are obviously veiled advertisements? Do you like the ability to get connected into the local community by listening to the radio? Do you like the idea of being able to tune the radio into shows that are created by your neighbors and have names like "600 Pounds of Sin", "Maelstrom of the Weird," "Life is a Killer with Johnny Analog," "Hour of the Slack from SubGenious Radio," and too many other catchy titles to list here?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider making a donation to 88.1 WESU FM in any amount that you feel this programming is worth to you.

Some additional information from WESU regarding just one of the recent accomplishments as well as how to give:

The Generation Public Radio Exchange (PRX) Bullying Stories Project panel has selected WESU’s Middletown Youth Radio Project’s pitch as one of its finalists in this national competition. The Middletown Youth Radio Project (MYRP) is a program on WESU in which youth from the Middletown community create audio projects including songs and stories and play them on the air. The committee was impressed by the creative approach to talking about bullying, and the balance of both a social structure perspective and personal stories. As thanks for the pitch, the youth radio group will receive: an audio storytelling kit that includes a digital recorder and audio editing software, training webinars on producing, refining, and distributing stories, story advising from a professional producer, and likely inclusion in a youth radio special to be broadcast nationwide via PRX.

Financial support during this pledge drive will help ensure that WESU continues to grow and operate as a creative vehicle for partnership between the Wesleyan University community, the people of the greater Connecticut River Valley, and beyond. Donations will directly benefit WESU and help to ensure local, community-based programs and alternative news and music continue to have a home on the radio dial.

To show your support for WESU, please donate now at www.wesufm.org, or call 860-685-7700 during the drive 12/05-12/12 and make a pledge. Online pledges are conveniently processed immediately, prevent clerical errors, and are more eco-friendly since there is no paper involved. For more information on how you can support WESU contact Ben Michael, General Manager – generalmanager@wesufm.org 860-658-7707.

88.1 FM WESU to Broadcast Al Jazeera English

WESU 88.1FM, is proud to announce they will begin broadcasting Al Jazeera English, on Monday February 14th as part of their Spring Program schedule. Al Jazeera English is a daily 60 minute award winning world headline radio news magazine recently made available to WESU through their affiliation with the Pacifica Radio Network. WESU will broadcast Al Jazeera English weekdays at 11 am right before Democracy Now.
WESU is committed to offering listeners an array of perspectives that are underrepresented or difficult to find elsewhere on the airwaves. WESU anticipates that carrying Al Jazeera English will spark some mixed responses from listeners and other media outlets and encourages anyone with serious concerns about the newscast to listen to it before passing final judgment.
Al Jazeera English has received numerous international awards for news coverage and WESU is pleased to include it as a complement to their diverse mix of public news and Public affairs programming from NPR, Pacifica, and other independent and local sources. Al Jazeera English nominations and awards include: The International Emmy Awards, the London-based Foreign Press Association, YouTube, The Association of International Broadcasters, Amnesty International, Britain's Royal Television Society, and the Monte Carlo Film Festival. For more information on Al Jazeera English visit http://english.aljazeera.net/
The mission of the Pacifica Radio Network, is to promote peace and justice through communication between all races, nationalities and cultures. Pacifica takes pride in bringing voices to the airwaves that normally may get shut out, and in providing news from under-reported areas. In this time of globalized change, it is particularly important to hear and understand divergent viewpoints from around the world. To learn more about Pacifica visit http://pacificanetwork.org.
WESU’s spring schedule also features many long standing music and public affairs programs in addition to a few new student and community volunteer programs. WESU's spring schedule can be found online at http://www.wesufm.org and a print program guide will be distributed at select locations around the area in the coming weeks.

ABOUT WESU 88.1FM
Established in 1939 as a community service of Wesleyan University, WESU is one of the oldest non-commercial radio stations in the United States. WESU currently broadcasts at the frequency of 88.1 FM from its 6,000-watt transmitter located atop the Wesleyan University science tower in Middletown, CT with a potential to reach over one million listeners throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts. WESU also streams audio, online through their website www.wesufm.org.
By day, Monday through Friday, WESU offers a diverse mix of news and public affairs from NPR, Pacifica, and independent and local media sources. Week nights and weekends WESU student and community volunteer broadcasters provide a freeform mix of creative music programming featuring everything from rock, and hip hop, to jazz, electronic dance music, soul, funk, and blues, alongside a wide variety of ethnic forms of music not readily available elsewhere on the radio.
WESU is funded by the Wesleyan Student Budget committee, Wesleyan University, and generous listener and community support.
To learn more about WESU, visit the station's website www.wesufm.org where you can, learn about the stations colorful history, listen to a live audio stream, find contact information, see DJ playlists, and check out the Spring 2011 program guide.

WESU Fundraiser Underway

Not every community is fortunate enough, these days, to have its own radio station.

Middletown can be grateful to have three. Two are commercial. WLIS/WMRD is a great local AM station which has hours of locally-programmed shows, combined with some syndicated shows (in a strange way, Joey Reynolds will always be a "local" show for me). And WIHS, broadcasting Christian programming.

The third, WESU, is an FM station licensed by Wesleyan University. For years, the license was held independently by the WESU board, comprised mostly of students, but including community members. Some of you may remember the controversey in 2003 when Doug Bennet, then Wesleyan University president, acquired the license for the university at a time of financial instability at the station.

WESU, which will celebrate it's 70th anniversary next year, is one of the oldest college radio stations in the country. Legend has it that early student broadcasters attached a homemade transmitter to the underground plumbing at the university in order to use the copper pipe as an antenna so the signal could be heard outside of the campus.

While the move did affect programming (NPR talks shows, emanating from WSHU, were the first to NPR daily talk shows broadcast in Central Connecticut and were augmented by other, progressive radio shows like Amy Goodman's Democracy Now), but the core of programming still comes from students and community members.

Over the next two weeks, WESU hopes to raise $35,000 in support of the station, towards an annual budget of $100,000. Program hosts will be asking listeners to support the eclectic, open, locally-programmed format of WESU.

If you're a regular listener, you'll understand what I say about the eclectic, alternative, always-interesting nature of the programming. Aside from the excellent public affairs and news shows, you're liable to hear your neighbors - I do a show every other Tuesday evening at 6:30, Councilman David Bauer is on the air every Monday at 4 in the afternoon, Jorge Arevalo Mateus takes the mic on Tuesdays, Stephan Allison hosts a show Thursday at 4. In terms of music, you're liable to hear just about anything, rockabilly, jazz, hip-hop, folk, funk, reggae, alternative rock and sub-genres like Asian folk-pop, hard techno, nerd-core, glitch-hop, punk, DIY, guaguanco and more.

You can support WESU by calling 685-7700 anytime during the fund drive over the next two weeks, or you can donate online. And if you donate the appropriate amount, you can be wearing one of those hip WESU t-shirts or sweat shirts you see around town.