Stickers of hardcore metal band Lamb of God share space on file cabinets with decals of old-school rapper KRS-ONE. Barry White’s baritone vocals reverberate from speakers, followed by the candy-pop cadence of Britney Spears. Room 207D in the University Center is the headquarters of FAU’s OWL Radio station, and the musical diversity exists for a reason.
Our programming is very eclectic,” explains Jerry Lissade, station manager. “We want to reflect the FAU community and cater to all kinds of tastes. Our main goal is to offer any student who wants to know about radio stations a chance to get on the air, and give them the freedom to choose their own programming within reason.”
There is, however, a significant snag in getting students on the air at OWL Radio-the station no longer broadcasts on an FM signal.
About two years ago, OWL Radio’s transmissions on 91.7 FM were shut down, and it hasn’t gotten back on the air yet. “There was confusion among the staff at the time,” explains Lissade. “They thought they didn’t need an FCC license to broadcast on FM radio as long as the broadcast didn’t go beyond school property. But the signal began interfering with the station that had the license to broadcast on 91.7 FM, and they complained to the FCC. So we had to go off the air.”
Now anyone who wants to listen to OWL Radio has two choices: either hang around the FAU Breezeway where speakers lined along the columns play OWL Radio’s programs, or tune into the live webcast at http://wowl.fau.edu.
“We get about 1,000 hits a day at the Web site, but at any given time there’s usually 50 people listening to the webcasts,” Lissade says. “There could be more than that but, because of bandwidth limitations, we can’t exceed more than 50 or so people at a time. The entire FAU Web site could slow down if we did.”
Considering the clear limitations of both the speakers and the webcast, Lissade isn’t satisfied with those options.
“Our main goal right now is to get the station back on the air,” Lissade says. “We’re considering three options. Option one is simply more speakers around the campus, like in parking lots. Even if we broadcast across the entire state, if the students aren’t listening, we’ve failed.
“Option two is AM radio. The laws are different with AM, and you don’t need a commercial license to broadcast. The third option is Low Power FM (LPFM) radio. Similar to AM, with LPFM the FCC doesn’t require that a station have a commercial license.”
Hassan Wedderburn, program director at OWL Radio, believes the lack of a radio transmission is a big limitation.
“One of our goals at OWL Radio is to provide the students of FAU with a real and accurate experience in working at a radio station. That means getting the actual equipment most stations use, setting up the same kind of structures and rules, and getting the station back on the air. Being off the air definitely limits us,” he says.
Lissade is currently working with W. Douglas Trabert, director of the University’s Learning Resources Center, to see what other options there are to acquire an FCC license.
“The Learning Resources Center is responsible for all FCC matters concerning the University, so any license would go through this office,” explains Trabert. “Right now we’re only talking with consultants, asking questions to find out where we stand.
“I’ve only just become involved in the process with OWL Radio,” Trabert says. “So I’ve just been trying to piece together all the history of what’s taken place so far. Other than that, we’re just waiting to hear back from our consultants. I wouldn’t begin to put a timeline on when we could get the station back on the air.”
Lissade, though, has no problem with establishing a timeline. “We’re hoping to be back on the air in some form by the end of the academic year, summer of 2005,” says Lissade.
There are other difficulties in getting OWL Radio back on the air besides acquiring an FCC license.
“Our budget right now is about $85,000 a year, but OWL Radio needs more funding,” Lissade says. “We’re very appreciative of what the Student Government affords us. But the money we get from Student Government is maintenance money. If the station were to only stay where it is right now, it’s enough. But we would like to have an operational budget of $100,000.”
To gain the extra cash, OWL Radio now has to conduct fund-raising programs on its own. One such program was a concert by Pitbull in mid-November in the University Center Auditorium. Pitbull is a South Florida rapper on the TVT Recording Artist label. The concert also featured the winner of FAU Idol.
“FAU Idol is a joint venture between OWL Radio, OWL TV and Student Government,” says Wedderburn. “It’s a contest to let talented singers at FAU compete to win a record contract with OWL Radio’s Hoot Records label, and a concert spot.”
All the issues and complications that OWL Radio faces haven’t stopped its staffers from accomplkishing many of their goals.
“We’ve had DJs who started at OWL Radio go on to great success,” says Wedderburn. “DJ Abyss, who used to work here, is now a well-known underground hip-hop artist. Another DJ of ours, DJ Jazz, recently got a job at Power 96. But he still works here, too, which is really cool of him.”
“We try to be like a hub,” explains Lissade. “We’re the link between students that come out of high school interested in radio and actual commercial radio stations that offer the jobs those students are interested in.
“One way we’re trying to accomplish that is with a program that offers high school students internships at OWL Radio,” says Lissade, “so we can then get our FAU volunteers internships at pay commercial stations.”
Lissade, who was a DJ at OWL Radio for over three years before becoming the station manager, says he took his new position simply as a way to invest in his degree.
“I’m building value in it,” says Lissade. “My getting involved in the radio station is a way for me to see what I can do to raise the University’s reputation. I don’t want to be whispering about the fact that I graduated from FAU.”
While Lissade works on relationships with commercial stations and efforts to get the station back on the air, it’s Wedderburn who is in charge of OWL Radio’s DJs, so anyone interested in joining the OWL Radio crew talks with him.
“The way we like to put it is that I’m the daddy and Hassan is the mommy,” says Lissade. “I go out there and make the deals and make things happen for the station, and Hassan is in charge of the DJs, making sure their programs don’t get too far out there.”
Adds Wedderburn, “I enforce our policies, make sure the DJs are doing what they should be, and train new DJs. With new DJs, I go over the contract they have to sign, start training them, and assign them a currently-working DJ to help them through the training process. At the end, if you pass a test, you’re a DJ.
“If you’re interested in working with OWL Radio, drop me a line at (561) 436-1774, and we’ll get you on the air.”
