Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

A new home, but a few bugs

The move to the radio station's new state-of-the-art studio has been hard on the staff and volunteers.

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
Published April 28, 2005

[Times photo: Ken Helle]

Rob Lorei prepares for his talk show, Radio Activity, on Tuesday with his special guest, Betty Castor, at WMNF-FM 88.5. Since moving into a new $2.2-million building in Tampa, the radio station's volunteers have had a terrible time learning to work the new equipment.

	[Times photo (1980)]
	Back when WMNF's studio was in an old Hyde Park mansion, Lia Lent, left, Janine Farver and Rob Lorei kept albums in the tub. The station's new home is a $2.2-million building on E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
	[Times photo: Ken Helle]
	Independent community radio station WMNF-FM 88.5, which started out in a modest Hyde Park home where they kept the albums in the bathtub, moved in February to new studios in a new $2.2-million building at 1210 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. E. in Tampa.

TAMPA - You can say it was like plopping Laura Ingalls onto the set of the Jetsons.

Or driving a Volkswagen Beetle your whole life, then being told to operate a rocket ship.

For many WMNF-FM 88.5 staffers and volunteers, the move from an old building with a leaky roof into a $2.2-million state-of-the-art facility with intimidating sound boards has been frustrating.

That's because the equipment is more complex, buttons are no longer where they used to be and a sophisticated telephone network has decided on occasion to shut down.

It's translated to dead air, screeching feedback and desperate hosts.

"There are some volunteers that miss the simplicity of the old building," said Rob Lorei, the station's news and public affairs director. "Everyone was very comfortable in that old building. They could probably do their radio shows in their sleep. Over here, because it's more complex, you have to be awake."

Don't get the staff wrong. They love the new building, which listeners funded entirely through donations.

The bathroom sinks turn on automatically. There's a break room. And sliding shelves can hold 90,000 CDs.

The old building, a bungalow on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was cramped and outdated.

But the move, which occurred in January, has been accompanied by frustration and embarrassment.

Mitch Perry, the assistant news director, recalled one broadcast where a CD player stopped operating.

Nothing but dead air. And one minute of dead air feels like 20.

"It's incredibly painful," Perry said. "I'm sitting there with my head in my hands. I just felt incredibly defeated."

It turns out, the new CD players couldn't play burned CDs. Perry ended up using a basic Discman.

In radio, you're not supposed to apologize for technical screw-ups, Perry said.

But after two days, he was really sorry.

"We apologized, perhaps too much," he said. "The station never sounded poorer than in those first couple of weeks."

Most of the problems occurred in March, Lorei said.

One of the biggest goofs has been failure of telephone lines. Three different companies provide various telephone services, and for some reason, they didn't jibe.

Callers couldn't get through, leaving show hosts fumbling to fill the air.

And at one critical point, during a fundraising drive in March, lines went dead for five hours.

It was a Saturday morning, typically among the busiest of 17 fundraising days.

Volunteers began accepting donations over their personal cellular telephones.

"There are volunteers who have sent e-mails, saying the old place was so much easier to operate," Lorei said. "It's been an adjustment."

Perry said managers are doing all they can to work out the wrinkles: "It's gotten better, thank God."

Jeannie Holton, who hosts a Saturday morning folk show and has been volunteering with WMNF since the beginning, said it might take years to master the equipment.

"But like with any new technology, there's a learning curve," she said. "We're all in awe."

How does WMNF's listernership compare to other radio stations? Here are Arbitron's ratings, which reflect the estimated number of people who listened to the station at least once a week, during the fall.

WMNF 88.5 (community radio): 115,700

WQYK 99.5 (country): 292,000

WFLZ 93.3 (pop): 413,900

Source: Arbitron and WMNF

[Last modified April 28, 2005, 01:17:11]