In April, students and employees of WPRK painted a negative picture on Facebook of the changes coming to WPRK due to the hiring of General Manager Ron Shearer. Then they painted a negative picture in an email blast to the entire faculty of Rollins College. Ron Shearer answered our questions, which gave a different version of the goings down. We wanted to check back in and see how things had changed since April. We wrote Ron Shearer directly and asked. He was busy, so the Director of Public Affairs answered for him. Below is her response, in full.
As you can hear from listening to the radio station, not many on-air changes have taken place. We have added traffic reports during morning and afternoon drive time, which we believe are a help to our listeners and contribute to our public service obligations. We are broadcasting more announcements about the College, so listeners know about the wonderful activities that are happening on our campus and when the community can participate. Examples are when the Winter Park Institute brings nationally-known speakers to campus, and when the Cornell Fine Arts Museum is having a new exhibition. We are also airing more public service announcements about the local community, such as when the Winter Park Community Center pool is open, and when citizens can informally chat with members of the Winter Park City Council.
Internally, we are putting the final touches on a new studio at WPRK. The new studio has all of the same equipment as the older studio, but more microphones. The new studio was added to make it easier for the hosts to conduct interviews, air live bands, act as a production studio, and add a layer of redundancy in case the old studio has to go off-air for repair or installation of an equipment upgrade. We are also working on installation of new remote control equipment, which will allow the station to stay on the air in case of emergencies.
Finally, we are writing a new operations manual and working on methods to do a better job of training new DJs. We are also brainstorming some ideas for fundraisers we can hold during the year that will be fun for the students and area listeners, which will help WPRK buy some more needed equipment, such as a new transmitter.