Staff EditorialWLFM
Lawrence has a gem on campus that is frequently overlooked by many of the student body. Around forty Lawrentians work at WLFM.net provides the campus with around twenty shows on a weekly average. These shows run from Hip Hop during the Chill with Rich Jones at 10-12 pm on Wednesday nights to two hours of vinyl and new music with Chris Wright starting at 7 pm on Thursday. Lawrence Late on Tuesdays from 10-12 hosted by Drew Baumgartner with Dieter Hungerayer, Zach Olson and Matt Mohns features an impressive display of Lawrence news, sketches and music.
In the coming week, WLFM will be broadcast in the grill due to student efforts led by Chris Wright. This move is positive not only for students who work at WLFM, who now have a great opportunity to share their favorite music with a bigger audience, but also for frequent Grill users. WLFM requires its DJs to have their shows consist of 50% of new music; this will result in a greater chance to hear new music they may not be exposed to. We at the Lawrentian believe that this is exchange of culture is a great addition to the liberal arts environment.
After the university sold the rights to the traditional radio broadcast in the summer of 2005, the station has not been listened to or talked about properly on or off campus except during trivia weekend. While we trust that administration made the educated decision, the move has diminished Lawrence’s involvement with the greater Fox Cities community. In Milwaukee, for example, the Milwaukee School of Engineering has an almost equal involvement in Milwaukee affairs as the much larger schools, UWM and Marquette, due to its radio station 90.7 WMSE.
A move that we would like to see which would further expand the connection of the Lawrence community is the broadcasting of Lawrence Conservatory concerts. This would allow both alumni, parents and prospective students to catch up with and listen in to Lawrence ensembles. WLFM already broadcasts select basketball and football games, and we would like to see more of those. We feel that helping alumni and Lawrence community members to keep in contact with cherished, ongoing parts of the university–conservatory ensembles and athletic teams–is a logical step for both WLFM and the university.