City Elon, North Carolina Slogan The Only Alternative First air date 1977 | Broadcast area Burlington, NC Frequency 89.3 MHz Format Alternative | |
WSOE is a non-commercial student-run college radio station based at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina that broadcasts at 89.3fm. The station serves as a creative outlet for students and as a means for students to develop skills for professional broadcast careers. WSOE offers a variety of opportunities in news shows, sports broadcasting, artist interviews, and music technology. Limelight Records, Elon’s student-run record label, has worked with WSOE to promote its artists through live sets and interviews on air. The station aims to promote local artists through ticket giveaways, band interviews, and playing these musicians’ music over the air.
Contents
History
The initial organizational effort to launch a brand-new campus radio station occurred in 1971 guided by student Phil Hawkins. Trepidations expressed by then President of Elon, Dr. J. Earl Danieley, fearing "what the students will say" resulted in the proposal being shelved. It was not until J. Fred Young became president in 1973 that serious fund-raising was started and FCC applications were submitted. WSOE first received their charter from the Federal Communications Commission in 1977. The call letters “WSOE” were originally held by the Wisconsin School of Engineering, but were acquired by the new Elon radio station when their charter was granted. The callsign is now used as an abbreviation for “the Wonderful Sounds of Elon”. Since then, the station has broadcast to the Elon/Burlington area under the management of students and a faculty mentor. In 2000, WSOE became a member of College Broadcasters, Inc., being one of the first stations to do so. During the spring of 2009, the station started its webcast, expanding its range to anyone with an internet connection. As of 2012, the webcast has been available on TuneIn through both their website and mobile apps. WSOE has reported charts to CMJ on and off over the course of its history and has been consistently reporting since early 2013. The original WSOE studio, newsroom, office, and production room was located across from Harden Dining Hall. The entire station was moved (with the exception of the transmitter and radio tower) over the winter of 1994 into the then newly opened Moseley Center. WSOE will be moved to into the McEwen School of Communications after the construction of its addition, which is planned to be underway in early 2016. The station's transmitter was originally located on the south side of Harden Dining Hall, but after the building's demolition in May 2012, a temporary radio tower was placed on the Moseley Center. The studios are now located in the second floor of the same building. The station has plans to build a new tower in a joint venture with an outside party such as a cellular carrier. The construction of a new tower will allow the station to give a clearer signal to its listeners in the area, but its range will not be significantly increased due to the potential that its signal will interfere with that of Chapel Hill’s WXYC, which also broadcasts at 89.3fm.
Format
WSOE's format is alternative rock, however the station's charter requires jazz played every weekday morning from 6 am to 10 am, and until 12 pm on Fridays. WSOE has an automated broadcast system using RCS software that broadcasts music 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, all year long. This allows for WSOE to broadcast all the time. The RCS system plays the current music in rotation, as well as jazz during the applicable time. The automation system is always running, but through Zetta, DJs can edit the selections of RCS automation and add their own music while hosting their shows.
Sports coverage
WSOE Sports provides exclusive coverage of Elon University volleyball, men's and women's soccer, women's basketball, and baseball at home games. All sports broadcasts include pre- and post-game interviews and coverage. In addition, WSOE also hosts a pre-game football show called Phoenix Football Tailgate. There are also weekly sports talk shows entitled One on One Sports Radio, (also a show on Elon Student Television) Excuse My Sport, 14th Inning Stretch, Phoenix Talk, and Game Time Decision.>
News
Elon Local News (ELN) has a weekly news radio show on WSOE called "ELN on WSOE" which has been run by four executive producers in years past: Ryan Green, Brian Mezerski, Mack White and Ilana Spiegel. It is currently run by Sarah Collins. Ryan Green was the assignment manager for the ELN on WSOE. Brian Mezerski was the anchor and a reporter for Elon Local News. He worked in both the visual news as well as the WSOE radio news for Elon. Sarah Collins is WSOE’s news director and directs the ELN's radio show every week. The staff of WSOE feels it is vital to bring relevant local news to the Elon student body. Recently however, ELN has made some changes to their staff. t. Carly Hildyard is the executive producer for the broadcasts, overseeing them and ensuring that the staff are on time and running smoothly. As news director, Collins operates the board in the studio. WSOE feels that it is vital to the success of their community for the students to hear the news from the students.
The Pendulum (newspaper) is a major source of news on Elon's campus that also participates with WSOE. The Pendulum is the Elon University student-run newspaper that has often carried news about WSOE, interviews with its staff, and album reviews written by DJs or WSOE executives.
The Pendulum uses WSOE as a way to supplement their presentation of news in print with a radio news broadcast. The radio show, titled "The Pendulum Pivot", presents relevant news to its listeners and also focuses upon bringing awareness about the local artists played on WSOE.
Management
WSOE is run by a board of several executive staff members, a student general manager, and one faculty advisor, not including the approximately 100 DJs who host one- or two-hour shows. All aspects of the station are run by the student executive staff, including bills, music, and most production. The number of executive staff members and the position they occupy have varied over time, but the station has always had a general manager, music director, and program director. WSOE is overseen by the Elon University Media Board, which oversees all student media at Elon including The Pendulum (newspaper), the television station ESTV, the yearbook Phi Psi Cli, the literary magazine Colonnades, and Limelight Records; many of which work closely with WSOE.