Friday, April 29, 2011
Hot Goss ORBIS to WRVU: Get Your Shit Together
Posted by Steve Haruch on Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 11:37 AM
I do not support the possible sale of WRVU’s broadcast license. I believe that if Vanderbilt Student Communications lets our student radio station go, they will have abandoned an invaluable media asset with deep historical and contemporary value.But there is no getting around the fact that WRVU’s executive staff have handled the proposed sale poorly. When the sale was announced in September, I assumed they would use the opportunity to ally with other organizations and to network with students and alumni in an effort to launch a concerted anti-sale effort. It breaks my heart to say it because there are a lot of great people involved with WRVU, but that’s not how it has played out.
He's just getting started. Further on he says, "Vanderbilt Student Communications hasn’t acknowledged it, but there is no question in my mind that the profound incompetence of the station’s leadership played a role in the decision to nix the broadcast license." Ouch.
One thing I would add is that the station staff has "used the opportunity to ally with other organizations." For instance, in his (brief) summary of the good things the station has going for it, Christian points to a "Facebook page with more than 6000 members." That page is administered by WRVU Friends and Family — the most visible front of resistance to the sale, headquartered online at SaveWRVU.com — not the WRVU executive staff. (If you check the contacts for the Save WRVU.com page, neither of them is a Vanderbilt University address.) To me, that qualifies as an alliance.
That said, I'll take Christian at his word — since the ORBIS office is down the hall from WRVU's, and mine isn't — that his (and his colleagues') interactions with the station staff have been frustrating at best, shitty at worst, and that they have missed out on opportunities to work with other organizations on campus or elsewhere. But I also think his criticism is short on constructive advice. Other than being more communicative with the ORBIS, what should the WRVU executive staff be doing? How could they better mobilize their supporters? That's a column I'd read, especially because there's so much riding on this.
[ORBIS]
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