According to Casimir, a stranger oncethreatened a deejay of the department with abaseball bat.

"Trustees thought [rap] was more dangerous thanbeneficial," he says.

President Douglas M. DeMay '94, however, saysthe folk and AR&B departments were cut because oftheir relative weakness compared to otherdepartments.

"If two departments were going to be cut, thenit makes sense that they be the two weakestdepartments in the last 20 years," he says.

Rassen explains the programming changes in thecontext of radio competition in the Boston area.

According to Rassen, the plan stresses the jazzand classical departments because there is a lackof jazz or serious classical radio station in theBoston area to satisfy prospective audience.

"It was a matter of competition and where westood to gain the market share and it was decidedthat jazz and classical were pretty open to us,"he says. "We took a look at our programming,viability and artistic integrety and came up withwhat we thought was a good plan."

Regardless of the merits of the plan, staffmembers say, it was put into effect withoutsufficient notification of the general staff.Moreover, the overhaul was designed by only a fewelite members of the organization in anundemocratic fashion, they say.

Daniel J. Fox '96, a former AR&B deejay who isstill active at WHRB, describes the officialimplementation of the change as a "cowardlyjesture."

"I would prefer to have the entire staff voteon it," he says. "It should've happened two monthsearlier when everyone was around."

Nauen also criticizes Rassen for unexpectectlyputting the changes into effect without consultingthe staff.

"The changes were implemented as soon aseveryone left for the summer," he says. "Thestation manager out of the blue decreedindependently to end the folk and AR&B departmentson June 12."

Nauen says that at the end of the last year, ageneral consensus was reached to continuediscussion of the format changes this fall.

"In the spring semester a lot of peopleprotested so a compromise was reached that nothingwould be done at the time," he says.

I.-C. Judy Shen '93-'94, a former deejay in theAR&B department, agrees the changes have beenimplemented against a general opposition.