"We had a stationwide meeting in April in whichpeople expressed explicitly that we don't want anyformat change," Shen says. "When Jeremy announcedthe change, everybody had already left school; Idon't think anyone got any phone calls from Jeremyso nobody knew about it."
"We were really outraged because the decisionseemed like it was already made the whole time andit felt like we were really deceived," she says."They didn't inform us at all."
"By the time I heard about it, it was a donedeal," says former folk deejay Molly McCauley '95.
Several current and former WHRB deejays worrythe changes unnecessarily restrict listenership toupperclass, white Cambridge residents. "Whatbothered me was the decision to target the morewhite and upperclass audience," says Fox. "They'reeliminating portions of the prospective audience."
But as a commercial radio station withoutCollege funding or significant listenercontributions, WHRB's audience consists mainly ofCambridge residents, who are 75 percent white,rather than undergraduates.
Averbuck says the changes deprive studentdeejays of their musical interests. "The radiostation used to be great because everyone couldplay the music they were interested in and so wasable to attract a lot of different people," shesays.
Some say the programming overhaul has reducedthe racial diversity of WHRB. Many black deejayswho worked in the alternative rhythm and bluesdepartment have left the station, they say.
"When we talk about it, we say there's nominalequal opportunity, but no Black person is going tocome and want to comp classical," Shen says. "It'shypocritical when the radio administration tellsyou that everyone has the same opportunity toparticipate."
Averbuck agrees that because the alternativerhythm and blues department was home to most ofthe station's Black deejays, there is a decreasein the number of them remaining at WHRB after theprogramming change.
DeMay says he dislikes the programming cuts butinsists it was the best "corporate strategy" underthe circumstances. To the broad opposition in thestation, he says the station's top officers arejust doing their job.
Students who devised and implemented theoverhaul are the ones who have spent the most timeat the radio station and are best fit to make sucha decision, he says.
"As shown by the arguing going on now, it wasnot a stationwide decision," DeMay says. "But notall decisions can be stationwide decisions."
"If you want to make decisions, you can't justcome down and spin records for two hours," hesays. "You need to come down and know the radiostation, and people who did make the decision didspend a lot of time there and had the right tomake a decision like this."
Former Station Manager David F. Mazieres '94says the changes are necessary to preserve theexistence of the radio station.
"The last 10 or 20 years have seen a decline inreal revenue," says DeMay. "The trustees felt itwas time to set up a plan with which WHRB canreverse the downturn and start the upturn."
According to Mathew Rubin '62, chair of WHRB'sboard of trustees, a long-term plan was drafted byboth board members and undergraduates to improvethe station's continuity and financial viability.
"We were concerned that the station's revenueswere not sufficient for the expenses," Rubin says."We wanted to make sure things were being properlyhandled."
The station saw its $1.2 million fund drive andits future move to the basement of Pennypacker asa good opportunity to implement the programmingchanges, he says.
"Most students would like to see WHRB tocontinue to exist in the future and the only wayto do that is to seriously change our programs,"he says.