Story Author: Kim Kintz
Publish Date: June, 2005
Source Publication: IUN Northwest News

Not only will faculty, staff and students be able to tune into the university’s first web-streaming radio station, WIUN, this fall, but their ideas and suggestions will help create the station’s format.

Managed by the Department of Communication within the College of Arts and Sciences and operated by students, WIUN is an exciting new adventure for the whole campus, according to founder of the project Taylor Lake, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor of communication. Lake said the mission of the station is to “First, provide an educational experience in audio production, web-streaming and the day-to-day operations of audio production and web streaming for students in the Department of Communication at the university. Second, to serve in the public interest as a public trustee specifically in the interest of the campus and community surrounding IU Northwest.”

The radio station will broadcast from newly renovated rooms in Tamarack Hall. Equipment installation began in May. While many of the involved students will be members of the fall course, TEL R 308, a core group of interested and dedicated students will run the operations. Applications for these positions are posted on the wall outside Lake’s office in Tamarack Hall, room 63. Listeners will play the radio station through the Internet. To tune in, they will follow a link from the university home page.

What the university and community listens to will be decided by a campus wide survey to be distributed in August. This survey will encourage faculty, staff and students to express their interests in specific types of programming. Programming formats could include music, talk, and/or educational programming. Within these general formats faculty could discuss their latest projects, students could create either their own talk show or music hour, it could be a showcase for campus and local talent, and it could also be another vehicle to inform the campus about activities and important information relating to enrollment service areas like registration, bursar and financial aid. “Basically, the format will consist of whatever the campus and community request. We want to hear from everyone and get as many people as we can involved,” Lake said.