By Grace Prust and Collin Bouressa
Radio plays a key role in our daily lives, from those long morning commutes, to help get through a tough time or to those who just need some general background noise. Our music choices influence us, and so does the beauty of college radio. College radio shapes its students and provides a foot in the door for a possible career down the line. At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB), radio left campus in 1989 and seemingly dissipated over time. But why?
When a station was proposed on November 10, 1970, some students realized that there was a lack of radio within the communication program. Paul M., a then UWGB student, gathered up a handful of students who shared the same vision as him. They garnered the support of then assistant professor Dean O’Brien to back them up and their proposal. After extensive work and the support of O’Brien, they were then able to pitch the idea to the higher-ups of the university.
In 1965, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) instituted a more specific policy than the policy they had before regarding which applicants should be awarded an FCC certification. The FCC outlined seven areas in which an applicant will be judged.
- Diversification of control of the media of mass communications.
- Full-time participation in station operation by owners.
- Proposed program service.
- Past broadcast record.
- Efficient use of frequency.
- Character.
- Other Factors.
The radio station at UWGB applied to receive an FCC certification on October 4, 1973. The FCC granted the station test authority, meaning they can begin using their equipment so the FCC can verify it works, but they are not allowed to transmit their audio to the public yet. Later, on October 7, 1974, the station was granted their FCC license, and they were assigned call letters W-G-B-W, with the frequency 91.5. The original license was only a two-year license. They received their first full license on December 1, 1976, and required renewal every five years afterward. WGBW retained its license as a station throughout its entire lifetime.
Construction of the UWGB radio station began on December 4, 1973, and finished on October 4, 1974. The cost of the equipment used in the new station totaled $26,900. The studio was in the Instructional Services building (room 1030) and transmitted from an antenna affixed to the David A. Cofrin library.
WGBW did not go without its bumps in its early years. According to UW-Green Bay archives on file, Starting on March 22, 1975, a non-student disk jockey (DJ) Tom H., went on air and shared political propaganda, as well as people’s credit card information during his talk sets of the radio show that he filled in on. Tom was called out of the station immediately and had an hour-and-a-half conversation with then-station manager Anabelle H. Tom continued to justify his actions as righting the situation of political and social injustices.
In 1980, there were four incidents listed, and three were documented. The first of which took place on April 25, 1980. According to UW-Green Bay archives on file, Tom B., a WGBW DJ, hosted a band named The Minors, who used profanity during their interviews. Tom also took calls during his air shift, his first time doing so. During the calls, it was said that callers were using obscene language.
The second recorded incident happened on August 13 of the same year. According to UW-Green Bay archives on file, Jonathan K., a student DJ, aired an offensive comedy skit, which community members took issue with. Jonathan said he was not being attentive to what he was airing. He turned the volume off and wrote a paper that was nearing its due date, so he didn’t realize the comedy show was offensive.
The third recorded incident in 1980, according to UW-Green Bay archives on file, was when student DJ Darren G. spun a track that contained offensive language over the air on Halloween.
On April 7, 1985, community members were extremely displeased about an unnamed DJ who was unprofessional when taking callers. According to UW-Green Bay archives on file, the DJ was playing rock music in the background that contained “profane four-letter words which were clearly heard.” Unfortunately, these incidents were just the tip of the iceberg with Radio WGBW’s troubles.
One of the attempted solutions to WGBW’s many problems was through the Advisory Task Force. Their goal was to “review the programming, operations, and functions of WGBW and to render advice regarding the station and its future direction within the University.”
The group met seven times between October of 1984 and February of 1985. Phil Clampitt was a member of the advisory board and is currently a UWGB professor and ex-chair of the Communication department. Clampitt spoke about the contents of the Advisory Task Force meetings, which were run by a board of UWGB professors. At the time, the university wanted to “exert some control over a radio station that [they] had no formal link to.”
That was a common theme in the Advisory Task Force meetings. WGBW was an independently run radio station that operated outside of the university and employed mostly UWGB students. The university wanted to have more control over the station because the DJs were associated directly with UWGB. Clampitt said the task force was “an administrative Band-Aid.” He referenced the fact that the board needed operational authority, or else there was no real control, and the station would continue as it was before the task force existed.
The task force was also never made aware that station manager Glen Slaats took the position “under the impression that [his] goal was to eventually build WGBW into a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate.” Slaats mentioned this in a memo that was sent to Lee O’Brien.
The beginning of WGBW’s partnership with Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) began on July 1, 1986, when WPR took over programming in the mornings during the week (5:30 am to 12:00 pm). This change had little effect on the station staff since those hours were already programmed by Slaats, not the students. WPR was also programmed during the weekend from 6:00 am to 12:00 pm. WPR also made some big changes at UWGB. They installed new building equipment in addition to building a completely new production studio in the summer of 1986. The old studio in the instructional services building would become a news production studio.
Eventually, in 1989, the station as a whole was sold to WPR; it was a slow changeover from WGBW to WPR. It took around a month after the sale for WGBW to completely change over to WHID. WGBW sold its call letters to Evangel Ministries Inc. in Appleton for $175,000. WPR purchased the station.
There were many reasons Glen Slaats believed the station needed to be sold to WPR, most of which had to do with money. Slaats talked about fighting for the survival of the station. He said, “Where are we going to get our money from?” He followed up by saying, “[We had to] defend ourselves from even existing.” He thought that UWGB should be doing more to help, but he said, “Nobody really wanted to claim the station.”
Most of WGBW’s money came from the Segregated University Fee Allocation Committee (SUFAC), which is the official organization in the Student Government Association that distributes university fee monies. It also reviews recommendations on increases, decreases, or the continuation of existing fees. Slaats thought they should be receiving more from UWGB themselves.
UWGB was quite sensitive to community outreach and criticism of the station. Slaats said, “Every so often, something would slip through the air.” Because WGBW employed people who were learning how to be on the radio, most of whom were UWGB students. Those DJs were allowed to pick out their own music and play it.
A prevalent example of community outreach affecting the station was on June 23, 1985. According to UW-Green Bay archives on file, Wayne L., a former UWGB student and DJ at WGBW at the time, was on a late shift at the station, and he spun an explicit track from the punk-rock band Dead Kennedys called Police Truck. Community members listening in called the station to flag concern about some of the explicit language in part of the lyrics. Wayne was soon dismissed from his position at WGBW shortly after. He genuinely felt bad for what happened and took accountability for his actions. Before his dismissal, he wrote a letter apologizing for the incident and stepped down from his role of his own accord before he was told he had to. Following the “Dead Kennedys incident,” the general manager at the time, Glen Slaats, recalls that he and Wayne went into the studio the following day to try and “Find the records he was playing and pulling them, trying to find the objectionable material.”
Other preventative measures were taken to prevent another incident like this from occurring in the future. From that point on, all students were required to sign a contract before they were allowed to go on air, and WGBW’s studio hours were cut back. Some community members were not happy with the reduction in hours. Community member Gary Brecht and former UWGB student Larry Wurdinger expressed their thoughts on the matter by writing letters to Glen.
Four years later, another major incident occurred, dubbed “The Smith Affair,” that was ultimately the final straw. According to UW-Green Bay archives on file, on June 25, 1989, UWGB student Tom S. was in the WGBW studio with a handful of others, and they were discussing things of an obscene nature as well as drinking in the studio. Glen recalls that some of the profane things said were “threatening the Chancellor’s wife and doing all sorts of other things.” Concerned community members called the University Police, and officers were sent to the studio.
Glen remembers, “Call[ing] the radio station and told the guys, shut it down. Get out of there! I don’t care if you leave everything on overnight. It’s being closed down. Security is gonna come in and show you out of the building”. Tom, of course, was not thrilled they were going to be shown the door, so before campus police whisked them away, “The last thing they did was grab the microphone and say ‘well, the fascists are here and this really f – – – – – – sucks,” according to Glen, quoted by the Forth Estate (Vol. 21. No 1 issue of The Forth Estate, Sept. 7 1989). Slaats said, “Because of his decisions and what he chose to do that night, [the station was] pretty much ruined. It only takes one person to ruin something before the opportunity gets ripped away.”
Students and staff shared a sentiment that they were not hearing the whole story of the transfer to WPR. Slaats maintained that he would have let people know what was going on had they asked. He said, “The students were not told directly about the transfer, but if they had asked me why I was always going to Madison, I would have told them I was negotiating with WPR.” Clampitt chimed in on the 1989 sale of WGBW to WPR, “the feeling was that the rug was being pulled out from underneath us, and we have no influence at all, zero.”
Fast forward to 2021, UWGB welcomes back radio to its campus. Bringing it back was no easy feat. Between each step of planning and bringing a new studio to light, it took a year to complete each part. Each intricate step took a significant amount of time, and a global pandemic didn’t halt the process. UWGB Communication Professor Bryan Carr said that bringing radio back was a joint effort.
“Radio GBX was a joint effort between myself, the office of the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, department chairs Phil Clampitt and Katie Turkiewicz, Mike Schmitt, the planning and design team that designed and built the space, and so many others, but the most important has been the students that have lent their time, talent, and energy to making Radio GBX what it is.”
The new station, dubbed Radio GBX, officially went live in the Fall of 2021 but was heavily music-driven. The new studio space was still being built at this time and would be ready for student use the following fall. In the spring of 2022, students produced material to be played on the station and gave feedback to Professor Carr about music and programming. Slowly but surely, every piece fell into place. Radio GBX welcomed its first cohort of student DJs to be on-air during the spring 2023 semester.
Since the first cohort of students, there has been an increasing number of students involved with the station. Part of that number is the students taking the course requirement of Communication 306, Radio Broadcasting. Students in this course are required to hold a 2 hour airshift each week. Outside of Communication Majors and Minors, there has been a rising number of students getting involved with Radio GBX.
Radio GBX has also been seeking ways to increase student involvement and bring more awareness of the station throughout the UWGB campus and the surrounding community. One of those ways is getting the station to be played around campus, specifically the University Union. Starting the fall 2023 semester, Radio GBX is played every Monday throughout the University Union. The Radio GBX e-board has also been working on community appearances. Radio GBX made its first public appearance at the Brown County Pop-Con in October of this year.
With the garnering of support from all UWGB Communication Professors and the campus community, Radio GBX has and is projected to continually keep growing. Carr says that the reach that Radio GBX has is growing far and wide. There is a significant number of listeners in the United States, and there’s been a growing reach outside of the U.S. Carr says that there’s been listenership in “The United Kingdom, Spain, the Philippines, and more.” In 2023, between February and December, Radio GBX had over 2700 total hours of people listening in.
As with any radio station, problems can arise. “It is part of the nature of the medium. We are fortunate that our issues are very minor and addressed quickly,” Carr says, “But we quickly and thoughtfully address concerns when they are shared with us. Beyond this, there are certain things that we would like to do but do not currently have the necessary equipment to provide – but that will also hopefully change soon.”
As for the future of the station, the Fourth Estate spoke with current faculty advisor Bryan Carr. He said, “Ideally, Radio GBX will continue to grow and thrive.” He continued, “We are working to expand news and live sports coverage.” Carr wants to expand what Radio GBX can be, rather than just an on-campus student-run station. He said, “We also want to expand our capability to do live remote broadcasts and broaden our footprint on campus in terms of where the station is played as well as the students who are participating.” The station also wants to reach out to the community and to students as a whole. Carr added, “We want the UWGB community to know we are here and available for them to contribute to supporting campus media.”
When asked about what advice he has for future students who want to be part of Radio GBX, Carr said to get involved early and don’t hesitate to reach out to get trained. He also highly noted, “Develop your skills – hold yourself to the highest standard and work on continuous improvement. Think about what you want to create and contribute to while you are here. Become a knowledgeable student of the world, and listen to other radio hosts and podcasters.”
When asked for any final thoughts, he said, “In an era of extremely homogenized corporate media, college radio is one of the last holdouts of true community-minded spirit and supported creativity. Through Radio GBX, we have an outlet for our students to have a voice, be themselves, and create shows and experiences that are meaningful not only to them but also to their colleagues. The community will also benefit from our original programming, support of local events, and independent coverage.”
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You can listen to Radio GBX here: https://www.uwgb.edu/gbx
Note: A huge thank you to UWGB Archives and Area Research Center, Glen Slaats, Professor Phil Clampitt, and Professor Bryan Carr. Without your help, we could not have done this.
