If there’s one thing that college students love, it’s hearing their friends on the radio, and soon Juniata’s WKVR (92.3 FM) will begin fulfilling this demand once again. Donna Weimer, professor of communication and faculty advisor to WKVR, describes her hopes for the radio station’s future:

Q: What are the plans for the radio for this year?

A: I’m very excited that we have been able to dissipate the fears that we wouldn’t have radio this year. We’ve had two group meetings and it’s clear that we have a lot of student interest. I’m extremely excited that we have an executive board, and we have students who are willing to take the leadership roles necessary to keep WKVR up and running. It looks like we’ll also have some programs that report on the news, interview folks on campus and in town, and hopefully we’ll even see some other ideas and cultural events.

Q: What news is there regarding the rumored move to JCEL?

A: At this point, that move is on hold. I do have a meeting scheduled to talk to John Hille about the development of WKVR’s status, so it could move from a club status to a small business status. There are some very interesting ideas attached to that because either way students win, but maybe another kind of student would be interested in running it as a business. I look forward to those conversations. They first began to think about changing the status in Innovations for Industry, a class we have in the IT department.

Q: What is the main audience for WKVR?

A: I would say we have several audiences. Primarily we have students on campus. I think the students would be surprised, but we have a lot of faculty, staff, and administrators who also listen to the radio and are very curious. I know that there are townspeople who listen to it, because when they get upset I get calls from them. And I know that we have a tremendous following at the prison, and I think this is a wonderful service that we can provide.

Q: How much of the radio is student-run?

A: One hundred percent of the radio is student-run, organized, coordinated, from the station manager all the way to the DJs, who might want to have their individual shows but not spend all of their time there. They have ideas or songs that they want to share. Because it is a public venue, there are more responsibilities and there are rules that have to be followed. We do have a public face, we do have a relationship with the FCC. Anyone who is online has to follow the rules and regulations. So I think it has a public audience in a way that many student clubs and activities do not, and so they have a greater task to understand who their audiences are.

Q: When should people tune in?

A: I don’t know. In the past we have gone from six to midnight, or six to one, and I still think that those are reasonable hours. I think we have enough people to qualify as a club, and the names have been submitted as far as I know, so I would hope that we will be up and running, if not by Alumni Weekend, by November 1.

~Laura Bitely ’14, Juniata Online Journalist