WRAS Turns it up a Notch with New Hi-Tech Gear
Despite what at first glance appears to be a relatively primitive environment, WRAS Album 88 is not your typical dungeon-like low-frequency college radio station.
Look closer and you'll find plenty of evidence of a $50,000 equipment and studio upgrade that has the already well-respected student-run station sounding better than ever. An acoustically-treated floor, new computer system and new sound board paid for by student fees have moved the station into the 21st century.
"Before the renovations, some of the equipment we were using was the original equipment when the radio station first went live back in the early 1970s," says Matt Rosenzweig, student general manager. Now WRAS has equipment standard to the radio industry that will better prepare its 60 student disc jockeys for the real world.
"The skills the volunteer DJs pick up at WRAS — they can go anywhere in the country... and sit down in a studio and know exactly how to run it, and have a job waiting for them," he says.
The station, which plays an eclectic mix ranging from hip-hop to country music, has won national and local praise. Creative Loafing named WRAS "Best Non-Commercial Radio Station" and "Best Radio Station That Keeps Getting Better." Student Farzad Maghaddam also was named Music Director of the Year at the annual College Musical Festival in New York.
Next up on the wish list for the station will be a conversion to high-definition radio, according to Jeff Walker, business manager for student media.
"It needs to happen within the next three years, or else we'll be behind everyone else," Walker says. "We don't want to be a black-and-white TV in the age of color."