WMSR radio lets students take charge of the mics

By Megan Bowers, For The Miami Student

The WMSR radio station gives students the ability to share their love of music, sports or politics with people all across campus.

Every week, 39 shows are broadcast live and each one is different.

"The station's a melting pot," said Jeremy Brinling, general manager of WMSR. "About a quarter of the shows are talk shows, half are talking and music and the last quarter are just music."

Programming Manager Luke Walker hosts a sports talk show with three of his friends on Wednesday nights.

"We'll have a layout on Google Docs that we go through every single week, constantly updating and adding information to," said Walker. "Then we loosely base our shows off of that."

Shows with music are less scripted, but there are still things to be planned ahead of time.

"I write down all the songs in order, so if the computer does go out, I don't have to worry about that," said Jonathan Reiter, host of "Jonny Getcha Gun Country." "I also write down some different news topics, and I normally have an artist of the week, so I'll write a little about that as well."

The live aspect of radio seems intimidating but none of the hosts admit to getting nervous.

"It's something I really like to do, so it's just kind of natural," said Marisa Vesel, host of "Hey, it's Marisa." "It's kind of just like talking to my friends because I know they are listening."

Despite preparation, the occasional slip-up does happen.

"There was one time Okie from Muskogee by Merle Haggard was on, and I forgot to turn off my mic," said Reiter. "I sang the entire first verse on the air."

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

The station has led to some amazing opportunities for many of the hosts as well.

"The show is actually the reason I declared a sports management minor," said Walker. "So, if we never created the show, my classes and college career as far as future plans would be drastically different right now."

Although Jeremy Brinling has been with WMSR since his first semester on campus, he only took over as general manager this semester.

"The station was kind of left in disarray when we came in," said Brinling. "The budget was frozen because of some missing receipts and the technology was down."

So far, they've been able to host a concert with the WMSR name on it, create a partnership with Armstrong Student Center and Maplestreet Station to start broadcasting their shows and create a new website.

"We are definitely changing as a station," said Brinling. "It's weird to watch how much it has changed over the course of three years, not only technically and financially, but as a station that brings so many different people together.

The current promotions manager, Alexis Moten, has a lot of ideas in mind about how to upgrade the program for the coming year.

"We are a student-run radio, but I'm trying to pull away from that and become more of a media-based content," said Moten. "Next year, we are going to start producing shows and having actual themes that people will take positions of. So we would have a politics show that will always exist. The hosts will change, but the listeners will remain consistent."

Using this strategy, they hope more listeners will tune in every week.

"I think college radio in particular is a really great way to get people listening to a lot of different types of music," said Vesel. "I know most of our dining halls play a lot of the more popular music, so I think it's a good way for people who aren't as into that to share the kind of music they like."