University shuts down student-run radio station

Southeast Missouri State University is pulling the plug on its student-run, FM radio station 103.7 KDMC, otherwise known as Rage FM. The shutdown comes as the school is devoting more resources to preparing students for careers in multimedia journalism.

The Department of Mass Media and Southeast's NPR-affiliate station 90.9 KRCU have established an internship program to be implemented this fall to give students a broader skill set, said Dr. Bruce Mims, faculty adviser to Rage FM.

"Is it better to prepare five people well to enter a commercial radio experience, or is it better to prepare 15 or 20 people to enter a world of multimedia experience that could be with commercial or noncommercial radio, commercial or noncommercial television, or it could be with print or online?" he said.

Students will continue to use the Rage FM facilities in the basement of the Grauel Language Arts building to create multimedia news content for KRCU, Southeast's student newspaper the Arrow, and some Rage FM programs that will continue to air online.

The Department of Mass Media curriculum committee decided in 2010 that more multimedia newsgathering experience was necessary if graduates were to remain competitive in the job market.

"We made the decision that the department would go from five options to four, and that journalism and radio would become the multimedia journalism option," said Dr. Karie Hollerbach, chairwoman of the Department of Mass Media.

She explained that since the radio courses were phased out in 2012, the student radio station is no longer essential to the program.

Hundreds of students over the past 38 years have had a hand in operating incarnations of the station. Most current students support the shift in curriculum, although many on Southeast's campus and beyond will miss listening.

Senior Cody Gresham, a multimedia journalism major, is the host of Rage's sports-talk program, Sports Brawl. He plans to enter commercial radio after graduation, but said he thinks a degree in multimedia journalism gives him more options.

"I'm upset about it, but at the same time I understand the decision," he said. "I don't think we needed to get rid of the radio to teach everybody everything, though."

Mims likened the purpose of the station to the lab time in a chemistry course -- as a place where students can put the skills they learn in the classroom into practice.

Without the radio-specific classes to complement this lab time, dwindling student interest and high operating costs made the station insupportable.

"If you're not interested in multimedia journalism as a degree, then we're not the right home for you," Hollerbach said. "If you're interested in a broadcast degree, another program would be a better choice in terms of a degree because we are not offering broadcasting as a degree. You can be pursuing broadcast, but you're doing that within the multimedia journalism option."

She said students will be able to gain plenty of hands-on experience and develop a more marketable skill set in the new program.

"As far as audio goes, you've got three avenues -- you've got the Arrow's website, KRCU's website and you have ... KRCU's FM signal. I think that's a wealth of opportunities for a degree that's not [strictly] a broadcast degree."

An online petition has been started called "Fight to Keep Rage 103.7 Open," with more than 100 signatures, but it appears unlikely to change the decision.

Paperwork is already being filed with the FCC to stop broadcasting, though the University will retain the rights to the FM signal, Hollerbach said.