Spring Break
WRIU Union studio recieves upgrade
Jeff Sullivan
Issue date: 6/13/09 Section: News
Summer 2009 - The University of Rhode Island's commercial-free radio station, WRIU 90.3, has just acquired equipment to produce high-quality recordings in a newly furnished studio in the Memorial Union.
While the station could record live sets and performances before it opened the new studio, the equipment did not allow for proper mixing and production quality standards to be met.
According to the general manager of the station, Tyler Whittaker, the studio space and the structure have been at the university for about 15 years,
"It was set up to do live broadcasts with bands, and I think the students who had the room built intended it to eventually be a recording studio," he said. "But there's a lot of turnover in a student-run facility. Combined with funding issues, it just never materialized until now."
Ian Reyes, an assistant professor of communications at URI, was instrumental in getting the proper equipment for the studio. He also provides advice for the station volunteers and those looking to record.
"I'm really looking forward to the future," Reyes said. "It just fundamentally changes the cultural climate when a university has a means to represent itself in this way."
WRIU is working to get student-run organizations and other groups not involved with URI to come and record public service announcements. Whittaker said that Federal Communications Commission regulations require any non-commercial station, such as WRIU, to play a certain number of PSAs per day. These PSAs must serve the interests of the community, or in this case, URI.
"The problem is that a lot of the PSAs that get played are not specifically community-serving," Whittaker said. "We're looking to change that."
Reyes said the station used pre-recorded content before the studio opened.
"Before [WRIU] had the recording studio, they couldn't have original community-produced content unless somebody took it upon themselves to record something at home," he said. "Now we can just do it here."
While the station could record live sets and performances before it opened the new studio, the equipment did not allow for proper mixing and production quality standards to be met.
According to the general manager of the station, Tyler Whittaker, the studio space and the structure have been at the university for about 15 years,
"It was set up to do live broadcasts with bands, and I think the students who had the room built intended it to eventually be a recording studio," he said. "But there's a lot of turnover in a student-run facility. Combined with funding issues, it just never materialized until now."
Ian Reyes, an assistant professor of communications at URI, was instrumental in getting the proper equipment for the studio. He also provides advice for the station volunteers and those looking to record.
"I'm really looking forward to the future," Reyes said. "It just fundamentally changes the cultural climate when a university has a means to represent itself in this way."
WRIU is working to get student-run organizations and other groups not involved with URI to come and record public service announcements. Whittaker said that Federal Communications Commission regulations require any non-commercial station, such as WRIU, to play a certain number of PSAs per day. These PSAs must serve the interests of the community, or in this case, URI.
"The problem is that a lot of the PSAs that get played are not specifically community-serving," Whittaker said. "We're looking to change that."
Reyes said the station used pre-recorded content before the studio opened.
"Before [WRIU] had the recording studio, they couldn't have original community-produced content unless somebody took it upon themselves to record something at home," he said. "Now we can just do it here."
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