College of Rock
Down in the basement of Andy Holt Tower is a little known learning laboratory – a place where journalism students get practical experience in the radio and news industry. Not just a college alternative radio station, WUTK 90.3 “the Rock” helps students get jobs.
Station manager Benny Smith, a 1987 UT graduate in journalism and electronic media, worked at WUTK as a student in the mid to late ’80s as a D.J., then as music director. Since then he’s worked for Knoxville radio stations 105.3 and 100.3 the River, promoted concerts for AC Entertainment, and worked for Metro Pulse magazine. But Smith has returned home to take charge of WUTK and turned the once-failing station into an award-winning teaching tool.
WUTK won the Metro Pulse 2006 Reader’s Poll for Knoxville’s Best Radio station, tying WIVK, a nationally recognized country music station. The College Media Journal, the industry’s periodical that reports on the college music industry, nominated WUTK as one of five finalists in the “Biggest Improvement” category for its annual awards ceremony last November. So, what was wrong with the station?
Station manager Benny Smith at the mic
“Our reputation was horrible. We weren’t getting much service from record companies. So, music being 95 to 98 percent of what we do, we had to fix that first,” Smith says.
He blames what he calls “false promises” for the bad relationship, and credits student music director Jay Lewis with improving the situation.
“Jay’s done a really good job of re-building those relationships with the record companies, independent A and R people. He’s got a really good rapport with them. He doesn’t lie. He tells the truth. If we’re not going to play a record, we’re not going to play a record. If we like it, we tell them. That’s what you’ve got to be. You’ve got to be straight up. That wasn’t happening before I got here and Jay’s done a great job of doing that,” says Smith.
JEM major and production director Ryan Spargo gives Smith the credit for the turnaround.
“Benny came in said, ‘We need to have a radio station that provides for the listeners. One that listeners can tune into and always know what’s playing, what they heard, what they’re going to hear, know about events going on around town.’ He basically opened up a web that everyone in the area can connect with, and entertainment in Knoxville has boosted since. He really has saved the music front in Knoxville.”
The newsroom is sort of like a living room at home. It has many visitors. Students drop in when they have free time to get a little extra work done. Sometimes they just come down to hang out and play Monday Morning quarterback, tell jokes or talk about the concert the station presented the night before. But Smith was disappointed with student involvement when he returned. It’s getting better, but Smith says there’s room for improvement.
“That’s been the toughest thing is to see how depleted and totally gone that whole pride in being part of the station was,” he says.
“Right now I can’t find students to emcee shows for us. That’s very important to get out in front of 4-, 5-, 600 people and pump the station up, throw t-shirts, make it look like you’re the one throwing the party. Well, when I was here in the late 1980s and early 1990s we had a list of people. You had to get in line to emcee a show, and that’s not come about yet. It’s that whole going the extra mile and taking a greater role in the station. And that’s going to come. It’s just that for nearly 15 years it was nearly non-existent here and so, it’s all evolving.”
Spargo says he saw a lack of attention to detail. “I had listened to the radio station before. No one cared. No one really paid attention to what they were doing or what they were saying. There was no flow to the music,” he says.
The station is making more money under Smith’s leadership. He says previous station managers raised between $5,000 and $10,000 a year in underwriting from 1991 to 2004. Smith raised almost $65,000 from 2005 to 2006 and says if things remain the same, the station could be looking at a $100,000 year.
Underwriting is particularly important to WUTK because the station lost all university funding in 1991. WUTK now pays its own way, from copy paper to toilet paper, and computer software to antenna repair even though the station is a learning laboratory for students in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media. Many JEM students are required to work there for course credit, and many former WUTK student workers go on to work in the journalism and electronic media field.
One product of Smith’s knowledge and experience is Michael Grider, who graduated in May 2006 with a JEM degree. Grider spent much of his college career at WUTK, doing whatever he could to learn the radio business.
“He did so much to help us here: programming, getting our clocks together, helping to turn the music department around,” says Smith.
Grider began working at the station as a D.J., but knew it wasn’t quite what he wanted. Smith moved Grider to programming music, but says Grider still wasn’t happy. When Smith asked him to be the news director, Grider felt like he had found his calling. He interned at WNOX, “Knoxville’s Big Talker,” which airs talk-format shows by local favorite radio personalities Hallerin Hill and Phil Williams. Grider was hired to work in the news department after he graduated.
Spargo also says he got a lot of marketable experience at WUTK.
“Working there has given me insight into how the radio business works, how the radio industry opens you up into careers. And now I work at WNOX, 100.3 as a production intern. So I went from small college radio to a large radio station that covers several cities in the Tennessee area, and it’s available on the web streaming. So I’ve just been moving up and my work there has moved me to a bigger spot. And the sky’s the limit for me.”
Student workers at WUTK can perfect their “radio voice” – not only for announcing music, but also reporting news. Students learn how to gather and report news and interview guests. Students can learn about programming, advertising, media sales and operating equipment commonly used in radio stations and newsrooms around the country. Besides, what student doesn’t want to work around music all day?
“The practical experience that’s down here – I’ll never understand students who don’t understand that. That’s what sets you apart come interview time – to be able to go out and interview for an entry-level position, but not just with your schoolwork, but your practical experience. You just can’t put a price on that. And this is where you come to get it,” says Smith.
“Students are starting to realize that once they get down here they can gain and learn as much as they want as long as they apply themselves.”
—Jessie Krueger