For 23 years, the University of Oregon student radio station operated out of a former women’s bathroom in a hard-to-find hallway of the Erb Memorial Union. Now, with the renovation of the EMU, KWVA has moved into brand-new studios
KWVA Station Manager Charlotte Nisser stands in the main lobby of the new campus radio station.
Nisser: “This space was designed for us. So we got to figure out the layout and decide where the studios were placed, what the size of the studios was and make it fit our needs as opposed to the space we were in which was really just kind of the space that was available that we were given.”
Right now, the lobby is full of boxes of CDs and records. Staff and volunteers will organize the station’s music collection and soon it will be housed in its own music library. The new space in EMU Suite 45 has 2 air studios and 2 production booths.
DJ Phil-man is on the air this morning in air studio 1.
Philman: “KWVA Eugene 88.1 on the Terran band. This last track we heard was the Moonsville Collective, Millionaires, what we all want to be…”
Phil-man is a community volunteer. The station has a mix of students and non-students on the air. Nisser says KWVA does more than music.
Nisser: “We also have news and sports that are produced by students that really focus on student life, the student world, what’s of interest to students.”
Nisser says it’s a big adjustment to move into this larger, new space. While the old station was cramped, it had character—the walls were covered with stickers, posters, graffiti.
Sherwood: “There’s just a lot of visual culture there that has kind of built up over the 23 years.”
Ryder Sherwood is student Program Director.
Sherwood: “That definitely changes the way that kind of we’re viewed in some ways. DJs will just have to take on that responsibility of promoting KWVA culture.”
But, Nisser says, at least people will be able to find the station. When KWVA was on the 3rd floor in a tucked away hallway, she says the only people who stopped in were generally lost.
Nisser: “We have these big, beautiful windows that look out onto this corridor and so there’s Falling Sky in their new locations, there’s the craft center and the copy shop that’s not too far away. The computing center will be down here as well as Greek Life, so we’ll have a lot of people walking by.”
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Nisser hopes in the coming school year, KWVA will have live performances in its studios. She says she’s looking forward to other possibilities the new space will allow. Nisser says the campus radio station has been a launching point for many careers.
Nisser: “It’s just a really wonderful opportunity for students no matter what they want to do. If they want to be in media, this provides a hands-on experience to do it.”
KWVA is still in the move-in process. The station will have a grand opening when the school year starts in the fall.
Copyright 2016 KLCC.
