WVUR Management Blog

All.

Hope this note finds you enjoying the final days of summer.

SourceStock, WVUR’s annual concert, will be taking place Saturday, September 10th, 2011. The event will be held at the Athletics-Recreation Center.

Ra Ra Riot will headline the show. They are an indie rock band from Syracuse, New York. They are made up of six members and feature such songs as “Boy” and “Can You Tell.”

Mine All Mine will be back for their second consecutive SourceStock. They are based in Miami, FL. The Vitrolum Republic from Milwaukee, WI will also open the show.

Tickets are free for Valpo students, faculty, and alumni. Tickets are available at the Harre Union Information Desk starting at 12:00 noon on Saturday, August 20th. Community members can purchase tickets for $10 at the Information Desk as well.

See you there.

Mike Targonski
WVUR General Manager

Mike Targonski Uncategorized

While working inside the Source 95 studios during a Valpo baseball doubleheader, the Crusaders started to pull away with an early win and I started to grab my computer and play quizzes on Sporcle. Little did I realize that I would spend the next 3 hours glued to that same computer scanning the NCAA record book.

In two dominant wins over the Chicago State Cougars, the Crusader baseball team either matched or created 5 NCAA single game records, and as the man with the laptop, it was my job to feed information to our announcers. What a crazy day it was! 21 runs in a single inning, a triple play, and Kyle Gaedele hit a ball through the left field wall among other details. For my full recap, click here!

I felt bad that Frane couldn’t get that fourth triple. If his ground-rule double had stayed inside the right field fence, he probably would have made it to third. Then in the 7th, the batter ahead of him hit the game-ending hit to keep Frane from another attempt at history. It was funny because of the similarity to the event that ended Hall of Famer Paul Molitor’s 39-game hit streak back in 1987, but I’ll let you find the story on him.

That’s all for me! After a long day like this, I need rest. And in my opinion, there’s nothing better to do than watch the Iowa Barnstormers play the Chicago Rush in the first game of the new Arena Football League. Two of my favorite arena teams finally playing each other down in Wells Fargo Arena. Should be a blast!

Happy birthday, Don Sutton!

Chris Kleinhans-Schulz, WVUR Webmaster (Asst. Sports Director-elect)

Chris Kleinhans-Schulz Sports, Webmastering Crusaders, Webmaster

Heyo,

Last night (Friday the 19th) Harry, our Production Director, Nick Schroeder, next year’s engineer, and I DJed the College of Nursing/College of Engineering Dance in the Community Room. It was a blast! Harry put together a bunch of dancing CDs, we watched certain faculty, who will not be named, learn how to Salsa dance, and had some technical difficulties. It was a good learning experience for Nick. To highlight it, one of the CD decks got stuck shut. We tried to pull it open, open it with a key, and open it from the back. Couldn’t do it. All of a sudden, the thing popped open. The problem…one of the clear CD-looking things at the bottom a blank CD holder was stuck to the bottom of the CD we had in the player.

Tonight, Harry and I are spinning more beats at the Gamma Phi Beta semi-formal! I know this is going to be fun. As a member of Greek Life, I know how these dances go. They are truly awesome. So Harry and I will have to be on top of our game; fading in and out of songs, knowing what music is going to please the crowd, and praying CD decks don’t get stuck. I have quiet a few Gamma Phi Beta friends, so I’m excited to be headed there.

My favorite thing at the station this semester is my radio show.  Harry (reoccurring name here) and I do the “Billboard Top 10″ on Thursday afternoons.  We also have plenty of segments, including “The Economics of Love” with Cameron Banga, “Keepin’ Up with Keaton” (Keaton Gillogly–we pretend he works TMZ, but don’t tell anyone who doesn’t read this post, because they don’t know he doesn’t work for them), and “Criss-Cross with Chris Zaplatosch”, where we talk about music, music fads, and all other music-related things.  Be sure to come in to the station during our show, you WILL be on air.  Plus, we use everything at the station during our show; it’d be the perfect tool for DJ training.

Spring Break is here soon, that means so is the Horizon League Tournaments for basketball. Be sure to keep up to date.

Get those applications in! We’re going to have a brand new staff coming up and I hope to be apart of it with you. Apply for any and all spots.

Keep it real,
Mike Targonski, Events Director

Mike Targonski Events

This week, there’s been a huge aesthetic change to the station: our boring tiled floor now has beautiful, clean, new carpet!

This might not really seem cause for excitement, but allow me to elaborate. Once upon a time, probably 20 years ago, the station got carpet. I’m sure it was nice then. But by last year, the carpet had so many holes in it that it was borderline unsafe. It didn’t look very nice, and wasn’t very clean.

After lots and lots of planning and hard work, we finally got some replacement carpeting in the station. Last Sunday morning, the entire management staff go in the station in the morning and moved everything out. This proved to be quite the task, especially with the four large shelving units full of CDs!

This past week, then, has been spent moving things back in, tidying up, getting rid of old equipment, etc. And I must say, the station now looks better than it ever has in my four years of being affiliated with it as a DJ, Music Staff member, and manager. Its really been very enjoyable for the 100 or so people who work at the station each week. And as a neat freak, I’ve got to say I’m enjoying it!

On a side note: we’re beginning to take applications for management staff for next school year! If you think you might be interested, and want to see the available positions, check out our main website at www.valpo.edu/wvur.

Until next time,
Chris Zaplatosch
Music Director

Chris Zaplatosch Uncategorized

Another exciting month has passed and I have come away with more valued WVUR experience. Since the new year began, I have worked on 14 sports broadcasts, started a brand-new radio show, and I have also picked up an extra job at The Torch, VU’s student newspaper. Anything I have forgot… oh yeah. I’m still the WVUR webmaster who has had a lot of work maintaining the site as well as adding a new tab to showcase our programming staff.

While looking back has made me feel blessed to be given all these wonderful opportunities, the road ahead is interesting to say the least. Soon, we will start putting together the new management staff for next year, and we lose a lot of great seniors once the year ends. It should be interesting to see where the returning managers end up, not to mention what great people will become the newest class of WVUR managers.

Personally, I have  quite a week ahead. Here’s a brief taste: a mock newspaper story on the men’s basketball team for one of my classes, a real newspaper story on the women’s basketball team as well as a late season recap for both teams, 2 different 3 page papers, and a color commentary assignment over the weekend. I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off, but I’ll find a way somehow. Right now, it’s time to take a quick break from all this work and enjoy what should be an exciting Super Bowl between Indianapolis and New Orleans.

Happy birthday, News Director Allison Kuehner!

Chris Kleinhans-Schulz, Webmaster

Chris Kleinhans-Schulz Uncategorized Crusaders, Webmaster

WVUR has taught me a lot while I’ve been on campus. Now starting my 4th semester, I’m excited for what’s in store. Each semester has gotten better and better for me, and I’m ready to tackle many tasks that come my way this spring.

I am involved with a lot on campus. WVUR Events Director/Sports Broadcaster/DJ, Sigma Chi, Torch writer, Vice President of Recruitment for IFC (Interfraternity Council), Orientation Assistant, and member of VUTV (excited for that to start!). Each brings something new to the table every day. I work with so many different students, professors, and administrators, and I couldn’t ask for more. Most importantly, add class to all of that, and I always have a full plate every day and night.

For each, I work with many different personalities and it has taught me how to handle many different situations. At WVUR, I get to experience a lot on and off campus. As 2010 gets underway, I expect nothing to change except adding more for myself. More challenges, more experiences, more outcomes, some successful and some failed, and more to learn. Working at the radio station allows me, at times, to get away from things and, at the same time, continue to work hard and also focus on my future. I am in the process of looking for summer internships (none that interfere with being an Orientation Assistant because I love that job as well). I have met so many people from the time I was at FOCUS as an incoming freshman up til now, and there are more people to get to know. I couldn’t have asked for a better time than that I’ve had at Valpo.

A lot of this blog is me talking about myself and my experiences. I can go into great detail about each, but that would waste Internet space and no one would read it. But one thing I hope many of you take from this is to find something (or somethings) that will allow you to enjoy yourself. While I am usually busy for 16 hours of the day and sleep the other 8, I get the most out of every moment of every day.

I hope everyone takes time for themselves, whether it be keeping busy or relaxing by reading a book, listening to music, or whatever it takes to have a little “you time”. You owe it to yourself and can get so much out of anything you do.

This semester at WVUR, like all, is going to be a blast! I hope I get a chance to meet-and-greet with all of you and get to know everyone. We are going to continue to work our tails off to accomplish great things, but also have a great time doing all the work we do at the station. Come talk to me whenever.

Have a great day!
Mike Targonski, Events Director

Mike Targonski Uncategorized

Well, my break was pretty good overall. I went to Colorado for a week at the beginning of break. It was beautiful there! I have decided that I want to live there at least for a few years of my life. I flew back here to good old Midwest on Christmas Eve. Got some pretty good gifts and had an enjoyable dinner with the family. New Years was fun. As always, my family had a small party with TONS of food. And now we are back into the swing of classes.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I went to the Chicago Rise Against show. Let me just say…I almost died, but it was one of THE BEST shows of my life. Jared would agree.

And of course, just to give you all a little glimpse of what I listened to in 2009, here are my top 5 albums of the year:
5. Mew “No More Stories Are Told Today Sorry…”
4. Animal Collective “Merriweather Post Pavillion”
3. Tegan and Sara “Sainthood”
2. Owen “New Leaves”
1. Matt & Kim “Grand”

I actually had a top 30 this year. But of course, I am patiently awaiting new music from bands such as Foo Fighters and Vampire Weekend this year.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010!!!

Katie Hennessey
Assistant Music Director

Katie Hennessey Uncategorized

Waverly, Iowa and Valparaiso, Indiana are two different worlds. Every time I make the drive it feels like there’s so much between the two that they almost seem completely cut off from each other. Naturally, I’ve grown very found of Valpo since I spend most of my time here and have a lot of fun. Because of the nature of my “two homes,” being able to come back feels so rewarding.

For anyone that has been on trips similar to this, you know the feeling all too well. Being back, everything is starting to settle into place so that the next semester can start on the right foot. Unfortunately, things did not go so well from a sports prospective. Both Crusader basketball teams lost earlier today and I had to work both broadcasts. Obviously, you’re suppose to be an objective reporter as a broadcaster, but it’s still disappointing to watch the local teams lose, especially some of the close ones they’ve had this year. Anyway, after a few weeks of roaming between Iowa and Wisconsin visiting friends and relatives, I have to say that it’s so nice to be back in Valpo getting ready for some more time with great people and the best college radio station around!

Happy birthday, Cuba Gooding, Jr.!

Chris Kleinhans-Schulz, Webmaster

Chris Kleinhans-Schulz Webmastering Crusaders, Webmaster

Christmas break for a music director is a delightful time. Or for any student with a love of music, really. In keeping up with school work and all other activities, music sometimes slips through the cracks.

This break has been fantastic time to catch up on some records I’ve missed out on this year, this decade, or even further back. Some of the great stuff I’ve caught up on this break has been:
Matt and Kim’s first album
Broken Social Scene’s first album
Ellen Allien’s album Berlinette
Sam Cooke’s album Ain’t That Good News
Piglet’s first (and sadly only) album Lava Land
American Analog Set’s first album The Golden Band

Apparently I have a terrible habit of ignoring bands’ debut albums? Who knew. Either way, I’d recommend all of those albums, they were all fantastic.

While I’m on the topic of recommendations, I also got to see the movie The Boat That Rocked (aka Pirate Radio, here in the States), and I simply cannot recommend it enough. As fan of music, you owe it to yourself to check out. Its set in 1966 when British radio refused to play rock and roll music, so “pirate” radio stations in international waters would broadcast to millions of rock fans. It just came out this year, but is out on DVD.

Anyway, hope you guys have a fantastic new year, and I look forward to bringing you tons of great music in 2010!

Chris Zaplatosch
Music Director

Chris Zaplatosch Uncategorized

Toward the beginning of December, we ran out of our vast supply of WVUR T-shirts, thus causing the need to design and print a new shirt.

For our design, we wanted to go throwback as a way to get pumped for the upcoming 50th anniversary of college radio at Valparaiso University this fall.  After a couple classic design ideas, we decided to play off of the Atari logo and typeface.  We also went with some retro color schemes as well, which we’re really hoping people will enjoy.  Here’s a preview of the design.

Shirts should be in early January, so we can’t wait to show them off around campus.  If you’re interested in a shirt, sign up to be a WVUR DJ in the spring by e-mailing Jeff.Lange1@valpo.edu.

-Cameron Banga, GM

Cameron Banga Uncategorized