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The Pendulum
WSOE uses webcasting to reach wider audience Christina Edwards Copy Editor In a world where radio broadcasts have to compete with iTunes and Pandora, many stations - both professional and collegiate - have been turning to online webcasting to reach wider audiences. Elon’s own radio station, WSOE, is no exception. Webcasting uses streaming media technology to distribute a media file of the radio broadcast over the Internet. “It has definitely increased our audience because it allows us to reach way beyond our radius,” said Ryan Sweeney, general manager of WSOE. While the WSOE radio tower reaches a mere 10-mile radius, the Internet has no such boundaries. “Your grandmother back in Ohio can listen to your show or someone halfway around the world who you don’t even know,” said Erin Fox, former general manager of the station. “Personally, nine times out of 10 I listen to WSOE at my computer, the tenth time being in my car. It’s more convenient and appealing in this Internet age.” Fox said WSOE caters to the independent and alternative music scene, which lives and breathes through online conversation at oultets like blogs, MySpace and message boards. “By adding a webcast to your college station you are able to reach the niche audience that the music on your station calls for,” Fox said. UNC Chapel Hill’s WXYC became the first college radio station to use a webcast in 1994. In the years since then, colleges and universities around the country have followed suit. WSOE’s webcast launched over four years ago. “The greatest advantage is that it allows us to reach anyone, anywhere as
WEDNESDAY, March 4, 2009 // Page 9
NEWS IN BRIEF Sex offender’s bond lowered Nearly two weeks after Scott Dewante Moore was charged with an alleged sex offense in Belk Library, his $100,000 bond has been reduced to $50,000, the Alamance County District Attorney’s office said Feb. 25. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Thomas Nadolski said the next step for Moore will be an indictment by a grand jury. So far, no more updates have been released. Elon currently in 172nd place for RecylceMania This week, RecycleMania is in its fouth week of competition. Last week, Elon collected more than 6,300 pounds of material. This currently brings the total up to 27,506 pounds of plastic, glass, cardboard and paper, putting Elon 172nd out of 408 reported schools for total weight volume.
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Sophomores Stephen Lorenzo and Andy Dispensa host WSOE’s Snake and Aces Rock Block 89.3 on Saturday from 4-6 p.m. playing alternative, classic, psychedelic and other long as they have access to a computer,” Sweeney said. “It is especially helpful since we are doing work with local bands in the Triangle and Triad areas, and both are out of our broadcast radius.” While the ability to webcast works to the station’s advantage in terms of reaching an audience, the technology also has its nagging disadvantages. “Our webcast is buggy and many have issues connecting,” Fox said. “If you try to market your station through the webcast and the webcast doesn’t work, not only will the attempted listener not be able to hear the station, but they may be turned off to the station in general.” Online radio stations, with their ability to reach even the farthest location, still find competition from Web sites such as Pandora and Last.fm,
which allow users to specifically tailor their music stream to their tastes. “I would say there is some competition,” said Sweeney, “but they lack personality. College radio has a personality and edge that you can’t get from an automated system.” Competition or not, radio is moving forward and embracing new technologies and the staff at WSOE has an eye out for the newest trends. “Webcasts are not the only way that radio stations can take advantage of the Internet,” Fox said, citing Facebook, Twitter and other social networking Web sites as resources. “Adding video content and photographs to Web sites is another way to interact with listeners, and today if a station doesn’t have these things then they are not staying competitive in the media the way that they should be.”
One year later: Eve Carson’s murder remembered
file photo
Last year, UNC students comforted one another after hearing about the tragic death of classmate and Student Body President Eve Carson. Carson, then 22, was mur-
Thursday will mark the one year anniversary of the murder of University of Carolina at Chapel Hill student body president, Eve Carson. The murder, which occurred only 45 minutes away from Elon, affected the surrounding community and woke students up to the reality that even a beautiful college campus can be dangerous. Carson was found lying on a street about a mile from the UNC campus after having been shot five times, including once in the temple, according to an autopsy report released last summer. Laurence Alvin Lovette, 18, and Demario James Atwater, 22, were both charged with firstdegree murder in Carson’s case. The university will hold a memorial ceremony Thursday in remembrance of Carson. It will include remarks by UNC’s chancellor, Holden Thorp. “For many of us, the loss of Eve Carson continues to occupy our thoughts,” Thorp said in a news release. “This ceremony gives us a chance to remember and celebrate Eve together after a difficult year.
PRSSA Regional weekend
Activity
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“PR Outside the Box,” PRSSA’s Regional Activity, will take place Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost is $30 for PRSSA members and $35 for non-PRSSA members. The event will consist of presentations by Ron Smith who began his own PR firm, Cherokee Communications; Kristin Foster from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide; and Rob Coleman with The Chief Communications. Former Elon professor John Guiniven will also talk about his PR work at Chrysler and International Paper. The event will hold an interactive activity as well and will give students a topic on which they will create their own PR campaign and win prizes for the best campaign. Contact Lianna Catino at lcatino@elon.edu to register. Prendergast speaks tonight John Prendergast will speak tonight in Whitley Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Prendergast is an activist for ending the genocide in Darfur and has recently written the book, “Not On Our Watch,” with Don Cheadle. He is also the senior adviser to the International Crisis Group and is the co-founder of the ENOUGH campaign.
Correction In last week’s news story “Campus aims to go ‘paperless,’” it was incorrectly reported that the university went from spending $10 million to $2.8 million after the implementation of the print management system. The university actually went from printing 10 million sheets of paper to 2.8 million sheets of paper.