|
Buffalo State media in weekend's spotlight
Editorial
The radio station at Buffalo State College, WBNY (91.3 FM), is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and this weekend the campus will be the site of a "New Media Weekend" to celebrate the station's milestone. Alumni from Buffalo State's two main student media outlets are today employed by the Cheektowaga Times. Newsroom Director John Hopkins worked at the station from 1991-93 and Sports Reporter Steve Dlugosz was sports editor at the campus newspaper, The Record during the 2003-04 academic year.
Hopkins' resume includes serving as WBNY's sports director from February 1992 through his May 1993 graduation. He also spun music once a week as a disc jockey. One of his favorite memories was serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Bengals football team in 1992, when they made their first trip to the NCAA Division III playoffs and knocked off the defending national champs in the first round. A running back named Jim Rogowski- now a Cheektowaga councilmember- scored some key touchdowns for that squad. Dlugosz covered Buffalo State's teams after serving a summer internship at the Times. Following graduation, he served as a news reporter at a small daily paper before returning to the Times in July 2005 as its full-time sports reporter.
As student-supported outlets, both WBNY and The Record have experienced their ups and downs, and both have suffered low points in the last three months. A person or persons broke into the radio station in August and trashed the studio. Later that month, most of The Record's computers were misplaced and could not be located when its office was relocated. This forced The Record's first issue of the fall semester to publish late. "This isn't what I signed up for," a dismayed Jennifer Sikora told the Times. Sikora, was a Times summer intern and is now news editor at The Record. Despite these disappointments. Both outlets boast dedicated members who remain optimistic in the face of adversity.
Whether they are aspiring to become journalists or disc jockeys, students at The Record and WBNY usually get their first taste of how a government may attempt to suppress or control the media. Buffalo State's United Student Government has, at times, attempted to dictate what is played on the air or what is published. Funding has also been threatened. Most recently, "USG representatives have been vague at best when questioned on our equipment's whereabouts," The Record staff wrote in a September 13 editorial.
WBNY's alumni boasts several outstanding individuals including Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, 107.7-FM DJ Tina Peel, Chris "The Bulldog" Parker from WGR-AM, and Tom Calderone, an executive at MTV. Despite recent setbacks, the alumni are working hard to ensure WBNY continues to thrive. They encourage alumni and friends of the station to make donations to the college with specific instructions that the gift be used for WBNY.
Both long-established media outlets are poised to remain strong as "new" media continues to grow around them.
*****
Hopkins, who recalls Buffalo State maintenance workers taking months to paint the radio station's four rooms and hallway ("five minutes painting, 15 reading the paper"), returns to his radio roots Friday. He takes over the WBNY airwaves from 5-8 p.m., kicking off the station's alumni weekend. The signal can be picked up throughout Cheektowaga, and is available online at http:// bscvs01.buffalostate.edu/wbny.
| 
