op-ed In defense of WRMC 91.1 FM

Author: Robert Mohr

I think we need to look at the contents of the e-mail that has seemingly caused so much controversy ("Cake - choice of many or few," March 6). While some of the language employed in the e-mail may be considered slightly pretentious and/or arrogant, the message being conveyed was completely sound. The "prominent member of WRMC" was appealing to the DJs to not vote for Third Eye Blind because the costs would prevent the school from being able to bring more concerts to Middlebury this spring. This is certainly a true statement, as Third Eye Blind cost somewhere around 25k-50k, while Cake was considerably less. I think that a good argument can be made that more concerts are better than one or two extremely expensive concerts. Another point that should be made is the writer of the e-mail is on the Executive Board of WRMC, and therefore has every right to use the all-DJ e-mail list to make such an appeal. Third, I would like to point out that the e-mail was simply a suggestion. No one was 'commanded' to vote for Cake. Finally, I would like to clarify that the WRMC Executive Board has little or no say in what bands or artists come to Middlebury. Last spring, it was decided in a meeting between the commons, MCAB and WRMC, among others, that the various concert budgets of different organizations would be compiled into one large budget that would be overseen by the MCAB Concert Committee. This committee is comprised of a large, diverse body of students - including one representative of WRMC - and is overseen by two chairmen, who are also MCAB executives. So to put it simply, whether or not Third Eye Blind came to Middlebury was never WRMC's decision. If you take issue with this system, you should talk to MCAB and Doug Adams about reforming it.

Now I apologize if you have had a bad experience with WRMC in the past that would lead you to launch such mean-spirited attacks at the station and its DJs. WRMC is an equal-opportunity organization that offers a diverse array of programming, which includes Reggae (Saturday, 9-10:30 p.m.), gospel (Sunday, 8-9:15 a.m.), '90s hits (Mondays, 3:30-5:00 p.m.) and even conservative talk radio (Friday, 6-7:30 p.m.). These are just a sampling of the many interesting shows that air weekly on WRMC 91.1FM. Besides diverse programming, WRMC DJs also represent a wide swath of the Middlebury community. Our organization is made up of students of all ages, community members and even faculty (check out Tim Spears' show every Friday, 3:30-5:00 p.m.).

Also, I voted for Third Eye Blind.

Robert Mohr '08 is from Randolph, N.J. and is the Special Productions Director for WRMC 91.1 FM.