WLFR celebrates 25 years on the air
Oct, 21-2009 3:28 pm
By STEVE PRISAMENT
Staff Writer
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – Lake Fred Radio at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey marked its 25th anniversary Friday, Oct. 16 with – what else – a party that was live on the air.
The station, WLFR 91.7 FM, which operates out of Upper G-Wing, broadcast from the Lakeside Center from 7 to 11 as present, former and future Lake Fred Radio personalities took turns at the microphone. The live audience included more than 60 party guests.
“When I started college they were already in the process of getting their FCC license,” said Paul Glaser, one of four station managers – and someone who has been at WLFR for the past quarter century. “They broadcast just to the cafeteria then. WSSR goes back to the 1970s. It was original broadcasting from one of the cabins.”
On Oct. 16, 1984, he said, Stockton Radio went FM using all new equipment in the location it has maintained ever since.
Apparently there was less organization at the station then than now.
“I went to a meeting,” said Glaser, who lives in Port Republic. “I didn’t realize it was for the news department. It was probably the same week we went on the air. All the DJ slots were filled.”
Glaser said he read national news on the newborn WLFR at a time when a lot of rewriting of local media was apparently being done.
“I grew up in Philadelphia. I was familiar with college radio,” he said. “I was disappointed. It was mostly classic rock. It took a few years till we got some specialized programming.”
“The Bluegrass Broadcast” was a real good show from that first year, Glaser said.
“People who listened to the radio back then would remember it,” he said. “I love music. I did a couple of shows while I was in school and a radio show with experimental music.”
Glaser said he keeps his radio activity separate from his daily persona.
“I don’t want to talk about what I do for a living,” he said. “This is kind of my double life.”
From the beginning Lake Fred Radio has forged a unique partnership with the surrounding community.
“Our community DJs – some of them have been here 25 years,” according to another station manager, Kim Applewhite. “We have interns – new students – mixing with the veterans celebrating 25 years on the air.”
Applewhite and Nick Maravelias are student managers. Glaser and Bill Grohs are community managers.
Applewhite is in charge of public service announcements. Grohs does the DJ scheduling. Glaser trains new DJs on using “the board.” And Maravelias handles the live remotes.
The faculty advisor is Joe’l Ludovich, an assistant professor of communications for the TV and radio products. She also runs the department’s intern program and teaches a course: Pre-Code Hollywood Era.
“This is my third year at Stockton,” she said at the party. “The students and community members are dedicated – passionate – about the radio station.”
She said the party was planned by her, along with Leslie Tullio.
“The staff is very easy to work with,” Ludovich said. “They’re very supportive. They work well with my ideas. We’re moving the station forward for the Stockton community and the Atlantic County community.”
The advisor got a big round of on-the-air applause with a couple of comments during a brief congratulatory speech.
“We’re going to increase our power – which of course increases our coverage area,” Ludovich said. “We’ve just switched over to digital. Better technology means better quality.”
She also drew a laugh with her announcement that they were increasing the height of the antenna on the Upper G-Wing roof.
“When they put it up 25 years ago, they didn’t realize that the trees would grow,” Ludovich said.
The radio station, part of the School of Arts and Humanities, includes programming that accommodates a diverse base of listeners throughout the college community.
WLFR broadcasted a full season of Atlantic City Surf baseball games in 2008, Stockton basketball games in the 2009 championship season, 2009 Community of Scholars workshops and the New Jersey congressional debate in October 2008.
Tullio, who has been at Stockton 20 years, works in the Mac Lab doing video editing but said she has been sold on the value of WLFR.
“I ran the Stockton Channel,” she said. “I’m coming over to be part of the academic program.”
Station interns Nicole Hester and Christine Lorenz staffed a table just inside the Lakeside Center where they greeted new arrivals and passed out promotional items.
At a table nearby sat two community DJs who were obvious cohorts.
Ron Stekeur of New Gretna is known as Radio Rohn, he said, and he is on the air Sundays at 2 p.m.
“My show is ‘Tye Dyed’ with Radio Rohn,” he said. “Everyone knows me as that. The show is all about the Grateful Dead.”
Stekeur said he’s been in radio for 33 years.
“I’m a volunteer,” he said. “I loved it then. I still love it. And I’m funny as hell.”
His friend Fred Riess does a show, “If I Could Only Remember” from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sundays. It’s his third show on WLFR. A huge Grateful Dead fan who resembles Jerry Garcia, Riess often uses the moniker Grateful Fred.
And, it turns out, Riess is the only Fred at Lake Fred Radio.
To comment on this story
email steve.prisament@catamaranmedia.com.
