Syracuse Post Standard
April 26, 1983
SU Students Meet with Eggers on WAER Compromise
By DEIRDRE M. CHILDRESS
Eleven students, who have been fired or resigned from Syracuse University radio station WAER-FM since it was closed Friday, took their protest to the highest authority on campus Monday afternoon.
After a 3 1/2 hour meeting with SU Chancellor Melvin A. Eggers, the students said they would meet Wednesday with WAER Station Manager David Anderson in Eggers' office to discuss a possible compromise format for the station.
The students originally said they would meet with Eggers to demand Anderson's resignation.
Anderson closed the radio station Friday afternoon after firing five staff members who refused to meet with him to discuss a proposed change to a jazz and news format, a format approved by Eggers. WAER now has a program of rhythm and blues, jazz and adult contemporary music with student talk shows.
Eggers said that at no time during the meeting was he asked by the students for Anderson's resignation. He had no further comments on the problem, but said the station would be back on the air, "soon."
Asked why students dropped their demand for the station manager's firing, operations director William Darron said the resignation was implied, but not requested.
"We discussed our ability to deal with him (Anderson). We presented our case and said we could no longer work with the man, and no one else could," said Darron, who resigned as a pretest of other student firings that occurred Friday.
Before the meeting, Anderson said he was confident that he enjoyed the chancellor's support. He could not be reached for comment Monday night.
Since the firings and the closing of the station Friday, there have been three days of staff resignations. Operations director Darron, who briefly went on the air Friday evening for a remote broadcast of Syracuse Chiefs' baseball from Toronto, later resigned because of the conflict.
And on Monday morning, the rest of the 11 paid senior staff members resigned. Two of those students, Sean MacDonough and Greg Papa, said they would continue to announce Chiefs' baseball games because of contract obligations. The pair met later Monday with Anderson who agreed to engineer the programs from the Syracuse station.
It was MacDonough who after two hours of talks with Eggers, walked out of the meeting and then returned before it ended.
"I got frustrated. I spent logo hours listening to what the chancellor had to say of what he wants for his radio station. He wants a Radio station that has the signature of SU on it to promote their university. The station will be another university public relations vehicle," MacDonough said.
But one other former staff member was more optimistic. Darron said that it Anderson agrees to a compromise Wednesday, the senior staff would work on the new format throughout preparations for their final exams.
Michael Robinson contributed to this story
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Last Modified October 14, 2005 |