The Daily Orange - September 17, 1982
WAER: Confusion abounds after engineering dispute
By Kevin Ryan
The general mood in the offices of Syracuse University's student radio station, WAER-FM 88, is one of apprehension after a series of events this week reminiscent of the station manager crisis of the summer of 1981.
Because of confusion about a plan by temporary station manager Ronald Harig, the station was taken off the air twice: purposely on Monday, accidentally on Wednesday.
The dilemma surrounds Harig's decision in mid-June to cut back the station's engineering staff's hours from 24 hours a day to 30 hours a week. Disc jockeys, according to the plan, were to be trained to read the transmitter output and frequency deviation meters at the station. According to Federal Communications Commission guidelines, the meters must be read by certified personnel every three hours.
Student engineers and Harig don't quite agree on the series of events that follow.
Harig said his decision to reduce student engineering hours was based on purely economic reasons. The station's meager budget, he said, could not withstand another year with the traditional schedule. The engineers were paid minimum wage for their work. According to student counts, there were about 15 engineers on the staff.
In June Harig announced the new schedule would take effect July 1, but later changed his mind and pushed the date to Sept. 1. The announcement was made by office memo June 23. Between that time and early this week, he said the decision was not discussed.
Student engineers generally agree with the schedule Harig stated. They heard nothing else from the interim manager since the June memo and, according to one station employee, assumed the issue had been dropped and they would be allowed to continue with their traditional 168-hour-a-week schedule.
The schedule reduction was still going ahead as planned but the staff didn't know until Saturday—eleven days after the new plan was to take effect.
Harig said he resumed from a two-week vacation on Sept. 1 or 2 and did not check to see if the station was operating under the new guidelines. During the last few weeks, he said he has only put in about six hours a week at the station.
The students, who were putting in full days with an engineer on duty, assumed it was all right because Harig had not said otherwise. Neither side bothered to check with the other.
Station time sheets were turned in Sept. 7, Harig said, adding that although he realized the engineers' work hours totaled 168 for the week. did not figure the students were working under the old system. He had some questions about the total, he said, but assumed the students had broadcast a more than average number of remote shows — either sporting events or the state fair.
A Sept. 8 meeting between the senior staff and Harig produced no clarification. Harig said revised time sheets were requested from the engineers. He has not seen the new pay requests, he said—if they were filed.
But, Harig admitted, there was no mention of confirmation on his part as to the new engineering schedule. He was still under the impression, he said, that the station was running according to his mandate—that the engineers were working 30 hours total and that the disc jockeys had been trained.
Student station operation director Sinan Mimaroglu reportedly called Harig on Saturday to tell him that there was no one scheduled to work after his shift. Mimaroglu worked as engineer at the SU-Temple football game in the Carrier Dome. He also told Harig there was no one scheduled to work the 30 engineering hours this week, according to Harig.
The students found someone to run the station after the game, but, according to Harig WAER was not in compliance with FCC rules and regulations and could have been taken off the air indefinitely.
Harig took WAER off the air at 9:40 a.m. Monday because there was no one qualified to read the meters at the time. This is the time, Harig said, he realized the station was not working under the June 23 plan.
The station was put back on the air at 1:40 p.m., after enough trained disc jockeys were found to run the station, Harig said. During the break, other students were trained to take the readings.
Harig said he advised Mimaroglu during the summer that the best way to handle the hour cut was to reduce the staff He said he did not mandate staff elimination.
Four engineers, including Mimaroglu remain on the station's payroll.
Engineers maintain the disc jockeys have not been adequately trained to read the meters, and use a Sept. 15 incident to prove their case.
The announcer on duty at about 6:30 a.m. apparently misread a meter, sources said, causing him to push a wrong button, which terminated broadcasting. The station returned to the air an hour and 48 minutes later.
Wednesday's meeting of the senior staff and Harig produced two decisions. One, that the student engineers will receive full pay for the first week of September. And two, that the station employees will not publicly discuss the problems until station-manager-elect David R. Anderson arrives in Syracuse Sept. 27.
Anderson, according to Harig, has been advised of the station's situation and was consulted on all decisions that were made. "I didn't want to do anything that he (Anderson) would he uncomfortable with " Harig said.
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Last Modified October 14, 2005 |