The Summer Orange - May 26, 1983
Station Manager denies rumors of attempt to sell record library
By Faith Weber
Despite rumor. that WAER-FM88's 26,000 record librarywill be sold or given away, Station Manager David Anderson said that the albums will remain at the station.
Anderson said he thinks the people who are talking about the rumors are trying to stir up trouble.
"People have asked me over the last six months what we would do with the records and I mentioned that one thing we could do was give the records to some organization so they could sell them for fund-raising purposes," Anderson said.
"Maybe someone heard me talking about that, but that is not what's going to happen to the records." He said the records will remain at WAER.
Former members of WAER's senior staff said they had heard plans for the albums to be given to a donator to the station.
"I was under the impression that it would be given to a large contributor," said Joel Thierstein former WAER program director. "Of course, it works the other way—they give the money first, then they get the records."
Former Operations Director Bill Darron said Anderson told him about the plans for the record library a long time ago. Darron said the plans involved an exchange of donations. He also said he is not sure whether or not Anderson still intends to give away the records.
Glenn Kesner, former WAER music director said he heard the same story from another senior staff member. "If he does try to do it (donate the records) I will prevent him from doing it," Kesner said. "I'm pretty sure I can do that."
Kesner cited warnings printed on the sleeves of promotional records from three different companies. All included the words "For promotional use only," followed by various statements which Kesner said "All mean you can't transfer (ownership) without permission."
Eric Arnum, music director of WAER from March 1982 to February 1983, said he is also aware of the plans. "What I heard was that he had told some staff members that his plans were to donate the record library to a large donor," he said. Arnum said that Anderson had been discussing his timetable in February when it came up. At that time the format change was planned for April.
According to Arnum and Kesner, WAER's record library contains about 25-30,000 records. Arnum said about 15,000 records can be loosely categorized as pop, including rock, new wave and progressive music. There are about 7,000 jazz albums and about 5,000 rhythm and blues albums, Arnum said. He described the remainder as a mixture of comedy, soundtracks, reggae, folk and classical records.
Kesner, who became music director of WAER in March, said that there is no specific catalogue of the number or kind of albums at the station.
Arnum said that if Anderson does give away the record library, he will only have about 1,000 albums left to use in a traditional jazz format.
"For his type of format, I would agree with that," Kesner said. "He's planning on cutting out everything that doesn't fit his specifications." Kesner said Anderson wants "no electronic instrumentation, no dissonance at all" on WAER.
Anderson said several students asked him if they could have the records that the station would not use for the new format. He said he refused. He added that he may put the albums in boxes to clear shelf space for other records, but said "they won't leave the possession of WAER."
"They're not going to be sold; they're not going to be given away," he said. Anderson said it would be ridiculous to give them away because within five years, he said he hopes that WAER will broadcast for the local cable TV stations with a variety of music formats.
Anderson said, however, that the record library is not of primary importance.
"I'm up to my neck in alligators and other things" Anderson said. "The records are one of my least worries."
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Last Modified October 14, 2005 |