A Tribute to a Work in Progress: Reflections of an old GM

Hello all,

This will be my final post as General Manager for OWU Radio here. Having begun the previous year with high expectations and hopes for our station, I can say to start off this post that the word to describe my feelings at this point in time is: proud. We started this journey with not much else but a booth, the right equipment, a shared budget, and support from the staff of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Dept. of Journalism, and not much else. Between the Spring of 2014 to now at the end of the Fall of 2015, OWU Radio has now a staff of around 35 people with 24 shows broadcasting regularly from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday (with a few sprinkling of afternoon shows in the mix between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.).

As GM, I facilitated the creation of the current positions within OWU Radio and set the groundwork for positions to be acquired as we move forward in the future with more shows and longer hours of broadcast. I’ve created the rules and station expectations/policies as well as drafted the contracts along with the applications based on older copies I acquired. I created all the docs, updated the website, help set up the archiving of our shows, and created many of the pages you can visit on this website today. I helped to promote the station and encourage people to join the OWU Radio staff no matter the major nor the background in broadcasting and also no matter the content of your show (within reason, of course). To this end, OWU Radio has a strong, tall foundation and is prepared to go forward in the future even without me at the helm directing it.

But I haven’t been alone. In my time as General Manager, I have been blessed with the full and complete support of Ohio Wesleyan University’s Department of Journalism and, in particular, Professor Paul Kostyu and Jo Ingles, our media adviser. None of this would have been possible without their advocacy for the radio, their support of the students, and their constant willingness to give advice and suggestion when it was and is needed. The radio as an entity on this campus would have continued to be “dead air” if not for them and their push to bring it back.

In this same subject, I must also personally thank David Soliday, our Chief Engineer, whose knowledge and help with the technological running of our station has been instrumental in keeping it functioning properly and smoothly. Next up is Catie Kocian, our promotions director, who created a new ad policy for our station in coordination with the business managers of the Transcript and also has helped with promoting the wider station to the members of the OWU Community. Through her help, we can now begin to acquire advertisers and broadcast their ads over the “web-waves.” Lastly of course, there is the staff and the listeners to thank. Without the staff, there wouldn’t be a radio program and we wouldn’t have any product to give people and without the listeners, there would be no point in having a radio program. Taken all together, myself and this station have truly been blessed since kickstarting this station back online again (and this time, I hope, permanently).

With all this, I would like to personally publish my official welcoming and my pleasure to formally announce that Gopika Nair is now the radio station’s new General Manager and Izzy Sommerdorf is our station’s new Program Director. I have complete confidence in their abilities to continue moving the radio station in a positive direction and to further growth in multiple areas. Welcome to you both and I know you will do well by this station and its staff.

It’s bittersweet to leave this position and end my term as GM. I am saddened that I won’t be GM anymore, but I am proud of what I accomplished and of what OWU Radio has become. I’m happy to leave OWU Radio in good hands and I’m happy in the fact that I know it will continue and not go off the air again anytime soon. To quote Frank Sinatra:

“And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I’ve traveled each and every highway
But more, much more than this
I did it my way.”

Without further ado, this is the last time I can say: thanks for tuning in with the GM. I hope everyone has a fantastic Winter Break and be sure to check us out again for the Spring Semester!

Signing off for the last time as GM,

Conor Golden … fmr. General Manager of OWU Radio

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