Campus Broadcaster Profile
Saint Leo University - WSLU Radio
WSLU Radio - Saint Leo, Fl
Radio not only has the power to entertain, but to educate students and introduce them into the world of communications and media. Florida's Saint Leo University has harnessed the power of Part 15 radio broadcasting with WSLU Radio, its campus-limited radio station.
"Originally in the fall of 1945 with the establishment of "WLEO", a two watt station transmitting on 1200 "Kilocycles" on the dial. The operation continued through 1947. However more recently, WSLU on 1620 KHz was started in the Spring of 2008", says John Mouw, who is the Manager of Media Services and Classroom Technology for the university and serves as technical advisor for the campus station.
The university is in a rural setting, so the station serves not only as a recreational outlet for its students, but it allows students to learn about the technical background of a station's operation. When asked if the station was created to be part of the school's curriculum, Mouw replied "Not originally, but students and faculty have used the station as part of Communications program here at Saint Leo."
The on-campus AM signal is transmitted using a Hamilton Rangemaster transmitter located on the roof of the university's library. The station's programming can also be heard on the campus television system in addition to a companion web stream.
Station operation is overseen by two of the faculty and one campus staffer. The number of students involved in the station at any one time varies from term to term. Student participation includes those who are from abroad, with one example being Charla-Maye Cooper. Mouw notes that Cooper "... is one of our international students who hails from Jamaica."
Mouw stated "As we are beginning our new term we have six students, but as time progresses this will increase as we work this into the Federal Work Study Program. Last term the station had several campus produced shows that involved a large number of students as both hosts and guests."
In addition, the station covers many on-campus activities. "As part of Saint Leo's Guest Speaker Program, we air live and archive whenever we can for later broadcast. We also air fun things like Valentine's Day dedications with live phone line feeds."
Station operation is sustained thanks to some amount of funding through the school's operational budget, but this is also supplemented with donations.
Mouw defines the station format as Variety/Alternative/Information. "As you know, Saint Leo University is a Catholic institution so the station reflects our Core Values of Excellence, Community, Respect, Personal Development, Responsible Stewardship and Integrity. That being said, along with our music mix, we feature programs such as "Listen Up" a weekly devotional that revolves around God's word, "Kontention," a thirty minute discussion about issues confronting or society, and other campus produced shows. Naturally we have the regular, time and temperature and news at the top of the hour from VOA."
The station is well equipped to produce programming both in-studio as well as remotely. The station operates using a pair of Lenovo PC's, one for production and one for the internet stream. On-air audio is played using the Zara Studio automation while production audio is edited using the popular Adobe Audition software. The station uses a Mackie DFX-12 audio mixer as well as a pair of Electro-Voice RE-20 microphones. The audio is processed with a Behringer DSP-9024 multi-band processor as well as the Inovonics 222 AM audio processor. Lastly, the Barix Instreamer/Exstreamer 100 is utilized as the studio-transmitter link.
While the station serves the students quite well, there is interest in pursuing a full power terrestrial station. "When the filing window comes open for 10 watt LPFM, you can be sure we will be filing!"
Mouw is particularly proud of the personal accomplishment of getting the station off the ground. He wraps it up simply with "I do the tech work, they run the station"
We'd like to thank John Mouw for his assistance for the behind-the-scenes look at the campus station.
WSLU Radio Picture Tour
