Ramsey Kincannon
News Editor
WOO 91 has been selected by The Princeton Review as the ninth most popular college radio station in the country, beating out schools like Stanford University, Denison University and Carlton College. Though proud of the honor, general manager Jason Weingardt ’12 and the rest of the WOO 91 staff didn’t want to rest on those laurels. Vigorously trying to increase listenership in the community, across the country and around the world, the staff has been getting new music in addition to diversifying and increasing their programming. This effort has been recognized by a chapter of “iHeart Radio,” a Clear Channel company, who has signed a contract with the station to broadcast Woo91 on their downloadable app and online stream.
iHeart Radio, which has “identified WOO 91 as one of the top college stations across the country,” according to Digital Coordinator Samantha Brown, has agreed to send a high-quality audio server to WOO 91 in order to assist with the additional online streaming. Weingardt raves about the device, saying that there is a “much better sound card [with] much better audio-fidelity,” especially compared with the current server, “which is a little outdated, though it’s still reliable.” In exchange for the new server, WOO 91 will now be broadcasted across the country through iHeart.com, the iHeart app (which is available on the iPhone, Droid and other similar smartphones), and even Ford Vehicles, which have added the iHeart app to their newest line of cars.
“It’s certainly a big deal. That’s pretty cool,” said Weingardt. “People will be able to listen to WOO 91 in Montana, San Francisco … there are no limits anymore.” Many are concerned, though, with the potential influence of Clear Channel, which has received a string of criticism for their reluctance to create and maintain new local programming. A local letter to the editor in a recent edition of The Daily Record accused the parent company of iHeart of “swallowing up” WCWS. Weingardt emphatically denied that would happen, saying “we’ll still be doing the same community services that we’re required to offer [and] that we enjoy doing, such as Wooster Sports, community programing, local interviews, things that we’re required to do by the FCC license … we’re not changing anything on that front. We’re still remaining local to Wooster.”
When asked why iHeart chose WOO 91 for their increasing focus on college radio, Weingardt proudly suggested that it was due to WOO 91 being “very laid back … we understand that we’re not professionals. We embrace that ideology … college radio is about being unprofessional, it’s about understanding individuality in regards to radio. That’s what we do.”