Out Of Rotation

WUSC’s recent popularity among students leads to the cancellation of alumni shows

By Timothy Allen Conklin

Mark Lyvers sits in his upstairs den, where one wall is lined by custom-made racks holding the better part of his extensive collection of albums and CDs. He hoists a Coors in his right hand, which is marked by a dime-sized blister that stands as evidence of the renovations he is making to his Red Bank home.

“I’ve been doing a lot of this,” Lyvers says. Not of the drinking, but of the renovations. And since Feb. 17, when his “Uncle Gram’s Red Bank Bar and Grill” radio program was removed from WUSC’s lineup, the only discs he’s been spinning on Saturdays have been attached to power saws and sanders.

“It’s an empty feeling. It’s a void in my life,” Lyvers, a commercial truck driver by trade, says of losing the show. “I loved traveling down the road Monday through Friday listening to CDs and putting the show together in my head, writing things down on legal pads. I miss it already. It’s too much fun to give up.”

“Uncle Gram’s Red Bank Bar and Grill” had been a constant presence Saturday mornings on WUSC, the college radio station of the University of South Carolina, since May of 1997. Lyvers -- or “Uncle Gram,” as his fans know him --attended USC from 1978 to 1982, and had developed a loyal fan base for his country-flavored show that highlighted both older artists and the new wave of musicians that have been termed “Americana” or “roots rock.”

Lyvers’ and two other alumni programs in WUSC’s lineup were pulled in mid-February by the station’s executive staff after being directed to do so by the school administration. The station, which had trouble filling slots as recently as two years ago, has become so popular that students are angling for airtime. And since the station is a student organization, students, faculty and staff members are given first priority, as mandated by both the school’s constitution and that of the station.

“I can understand that,” Lyvers says of the decision. “The only thing I really have a problem with is with the timing. I think they could’ve handled things better, maybe waited until after the semester [to remove the alumni programs], or did it before the semester started.”

It’s a sentiment shared by alumnus Bill Cunningham, who had filled the 6-8 a.m. Wednesday slot with a syndicated public affairs program. (DJ Rob McQue’s Tuesday afternoon techno program was the other casualty.) “I think they had every right to do what they did,” Cunningham says of the station’s decision, “but I think they handled it very poorly. They should have done this at the beginning of the semester, before we went to the trouble of preparing shows.”

Lyvers also points out that there are times available (albeit in the early morning hours) that have yet to be filled by programming. “There’s been a lot of dead air the last week,” Lyvers says. “ I get up early, four or five o’clock. They tell me there’s so many people wanting slots, but there’s nothing there when I wake up.

“It seems they could’ve kept it on until they had full [24-hour] coverage.”

Taylor Marshall-Green can be excused for being a little uptight. For one, he just recently quit smoking. More importantly, as WUSC station manager, he’s been under siege for the past two weeks. “It’s been pretty crazy,” he says of the e-mails and phone calls he’s fielded since the decision to remove alumni programming -- a decision mandated by school policy, but one with which he strongly disagrees.

“If it was up to me, we’d set aside a percentage of airtime for alumni,” he says. “I think they’re an asset to the station, but the university doesn’t see it that way. There’s not a lot I can do.”

Marshall-Green argues that the alumni jocks served as role models and mentors for students new to radio, and helped raise the programming quality of the station. “Everyone’s been focusing on Mark, but this is about more than that,” he says. “We should have a percentage of airtime for alumni because of the example they set, and we want this radio station to be good.”

As for the dead air issue, Marshall-Green says the station is filling the slots as students complete training, and he hopes to have the remaining hours (less than 10, he says) filled by week’s end.

Marshall-Green says that the majority of students working at the station wanted to see alumni programming retained, and that he fought to keep the three alumni programs on the air. The decision, he says, has had a demoralizing effect at the station. “It definitely has. It’s been a crappy two weeks,” he says. “It’s been pretty disheartening.”

Especially disheartening, according to Marshall-Green, has been the sentiment voiced by some callers and e-mail correspondents that the station isn’t worthy of community support if its primary mission is to serve USC students. “Why not support us? Money’s not why the students are here,” he says agitatedly. “We do have a relationship with the community, but in the end, we’re students, we’re amateurs, and we’re not making the decision.

“Our hands are tied, and it’s the administration that has that rope.”

Clair DeLune is not happy at the moment, but it’s not WUSC or the school’s administration that is the source of her displeasure.

She feels that her support of Lyvers and her desire to see him back on the air -- if not at WUSC, then possibly on state educational radio -- has been misconstrued by the media and by some WUSC supporters as open dissent.

“It seems some people have missed the entire point,” she says animatedly over lunch at Tiffany’s Café and Bakery. “There is no argument with WUSC. None. Both Uncle Gram and I have said that we love WUSC, and that we want people to continue to support WUSC.”

DeLune, a USC staff member and adjunct faculty member, has been host of “The Blues Moon with Clair DeLune” for 11 years -- the longest-running program currently on the station. She befriended Lyvers during his time at the station, and has begun a letter-writing campaign in the hope of finding a new home for his program. Still, she’s surprised that reaction to the removal of Lyvers’ program has been so strong.

“Naturally, in a perfect world, things would have remained as they were,” she says, “but in the real world, things change. ... I saw the potential for a lot of flak, but I didn’t think it would be so vehement.”

She agrees with the administration that WUSC exists primarily for the students of USC, and she’s encouraged by the enthusiasm and interest they have shown.

“Every year, the students have become more and more dedicated to the station,” she says, “and there’s a real esprit de corps that’s developed. We’re thrilled that more people want to come on.”

Ted Sbardella is not happy either, but WUSC and the school’s administration are most definitely the source of his displeasure.

“It is a college radio station, but they ask us [the community] for support,” explains Sbardella, who is neither a student nor an alumnus of USC. “They need us. ... They owe us a little bit more of a voice.”

Sbardella is an avid fan of Uncle Gram’s show, but his devotion to the show goes deeper than mere fandom. He says Lyvers’ show helped him through one of the most painful times of his life -- the prenatal death of his daughter in 1999. His loyalty to Lyvers and his show have led him to embark on a letter-writing campaign of his own to have Lyvers’ program, and those of the other two displaced alumni DJs, returned to WUSC’s lineup.

“They [the alumni] worked hard to help pull that station out of the morass,” Sbardella says, alluding to the rebuilding process that took place after an administrative campaign against the station’s leadership led to the complete shutdown of the station for two months during the 1995-96 school year. “They helped build it back up. And so what I’d like to see is more community involvement, and maybe just four slots set aside to be filled at the station’s discretion by alumni and community members.”

Hootie and the Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan, a former WUSC jock, agrees that some sort of special consideration should be made for alumni DJs, especially those who helped in the rebuilding process. “In a normal situation at college radio, I definitely think that students should have the first right of refusal,” Bryan says. “But in this case, because the alumni have given so much support [to WUSC] over the years, I think they should be considered.”

Sbardella says that what he liked best about Lyvers’ program was that “it was for adults. So much of what’s on the air nowadays is geared towards kids, and that show [“Uncle Gram’s”] was really an adult show, played by an adult for adults.”

He also questions the wisdom of removing alumni programming to make room for students. “What if there were 400 kids wanting to get on the air?” he asks. “What then? If the goal of the station is to educate these students, the best education they can get is by working alongside alumni.”

“I think the case can be made [for alumni as mentors],” says Russ McKinney, USC director of public affairs, “but clearly when students have a priority on time slots at a student station, that’s how it’s going to fall out, for the most part. Clearly, you can listen to the station off-campus, but it is a student station.”

Free Times had originally scheduled an interview with Ellen Parsons, USC’s director of student media. That interview was cancelled by Parsons due to illness. When an attempt was made to reschedule the interview, Parsons declined. “On this issue, I’m just forwarding everything to Russ McKinney,” she said. She then added, “I don’t see anything changing. I think it’s a dead issue.”

“It is a student station,” McKinney says repeatedly in a clean baritone that reflects his own radio experience. (He narrates “Carolina Minute” on the South Carolina Educational Radio Network.) “It is paid for by the students and operated by the students and for the students.” Fund-raising efforts and corporate underwriting account for less than 10 percent of the station’s budget allowance, according to McKinney, with the majority coming from student activity fees.

But McKinney also is sympathetic to the plight of the alumni DJs. When asked if the alumni, in helping to rebuild the station and its audience in the past half decade, are victims of the very success in which they played a part, he says, “They may well be.”

Ultimately, however, McKinney says the university must serve the needs of the students first and foremost.

“People need to sit back and realize that this is a student station,” he says. “That’s why it’s there, that’s why it’s on the air, and that’s going to always be its priority. I think one of the pressures that you have is that Columbia does not have a pure public broadcasting station. We have South Carolina Educational Radio [Network, or SCERN], but that’s not really public radio, as it’s known today, so that puts even more pressure on the students.”

Lyvers is already planning a return of sorts. He’ll be on the air again for the next two Saturdays (as the majority of students head out of town on spring break), and he plans to do shows on WUSC this summer, provided he’s invited.

He’s also working on a demo tape for a potential show he may pitch to SCERN. As for any efforts by individuals or groups to have his show restored to WUSC’s lineup, Lyvers thinks they’ll be for naught.

“Their hearts are in the right place, but I don’t think it will accomplish anything,” he explains. “The policy is there, and they’re [the administration] going to enforce it.

“I think it’s time to move on. It was fun while it lasted. I’ve met some great people, local artists, national artists. I’ve made some great friendships. The students have been great, and most of them fought for my show. I don’t have any regrets or animosity. But I will miss it.”