91.3 KCPR, Cal Poly’s student-run radio station, could be sold away from the campus following a fundraising promotion in which two male student DJs offered to sell photos of their genitals. Mustang news already gave their name so I'll just give that link here. Cal Cost News covered it as well here, Campus reform.org, Huffington Post and a slew of other sites. In other words this was the proverbial shit storm. Radio DJs are attention-seekers.. but sometimes as an amateur you can become accustomed to having none, and operating under the assumption that "no one is listening." Per Murphy's law this is never true when you need it to be. It began with an April 21st facebook post from the program Getting It In:
“For only $20 dollars, you can have a week of sexy snapchats featuring the hosts of Getting It In! If you’ve ever been curious if which one of us has a birthmark on our penis or which one of us has a tighter butthole, this is your chance to find out!”They have taken down their facebook page, closed their shared Google Docs, deleted their Soundcloud account, Mixcloud account. Nothing remains online but cached data. The chair of the Cal Poly Journalism Department, Mary Glick who is ultimately responsible for KCPR has started an investigation. As a result the 46-year old station is now in mortal danger. University spokesperson Matt Lazier said the following:
“Journalism Department and College of Liberal Arts administrators are investigating the matter to learn the full extent of the facts and determine whether administrative and/or programmatic changes should be made to the KCPR operation. As well, university administration is investigating the matter to determine if any student conduct violations may have occurred.”
the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Douglas Epperson, was even more to the point: “I am beginning to believe that we should sell the radio license.” But the problem is that it didn't start with JPEGs of undergrad anus. It began with the show going on air. Early in April they were wearing buttplugs on air and discussing sex shops. I have difficulty believing this was a departure form their regular show format.
However, Epperson himself admitted that he had been aware at least as the beginning of 2014 that there was a behavior problem and a "lack of oversight."In many ways this is comparable to the problems that felled WXPN back in 1975. More here. I see the blame being spread more evenly. In my opinion the most guilty party is the one who was actually charged with being responsible... not the students. Expecting 20-somethings to behave responsibly.. that's highly optimistic.What could possibly go wrong?
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While I have never heard the show in question and I don't mean this fully in the same way as what happened in this case, I think KCPR has been a mess for several years now so I'm not surprised to hear there's a lack of oversight. It would be a shame for the university to sell the license because that's a perfect area where a college station could really thrive under the proper direction.
ReplyDeleteI just have to wonder...even though I think KCPR's overall quality has gone downhill, this is only one truly bad incident. To threaten selling the license makes me wonder if some in the administration have been paying attention to the news about KUSF, WRAS, etc. and now has dollar signs in their eyes.
Still, the lack of oversight with nobody reeling these guys in when the first signs of trouble popped up stuns me. Sure, I pushed the envelope hard and even broke it occasionally during my time on college radio but this should have been common sense...maybe not for a 20-year-old but certainly for any employee of the California State University System that head about guys talking about their butt-plugs on the air.
I speak from experience as well. But I tend to agree... an actual sale is more likely motivated by greed, not exigent circumstances.
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