LIVE and ON-AIR

Junior Andrew Grover and sophomores Ilan Weismark and Scott Lipsky enjoy an opportunity many college students dream about. Every Saturday the sport communications majors host a WIUS radio show called "Three Guys who Love Talking Sports." And now that WIUS is switching from AM to FM, more people in the community will have the opportunity to listen to them.\n"(FM will) help increase interest in the station," Grover said. "Not enough people know it exists. There are too many shows that people work hard on. AM can't even be compared."\nStation manager and senior marketing major Jason Gucwa said switching to WIUS FM 100.3 will give the station a huge capability to reach more people. \n"Hopefully it will build our population with students and workers," he said. "It'll bring people in to dedicate more time (to the station). The people we'll be able to reach is far and above the people we reach right now."\nWeismark said currently the station only broadcasts half a mile from the Main Library and is often difficult to pick up. Under the new permit, he said, the air waves will reach three and a half miles from the library. He added that it's possible to listen from the Web site, www.wius.org, but only 32 people can listen at a time. The new permit will maximize listeners. Lipsky, the third member of the radio show, is also an Indiana Daily Student employee.\nNow that the station has received the permit, it is up to the workers to make the station fit Federal Communications Commission specifications. Gucwa said the station will have to raise about $30,000 to cover the expenses of buying new equipment and testing it. Once the FCC approves the station, it will receive its official permit. Gucwa said the workers are hoping to have the station up and running by the beginning of the fall term. \nGucwa said WIUS, which, according to its Web site, is entirely student-run and airs 24 hours, 7 days a week, has been hoping to receive a low-power FM construction permit from the FCC for 40 years, and the station is just now receiving it. He said there's a lengthy application process, and because so many stations like WIUS want these permits, it's a waiting game to see who receives one.\nGucwa said the FCC ruled two years ago that WIUS and a woman in Bloomington -- who Gucwa said didn't have radio background but would start a radio station if she received a permit -- would share an FM permit, alternating its usage every four years.\nHe said the station then went into FCC courts to have the ruling changed. WIUS won its case and received a permit after the FCC changed its licensing criteria.\n"It didn't make sense," he said. "The FCC is the FCC; they do what they want and we're just grateful to have (a permit) now."\nHowever, with the FCC permit comes FCC regulations. According to www.fcc.gov, it is illegal to broadcast obscene programming at any time and to broadcast indecent programming during certain hours. The commission enforces these laws and can revoke licenses, impose fines or issue warnings if they are broken.\nCurrently, the station has a list of seven words that DJs cannot say on air. With the switch, the station will have to enforce rules more strictly.\nGucwa said FM is "the big time" and a listener filing a complaint about an on-air slipup could lead to a $10,000 fine.\n"Cuss words are a huge deal, especially with indecency laws," he said. "We're stepping into the real ballgame, there are a lot more chances something you say could get on someone's bad side."\nGucwa said the station might not be able to bounce back from a fine of that magnitude without alumni support or donations from listeners.\nGucwa added that individual DJs are going to responsible for their own shows, and any fine will be that DJ's problem.\n"We're trying to provide students with a learning experience," he said. "They'll have to take responsibility because that's what we have to do."\nWhile the regulations are something the DJs have to worry about when on-air, right now they are just eager to switch.\n"The transition has been in the works for 40 years," added Gucwa, who is graduating in May and said he wishes he had another year here to experience FM radio. "A lot of people are excited; it's a huge milestone. Hopefully everyone else will be into it."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Stephanie Susman at ssusman@indiana.edu.