WU radio station exclusive on campus, online

By Alison Angel

angela@thejohnsonian.com

WINR has been the student voice of Winthrop over the airwaves for years.

Running out of a small studio in Johnson Hall, it is exclusively operated by students and open to all Winthrop students who are interested, regardless of major.

However, while WINR has both a regular online stream on their website WINRfm.com and Winthrop’s channel 99, which is exclusively dedicated to the radio station, they do not have a frequency on the radio.

Winthrop has never had an FM radio station said Haney Howell, mass communication professor and faculty advisor for the radio station. 

He said the school applied for a low-powered FM license 10 years ago, and it appeared the school would get one.  

However, the rules were suddenly changed.  

Previously, if a school could find a frequency on the radio that did not have a station on either side, it could apply for it, Howell said.

“We found a frequency and applied,” Howell said.  “Then, the commercial stations jumped at it because they’re very opposed to this. This is free radio as far as they’re concerned.”

Regardless of frequency, the radio station has always been available within campus from the start.

“There was a radio station here for many years called WCRO and it was on the electrical lines around the college,” Howell said.  “It worked really well until the first hair dryer was invented.  Literally, it wiped the entire station.”

Howell said that because the station does not broadcast on a frequency, it can play a more eclectic blend of music.  

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not regulate the station, but he said they still follow and abide by all the FCC rules.

“It (the station) is the only place left where you can learn the basic skills of running a board, timing out a show and learning to put a (radio) show together,” Howell said.

Caroline DuPree, sophomore broadcast major, is the WINR studio manager.  

DePree enjoys the fact that WINR is strictly on campus and the online stream.

 That way, the studio can be very involved in studio activities, she said.

“I feel like our exposure is good,” DuPree said.  “With online streaming, we are able to reach out to people outside the Rock Hill limits.”

Junior broadcast journalism and psychology major, Kathryn Scott is the general manager for the station. 

Scott agrees that the exposure they get, even without a frequency on the radio, is enough.

“I feel like we get more than enough exposure without the frequency,” Scott said. “It’s a great thing to not be limited to a frequency because I can have my sister in Virginia listen or my friends on campus and that is a whole big spectrum of people we are reaching.”

Students can listen to WINR Sunday through Saturday on WINRfm.com’s live stream or channel 99 on-campus.