ALYSSA BUMP
Staff Writer
Right now, WNYF’s station is empty, and it will be for the rest of the semester. What a great way to celebrate their 40-year anniversary.
It seems like it is nearly impossible for the station to put out content during these unprecedented times. There is no crew, no access to the station and no campus life to report on.
Despite these circumstances, the station’s programming director, Carl Aldinger, is working hard to put out content that displays the history of the station.
Aldinger posted a YouTube video on WNYF Television’s channel, titled “A message from our Programming Director.”
Aldinger starts the video out by thanking everyone who has worked at the station this past semester.
“I’m disappointed it had to end like this,” he said.
Looking toward the future, there won’t be any new content for the rest of the semester.
Although this may be disappointing, there is some great content to look forward to.
Aldinger is going to upload archive tapes that the station has been working diligently to digitalize.
There is almost 400 hours of content Aldinger and the previous programming director have worked to digitalize during the past year.
This won’t be the only content the station will be putting out. Aldinger is also working on editing videos that were sent by alumni explaining their time at the station.
But this is a lot for one person to manage.
In fact, Aldinger said in the video, “Obviously, since I’m not at the station anymore, as you can tell, I have to edit, no joke, 400 hours of footage all from home on my laptop.”
Unfortunately, no one else can really help.
Aldinger said, “There’s just not a feasible way to collaborate and have them actually see what I’m doing.”
Despite the amount of work this will be, Aldinger seems determined to put out content.
The first archived tape, titled “1980-1981 Shows and Promos” was posted to their YouTube channel on April 7.
It is the earliest tape from the station that exists.
Aldinger said, “Things have changed and escalated so much that it is impossible to produce new stuff.”
Although this is true, posting archived tapes for the 40 year anniversary of the station seems fitting.
These tapes allow the viewer to go back in time and view the station’s history.
The station has changed a lot since the beginning.
It started out in a closet in McEwen without any funding and there wasn’t even a broadcasting major at the time. The station then resided in Jewett Hall for 20 years. It was relocated again to Mason and again to Hendrix, where it is today.
Aldinger says, “The station’s history is so important because it’s something that has defined hundreds of students’ experiences at Fredonia.”
He even refers to WNYF as the, “Heartbeat of their college experience.”
This type of content is geared more towards alumni, but Aldinger is more concerned with making content he’s proud of.
He said, “I’m still editing this footage together because I feel like I owe it to current members and myself, but to the alumni especially.”
Not only did alumni send in videos explaining their experience at Fredonia, but some of them were even interviewed.
The alumni videos were planned long before Fredonia changed to distance learning.
Because of the sudden change and the loss of access to resources that are in the station, this project will take longer than anticipated.
But Aldinger says that the alumni are not concerned because, “The payoff of seeing the history of the station laid out in front of them should be worth it.”