As part of The Big Green and Spartanedge’s series on “The State of State’s Media,” TBG Editor in Chief Emily Lawler sat down with Impact 89 FM Station Manger Jeremy Whiting. Read on or take a listen for Whiting’s words on how Impact is evolving, student tax dollars at use and what he thought of the first editorial in this series.

Jeremy Whiting, Impact 89 FM station manager.

Q. So my first question is that Impact’s the Michigan Association of Broadcasters College Radio Station of the year for like, a million years running?

A. Ah, something like that, I think its ten years now we’ve won it.

Q. So you guys have a huge variety of programming, lots of different DJs, you get tax dollars but everybody likes you… what’s your secret?

A. I don’t know if there’s one secret to probably a large amount of people liking us, but definitely I think our organizational structure has something to do with it. We bring in a lot of student volunteers, we look for diverse programming, we take a lot of listener feedback into what we play, I think all that plays into it.

Q. And so as far as student tax dollars go, you guys get three dollars?

A. That’s right. Each semester every student on campus pays a three-dollar tax for the radio station. Now that’s part of the big larger grouping that you know is taken out for ASMSU and The State News and some of the other things like that. But ours is only three dollars, it’s never raised more than three dollars, and it’s refundable too so if students feel like they would rather not support us that’s fine too, they can always come and get a refund.

Q. So do a lot of students generally come to your office to get refunds?

A. Not too often, actually. Probably about each semester out of the thousands and thousands of students on campus probably only about, I’d say anywhere from 10 to 25 students actually come in to get the refund.

Q. So one of the things we’re examining in our series of editorials here is that The State News has a non-competition policy. Do you guys have anything that’s comparable?

A. Not really. For us there aren’t any other student radio stations on campus besides us. There’s WKAR, which is an NPR affiliate, which does something completely different than us. But a lot of times you’ll see people on the air that are doing stuff for maybe TV stations in the area or other radio stations in the area, but it’s not discouraged by any means for what we’re doing.

Q. So how is your institution not crumbling? The State News is terrified of letting anyone write for more than one publication and say it’s gonna drive competition through the roof, we’re going to turn into the next media battleground!

A. First off the station at least in my mind I know we’re not a news organization so that maybe makes the rules for us a little different, you know, so I can’t really speak to how State News does that. But for us, because we don’t cover news because we don’t have a lot of people going out and reporting, we do have some but that’s not our primary focus. You know our focus you know for that sort of thing. We do have some talk shows in the evening from 7 to 8 p.m., our Exposure series, so that could kind of be considered like that.

For the most part we’re playing music. We’re doing a little bit of talk programming, we see it as a launch pad for bigger and better things at the Impact, you know we think it’s great, it’s recognized statewide and even nationally as a great program but we find it kind of as a launching board. But I guess maybe it’s just a different philosophy and we haven’t run into any problems with it really. Our staffing issues haven’t really come up, we’ve been pretty consistent you know, at least the years that I’ve been there.

Q. And you don’t pay regular DJs but you pay directors?

A. That’s right. So our staff’s structured any MSU student who comes in who wants to be a DJ, awesome, great! You don’t have to have any training, prior experience, we take you through everything show you what to do. And all those DJs are volunteers. So everyone you hear on air 24/7, they’re volunteer DJs, they’re just doing it for the fun of it.

Now we do have a small staff of directors, about 10 directors, and they oversee each individual department. So we have a music director that sifts through the hundreds of CDs we get in each week and listens to them and figures which ones of these should be recommended for airplay. So that’s a huge job, that’s more more above and beyond the call of duty, so they get paid a little. Someone who’s doing the promotions for the station gets paid some, I get paid a little to oversee all the operations 24/7. So those positions are paid slightly, but you know it’s not even that much. But it’s a decent amount to help us as we’re going through school. But for the most part we have I think 45 air shifts throughout a week and they’re all volunteer.

Q. And what would you consider your relationship to other campus media? I will say that I did call in and they told me they were huge Big Green fans, to Exposure.

A. Ha ok, must have been Emily Fox, our exposure director and Exposure host. Um, you know, to be truthful it depends on the staff at the time not only of the radio station but also the other forms of media. We’ve had other articles we’ve participated in with The Big Green and stuff, which has been great. State News we’ve had great articles too, where we’ve talked with them.

We used to have a yearly softball game, kind of like a fun rivalry which is some years and is not other years depending on how riled up our staffs get and our schedules and stuff. So some staffs kind of get competitive with the others, some kinda don’t care. Right now we seem to be in the situation where we’re just kind of friendly with everyone and I like that. But I think there’s also something to be said for having some competition and trying to outdo each other, so it’s good to kind of see it swing both ways sometimes.

Q. So in the journalism school right now and I’m sure elsewhere, there’s a lot of talk about traditional media being kind of re-worked. And I’ll give the example of the local radio station The Edge which kind of went off the air, came back with no DJs or very few DJs, barebones, and what’s keeping Impact alive aside from tax dollars? What innovative programs are you coming up with?

A. I think a lot of it is, the heart of it is the students. Without the students so committed to the station we’d be in the same spot as the edge. Anyone can play music on the air, that’s not a big deal. In The Edge’s case they have a cool playlist, I enjoy listening to it, but they don’t have any DJs, you’re not getting that local connection besides the ads you hear on the air. So I think that’s something the DJs are able to offer.

You heard them this last weekend talking about the final four how we’re in it somehow, it’s great but you don’t get that local content just by listening to basically an iTunes playlist. Anyone can do that, so I think where we’re unique is that we offer some music selection, I think people have an idea that ‘I love listening to my iPod I’ll just play what I want,’ but your iPod runs out after a while, you know? So we do have a whole music review staff that sifts through all the new music and recommends things you might like, you know ‘if you like this, this might be cool.’ We have talk programming that’s relevant for the area. So I think that’s something that sets us apart.

Q. Well that was my last question, but is there anything else you want to go over?

A. No, well I liked your editorial, it’s good to see some bounce-back of that stuff, I’m not sure, it’s a weird dilemma that people are in. I can see The State News’s side and I can see The Big Green’s side and other forms of campus media because it is hard with one dominant publication and they have a non-compete clause, but so many others out there too that are good quality publications I can see both sides.

It’s interesting how it will all shake out I think with you know, online media and other, broadcast media dipping into the waters that print has traditionally been a part of. The line is very very grey and shady and it’s hard to figure out sometimes what makes one publication a competitor and one not at all what you’re doing. I think things are converging, they’re really starting to get that way, and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out pretty soon.

Michigan State University is a diverse campus with more than 47,000 people who have different backgrounds, interests and demands when it comes to their news.

Are those demands really being met?

Spartanedge and The Big Green are online publications that contribute to the diversity and vibrancy of campus, and we are greatly concerned by a historic loss of talent to The State News. Spartanedge and The Big Green cover a variety of issues The State News does not adequately represent. We provide a place for writers of magazine-length pieces and producers of innovative multimedia to showcase their abilities and tell the stories of MSU. We don’t see our publications as competition, but the State News is categorizing us as just that, and it’s negatively impacting everyone in the MSU community.

After acquiring our writers and photographers, The State News’ non-competition policy prohibits these students from being a part of multiple and varied publications on campus. We understand it’s impossible for one publication — no matter how many people or how much money it has — to cover everything. That’s where other publications step in to keep the balance of information and enhance the community. By allowing The State News to monopolize the journalism talent at MSU, that balance is lost.

We want to restore the balance, and that’s why we’re openly asking The State News to eliminate their non-competition policy.

Students need to have the freedom to express opinions and communicate ideas – as students, journalists and members of the community. This freedom of expression is a crucial part of the learning experience.

Our contributors learn how to cover varied aspects of university life with a variety of platforms. At The Big Green and Spartanedge, we teach future journalists how to produce and edit photos, graphics, audio and videos for the Web. They could not get all of this experience in one position at The State News. We offer choice and creativity that might be unavailable in a structure like theirs.

Spartanedge and The Big Green consistently contribute to the cycle of information on campus with these varied platforms for storytelling. Since we do not pay our staff and don’t publish daily, we can’t and don’t cover the daily hard news simply because that’s not in our cycle.  In this sense especially, we don’t see either of our publications as competing with The State News. That’s why Spartanedge and The Big Green have collaborated several times.

We recognize the value, as student journalists, of having the maximum amount of published work to show prospective employers. Many internships require proof of such “clips,” and the more publications a candidate has worked with proves their adaptability and diversity of skills. The Big Green and Spartanedge have put on workshops to arm their contributors with the skills necessary to produce quality journalism.

We encourage writers to work for multiple publications and broaden their experience. The Big Green editor-in-chief Emily Lawler has published audio pieces in Spartanedge, and our publications share sophomore Brandon Kirby, who edits the Sex & Health section of The Big Green and the Entertainment & Events section of Spartanedge. He recently earned an internship at City Pulse thanks to his demonstrated ability to produce quality journalism for multiple organizations.

We tried creating an open dialogue with The State News about the issue we have with their policy. When we contacted the editor-in-chief last semester and told her why we were inquiring, she told us their policy does not allow “students to work at or freelance for any competing campus publications or local publications” while employed with The State News. She added they allow “writers to freelance for non-competing publications as long as they have it approved by their desk editor” and the editor-in-chief, but it can be turned down if it is seen as a possible conflict. This semester we contacted the new editor-in-chief, who declined to meet with us.

The policy as both editors have described it seems to be unevenly enforced, as some former writers The Big Green contacted claim that when hired they were asked to drop all association with their previous publications, regardless of topic or section.

A restrictive non-competition policy like the one The State News has isn’t even in practice at publications beyond the campus level. On the surface it is typical, but the atypical part comes in when weekly and monthly publications that focus on multimedia and feature-length writing are considered to compete with a daily newspaper. In their non-competition policy (they call it their Employee Conlflict of Interest Policy) The State News names both the Lansing State Journal and The Big Green as publications their writers cannot publish with. While The Big Green is flattered, it doesn’t consider itself to compare with a professional, daily paper like LSJ.

While Spartanedge is not explicitly named as a competitor, it has clearly been included in the category through other comments that place all campus publications under the umbrella of competition.

Responding to a disclosure of what this editorial would be about, Susan Whitall of The Detroit News said, “In college I think it’s even more important not to limit student journalists from doing things that add to their skill sets.”

MSU Alum Lynn Henning is a sports writer and blogger for The Detroit News and also writes for Hour magazine. There are online examples of his work for The Detroit News and Hour published in April 2008. He clearly wasn’t held back by working for two publications even though they appeal to the same readership. It is the same type of work that can appeal to the same readership base, but it’s presented in a different format and circulated on a different schedule. They make it work at the professional level, so it can work at the campus level.

We would also like to point out that The State News is a corporation explicitly allowed tax rights through the University’s tuition, meaning the University hands The State News money; both Spartanedge and The Big Green are independently funded. Our publications are far more independent than “Michigan State University’s Independent Voice.”

The bottom line is that there has been a negative impact as a result of the transition of writers from independent, student-run groups to the incorporated structure of The State News. In light of all the details, can The State News really claim validity to their non-competition policy? And what role should the University have in this when its Academic Freedom Report claims its basic purposes include “providing the environment most conducive to the many faceted activities of instruction, research and service” … but students are automatically charged $5 on their tuition to support The State News? It doesn’t seem like that money is fostering an environment conducive to supporting students in their learning opportunities.

The State News’ non-competition policy needs to be completely eliminated to comply with University regulations. Simply amending it has not worked in the past and contributors continue to be told that writing for other publications could terminate their employment at The State News.

None of this is an attempt to discredit The State News on any level or create any animosity. We recognize the merits of the publication, and on that same note we feel it is necessary to address what we see as its biggest flaw.

Things need to change.

By allowing journalism students on this campus to learn from multiple organizations, we promote their continued success as MSU graduates. If that’s not the goal of any university community, what is?

Editor’s Note: The Big Green and Spartanedge have teamed up, and are writing a series of editorials on the topic “The State of State’s Media.” A similar version of this can be found here on Spartanedge, and we will be posting the rest of the series soon. This statement is supported by Spartanedge and The Big Green. To see the sections of the Academic Freedom Report (AFR) that support our stance, browse through it for yourself and pay attention to sections 1.2, 1.1, and 6.1.1.