WXJM set to move off Main

Nathan Chiantella / senior photographer Sophomores Steven Stobble and Ian Howden hit the air in the WXJM studio located in Anthony Seeger Hall.

The two radio stations on campus, WXJM and WMRA, will make the move to a location off campus this summer.

The stations will be moving to their new location in a building behind the CVS near Reservoir Street, senior WXJM general manager Carissa Pape said.

"The university has been planning our move for years," Pape said.

Tom DuVal, general manager of WMRA and WXJM advisor, said the move stems from a now abandoned plan to demolish Anthony-Seeger Hall in order to provide space for a new theater and dance performance center.

"Since then they have decided not to," DuVal said. "[But when] Anthony-Seeger was on the chopping block … they needed to move everybody out."

DuVal said that the new location will be a step up from the previous studio, as it will have a bigger room for doing live performances, an additional control room and will allow staff more flexibility.

He added that his greatest concern was for the safety of students who have to work shifts in the middle of the night.

"It’s fairly well-lighted coming from the Village or from Hillside," DuVal said. "Then there’s areas where I think it’s not as well-lighted as it could be."

Junior WXJM programming manager Jess Woodward said that WXJM operates on a points system, through which volunteers get to pick their shows based on how much work they have done around the station.

"For a freshman or a new volunteer who doesn’t come into the station with any points, they often get pushed to the middle-of-the-night time slots," Woodward said.

Woodward said because the new location is off-campus, JMU police and campus cadets will not be available to assist students on their way to work at the radio station.

Due to safety issues, WXJM staff is considering taking the 24-hour station off the air between 2 and 6 a.m., Woodward said. "It’s somewhat depressing to have to give up the fact that we are one of the few 24-hour student-run stations out there," she said.

Woodward said that current WXJM managers were not aware of the radio station’s move, not because the university was pulling a "sneak attack" on them, but because past managers did not inform them.

Woodward said there are advantages to moving to the new location, and she is looking forward to the new location’s clean, professional appearance, and that the university has promised to fulfill the station’s requests such as a card reader for added security.

"Finally, we’ll have parking for all of our deejays, and we’re getting more office and studio space," she said.