Prior to the annual spring elections, e-board members of Keene State’s student-run radio station WKNH was worried about the future of their organization.
“We got really nervous,” WKNH Event Coordinator Ryan Stone said. “We had a music director position that was empty, we had our PR person also quit. So we’ve been in this weird ‘I don’t really know where we’re going to be at’ state.”
WKNH had to fill six positions to make up for previous empty positions and roles that would be vacant after the current senior executive board members graduate.
“Everyone let out a deep breath when the whole e-board got elected,” Stone said. “The people that just got elected in are [mostly] sophomores, so they’ve got some longevity which is nice.”
According to Stone, one of the biggest losses the organization had was when their General Manager Christopher Perfetto quit last semester and the current General Manager Trevor Adams had to move up from his position of Assistant General Manager, leaving that role vacant up until the recent election.
“It’s been crazy, especially since Chris left, that put us at a point where we were not really sure,” Stone said. “Luckily we’re recovering very well from it, but it could have also ended up being really bad.”
Stone said the time commitment of being an executive board member contributed to the delay in getting the positions filled.
“We have a lot of dedicated members, but not everyone wants to be on the e-board, that’s a big time commitment,” Stone said. “E-board has to do eight to 10 hours of office hours every week and some people just don’t have eight to 10 hours every week, or more depending on the position.”
Another obstacle that weighed down the shoulders of the members at WKNH was the silencing of music live-streaming due to soundboard maintenance and waiting for a new one to arrive.
“I got to use [the new soundboard] for the first time today because I haven’t had my show in like three weeks,” Stone said.
Stone added the old soundboard was sent for maintenance because it got damaged.
“We have rules where people aren’t allowed to eat or drink anything in the studio, for obvious reasons there’s a lot of expensive equipment in there,” Stone said. “Over time, people have broken those rules and the buttons got sticky, the sliders stopped working, we just replaced that board less than a year ago.”
According to Stone, the previous soundboard will be fixed to become a recording board to do live on-air concerts in addition to the events Stone has planned for the rest of the semester.
“We have an event on Saturday, April 27, outdoor concert, weather permitting,” Stone said. “So far one band is definite, not going to say who but there’s supposed to be another one [too].”
Senior and Station Manager Anna Bertolino said she feels confident the organization is in a good place for when she graduates.
“A few of them have shown interest and shown up for our events and stuff so it’s really cool to see them take that extra leap of involvement, I’m excited for these people to be on the e-board for next year,” Bertolino said. “We are so back and it’s looking good for next year as far as WKNH having some great news.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
