Power to the People

I'm sure many of you have stumbled upon this MySpace page, entitled WUOG, Please Stop Sucking. If you read the comments on Mailclerk's AthFest post last week, you'll remember there was some debate over what many feel has been the steady decline of quality at WUOG. Take a look at the below petition (care of WUOGPSS), and if you agree, please feel free to sign it at the MySpace site. If you don't agree, please feel free to elaborate in the comments - we love it when people comment. (Disclaimer: TheDayjobs didn't create WUOGPSS's page, although we do endorse the effort.)

WUOG: Please Stop Sucking

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that WUOG 90.5 FM, the student radio station at the University of Georgia, please take immediate measures to stop sucking. In a town world-famous for its music scene, there is no excuse for a radio station to have declined as badly as WUOG has in recent years. Below is a list of recommendation we as listeners, musicians, club-goers, and club-owners would like for the stations staff, faculty advisor and on-air personalities to consider and implement as soon as possible:

1. Please stop the dead air. It takes eight three-hour shifts to fill up a 24 hour broadcast day. How hard is that?

2. An aggressive effort needs to be made to recruit more diverse, more enthusiastic and more eclectic on-air talent. This will go a long way towards remedying item ..1.

3. PSAs should actually be about something. Public Service Announcements are a means of preserving the stations non- profit status and serve the additional purpose of being a service to the community. In recent years WUOGs PSAs have devolved into low comedy, serving virtually no purpose other than as a vehicle for inside jokes. More PSAs that are actually a service to the public and less stupid jokes. Example: More about Nuci's Space and less about chocolate milk.

4. Back announce! This is the only public exposure some bands/musicians ever get. Tell the people what they just heard so they can go buy the music.

5. Less "Um" and "Uh" and more music. Try training On Air staff for this.

6. Bring back the top-notch specialty shows. Having trouble staffing them? Try using local musicians for hosts. Greg Reece was the best Dirt Roads and Honky Tonks host ever. More of that, please. Also, what happened to the Modern Orchestral Music show? The World Music Show? The Folk Show? The Blues Show? The Reggae Show?

7. More local music in regular rotation. Athens Music is hugely popular on college radio stations all over the country. Why not here?

8. That April Fools Day thing where you pretend to change the format to Musical Theater and commercial alternative (or classic rock or whatever)? Thats so stupid. Quit it.

9. Finally, while no one expects college radio to be as professional as commercial radio, it would be nice if it didnt suck. Please, stop sucking.