The Journal

Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: News

Eleven students were hired to work for Gorlok TV, Webster's student-run television station, in spring 2006. They did work. They turned in time sheets. They thought everything was normal. But they were not paid.

At a Sept. 28 GTV meeting, several members of the staff decided to quit the station because there was not enough money in the School of Communications budget to compensate them. During the meeting, three staff members said they would continue to help the station as volunteers on a regular basis, while others decided to look for work study positions elsewhere.

Previously, GTV students were allowed to complete their allotted work study award. However, as of June 1, 2006, the beginning of the fiscal year, the process for work study budgeting changed. GTV student employees were not paid due to this budgeting discrepancy that neither the dean nor the students could describe in detail.

The salary and work study budgets were combined and now only one budget remains, said Debra Carpenter, dean of the School of Communications.

The 11 students were hired because that's what GTV student managers determined was a sufficient staff to run the station, said Katie McComb, graduate student and former general manager for GTV. McComb and Chris Abreu, a graduate student at Royal Holloway University of London and former GTV station manager, were in charge of the staffing.

"We were not informed of a limit," McComb said, referring to the number of work study employees she and Abreu hired.

She said they hired the same amount of student employees for the 2006-2007 school year as they did for the 2005-2006 school year. McComb said a list was submitted to School of Communications Director Sally Lorino later that spring.

Carpenter said GTV asked for approximately $26,000 to pay employees for the 2006-2007 school year.

"(GTV) only had a certain number of paid positions," Carpenter said, adding she could not determine an exact figure. "I don't know who promised them payment - it wasn't our office."

After weeks of phone calls and e-mails to the dean's office, Brady Koch, a senior broadcast journalism major and general manager for GTV, said he was told the maximum amount of work study money allotted for GTV would be $4,000.

"Originally, we were under the impression that there was no cap," Koch said.

Knowing that wouldn't be enough money to pay the GTV staff members hired through Webster's work study program, Koch sent a proposal to Lorino requesting more money.

"The answer was 'no,'" Koch said. "That figure was concrete, set in stone at $4,000."

Josh Hawkins, a junior filmproduction major, was hired as production coordinator a second year for GTV. When Hawkins was informed of GTV's student employment budget, he decided to leave the station.

"I'll just help out GTV when I can," Hawkins said. "I'll be basically on a volunteer basis whenever I can, but I'm not going to go out of my way like I have before."

Peter Sauvey, a senior film production major, is in his fourth year with GTV. He said the dean's office informed GTV of the allotted work study amount, but not soon enough. However, Sauvey said, while not all of the staff is happy about the amount of work study money issued to the station, GTV has ample funding to operate with a skeleton staff.

"Obviously, the whole money thing is a little bit of an issue - or it was," Sauvey said. "They did give us enough to run the station."

McComb said Sauvey was hired under a different budget than the other 10 student employees.

Carpenter said she would meet with GTV staff Oct. 5 to discuss the money issue.


Limited access

GTV can be viewed on channel 10 on campus and in the Webster Village Apartments, but is not yet available in East and West Halls. New this year in the residence halls, students can watch cable shows on their computer - but GTV is not one of the channels.

Larry Haffner, vice president of information technology, said the equipment needed to make GTV work in the residence halls arrived a few weeks ago, but IT employees had no time to install it.

"We're still trying to get the 26 Charter stations working and stabilized," Haffner said.

He also said adding KGLX The Galaxy, Webster's online radio station, to the list of online cable stations would be easy.

Currently, movies paid for by Residential Life and advertisements are all that air on GTV, Koch said. New programs have not yet been added to the schedule.


Lost in cyberspace

GTV isn't the only broadcasting debacle the school is facing. After Tobi Parks, former general manager for KGLX, left the radio station in June 2004 for a job opportunity in New York City, the station suffered. Two students and then-faculty adviser for KGLX Barry Hufker, associate professor in the electronic/photographic media department, continued to run the station through the fall 2004 semester before it crumbled.

"Barry could have (kept the station going), but there were no students there to run it," said Jamie Alton, a 2005 Webster alumna and former production director for KGLX.

Hufker declined comment.
By spring 2005, Alton landed a production internship at local radio station Y 98.1 FM, and the program director was going to study abroad in Germany. Since then, KGLX has not been in operation.

Alton, who has been working at Y 98 for two years, said she recently checked KGLX's Web site to see how the station was doing. She was surprised to see her former Webster radio show on the station's schedule.

"It's still on the Web site," Alton said. "It was like, oh my God, all the same stuff from the last semester (I was there)."

Some feel students and the school ignore the station.

"KGLX; it doesn't seem anyone really cares about it - either working on it or listening to it," said Gabe Bullard, a senior broadcast journalism major. "I really think broadcast students could benefit from using KGLX."


Hiring a media expert

Carpenter said she is looking to hire a professional to serve as a media coordinator to oversee GTV and KGLX. However, students are skeptical because Carpenter has been promising to fill such a position for two years.

"The (School of Communications) is definitely not doing anything aggressive and if they are, it's not being shown," Koch said. "I really, strongly believe that the radio station and the TV station should not be treated as bastard children because that's how we're being treated."

Carpenter said the media coordinator position is full time with benefits. Carpenter said the salary would be taken from the dean's budget - not from the students.

"It's basically the money that was used for the management of KGLX, so it's not going to be in any one of those (GTV, KGLX) budgets," Carpenter said.

In addition to a new employee, Carpenter said, there will be a limited number of paid positions for students to work at KGLX, a first for the station.

The student media coordinator will act as a liason between the dean and students, in addition to being a media resource for students, Carpenter said. She said the list of about 30 applicants consists of Webster alumni, retired broadcasters and former faculty. She said she has narrowed the list to three.

Carpenter has scheduled a student media coordinator open house Oct. 11 so students, faculty and staff can meet the final applicants and ask questions.

But Carpenter doesn't feel the two stations are treated as "bastard children."

"I wouldn't call it an abandoned child, but I would call it an under-utilized resource at this point," Carpenter said. "That's what my hope for this position is, that they would be able to utilize (both stations)."

Parks' old office, which Carpenter said is currently being used as an audio space, will be cleaned out the week of fall break to make room for the new employee. Carpenter said she hopes to fill the position by Oct. 13.



Advertisements still tout nonfunctional campus radio station

While KGLX isn't up and running, advertisements and information about the station still can be found online and in Webster information books. Under the student tab on Connections, Webster's online portal, there is an advertisement for KGLX and a link to listen live. But when students click on the link, it doesn't work.

Carpenter said she did not know about the ad.

"I wonder who put that on there," Carpenter said. "That would have happened after Tobi was gone, so I don't know who put it on (Connections)."

Information about the radio station can be found in the Webster University 2006-2007 Undergraduate Studies Catalog.

"There was no reason not to put (ads for KGLX online and in Webster publications) because we are expecting any time to have this person here," Carpenter said, referring to an upcoming hiring process for a media coordinator, a position left empty for two years now.

Carpenter said she does not consider KGLX ads false advertisement.

"It would be misleading if, whenever I stood up in front of incoming freshmen or open houses for prospective students, I said we gave a degree in radio production, but we don't," Carpenter said. "We give degrees in broadcast journalism and audio production."

Broadcast journalism students, like junior Jessica Rigdon, wish the station was up and running.

"It made me kind of sad because I think if I could do a show at KGLX, I would love it, and it would be a lot of fun," Rigdon said.

Rigdon, like others, would like to see Webster's radio station join airwaves, not just on the Web.

"Why can't we have a radio station on the air?" Rigdon said. "Man, I wish we could do that. Why can't we do it, if Lindenwood can?"

However, Carpenter said tuning into KGLX on the radio dial isn't something that's going to happen anytime soon.

"I think we just took advantage of a trend," Carpenter said. "If what you want is expanding to a bigger audience, you can't get a bigger audience than the Internet."

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