[SYF History]

1. What is the history behind SYF?
2. What is the glory behind MrSinatra’s GM days?

 

1. What is the history behind SYF?

U better be comfy…

State Your Face was started long ago, around 1997 by a single guy, Gump.  At that time, WKPS was a shitty station ruled by four shitty shows that no one listened to.

Gump saw a need to bring the music of Phish and the Grateful Dead, and other psychedelic bands (mostly from the 60’s) to the airwaves.  (at the time, there was no “classic rock” station in state college)  Why this kind of music wasn’t already on the station, when clearly so many more college kids are getting high and laid while listening to it, (as opposed to the genres that were on kps) no one can answer.

As I mentioned, WKPS was truly a shit riddled station.  We didn’t even sonically sound like a real station b/c our equipment was so shitty.  Everyone thought we were WEHR and we got no respect.

Students had started kps around Halloween of 1995, and it was languishing in serious obscurity.  The “four main genres” (metal, jam91, jazz, and “new music” aka indie500) were the shows that basically ran the station.  They were all run selfishly, each show clawing at each other for air time, while at the same time banding together to screw anyone else out.

These four main genres, (of which new music was the worst offender, and on the most often), didn’t give a shit about anything but themselves.  As long as they got as much airtime as they could, that’s all they cared about.  This meant that things like improving the equipment and general infrastructure or administration of the station were left to the wayside, completely forgotten and overlooked.

The shows also didn’t do anything to improve themselves or promote anyone else.  They strong armed the officers and did whatever they wanted to when push came to shove, leaving the officers to whine and bitch like the impotent little girls they were.  Basically you should now have gotten the idea that the entire outfit was a huge clusterfuck b/c students were as bad as you’d expect narcissistic egotistical musically esoteric elitists to be.

As a result, the “grid” or show schedule the station used was completely horseshit, and a topic of twice a year staffwide fights as everyone fought over how much time they got or didn’t get and why.  This resulted in insane grids where no one day looked like any other day, so the listener NEVER knew when to expect what program.  It was so crazy it was angering.

(Also, there was no real thought given to what would make sense to program from the listeners viewpoint, meaning what did the community WANT to hear and when.  The officers of kps, who always were from the “4 main genres” obviously never punished the poor staff performance of the same said 4 main genres formats in terms of less grid time.  This standard was only applied to shows OUTSIDE the 4 main genres.  Obviously I hate all these fuckers who were involved in this hypocritical shit)

Anyway, this all related to Gump, b/c here was a guy who knew that his show was needed by the community, and so he fought to get 4 hours of air time a week, 5-7 AM, sat and Sunday mornings.  That’s right, FIVE AM on the weekend.  Gump did that for half a year, before he finally had proven a commitment that none of the four main genres had ever shown.

His reward was 5-7 PM on the weekends, a welcome, if not completely fulfilling reward.  It was at this time Gump (bsf113@hotmail.com) was joined by me, MrSinatra. (MrSinatra@hotmail.com)

I knew Gump, but I didn’t know he had a show.  That’s how little exposure he, and kps, had.  Coincidently I had tried to lobby the WPSU PD to put on the GDH during the same semester Gump was doing early mornings.  I was shot down by an ugly angry cock-eyed bitch.  Then I tried to lobby the KPS PD, (a student kps officer named Matt who was flaming btw) to consider GDH.  He LAUGHED a sneering patronizing expression to my face, even if he looked down to the floor.

Basically he said that that would never happen here.

Well, I wanted to kick his featherweight ass right there, but revenge is a dish best served cold.

Not long after Gump got 5-7pm, I joined him, becoming the second member of his staff, and together we plotted the hostile takeover of kps.  But unlike the bullshit of the four main genres, we were going to succeed based on the merit of our hard work, not just our music.  And we were going to lead by example.  And we were going to be FAIR to all others once we got to the top.

We were pissed at everything that had happened to us; the lack of respect our show was afforded.  But we hated the four main genres so much, we promised ourselves to NOT become like them.  We wanted to show everyone how to do it right.  Once we had the power, we were going to right wrongs and overturn the injustices of the past, and END future injustices by getting some new systems in place that were based on documentation, fairness, common sense, and most of all MERIT.

Merit is the key.  Opinions are more common than the assholes who have them, it’s the people who actually DO THE WORK in my opinion, who should get to decide what’s going to happen in terms of policy or anything connected to the station.

In other words, why care what a lazy person says?  You need to earn the right to have your opinion count, b/c even when the people who are doing the work are wrong, they’re the ones who make shit happen.  They have earned the right to fail or succeed based on trying to implement their opinions.  It’s their sweat.

So Gump and I set out to take over kps based on merit.  That meant that we had to work so hard, that even people who didn’t respect hard work to begin with couldn’t deny us.

And we did just that, along with taking advantage of the opportunities that the nitwits afforded us here and there.

An example of our merit lies in all the “overnights” we pulled.  We still only had 4 hours a weekend, 5-7pm.  But we volunteered to cover the 3-7am shifts twice a week, while new music who had 48+ hours a week only did FOUR total hours of overnight time a week.  Obviously, with a staff their size, that was bullshit.  And they rarely showed up anyway, further proving their undeserving stature.

An example where we took advantage of a situation is when we gave up our weekend time to take a one hour long shift weekdays.  Why one hour?  b/c the officers were stupid selfish 4 main genre impotent fucks who couldn’t program a vcr let alone a radio station.  But we took the one hour afternoon shift b/c RPM wanted to take the 2 hour mid morning shift syf had been offered.  We worked it out with rpm to flip flop what the officers had offered us, and finally the officers agreed.  I knew that RPM would never successfully staff a morning show, and their collapse would allow SYF to expand to 2 AFTERNOON hours the next semester, and while I felt a lil bit bad doing it, it had to be done.

So, SYF continued to prove itself, and it was quickly becoming obvious that SYF was the best show kps had, in terms of popularity, revenue generation, staff performance, and just about any yardstick you could measure it with.  Our merit and our willingness to be patient and wait out dumbshit like one-hour-week-long-shifts was paying off.

Meanwhile, I intended to break into the officer class.  Gump ran SYF, so I got into underwriting.  I did that for a year, and I raised more money in one year than the station had ever raised in all previous years together combined.

This allowed me to become the first non 4 main genre officer the following year.  I was elected to VP.  (at that time, only the 5 officers voted for the next 5 officers, a very incestuous and bullshit system, which I later found out was in violation of USG code)

I suffered as VP b/c the other 4 would fight constantly, and we even had to impeach one for embezzlement.  But I took the opportunity to learn everything I needed to know, and plan what I would do as GM, and I played the stupid children off of each other, so that the following year I knew they’d elect me GM, which of course is what happened.

That ushered in the modern era of kps, as most people who are there now know it. (or what then officially became “The LION @ 90.7fm” since the lamer fucks couldn’t even accomplish so obvious a task as naming the station)  I was ruthless in tearing apart the status quo horseshit of yesteryears, and I made sure that everything I did was for the common good of the station, or in other words, every action I took was in the stations best interests from that point forward.

Of course, as I rearranged the grid, returned full power to the officers, and righted wrongs, those who were fat lazy bastards all complained, and accused me of killing their show at one point or another.  That merely pointed out to me who needed to be run out of the station on a rail.

(to learn more about my GM days, CLICK HERE)

In any case, I did not take advantage of my position as GM to fuck other shows.  What I did do was bring common sense to the grid.  SYF never gained a minute of airtime when I was GM, but it did move from 2-4 to 3-5 across the week.  I took the opportunity I had as GM to arrange the grid so that the LISTENER could know when a show was on from day to day, and to put jazz on in the mornings (where it belonged), and to have RPM open for Jam91, and to introduce a one hour public affairs show, Radio Free Penn State m-f, and basically just have the grid make sense, (and its not too far now from how I arranged it).

part of the reason the grid was always in flux was it was made with no nod to common sense; and I take pride in the fact that the grid hasn’t changed much from the one I made, b/c that means it did a good job of being fair, equitable, and that it was based on common sense.

I also changed the station constitution so that each staffhead of a genre would get a vote for the next officer class, thereby ending the incestuous advantage that as GM I COULD have enjoyed.

Two years later, (I was GM for one year, and “retired” from any official capacity other than SYF staffhead after that) the recent officers have clearly seen the worth and merit of SYF, and it was they who decided to increase our hours m-f from 3-5 to 1-5 (in fall’02).  This was done at the expense of indie500, and I think the experience has been good for them.  Indie is now a much tighter show, and the cream seems to be rising to the top.  This of course is also better for the station overall.

I hold no grudges towards indie btw, as everyone who benefited from the corruption of yesteryear is now gone.  But I can’t say that I think they’ll ever deserve their time back from SYF.  Every indication kps has shows SYF to be the more popular show, and the SYF staff is consistently the best at kps from year to year.

I knew that back when I was GM, I could not risk being seen as acting partially towards my staff by giving them more time.  I could not risk losing my moral authority.  But even though I knew back then that taking time from indie and giving it to SYF was in the stations best interests, I also knew that SYF would continue to prove itself, and eventually get its just desserts.  The very nature of the kind of person who likes SYF music brings us quality DJs and volunteers year after year.

And that’s why kps now runs smoother than ever, and why SYF is the big anchor that keeps kps relevant to students and the community at large.  SYF rules the daytime with kick ass rock & roll, and it rules late, late nights and mornings b4 9am with SYF automation.

So if you’re a part of SYF, or are thinking of becoming part of SYF, be aware of your place in the history of the show, be thankful of what others did to provide you the opportunity, and be vigilant to never do anything to fuck it up or lose what we have worked so hard to gain.  There’s only one direction to go from the top of mountain!

Keep on truckin’ –mdw

 

2. What is the glory behind MrSinatra’s GM days?

The answer to that question, will be published asap…  check back every so often to see if it’s up.

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