When Nick Valauri walked into the WERW studio four years ago, he didn’t know what to make of it. The room, nestled in the heart of the Jabberwocky Café in the Schine Underground, was in shambles.

“It used to be a room with a desk, a computer and the grossest couch in America,” the senior mechanical engineering major said. “When I signed up for the station, I checked off engineering as an interest, and Marina, the station manager, showed me the studio and said, ‘Fix it.’”

So he did. And on Tuesday night’s celebration marking WERW’s 25^th anniversary, he and the station’s three other outgoing senior staffers cut the ribbon on the newly renovated studio.

When WERW launched in 1987 — a booming era for college rock — under the umbrella of University Union, the station stood for a completely different philosophy from what it does today. Its call sign was tongue-in-cheek shorthand for “We Are U.U.” and the station broadcast at 1570 AM.

Station general manager Jeanette Wall, a senior in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries, thinks WERW’s 1980s roots helped the station stay on campus.

“Twenty-five years ago was when college rock got big. Without college radio stations, REM wouldn’t have been huge. Nirvana wouldn’t have been huge,” she said. “It’s our milestone, and we all put in blood, sweat and tears to make it here.”

Wall jokes that one of the mainstays from the station’s 80s roots is the same couch Valauri saw when he first walked in the WERW studio.

“Forget ‘Real College Radio.’ That’s a Real College Couch,” she said, referencing the station’s sloganwith a laugh. “That couch itself probably lasted for the 25 years of the station.”

In early 2010, WERW cut ties with UU, a sink-or-swim decision fellow general manager Kyle Kuchtaremembers with vivid clarity. The station rebranded as “What Everyone Really Wants,” and became an independent student organization.

“We took off the life vest from University Union, and we stayed afloat,” said Kuchta, a senior film major. “It was heart-stopping at first, but we didn’t just stay afloat. We grew.”

Since 2011, WERW has broadcast as an Internet-only radio station, but plans are in the works to get the station back onto AM airwaves, Wall said.

WERW operates as a free format radio station, and Wall fondly refers to it as “an alternative something.” Wall and Kuchta saw a lack of alternative concerts on campus, and set out to fix that by booking WERW-presented concerts, a process Wall said “had a lot of f*cking red tape.”

In the spring of 2012, WERW booked indie-rock darlings Titus Andronicus. Kuchta remembered standing in the back of the Schine Underground, silently taking in the show.

“I just stood at the side and watched everyone enjoying themselves and thought, ‘This is absolutely one of the things I wanted most,’” he said. “This wasn’t a Juice Jam or Block Party. It was a bunch of people who probably never had a real rock show on campus in their college careers.”

Wall added, “We wanted shows that no one else was booking.”

Wall, whose goal was to bring more female artists to campus — “The last big headliner we had was Fergie” — recalled bringing singer-songwriterSharon Van Etten for a performance at the Spark Art Space in 2010.

She watched as a crowd of about 60 or 70 concertgoers sat on the floor with their jaws open, taking in the performance of a soon-to-blow-up Van Etten.

“That was the moment I knew this staff would f*ck sh*t up,” Wall said.

But, as is the case for any radio station, WERW’s heart lies with its DJs. WERW’s free format system gives student DJs free reign to play whatever songs they want, unrestricted by the Federal Communications Commission.

When Mika Posecion went to her first WERW general interest meeting as a freshman, she was set on sticking to a career in the realm of her major: political science. Now WERW’s program director and a senior, Posecion has taken a detour.

“I came in with a firm idea of wanting to work in government,” she said. “But working at the station was really influential to making my passion for music something as a career.”

Like most DJs who start as freshmen, Ian Teti, currently a junior public relations major and WERW’s music director, remembered having to take an early morning time slot for his first broadcast: 7-9 a.m. on Wednesdays.

But when he discovered the station while walking around the freshman activity fair with his parents, all Teti wanted to do was get in the studio and play music. It became an escape.

“It’s tough to find time to sit down and listen to music for an hour or two on your own,” he said. “My best friend from home would come in and jam, and we’d just play whatever we felt like and brought the conversations we’d have at home in the studio. It’s just fun.”

Even with a mass exodus of staffers — Wall, Kuchta, Valauri and Posecion are all graduating — Teti hopes a new wave of staff members will keep the station going strong.

Said Teti: “Twenty-five years is amazing. So why not go for 25 more?”

Published on February 20, 2013 at 11:22 pm

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman