Posted by Bill Koshelnyk (posted by Gerry Wilkinson) on October 21, 1998 at 15:31:06:
In Reply to: Additions to why WRTI went jazz. posted by Mike Biel on July 22, 1998 at 12:00:39:
I do know that I might have played an indirect part, not in the new format, but in making some alterations in the atmosphere of the station, which may have precipitated the (format) change.
As you will recall, we had a black fellow who did a late-evening jazz shift. I don't remember his name, but he came on the air after the classical music block on Friday nights (which was my shift, the first year I was on WRTI). So there were already some jazz roots.
I had been much affected by the alienation which black students felt at Temple. You remember the Black Student League, the "Black Power" agitation, and the distinct hostility which existed among so many black kids toward their white classmates -- and, of course, toward the university itself. I considered myself, however naively, as someone who was completely free of racial bias. I felt no animosity toward blacks, but I did feel fear. All the pseudo-Black Panther posturing was very intimidating. And I took it rather personally. Why was I being made to feel like an oppressor, an exploiter, the representative of an evil power structure? Like a lot of well meaning whites, I went out of my way to be respectful and good-natured toward the black students. And even if I had intended harm to blacks, I had no means of inflicting it. I represented no particular power at all.
The death of Martin Luther King in spring of 1968 shook me deeply. I saw this event, and the violence that followed it, as a national expression of the racial polarization I had experienced personally at Temple. I had been appointed program director for the following year, and I thought that, in my small way, I might be able to reach out to the young blacks on campus. I suggested a loosely defined program idea -- some kind of black radio workshop -- to Jerry Klein (and, when he came on board that summer, to Bob Kassi). They thought it might be a worthwhile undertaking, so I contacted the faculty advisor of the Black Student League who proposed the idea to the League's members. A one-hour, weekly program was launched in the fall under the rather awkward title of "Radio B-L-A-C-K." It proceeded throughout that year, offering a mix of music, discussion and drama -- of highly variable quality and, frequently, somewhat inflammatory content. I recall that Bob Kassi had to run interference, from time to time, when the show veered close to the edge of FCC language-appropriateness standards or poked too hard at administration sensitivities. (The experience proved to poor, sweet-natured Bob Kassi that the old saying is true: "No good deed goes unpunished.")
The next year, when I was working as a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, I caught a few rumblings about "Radio B-L-A-C-K" still shaking things up on campus. Later, I heard that the station had adopted a jazz format. But that's pretty much all I know. WRTI's signal wasn't strong where I lived, and I didn't listen very much.
So I guess I did help nudge things in a new direction at good old "Wry-Tie," however unintentionally. Perhaps having a jazz station has been beneficial to the university, located as it is in the heart of a major black urban center. It may have had some useful community-relations impact. I don't know. In any event, I'm certain that my contribution to racial harmony was negligible, if not counter-productive. I can only take refuge in that echoing refrain of the 1960s: "Our hearts were in the right place."
Hope this reflection has been edifying.