Gary Torresani

An E-Mail

The following is an e-mail from Gary Torresani. We have uploaded it exactly as he sent it. It is in response to our request for more details about WRTI-AM going off the air.

Subj: Re: AM
Date: 98-10-11 19:17:30 EDT
From: Garyt1205@aol.com
To: GmmZ504918@aol.com

Jerry

Come on you guys. Get real!!!!

You look at Kassi as being the big evil one who destroyed WRTI-FM and perhaps the AM. I don't quite have that hit on it and I am somewhat irritated at the move to make him and others at the time a scapegoat. I know that this is not going to be the answer you want, but it is my reflection on things almost 30 years in the past. if you print this, please do so in its entirity. I don't wish to have my words taken out of context.

Here's how I remember it, again from a point 30 years later.

WRTI-AM was going to be cut off. eventually. We knew that from the get go. We decided to see if we could do something with it to hold off the administration cutting it off. We got a sales staff, unified the programming to make it more consistent, did some promotion in the dorms, and boosted up the production dynamics. We wanted it to sound like a real radio station. We were really doing our own version of a underground rock format, perhaps a bit more up sounding.

The administration was very surprised that we actually had sales people going out and that we were making money with the AM. We had accomplished what we set out to do with the station as goals. However, the administration told us upfront before we started that we possibly had a limited time with the AM because they wanted to throw all the energy eventually behind the FM. We were hoping that if the AM was successful, the decision would be made to wire it up with the move to Annenberg. But we all knew that we were living on borrowed time.

In fact, the administration stated in a meeting that we had put them in a weird position by making the AM a financial success. They were totally surprised and caught off guard. They were totally committed to having the AM go off the air to focus more energy on the FM, a totally logical move considering the new studios and other stuff going on in the community at the time. Physically speaking, it was not in the works to have the AM wired out of the new building. That's the way it was. AM was going to be allowed to die once the move to Annenberg was complete.

However, Kassi was hardly the only one in on this. I beleive that Dr. Gray had a lot to say about the matter. He was very supportive, but upfront with us every step of the way.

We at the AM thought that the decision for the FM to go jazz was well thought out and very realistic considering the times. We were sad to see AM go dead, some of us were even upset, but all of us understood that the change was inevitable, and that was why we all voted favorably for it. We knew that we were just hanging on with borrowed time anyway, and most of us were glad to have had some time, little as it was, to do something with the AM. The truth is that we knew that the AM was going to eventually be cut off no matter how we voted, so it did not make much sense to continue to pour our energy into it. There just simply is a time to move on.

Yes the move to jazz was a PR move, but don't forget what was going on at the time. The univerisity was expanding and there was a lot of racial tension in the neighborhood. It was thought that an all jazz WRTI-FM would help to ease tensions in the community and give the university a more positive position in the community. That was the thought at the time, and Kassi was hardly the only one in the RTF department behind it. It was not the single minded manipulative move on his part that you make it out to be. It was a well thought out position, hardly based on an ego trip on his part.

The RTI that you knew would have eventually died anyway. The university wanted changes which is why Kassi was brought in in the first place. They wanted the station to move out of the strictly student laboratory phase and sound and become operated more like a real radio station.

There was a lot of discussion initially about what to do. It was felt that the old RTI-FM did not have much of a unity or purpose in programming. The decision was that WRTI-FM needed to garner more professionalism and more unity of purpose, no matter what the changes, even if a multi-format position was kept. The station was going to have to sound better PERIOD.

With what was coming down at the univeristy and in the community at the time, Jazz was felt to be a totally logical position for the station to take. I agreed with this. I believe that Perry Johnson was responsible for pitching the programming change to Jazz to Kassi. However, this point I am not completely clear on.

Simply put, This was hardly all Kassi's fault. He was pretty open about what was going on, at least with us on the old AM staff, while things were coming down. The decision to kill the AM was not his, it came from higher up the chain.

These were the 60's anyway, and change generally was in the air. In some respects, the old WRTI-FM was the old generation, WRTI-AM and the jazz RTI was the new. I think the changes in RTI were totally reflective of the drastic changes culturally of the times.

As I said, I certainly did not disagree with the decision. I love Jazz anyway and fell right into the format changes. In fact, the FM had a pretty good staff at that time; Perry Johnson. John Freedman, Joe Regelski and others including myself; people who knew and loved the music. Even the guard at the station at the time was a jazz musician ( but I can't remember his name), and the station developed quite a loyal audience. I especailly felt that for a college station, it sounded pretty professional and pretty hip. Intutively, it was the right decision at the time. I know that most of you oldtimers don't agree.

Hey, get over it.

However, I don't agree with cutting off students from participating in WRTI-FM, but there are stations all across the country that have done that. KCSM here in the bay area is another all jazz station owned by a univeristy that hires professionals for its air staff. There are other unviersity stations that have been all rock for years around here and hire both a professional and volunteer airstaff. Some like Santa Clara University's station do a lot of different music programming, but that is generally not the norm. There are others that are stricly students, like San Fransico State's station, which operates out of its radio-tv department, but this station is a cable not broadcast facility.

However, I do agree that there needs to be another station at Temple that reflects student programming and allows students to be announcers. I hope that this comes to pass at some time in the future.

Again, I am sorry that this is not the answer that you are looking for, but there are a number of us who were totally in support of the change and willingly voted for it. I was one of them.

Change is never easy but it is a necessary part of life. Oviously, the fact that the station has maintained a jazz format (even if it is parttime now) for close to 30 years bears out the fact that it was a sound decision, no matter how much you disagree with it.

The past is gone, holding gruges toward Kassi or anyone else does no good to anyone. Share the times we all had together at RTI, and stop bitching about a dead issue.

Face it, The WRIT-FM you knew has been dead for 30 years, the AM I knew has been dead for 30 years, it ain't coming back. To continue this sort of dialogue is somewhat self-defeating and I hope that you guys will move on to more positive things about both the RTI-FM you knew and the jazz RTI. (and really I knew and appreciated both)

Gary Torresani

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