The student-run radio station at Quinnipiac University, WQAQ, has, for some time now, been one of the strongest student organizations on campus, but in the past few years, mirroring the growth of the actual school, WQAQ has seen its membership size increase drastically and the product as a whole improved greatly. The radio station has long been known for its music; everything from their spring concert to their alternative-based music shows that fill the airwaves daily. However, one department has seen the largest growth in the past few years and is now considered my many at the station to be the strongest: the sports department.
In fact, up until a few years ago the sports department was considered the weak link in what was otherwise a strong radio station. Former sports director, Seth Rothman said, “the station as a whole was run extremely well. Mark Langan was the GM, and at the time, he was somewhat of a folk hero around the station. He did a great job… The Sports Department was run by two seniors, and by the end of the year, they had just completely checked out. I owe a lot to the two of them, but they were not the best we had.” Rothman was instrumental in turning the station around, from the time he became sports director in his sophomore year in 2005 until the time he graduated last spring, the department went from broadcasting ten games that entire spring semester to 30 just four years later.
The department now broadcasts all, or very close to it, of the home games for the Quinnipiac sports teams and have just recently begun talks to travel on the road to broadcast games. “The first thing I wanted to do was never cancel a broadcast, no matter what. Unless the game itself was cancelled, I wanted to do everything in my power to not cancel a broadcast,” Rothman said. Rothman spent three years, with two different co-sports directors building a strong relationship with the Athletic Department and Athletic Director, Jack McDonald, and completely turned the department and its reputation around campus on its head. Michael Feldstein, former business director for the station said, “when I was a freshman here four years ago there was no ability for us to do broadcasts, we didn’t have a good relationship with Jack McDonald and Athletics… between Seth Rothman, Steve Tisi, and now Mike Radomski, and Mike Silverman they have [made it one of the strongest departments at the station] and the one that has the most active members.”
The department has also grown beyond broadcasts of the sporting events and sports radio talk shows and has completely revamped its page on the station’s website. In the past few years the station has added sports beats for all of the major sports teams and it is the responsibility of that beat reporter to cover the games and report on what they see on the field and behind the scenes. Former department member, Mike Lyle said, “I had a great relationship with the [basketball] team… I got an exclusive with [former head coach] Joe DeSantis after he was fired… I got the scoop.” Lyle, a graduate student at the university from 2005-’08, and now a production assistant for ESPN Radio and part-time professor at Quinnipiac, said working for the radio station helped him hone his skills as a broadcaster and reporter. “[Working at the radio station] gave me great on-air experience and let me work on my voice [both through play-by-play and then beat reporting].”
Since Rothman left at the end of the last school year, the new Sports Directors, Mike Silverman and Mike Radomski, have continued to expand the department, both in membership as well as in the different types of media used to report on the athletic teams at Quinnipiac. Andrew Fletcher, a junior at Quinnipiac, has been instrumental in revamping the page, everything from improving on the aesthetics to posting all of the beat stories as well as posting the schedule for all of the Quinnipiac sports games and broadcasts. “He’s completely remodeled it and updated it and made it something Mike [Radomski] and I could have never made it,” said co-sports director, Mike Silverman. “It’s really one of the top student sports blogs in the country now,” added Mike Radomski, co-sports director. The website has also given members of the department one more way to get involved and improve their broadcasting and reporting skills and, as more and more media outlets move towards the Internet, these skills are more important than ever.
The department and the station are not without flaws, however, and many of the members still believe there is plenty of room for improvement. “The one thing that’s kind of interesting is… that this year the attendance at our general staff meetings… have gone down to the lowest numbers I’ve seen since I’ve been here, which is an area of concern for me as I get ready to leave,” Feldstein said. Heather Rudow, a senior and member of the station since her freshman year, added, “[the station] has been having difficulty kind of trying to get new members…[student think] that we’re this clique of people that you can’t really get in to, which isn’t the case at all… so I think we need to try an outreach.” Diversity at the station is also another improvement that needs to be made said Mike Lyle. “[They need to] diversify, not just in [membership] but in format… [they need to] not just brand them selves as a music station.”
The growth of the sports department, as one would expect, has also had a positive impact on the station as a whole as last spring WQAQ was awarded the Judith Miller Outstanding Student Organization of the Year Award, given to the best and most active organization on the Quinnipiac campus. Seth Rothman remembered that day fondly, “since I had become a manager, that was what we wanted — we wanted that award under our watch, and to get it in our senior year truly meant just a ton. That day was my most emotional day at QAQ.” The award was the icing on the cake for an organization that in only a few short years had grown from a strong yet disconnected organization around campus to arguably the strongest and one that shows no signs of slowing down.
