![\"Scan\"](\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2015\/12\/Scan_web.jpg\")
<\/a>It\u2019s not clear at what point Mennonite attitudes toward radio broadcasting began to change, but in 1950, a Mennonite men\u2019s quartet named The Crusaders began to sing live on Saturday mornings for 15 minutes on a local Harrisonburg station, WSVA. Within two years, the program expanded as The Mennonite Hour,<\/em> which was considered \u201ca missionary project of the church.\u201d By the end of 1953, the program was broadcast on 35 stations and EMC offered up space for recording.<\/p>\n In 1954, WEMC was founded with money from the class of 1954 and The Mennonite Hour <\/em>became Mennonite Broadcasting Incorporated \u2013 which is now known as Mennonite Media.<\/p>\n By the late 1950s, WEMC was running up to 70 weekly programs such as \u201cMennonite Hour Chorus,\u201d \u201cTitus Bender\u2019s \u2018Point for Today,\u2019\u201d and \u201cChildren\u2019s Story Time\u201d from the balcony of the chapel. The station used a ten-watt transmitter, which had \u201ca signal that barely got off campus on a windy day,\u201d according to alumnus Jim Bishop who worked at the station both as a student and later as EMC staff.<\/p>\n WEMC broadcast daily Bible readings (Alexander Scourby recorded on vinyl, Bishop remembers), regular chapel services, community and public service announcements, and coverage of home women\u2019s and men\u2019s basketball games. Bishop hosted a weekly campus activities report, as well as \u201cFocal Point,\u201d a public affairs program.<\/p>\n \u201cI always wished there were more student-produced programs,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cSomeone would get one rolling and then it would end when the student graduated or lost interest.\u201d<\/p>\n Alum Dwight Wyse has similar memories of programming. \u201cI remember one program that I did for a number of years called \u2018Folk Music Around the World,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat was on Saturday nights. I got married between my junior and senior year and my wife and I would go up to run that program together. We played anything from The Singing Nuns to Simon and Garfunkel.\u201d<\/p>\n One year during the biannual revival services hosted on campus, \u201cthe Holy Spirit seemed to be present,\u201d remembered broadcaster Terry Cowan. Regular programming was dropped for the rest of the day, as students and faculty shared testimonies until the evening.<\/p>\n In the early 1970s, WEMC, needing more space, moved up the hill into the recently renovated Astral Hall. The higher vantage point boosted the station\u2019s signal beyond the campus borders and into the greater Harrisonburg area.<\/p>\n Cowan served as WEMC\u2019s station manager for a number of years and was instrumental in facilitating the move. Cowan, like Wyse and Bishop, learned how to broadcast on the job, as there wasn\u2019t any training available to the students who wanted to work in the station at that time.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring my time at WEMC, my vision was to provide a window so that the community could see what was going on at the college,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore the station existed, there were guys who strung telephone wires throughout the community to they could put speakers in people\u2019s homes so the community could listen to chapel.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, WEMC has a 2000-watt transmitter and is broadcast up and down the Shenandoah Valley. But in the 1960s and \u201870s, \u201cwe were limited in our power because of Sugar Grove observatory to the west,\u201d said Wyse. \u201cThey tightly controlled how far you could send your signal.\u201d (Sugar Grove Observatory is still part of a United States National Radio Quiet Zone, in which radio transmitters are strongly controlled so that scientific research and military intelligence work can be conducted.)<\/p>\n Wyse graduated in 1968, but was the play-by-play announcer for men\u2019s basketball games for a decade. He said one particular game stands out. In 1971, James Madison University played EMC<\/a> in the old gym. At the time, JMU wasn\u2019t the athletic powerhouse it is today; it was close game. In the last second, EMU (who had been behind) scored and won the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI was speechless,\u201d Wyse said.<\/p>\n Unable to let listeners know what had just happened, he looked for help from his fellow commentator. But his partner was gone. He had abandoned his post and was jumping around on the court in celebration.<\/p>\n By the mid-1980s, WEMC was playing more and more contemporary Christian music and holding bi-yearly \u201cWEMC Weekends\u201d to raise financial support for the station. Student-announcers would volunteer for 30-hour-plus \u201cmarathon\u201d fundraisers. Some years they met their goals, but increasingly they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not entirely clear why the station began struggle. Money certainly had something to do with it (pledges became harder to secure) but also student interest in running the station began to wane. In 2007, James Madison University took over the day-to-day running of WEMC, although EMU continues to own the station and license. Students are no longer involved. An EMU advisory board determines programming, which includes broadcasting Park View Mennonite Church\u2019s service every Sunday following the hour and a half musical program \u201cMostly Mennonite, Mostly A Capella.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the original purpose has been changed and I am sorry to see that,\u201d said Cowan. \u201cI think it would better serve the college\u2019s interests if it was still operated as an arm of the college.\u201d<\/p>\n Bishop, who ran a show right up until the JMU take over of the station, agrees. Many alums who were heavily involved with the station over the years view the transition as a tragedy.<\/p>\n But for now the arrangement is working. Since the station moved to mostly classical music, listenership has doubled and the station remains alive. (Financial difficulties were such that by the mid-2000s some suggested the station should close entirely.) And, should the desire and drive emerge in a new generation of students, the station is still there, waiting for new voices to revive the rich tradition.<\/p>\n Editor’s note: While freelancing for EMU marketing and communications, Kara Lofton ’14<\/a> also reported for WMRA in Harrisonburg. She is now Appalachia Health News Coordinator at West Virginia Public Broadcasting.<\/em><\/p>\n This is the third article in an occasional series leading up to Eastern Mennonite University’s Centennial celebration<\/a> in 2016-2017. Other articles have featured Park Woods Cabin<\/a> and the first female pre-med student<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a>From Lehman to Astral Hall<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Interest wanes<\/h3>\n
<\/a>