1987 Summer.Pdf
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Thanks for a good story, the last four para graphs of which could have been written, not in 1948, but certainly by 1950. George I. McKelvey '50, '58G Rochester Letters Claremont, California The story that 'RUR once "broadcast" an en tire football game with the transmitter off is Review likely an embellishment of the 1969 game at Alfred. Tom Bartunek and I arrived at the press University of Rochester box minutes before the game was to start (as Summer 1987 was our custom) and hastily set up our remote gear. After a quick call to the station for a time check, we started our call of the game, Tom doing the play-by-play. The Review welcomes letters Jrom readers and will use At the half, we again called for a time check as many ojthem as space permits. Letters may be edit only to find that we had connected to the wrong MAGnificent! 2 edJor brevity and clarity. telephone line. We had spent the first half chat The "new" Memorial Art Gallery ting to ourselves. All of this greatly amused the print journalists in the press box. Our station More memories of 'RUR A Gallery Sampler 8 manager, Jeff Portnoy, failed to see the humor. I was pleasantly surprised to find WRUR From Ihe MAG collection (Worse, Alfred won the game On a last featured in the Winter issue. The title, "The minute field goal, reputedly the fim by an Other Side of the Window," would have been Psycho-neuro-what? 10 Alfred kicker in some thirty years.) equally appropriate and descriptive in 1948. The new field of Portnoy was one of the driving forces behind The original WRUR studio was on the ground psychoneu roi mmunology acquiring the transmitter so cavalierly dismissed floor west side of Burton, and while some used as "antiquated but functional." But, then, we The Accidental Activist 13 the interior corridor access, the accepted route considered it a great advance when we retired Greenpeace chairman Peter Bahouth was through the window. I'm glad to learn not the old AM board, a vacuum tube RCA known only that WRUR thrives but that this tradition not so affectionately as "Mother," with a tran The Price of Genius 17 has survived, though I doubt anyone now on sistor Gates board. Demystifying Isaac Newton campus knows when it started. Another memorable broadcast was of a I jusl browsed through my considerable basketball game at Union in the late sixties. The Supreme Festival 22 file of WRUR memorabilia and discovered AT&T failed to arrange for the line we had The 1987 Commencement its thirty-ninth birthday was on February 10. ordered. Rather than go to alternative pro UnlikeJack Benny it will get older, but like him gramming, Rich Reiben sat in the FM studio Departments I trust il will continue to serve its audience for li,tening to a commercial station's broadcast yea~ beyond that magic number. Rochester in Review 26 of the game on a transistor radio. He then ren Alumni Gazette 34 dered his version of the game as an engineer (the same Portnoy, as I recall) played a continu Alumnotes 36 ous loop of crowd noise, adjusting the volume UR Where You Are 44 to suit the aClion. In Memoriam 48 Thanks for awakening the memories of an old 'RUR devotee. Alumni Travel 49 John Graham '70 Chaumont, New York I was 'RUR station manager in 1971 when the FM transmitter now described as "anti quated but functional" was switched on for the ROCHESTER REVIEW first time at 20,000 watts. I'll never forget Editor: Margaret Bond; copy editor: Erin the excitement generated by all the phone calls Dwyer; staff photographer: Jeffrey Gold from the enthusiastic new listeners who tuned berg; staff artist: Sean McCormack; in from as far away as Toronto (and the less Alumnotes editor: Shinji Morokuma; tban-enthusiastic new listeners who tuned in editorial assistant: Joyce Farrell; sports from Lattimore Hall on their mass spec information contributed by Tony Wells. trometers! ). Editorial office, 108 Administration Build Unfortunately, I left the broadcasting indus ing, Rochester. New York 14627, (716) try SOOn after graduation. However, I'll admit 275-2102. Published quarterly by to harboring a dusty old tape collection of a few the University of Rochester and mailed of my radio shows (including the FM sign-on to all alumni, "Rochester Review" is On the cover: Celebrating the opening ojthe ceremony). Maybe they'll come in handy if produced by the Office of University expanded Memorial Arl Gallery, Rockne Krebs's those of us who were in the control room that Public Relations, Robert Kraus, director. laser sculpture lIghts up the sky above the ~nden night ever get back together for a semi-official Office of Alumni Relations, James S. Brul Pavilion linking the Gallery with Cutler "'RUR Pioneers" reunion. (That'S a hint, if Armstrong, director, Fairbank Alumni Union. anyone out there is listening') Center, Rochester, New York 14627, Alan ("Barry Allen") Feinberg '72 (716) 275-3684 CREDITS Cover, Jeff Goldberg; page 8, left, Concord, Massachusetts Gary Graham, top right, David Henry, below POSTMASTER: Send address changes 10 It was great to see 'RUR getting the recogni "Rochester Review," 108 Adminislration right, James M. Via; page 9, top left, James tion it deserves (although sad to see that the old Building, Rochesler, New York 14627. M. Via, top right and below right, David transmitter still only puts out 1,000 watts). Henry; pages 13, 15, Randy Goodman; page I really enjoyed my time at 'RUR, which 17, illustration by Bruce LaFontaine; page 27, started me on the road to a career in broadcast Opinions expressed are those of the au courtesy ojEastman School; page 31, Alan journalism. I was happy to see that some others thors, the editors, or their subjects, and do Hodesblatt; page 33, Kelly Burgess; Alumni also used it as a springboard for careers in the not necessarily represent official positions Gazette photos courtesy ojsubjects; all others, media. of the University of Rochester. "Rochester Review" staffphotos. We always knew that someone was Oul there listening-even though no one complained when some of us used to whistle into the micro phone during the afternoon classical music program. [,Il never forget when we began a new pro gram called "Jazz in the Morning," which From started at 6 a.m. Monday-Friday. We didn't promote the show for the first week, because we wanted to see how it would go. That first exper imental day, I was the newscaster. Ten minutes The President after we went on the air, the phone rang. We had a listener, even though no one knew we were there' His comment about the show: "Hey man, you got any Grateful Dead:>" Dennis O'Brien Then there was the time one of our Dj's pretended to hang himself on the air at the end of a semester. He pre-recorded an elaborate One of the most widely discussed to all manner of beliefs and lives, rela "death" tape, complete with a bugler playing books on the state of higher education tivism turns out to be as empty as it "Taps." Security got so many worried phone in the past few months has been Pro is open. Believing in nothing closes calls they sent someone over, who threatened to knock down the door to the studio if the DJ fessor Allan Bloom's "Closing of the the mind to argument, and so all talk didn't unlock it and prove he was all right. American Mind." Bloom, a political and teaching becomes decorous chat Your story provoked a lot of happy (and some scientist and philosopher, teaches at ter. We live in an age of wallpaper strange) memories. Thanks. the University of Chicago. The basic philosophy. Steve Katz '79 argument of a long and often dense The basic thesis stated, the long London book is that American higher educa middle section of the book is a very Steve Katz is European coordinalorfor Assoctaled Press Radio Network, stationed in London - Editor. tion is failing its moral task of creating interesting, subtle, and wandering set citizens with civic virtue. Bloom's pre of observations of how modern phi What about AM? I was delighted to see WRUR (and scription (which he offers with only losophy has led us to this impasse of Jacqueline Volin) splashed across the front mild hope) is a return to the classical open-mindedness. A variety of philos page. However, as a former program director of texts of the tradition. ophers from Hobbes to Heidegger are WRUR-AM, I was disappointed to learn that Professor Bloom's analysis has evi considered in relation to the question AM is still viewed predominantly as a "training ground." Labeling WRUR-AM a training dently struck a responsive chord. It of the human community and the ground makes the staff members feel they are would certainly please Secretary of commonality of truth. If there is a not yet ready for "real" college radio. It is pre Education William Bennett who, protagonist in this array it is Nietz cisely this label that causes many AM people when he is not castigating university sche who, Bloom argues, was the one nOt to return their sophomore year unless they presidents for greed, is prepared to philosopher to take relativism seri get an FM slot. WRUR should utilize the AM staff's skills lambaste them for moral flaccidity. ously. There is no God - or truth, or right now. Perhaps AM is only a training As an old Chicago type myself who beauty; humanity has to make up ground because nobody is making an effort to taught in the old "Great Books" cur those things as it goes along.