Letter to the Editor: BullsRadio rejects the misinformation surrounding the agency
It has been brought to the attention of the staff at BullsRadio that there is an abundance of misinformation being spread among certain circles online regarding our place on campus and the future as an agency. It is our hope that this letter to the editor of The Oracle will serve as our initial public response to clear up any confusion regarding our agency.
For the past six years or so, BullsRadio, in its current iteration, has operated as a student-run agency under the executive branch of USF Student Government, offering student services of analog/digital radio content, USF sports broadcasting/journalism and a DJ service.
During fall 2019, conversations were held between the BullsRadio team and WUSF regarding the nature of our relationship and lack of communication and resource sharing between bodies over the past six years. WUSF provided the AM radio feed for BullsRadio, as well as access to a library of copyrighted music and tech support.
Following some internal discussions within BullsRadio and advice from our advisers at Student Government Advising, Training and Operations (SGATO), it was decided that it would be within the best interests of our agency to cut our contract with WUSF and use the annual $35,000 paid to WUSF to restructure the agency and expand our equipment and services to include podcasting, music production, video editing and a host of other new resources not offered in other parts of the USF Tampa campus.
Our plan was to give both our radio show hosts and WUSF an official 30-day notice starting in February 2020 and run podcasting and radio concurrently at BullsRadio while laying down the plans to transition into a new name and identity better fitting of our existing resources and future services: BullsMedia. As shown by recent events, this did not go according to plan.
Unfortunately, the computer which handles our broadcast recently suffered a major technological failure related to a malware infection that corrupted our entire database of licensed music and content. After assessing the issue, we decided as a team that a fix would take significantly longer than transitioning in full force to podcasts, as by the time we fixed the issue, our 30-day notice to WUSF would be in full effect.
In addition to these errors, a member of our staff failed to properly communicate to BullsRadio show hosts about the transition to come in a timely manner. As an amendment of this mistake, BullsRadio has secured for show hosts the opportunity to deliver a final show until March 31.
This Thursday, from 4-6 p.m., BullsRadio will be hosting a town hall to address any concerns and announce our plans for providing an equivalent service to radio hosting, as well as set dates for our transition to BullsMedia. The event will be held in the Senate Chamber, located on the north side of the fourth floor of the Marshall Student Center. [Editor’s Note: The Senate Chamber is located in MSC4200.]
Signed,
The staff of BullsRadio