Milestone after a rocky year
WMSE-FM (91.7) marks its 40th anniversary, a milestone that may have seemed unattainable at times.
WMSE-FM (91.7) celebrates its 40th anniversary Wednesday, a milestone that may have seemed unattainable at times — especially last year.
Suddenly hit, like the rest of the world, with a devastating crisis last March, “we were really starting to question how we were going to stay on the air,” said Tom Crawford, WMSE’s station manager for the past 26 years. Because of COVID-19, fundraising events were canceled, and support dropped from underwriters, largely businesses in the service industry. By the time of the spring membership drive, the station was facing about a $150,000 shortfall, Crawford said.
As the pandemic continues, WMSE is still budgeting operations by the week to get by, Crawford said. But thanks to community support, by the end of the fiscal year last June, WMSE managed to get a few thousand dollars ahead of breaking even.
The station quickly developed a new operations protocol — one person in the studio at a time, gloves and masks for staff, disinfectant after every visit. At least 75% of the station’s volunteer DJs opted to stay on to do their shows, Crawford said.
“It’s been a real lifeline … a way for me to keep immersing myself in music,” said veteran Milwaukee musician Paul Cebar, host of the station’s “Way Back Home” show Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon, and a DJ with the station for at least 35 years. “In this time, where it’s been so difficult to touch people figuratively or literally … it’s just been a godsend.”
WMSE had turmoil from the start
Even during this unprecedented time, WMSE’s triumph over daunting challenges has been a familiar tune.
In 1981, the Milwaukee School of Engineering station boosted its power to 1,000 watts with a 28-mile range and took on its new call letters, with a push from the student Radio Broadcasters Club, approval from the Federal Communications Commission and a $30,000 donation from alumnus Everett Cobb.
But passionate disagreements about programming resulted in the disbanding of the club, the firing of the program director and a walkout by about half the staff in one day.
By 1988, there was drama when then-station manager Bob Betts — a critical figure for the station’s survival, Crawford said — fired the station’s metal DJs under pressure from the college. The following year, the station’s hours were cut, and talk emerged of a format change to classical and jazz.
But WMSE weathered all those storms, returned to 24-hour programming, and got stronger — literally in terms of wattage, and figuratively as a cornerstone of Milwaukee’s cultural community.
“When the station went on air in 1981 … corporate radio was putting its claws into all the stations in Milwaukee,” Crawford said. “The first bumper sticker we printed simply said, ‘WMSE-FM: Turn your radio on again.”
That identity endures, with the station, and its all-music-formats approach, cementing its status in the city as a “music lover’s dream,” Crawford suggested.
“What is great is there is no thought-out statistical program direction of any kind,” he said. “Every single program host is their own program director.”
The anything goes approach is a key part of WMSE’s charm. On Sundays, the station has shows devoted to jazz, classical music, avant-garde, swing music and female creators. On Mondays, it’s alternative rock, blues, electronic and world music. On Tuesdays, it has shows spotlighting soul music, hip-hop and local acts.
And yes, there are metal shows again, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and shows throughout the week devoted to reggae, shoegaze, Americana and more.
Celebrating the station’s DJs
Free rein is what’s kept Cebar on air, driven by a calling to share “all this unheard music that for some reason stayed out of circulation.”
“I have not seen a penny from doing this,” said Cebar, who said he turned down a paid DJ gig at WYMS-FM (88.9) in that station’s early days under the Radio Milwaukee banner to stick with WMSE. “That’s kind of the price you pay, I guess. … It’s a labor of love.”
“There are only a few stations like this in the country,” Cebar said. “There are many sophisticated cities that don’t have this kind of thing. A lot of it has to do with the heart of the DJs, to have that drive to do what they want to do. It’s beautiful.”
DJs will be the heroes of the station’s official 40th anniversary celebration Wednesday, with a number of the DJs who started with the station in 1981 back on air, including original morning host Pete Christensen.
“Oftentimes when people reminisce about listening to the station since the beginning, within three to five minutes of the conversation they ask, ‘Whatever happened to Christensen?’ ” Crawford said. “He was on the radio at a time when corporations were taking over and tightening down formats with slickly produced morning shows. He was the ultimate antithesis to that.”
After the station’s on-air birthday bash Wednesday, followed by six more days with special throwback on-air programming, the events it’s relied on to build its brand and raise money will continue, with safety the top priority.
The 19th annual Rockabilly Chili fundraiser is up first. But in lieu of a mass gathering, participants can visit around 33 participating restaurants, each serving a chili-based item, between April 5 to 11.
“We’re asking people to give simply $1 above the menu cost,” Crawford said. “Restaurants helped us out for a number of years. It’s our turn to help them out.”