Jim Abbott, a long time member of the WNHU family, has passed away. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.

Here’s Jim obituary from the New Haven Register;

James Christopher Abbott, 59, of West Haven passed away peacefully Sunday, June 11th at Yale-New Haven hospital after a long illness.

Born August 6, 1957 in Bridgeport, CT. He was predeceased by his father James Robb Abbott, mother Barbara O’ Leary and sister Jennifer Brown. He is survived by his sisters Tracy Brown, Leslie Abbott and Allison Abbott. 1975 graduate of West Haven High School.

1979 graduate from the University of the New Haven (Magna Cum Laude/Alpha Chi National Honor Society inductee), with a bachelor’s degree in communication and a minor in political science.Formerly employed as a Manager/Computer Programmer at SNET (now AT&T) in New Haven.

Formerly an On-Air DJ at WAVZ and KC101, As “Jim McNeil”, for many years.

Formerly an On-Air DJ, and sports play-by-play announcer at his alma mater’s radio station, WNHU, and was best known for his 30-year,”1960’s and 1970’s weekly oldies show, from 1978-2007. Abbott received many recognition awards throughout his lifetime, for outstanding achievement, aspiring leadership and exceptional service to the community.award.

He will be remembered as a beloved brother, kind, generous, dedicated musicologist, nationally esteemed music collector, mentor/life coach to his friends, and a positive, upbeat source of inspiration to those he touched in the community.

A Mass of Remembrance will take place at Our Lady of Victory Church, 600 Jones Hill Road, West Haven on Saturday July 8th at 11am. In lieu of flowers, Memorial donations may be made to the Arthritis Foundation, PO Box 96280, Washington, DC 20077.

Published in The New Haven Register on July 5, 2017

Hello world, I am the new WNHU Station Manager!  I’m the person that will help you navigate all of the parts of WNHU and oversee the station itself.  For this position, even just a small amount of experience and familiarity in radio is fine, but my summer took preparing to be Station Manager to the next level.

This summer, I interned at two radio stations; My week consisted of:

Two days at Connoisseur Media, home to 99.1 WPLR, STAR 99.9, WYBC, and WFOX,

One day at WNHU, of course,

And two days at Connecticut Public Broadcasting, home to the WNPR Newsroom.

Connoisseur Media is a corporate company that owns several commercial stations, just in the state alone.  To this day, I’m still learning about the history of WPLR as well as the company’s commitment to the Connecticut public. (Just ask Bruce!)

At Connoisseur, I did not get paid money to be there, but I did get paid in experience, school credit, and t-shirts.  My days usually consisted of office work, which included data input, printing and stuffing letters and tickets into envelopes, and calling contest winners…lots and lots of contest winners.  On some days, I get to venture out of the office and go to promotional events, similar to how WNHU goes all over campus to promote our station.

At WNPR, my main tasks were to greet show guests, do research for shows, and set up the studio for shows.  For both the morning show, Where We Live, and the afternoon show, The Colin McEnroe Show, I would look up how many guests we would have and set the studio up accordingly, and then I would go down to the lobby to escort the guests to the newsroom.  My research skills have improved this summer after searching for information, websites, or anything the newsroom needed for a show.  I was not only looking for information, I was looking at what the found information could provide for the show.  Several times throughout the internship, I would be asked to go around the city of Hartford and West Hartford to ask questions to citizens.   At the end of the trip, I would go back to the office and edit the audio into a final sound bite.

 

The time I spent at WNHU was dedicated to helping Bruce reformat and rebrand the station, as well as preparing to take on the position as Station Manager. I was in contact with community DJ’s, as well as new and returning students to inform them of the occurring changes.

To be honest, I think Summer 2016 was the best summer I have ever had.  Not only did I spend my summer weekdays learning about radio, I also had the time to enjoy the sun and have fun on the weekends.  Now I get to continue school and to spend time at my favorite radio station!  Here’s to a great year at WNHU!

Welcome to the greatest stunning place on earth—well right next to Walk The Moon’s homepage.

For those new to our effervescent campus, my name is Ileana Alvarez-Diaz. I, my new and ol’ friends, am the Music Director for the 2016-2017 school year. What does that entail? Revamping our radio station from head to toe and creating student-curated content for all of you to jam to! Restoring the good name of College radio.

I immediately got involved with the radio station my little freshman year. I mean I’m still little—probably only grew a centimeter. But, because of WNHU, I was given the chance to interview bands such as The Colourist, Paradise Fears, Parade of Lights, and Foxing. Being part of the radio station has not only changed my life, as cliché as that sounds, it has opened my small eyes to whole new world.

I’m a simple Music major. Not Music Industry, not Music and Sound Recording; definitely a person who is extremely passionate about music and would like to teach. I didn’t know if I was going to fit in at first, with all the Communication majors here. But, do you know what the great thing is? That doesn’t matter. Any majors can have fun here. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Theater, Engineering, or English major, our radio station can be a second home to you. It is to me.

As you may have guessed, one of my favorite bands is Walk The Moon. Some might say I’m obsessed. I like to call it, very much aware of their every single move at any given time—“in the now.” I do have a show where I play so much Walk The Moon and bands I’m currently listening to such as The Griswolds, Magic Man, Chairlift, CHVRCHES and many more! You can tune in to Foxy Grandpa, every Monday from 12:30pm to 2:30pm, and hear me tell all sorts of random stories and observations. Ten points if you get the reference.

The takeaway here is that I would love for you incoming and returning students to visit the brand new WNHU. We’re changing gears and cannot wait for you all to enjoy the ultimate college radio experience—as it should be. Visit. Get involved. You will not regret it. College radio has nurtured me with immeasurable skills to tackle thousands of future endeavors.  I invite you to brighten your horizons.

I joined WNHU as general Manager on January 25th, 2016, and my first order of business was to get a sense of where the station was, and where we should be going.

Around that time I discovered this Salon.com article;

“College radio is dying – and we need to save it“.

It’s a great read, but I found this observation, in the comments section, to be particularly insightful…

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“Radio is … creating an intimate, relevant connection with a listener, replicated multiple times.

That explanation contains no qualifications about platform, no restrictions about content, and no disclaimers about age or gender. Radio is what each generation makes it, as long as it continues to make that connection.

…Today we have become mostly apathetic to the homogenized, assembly-line, hub and spoke nature of commercial radio. With it’s over-researched playlists, excruciatingly predictable “talent”, and lacking any true intimate connection, it is no wonder the industry lost the youth.

College Radio can still help change that, help save Radio.

In order to do that, College Radio programs have to change, or rather, adapt. They need to remember the powerful place they holds for the future of the industry. College radio was (and can be again) the first and last laboratory for relevant content, the R&D for what content needs to become in a 21st century convergent media landscape. Programs should expand and reorganize to be the incubators for the future airwaves.

…College Radio has the opportunity to combine the media platforms that the youth have adopted (or created), with the content and culture that speaks to them and adapt the medium (radio) into something new, vibrant and relevant, in a safe and creative environment. College Radio is where the youth can find their voice and invent a new road map for their era of Radio.

…I contend we already changed radio, for us, back in our decade, whatever decade that may be. We do not have the ability to change it for the youth, because we are no longer the youth.

Our charge, our challenge now, is to support them, guide them, open them up to the possibilities, expose them to how it has been done in the past and give them the opportunity to change it, break it, rebuild it with new parts and pieces…and then get the hell out of their way and trust in them to do it their way in the future.”

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I couldn’t have said it better myself: We need to give our students the “voice” the commenter refers to. We need to hand them the keys to WNHU: to “change it, break it, rebuild it with new parts and pieces”.

Should be fun!