WPPJ Looks To The Future

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This semester Point Park Universities radio station WPPJ has seen numerous amount of changes.  In the forefront of the changes that were, being made to WPPJ was new General Manager Anthony Costulas.  Costulas felt that there were some areas at that needed to be addressed.  “Some of the other changes we put into place include trying to spruce the place up a bit and make it look more professional one day a time.  Also trying to fix some of the structural problems we have as far as staffing; trying to make communication better,” says Costulas.  But one of the biggest additions to WPPJ this semester has been the WPPJ web site.

The Inception of  the Web Site

For a good year now, WPPJ has approached Point Park’s administration about creating a web site but it was not until this semester that it became a reality.  “It was just going into a office of people and saying “we want a web site” and when they told me “no” we just told them that we were going to do it with are budget whether they liked or not and that changed their tone,” says Costulas.  Costulas feels that everyone just needed to get over the fear of the idea being rejected by the administration.  “It was getting over people saying that we couldn’t do it and once you can convince people that you can do it makes the process much easier,” says Costulas.  But once the site was approved Costulas, credits Professor Heather Starr-Fielder and Music Director James Acklin for the actual design of the site.  “I think the design stand-point Professor Heather Starr-Fielder pretty much did all that end for us as well as our Music Director James Acklin.  Heather really designed the basic layout of a web site.  She gave us the basic feel and James sort of wanted to put our own spin on it,” say Costulas. Other than the initial design of the site, Costulas says that the entire site is run by students and members of WPPJ.  Costulas feels that the site has helped WPPJ tremendously and he has been very pleased with the response it has gotten from the public.  “Once they log on to the web site we get a fantastic response from everyone,” say Costulas.

The Future of WPPJ

Some other issues that Costulas wanted to change were internal issues and he has felt that WPPJ has progressed in this area as well.  “I think some of the old stigmas of people worried about not always being in contact with one another that sort of disappeared.  I think less DJ’s feel like they’re being excluded,” says Costulas.  One other issue that Costulas feels that has gotten an outstanding response is members being more involved with the everyday processes that goes on at WPPJ.  Production Director Steve Linkowski has also noticed more involvement at WPPJ.  “Since I’ve joined WPPJ in the fall of 2008, I’ve noticed that WPPJ has become more of an organized medium.  It’s in the sense that the station has gone from a laid-back hideout for a few people to a place where there seems to be a lot more involvement from other concentrations in the JMC department, especially with U-View,” says Linkowski.  Linkowski also feels this only the beginning and even bigger and better things could lie ahead for WPPJ.  “I can definitely see WPPJ continuing to merge with other divisions of Point Park’s JMC department (i.e. U-View) to bring a bigger pool of talent and resources to both areas.  I can also see WPPJ getting a lot of physical improvements: More funding, better equipment, a second production studio, possibly even a brand new location on-campus altogether.  It’s a very exciting time to be a part of WPPJ and its only going to get more promising, from how things have been developing over the past few years,” says Linkowski.  Costulas agrees with Linkowski’s assessment.  “I think next everyone will be pleasantly surprised of what we developed and made.  Hopefully that’s something we can pass on to future generations.”

Anthony Costulas Interview sound bite