Frequently Asked Questions

WPPJ receives a ton of e-mails each week with questions of all sorts. We try to respond when we can, but since everyone except our faculty advisor Professor Dave Fabilli is a fulltime student, we simply can’t reply to all the messages we receive. So before sending us a question, please see if your question is answered in our FAQ. We’ve group our FAQs based on the common questions we get from listeners, bands and others.

Thanks for your interest in WPPJ Radio!

General

Q: What is WPPJ Radio

A: WPPJ Radio is Point Park University’s student-run radio station in Pittsburgh, PA. We are a mixed-format college station – meaning we play music from a wide variety of genres – from hip-hop to indie rock; from Warp Records to K Records. Feel free to read the Complete History of WPPJ Radio.

Q: Where is WPPJ Located?

A: WPPJ is located on the second floor of Lawrence Hall on the Campus of Point Park University in the heart of Dowtown Pittsburgh

Q: What do WPPJ call letters stand for?

A: The “PPJ” in WPPJ stands for Point Park Journalism

Q: How can I contact WPPJ?

A: For All questions about contacting our station, visit the contact sheet Here

Listeners

Q: How do I make requests?
A: You can call in anytime at 412- 392-4723 to get your requests through or win prizes

Q: Do you take e-mail requests?
A: No, we cannot check our general e-mail box minute-by-minute, so it is best to call in your request. Our DJs try their best to look at our Facebook or Twitter feeds, but calling is the most direct way to get a hold of us.

Q: When can I make a request?
A: The request lines are open 24 hours a day.

Q: Your signal is a little hard to pick up, can I listen online?
A: Yes, on our website you can have access to our live feed using Windows Media Player or Itunes

Q: Do you have an app for my iPhone?
A: Yes, all you have to do is download the Shoutcast App here and search for WPPJ. Also be sure to check out our ShoutCast Profile

Programming

Q: What’s on the air?

A: Whatever our staff wants to program, Everyday we enourage WPPJ DJ’s to embrace the format they want. Whether it’s talking about sports, or walking through an hour of music that no one has ever heard before. We want Point Park Students to have the ability to make their radio show 100% unique.

Q: Can I view your playlists online?
A: Not at the moment. Because we don’t let a computer program make our playlists for us, all playlists are done by hand and would have to be scanned and posted as PDF files. We simply don’t have the resources to do this. However, we are working on solutions to this problem and we will keep you posted on our progress.

Q: How do I get a Public Service Announcement on WPPJ?
A: If you’re a nonprofit organization, please send your PSA to wppj@pointpark.edu. Please understand that we cannot air all the PSA requests we receive, but we do our best to help local organizations.

Band Demos, Airplay, Interviews & New Music

Q: How do I get Music to WPPJ?

A: Check out our guide to submitting music to the station Here

Q: What should I send along with my CD?
A: Please remember to send a press kit or “one sheet”, as well as your contact information and what genre you consider the band to be. If you have a lyrics sheet, you should send that as well.

Q: How do I get my band an on-air interview?
A: All interview requests must go through our General Manager. You can make your pitch to wppj@pointpark.edu

Staff & Membership

Q: Do I have to Be a Broadcast Major to Be a Member at the Radio Station?

A:Absolutely not. WPPJ is open to every single student on-campus. We have members from all different Majors working at the station on a daily. In fact, a portion of your activity fee is dedicated to keeping this station up and running on a daily basis, so we encourage everyone to help make the station awesome.

Q: How can I become a staff member of WPPJ?
A: You have to be a member of the Point Park University Community. Students can apply at the beginning of each semester here. All members must go through a training session to learn the rules of the station, but after that your absolutely free to broadcast as scheduled.

Q: Can people not affiliated with Point Park University be part of the station’s membership staff?
A: No, only members of the Point Park University community can be staffers at WPPJ.

Read Our Constitution Here

WPPJ serves to provide a co-curricular activity for students at Point Park University with an interest in radio, news, sports, contemporary/popular music, media sales and promotions. WPPJ also serves as a training facility for students of any major who desire a career in professional broadcasting. Thirdly, it provides a medium of intra-University communications.

Students drive station management. The general manager is selected each semester by the college’s Broadcast Media Board after advertising for applications. He or she has an executive board- the assistant station manager, program director and sales manager- and a board of department directors- production manager, promotions director, news director, and sports director to work with as well.

WPPJ, charted since 1962, took its call from letters “Point Park Journalism” and was a co-dependent institution. It was-and still is- student operated, funded and governed by the Student Development Department and the United Student Government, but it was supervised and utilized for class by the J&MC Department.

“When I was at The Junior College, we had a little broom closet for a radio station, and that was it. That was the only real radio experience I had. There was nobody who had the working knowledge of a modern day radio station”

The radio broadcasting aspect of Point Park University’s Journalism and Mass Communication program has been, like radio’s own history: through a roller coaster ride of success and struggle. While more than once the radio industry has been declared dead or dying, it has just as often rebounded to unprecedented heights.

During the late –‘60s to mid –‘70s, broadcast-oriented students in Point Park Universities J&MC Department, and by extension its independent campus radio station (WPPJ), had a genuine “Golden Age,” and many members left to pursue broadcast careers.

Part of this was due to what radio meant to those “baby boomers.” Part of it was also part infectious enthusiasm. Part of it was due to professional broadcasters and journalists and Point Park Universities professors Bill Jewett’s and Jerry Haines’ guidance and instruction. And certainly part of it was the freedom combined with the discipline that first Bill Thomas, then Vin LaBarbera, J&MC Department chairs, allowed and insisted upon. But then, something happened.

The end of the‘70’s and start of the ‘80’s almost spelled “the end” for the J&MC Department’s radio curriculum and for WPPJ. Instructor Jerry Haines spent less and less time on campus because of his studies at Duquesne University’s Law School. By 1980, Haines was unable to teach any broadcast classes at Point Park College. He left Point Park to pursue a career in media law. Eventually, the situation at WPPJ and in PPC’s radio curriculum deteriorated.

Student members of WPPJ, most of them J&MC majors, engineered a near student revolt at the station. They already were essentially adviser-less and attempted to break away from Student Affairs’ oversight, and further attempted to change the station’s call letters without consulting the dean of students, the J&MC Department or USG, its own chartering body. It caused an uproar among J&MC and WPPJ alumni, J&MC faculty, PPC administration, and especially with J&MC Chair LaBarbera. The situation grew so tense that the college let LaBarbera know that the radio program of the J&MC Department and WPPJ, as a Point Park Universities activity, was in jeopardy.

LaBarbera wouldn’t cede the radio element of the J&MC program so easily. In the summer of 1982, PPC placed an ad in Broadcasting Magazine for a full-time instructor with strong radio background, and an instructor with strong professional radio experience, David J. Fabilli, was added to the full-time faculty. LaBarbera insisted that the J&MC Department contribute at least one course release for the new instructor in order that he would be able to have the time to “turn around” the radio program there and in the department.

WPPJ has come a long way. Today the station can be heard in a variety of ways around campus. Whether you hear us broadcast daily from the PointCafe, or if you tune in from your dorm and Listen on a PC (Windows Media Player),  WPPJ is still a presence on campus more than 30 years from it’s creation.

Over the years WPPJ has served thousands of  student station staff members, and this year membership has reached 50 and includes students from many majors other than the J&MC Department. WPPJ is the only student activity that is in constant use. It’s on air approximately 15 hours each weekday, a total of 75 hours a week, nearly 1,000 hours  per semester. With the creation of our new website, WPPJ is heading into a new “Golden Age”. The station is reaching more listeners than ever and will continue to serve the student body of Point Park University for many years to come.