Radio Coverage?

[beauspencer]

Is there any radio coverage of men's basketball? I assume the local radio group isn't doing anything (complete shame what has happened to "local" radio in Macomb). Curious if the broadcasting department radio station is covering games?

[rocki]

If you go to the schedule, it shows MIXLR (or something like that) as the broadcast station. I tried listening to the women's basketball last night on it, and the sound/volume was horrible.

Shame there's no local radio station anymore - thank heaven for ESPN+.

[wiu712]

The new owner of the Macomb Radio Group (Fletcher Ford) has really diminished the role of "local" on the Macomb radio stations.

WRAM / WMOI in Monmouth and WGIL in Galesburg do a much better job in keeping the "local" going on their stations.

WIUS used to broadcast home games during the regular academic year.  But I don't think that they did the home football games this season.

The University owns operates two radio stations.  Western Athletics needs to get the games on one of those radio stations.   Eastern Illinois University broadcasts its games on its own radio station, WEIU-FM.
 
Today's Men's Basketball game at Eastern Michigan will be on ESPN 3.  Game time is 2:00 PM.
 

[ST_Lawson]

The University owns operates two radio stations.  Western Athletics needs to get the games on one of those radio stations.   Eastern Illinois University broadcasts its games on its own radio station, WEIU-FM.
 

WEIU-FM broadcasts at 4,000 watts, which gives them a coverage range of this: https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?c ... service=FM

WIUS-FM broadcasts at 220 watts, which gives them a coverage range of this: https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?c ... service=FM

I imagine that the issue is that the athletics department just has to go with whatever is cheap/free (like, whoever in the area is willing to broadcast the games), but I'd like to see the university/athletics department put a bit more money into WIUS, increase the broadcasting range (they'd need to apply to the FCC to increase the power, but there's practically no chance of interference from stations nearby on the dial, so it shouldn't be a difficult process), and get all football, mens and women's basketball, and maybe a few other sports on the station.

WIUM is in a bit of a different situation. While the university does own their charter, but doesn't support it financially outside of allowing them to use their on-campus facilities. Also, because they're a public radio station, I'm sure there's other considerations in terms of what they are and aren't allowed to do on the air.

Increasing the power of WIUS and using it for sporting events could also allow a partnership with the marketing department whereby marketing students might be able to go out and get sponsorships/ad buys by local businesses to be aired during the games.

[sealhall74]

IMHO, the university should OWN, yes OWN, a decent commercial quality radio station.  Numerous departments on campus could benefit (broadcasting, business, athletics, ...).  Increase the range to something reasonable like 30 miles, sell advertising and treat it like a real business.  Yea, you would have to hire a couple people to manage it but students could do a lot of the work and gain some experience.