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| Was it this bad? No, not initially. |
This past week some friends let me join a new group – The WQBR Old Folks Home. It’s a Facebook group, apropos for this
bunch, as it’s a mötley (crüe) collection of former Eastern Michigan University students who used to “…work (or at least hang out) at WQBR Radio…”
That’s
me in spades, as I spent more time there than most. I was there three times – from 1971 to 1973
(when I dropped out of college entirely), then 78-9 (when I finished my degree…finally),
and then again from 1982-4 (when it seemed I just couldn’t get enough of dear
old EMU). Each time I enjoyed my time
there, learning (of course) but perhaps more importantly, smoking dope
the camaraderie that existed among all the staff. And of course, all that camaraderie means I
have stories to tell. Here’s the first,
and it involves “the couch.”
No,
not what happened on it. We all know
that. Even first semester students got
wind of the couch’s “unique characteristics.”
You’d know they knew when you invited them into the office area and
asked them to sit, pointing at the couch, and they’d look at you and say, “No
thanks, I’m good.” No, this is about how
we got the couch in the first place. In
fact, it’s how we got ALL the initial batch of furniture.
When
I came back in 1978, WEMU has just left 129 Quirk for King Hall, leaving the
former studios for the newly-christened WQBR (it was WHUR initially). Some of the offices were taken by
broadcasting faculty, leaving the 3 studios for WQBR. The main studio (with a board as old as
Marconi’s mother) remained, the production studio was empty (we wouldn’t get a
real production area until 1983 when a new board replaced Marconi’s mom, which
moved to production), and the large open “live” studio was to be our office
area.
Except
we had no furniture at all, except for a very large (awkward) table. That was it.
Buying
furniture was out of the question (we had zero budget). I asked Admin about getting some desks and
chairs from Surplus, and was told that requisitions would take “a while.” No offer to help (or to speed up the process)
was forthcoming, so I called the EMU Physical Plant myself, and found that
without a faculty advisor’s signature, there was nothing they could do. I asked them what type of furniture was available,
and they told me that all sorts of things would be on hand, usually. “In fact, we’re starting to collect a whole
bunch of items right now from Downing Hall.”
Oh,
really?
There’s
an old saying that, as long as you LOOK like you know what you’re doing, no one
will question you. It seemed simple to
me – if we followed the standard routine, the Physical Plant would take
furniture out of Downing Hall, drag it to the Warehouse, wait for our
requisition, then drag it back to Quirk Hall.
Or, we could take a shortcut and eliminate the middle.
So
we took a few burly DJs over to Downing (did you laugh there? I certainly did) and we started picking out
furniture. We found chairs, desks, and
the infamous couch out in the halls, properly tagged for surplus…and all for
the taking. Best of all, we were there
only about a half-hour, and no one said a word.
Well, that’s not true. One RA saw
what we were doing and said, “Hey, what’s going on?” I quickly grabbed some papers from my back
pocket and replied, “It’s OK, I’ve got paperwork.” He waved us on (couch and
all).
By
the way, I have NO idea whose inspired creative thinking caused us to grab the
couch. I should tell you that it’s a
tradition I continued when I started up KEDM in Monroe, LA (and yes, it was a
used couch – tradition!).
Once
we got all of the furniture back to Quirk and set up, it made for a very nice
office area. Certainly the students were
pleased, but Admin…well, only once did someone ask me about it, wondering out
loud if they really wanted to know how we got it and/or where it came
from.
Probably
not. Especially the couch.
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