WMFO 91.5 FM, Tufts' freeform student-run radio station, is stepping out of the shadows and putting on a new, fresh face.
WMFO Publicity Director and senior Thuy Lee decided last semester that she would spend the spring fulfilling the duty of her position: She would publicize WMFO.
"WMFO has had a very, very low profile ... ever since I've been here," Lee said.
Her publicity campaign included hanging colored fliers all around campus throughout the semester. The fliers contained slogans asking students to "try something new," and asking them "what will you hear next?"
The freeform genre of the public radio station lent itself to this second slogan. According to the station's Web site, WMFO has been broadcasting freeform radio - a "radio format not restricted to a single genre" - since 1970.
Currently, the station boasts over 70 disc jockeys, including both Tufts students and members of the broader community - some of whom are alumni living in Medford, Boston and Cambridge.
"It's cool just to turn on WMFO having no idea what you're going to hear, and you're always going to hear something new," Lee said. "Among the wealth of music that we play ... there really is something for everyone."
WMFO members also set up a table in the campus center earlier in the semester to register people for their e-mail list and hand out promotional giveaways.
"We were fortunate this year to have our budget allow us to get a lot of promo items," Lee said. "We got buttons, which were a big hit when we tabled."
The station's budget was increased by about $1,000 for the 2005-2006 school year. "We basically have about the same budget except we had a thousand dollars in discretionary [funds]," General Manager and junior Annie Ross said.
This extra money will not be available for the 2006-2007 year. According to Ross, due to an increase in the number of student groups on campus, budgets of existing groups had to be decreased.
At the end of April, the station plans to have another tabling session in the campus center - this time, with WMFO T-shirts.
In March, WMFO also began putting out a weekly list of its top 10 most-played songs in the Daily. The list is published in the Arts & Living section each Wednesday and is posted on the station's Web site.
The top 10 list "gives listeners a glimpse of what we play," according to Lee. "We go way beyond that, but it does give you a good picture of who we are and what we're about."
Finally, the station has utilized its recently redesigned Web site to attract and maintain listeners.
The new site, which was launched in September, now offers features like DJ profiles and archived shows.
"We just want it to be as listener-friendly as possible and [have] as much content as possible," Lee said. "But we can't pay someone to update our Web site everyday."
Lee organized and led the entire campaign, which was her idea, with help from WMFO's Executive Board - Ross, Program Director Jordan Levie and Music Director David Buivid - along with some of the station's more enthusiastic DJs.
Freshman DJ Drew Frankel was one of Lee's most avid assistants, helping her throughout the campaign.
Frankel also came up with a number of publicity ideas for which the campaign does not currently have the time or resources. His ideas, however, will be kept in mind in the future.
For example, he proposed driving a car around campus displaying a WMFO banner and blasting the station from the car's stereo.
"I designed a T-shirt that says 'Listen to me,' and then it had a place for the DJ to fill in their time slot," said Frankel, who is running for publicity director for next year. "So people would see their friend wearing this T-shirt; then they might listen."
In the fall, most of Lee's publicity work centered on writing press releases, which have represented the extent of the station's publicity pushes in recent years.
"The fall semester I spent planning what I was going to do," she said.
Any changes in listenership brought about by the campaign have been hard to determine, as the station has no way of tracking the number of non-online listeners.
WMFO streams online through its Web site and is also available under "Public" in the radio feature on iTunes.
The station averages 900 unique online listeners per week, peaking at 1,300 at one point this year. Only 15 percent of online listeners are located on the Tufts campus.
Despite the difficulty of determining the campaign's concrete results, Lee said the publicity drive has represented a solid beginning.
"This is something that's coming slowly but surely. It's hard to make everything turn around just like that," she said. She expressed hope for "something more like a constant stream [of publicity] every couple weeks."
Ross said that the publicity drive has helped heighten general knowledge of the station.
"People know what WMFO is. In prior years, people have been like, 'What's WMFO? We have a radio station?'"
For Frankel, "The greatest response I've had would be my own friends listening to my show."
Ross hopes to keep some of the momentum from the publicity push going into next year.
"It'll be a little bit hard, negotiating with funds...but I think a lot of the things we were able to set up this year, we'll be able to continue in future years," she said. "It'd be nice to have the money, but I think we'll still be able to do a lot."
