Radio station WVOE crashed. Undoubtedly, the worst part about the crash was that data had not been saved on backup drives.

All information was consequently lost. Needless to say, it was a busy summer for those involved in the rebuilding process.

David Youso, this year’s program director for WVOE, worked closely with members of the station’s executive staff to rebuild the station.

Youso explained that occasional crashes are to be expected.

“Computers – you know – no matter how well you take care of them, there’s always the outside chance they’ll crash,” Youso said.

The truth is that it happens. There are, however, ways to minimalize setbacks like these. 

When necessary precautions are taken to save data externally, radio stations can simply reload all of their backup files right away and be up and running in a reasonable amount of time. This unfortunately was not the case for WVOE.

Youso stated, “This was the one thing that we never got around to backing up … we lost everything.”

Starting from scratch was the only option, and it took all summer and the first part of this semester to complete the project. 

“Learning how to build a library from the ground up and how everything runs and how radio flows – this was a learning experience,” Youso said.

One of the endeavor’s biggest challenges was re-importing all of the station’s  music. This was not as simple as merely loading the files onto the computer, slapping them on a playlist and hitting the start button. 

According to Youso, material needs to be labeled with introduction times and source codes, and it all needs to be edited so as to eliminate as much dead air as possible; each piece should flow nicely into the next with no breaks.

All of these details needed to be reworked. 

In regard to the actual importing of material, WVOE keeps a stockpile of thousands of CDs, which all had to be sorted through and re-entered into the system one by one.

This task meant “deciding … what kind of music we [were] going to put back in, where our focus [was] going to be – because at the same time, this whole wipe, really – it was a new beginning,” said Youso.

The WVOE executive staff was able to carefully choose what music was included in the new system and, conversely, what could afford to be tossed.

Staff members had the freedom to make decisions about what would be included on the station based on their individual and corporate goals as a new WVOE team for this academic year.

This process of creating and executing a new vision for WVOE was a revamp that would have otherwise been extremely messy without this proverbial blank slate.

In addition to learning how to build a radio station from nothing but rough material, staff members gained experience in customizing a station to its desired persona, a useful skill to any broadcaster.

Though the station has not changed  much in nature – as Youso put it, “We’re still just a crazy, wacky, college-filled station” – WVOE has in a sense been updated.

Not all of the station’s previous music has been re-entered. This was done on purpose so as to stick with the vision of the WVOE staff. Music that was left out included Newsboys tracks from the 1980s.

Youso explained that while music can continue to be uploaded, for now, the most important thing was to get the music most relevant to the station airing immediately and worry about the rest later.

A newfound sense of creativity was realized in the executive staff of WVOE in the midst of the whole fiasco; this was a chance for this year’s staff members to really make WVOE their own.

Youso said, “We were like, ‘you know, the people that were here last year – all of them are graduated now; this station is ours. What do we like that they were doing?”

Steps have been taken to ensure that a setback this drastic will not happen again. When asked if WVOE is currently backed up, Youso quickly replied, “Yes, three times it’s backed up.” He added with confidence in closing, “Something like this will most likely never happen again.” 

In addition to Youso, many people worked at rebuilding the station, including but not limited to Ben Paulson, general manager; Trevor Lind, operations director; Nicole Koester, music director; Kayla Schaeffer, production director; and Darek Murphy, technical director.

For a full list of WVOE’s executive staff, visit wvoe.fm. The station can also be listened to on this website.