Dr. King Remembered
Capital Times Staff Writer
In honor of the late Rev. Dr. the New Millennium.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., Penn The letter began by congratu-
State Harrisburg hosted a cele- lating the country on all of the
bration of its own. Monday’s technical and scientific achieve
events drew students and com- ments that have been reached
munity members to the since King’s assassination in
Harrisburg campus to pay 1968.
homage to the great civil rights
leader.
The day began with a presen
tation of A Family Song, written
by PSH’s own Dr. Dorothy King.
Along with the musical guid
ance of Grenoldo Frazier and Dr.
Felicia Brown-Haywood, the
team created a story of four gen
erations of African-American
singers and the impact of impor
tant historical events in black
history such as Brown v. Board
of Education had on the family.
The show was met with great
success
Later in the day, the celebra
tion continued in the auditorium
with a program entitled “This
Little Light of Mine”.
PSH student and SGA mem
ber, Serena Silverman, began the
program with a warm welcome
from Penn State Harrisburg.
St. Paul Missionary Baptist
Church, Signs of Love, a local
youth group, jumpstarted every
one in attendance with a rousing
Gospel song entitled “A Blessing
Come Through”.
The young people of Signs of
Love range in age from 4 to 16
and use sign language to inter
pret gospel music.
The group performed several
times throughout the program,
signing both traditional and pop
ular songs.
Two “glow-in-the-dark” num
bers and one including a dance
routine were big crowd-pleasers.
Donna Howard, Assistant
Coordinator of Non-Traditional
Student Affairs, stepped up next
to introduce the featured guest
speaker, Derrick Span.
Span has been quite an influ
ence as a civil rights advocate,
particularly in a previous post in
Binghamton, N.Y.
Currently, Span is the Director
of the Governor’s Project for
Community Building.
Span began by musing about
what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
would have to say about the cur
rent state of America.
To answer such a question,
Span prepared a fictional letter
from King to the United States of
America upon entering the 21st
century, entitled “A Message for
By Nicole Burkholder
The achievements made in
computers and the space pro
gram were heralded, but the let
ter also stated that our “ethical
achievements still lag behind the
technical and scientific.”
Span wrote that King would
note- that America has “made the
world a neighborhood, but not
yet a sisterhood or a brother
hood.”
According to Span, King
would still regrettably notice the
unfortunately high levels of
xenophobia and ethnocentrism
that is just as representative of
America as apple pie.
Span believes that King would
urge us to “demand that people
live together in truth, justice, and
goodwill.”
In true honor of King, Span
stressed the need to eliminate
violence as the pathway to our
He closed with the comment
that “America is an unfinished
dream”, stressing that in order
for that dream to be realized we
as Americans must keep the
dream alive in our hearts.
Rev. Clarice L. Chambers,
President-Elect of the National
School Board and Pastor of
Antioch Tabernacle, also spoke.
After seeing a second presen
tation by Signs of Love,
Chambers commented on how
wonderful it was to see the
amount of young people interest
ed in King’s legacy.
She reminded the audience
that “each of us play an integral
part in making America better,”
and that success starts with the
children.
Dr. Dorothy King, Assistant
Professor of Social Science,
introduced an excerpt from the
previously performed A Family
Song. Dr. Felicia Brown-
Haywood and Grenoldo Frazier
then performed a moving song
from the play entitled “Be A
Light.”
Dr. Janet Widoff, Director of
Student Activities, closed the
day’s events. As did the previous
speakers, Widoff urged the audi
ence to be “a strong reflection of
the legacy left to us by Dr.
King.”
WPSH, 88.9 FM, Is Ready to Go
Continued from Page 1
running was already there nor
were they instructed on how to
make it work.
Being novices at working a
radio station didn’t help. “We
didn’t know anything,” Moist
said. “We taught ourselves how
to use the board,” added
Gutierrez.
Having that as their starting
point and with little faculty input
left the staff was largely on their
“The biggest problem was
finding out how this station
could broadcast and what we
would need to make it run,”
Moist said.
The equipment needed to
make the station run was found,
but two pieces were missing.
Those pieces were already
hooked up on the tower inside
the station and, with a flick of a
switch, WPSH was on the air.
The problem was that the sig
nal really wasn’t going any
where. To do that, the transmit
ter boxes and cables that had
been sitting around unnoticed
had to be hooked up.
Originally, according to
Director of Student Affairs Don
Holtzman, the transmitters and
cables were to have been
installed in the residence halls.
That plan was scrapped because
the residence halls were closed.
The station remained off the
air until March 1999 when the
cables were run from WPSH’s
studios on the third floor of
Olmsted Building through the
televisions in the Audio-Visual
Technical room to the television
in the Lion’s Den.
That was the only place on
campus the station could be
heard and even then it was just
during lunch hours.
The transmitter boxes and
cables were purchased from LPB
Communications, Inc. in
Philadelphia.
Moist said he tried calling
LPB Communications for
months to get them to come to
the studio and correctly wire the
equipment so that the entire cam
pus, not just the Lion's den, could
hear WPSH’s signal.
By chance, Moist said, he got
to speak with someone from LPB
Communications but was told
that to properly do the job, more
cable would be needed.
As it turned out, only half of
the necessary equipped was
received in 1996.
The station got the go-ahead to
buy the additional equipment.
According to Holtzman, approxi
mately $4,000 of the original
$12,000 grant money was unused.
The remaining grant money
plus $lO,OOO in additional funds
from the Student Activity Fund
was used to buy the rest of the
needed cables and transmitter
boxes.
In addition, Holtzman said,
$2,000 was given to the station
from the provost office and
approximately $l,OOO more was
provided by student activities.
Getting the equipment was
one thing, but getting someone
from LPB Communications to
install it was something else.
No one was on campus during
the summer of 1999 so any
installation project had to wait
until the fall.
They just want to
come in the door,
turn on the
microphone and play
all the CD’s they
have in their car.
That’s all they
want to do.
- Jesse Gutierrez
After several rescheduled vis
its, LPB Communications hired a
subcontractor from Long Island,
N.Y., to install the transmitter
boxes and the cables in the
Olmsted Building and the
Capital Union Building (CUB).
The job was completed last
month. Holtzman is pleased with
the results. “It’s working better
than planned,” he said.
The station is not an FCC
licensed station because it does
not broadcast the way traditional
radio stations do.
Instead of having a tower to
broadcast the signal, WPSH uses
cables that radiate the signal to a
small area.
“You can hear us in here [the
Olmsted Building], the CUB and
in between,” said Gutierrez. The
station operates at 88.9 FM.
Getting the station back on the
air wasn’t the only priority for
the staff. Upgrading antiquated
equipment was another problem
that had to be resolved.
The staff, through their
approved budget, purchased sev
eral much-needed items.
“We got two minidisks, a CD
changer and a CD burner,” said
Gutierrez.
“We bought a new CD player
and new record player,” added
Gutierrez said the station pur
chased the CD burner to aid the
staff when they are hired to DJ
an event.
“To take a crate of CD’s was a
pain so we wanted to cut CD’s
with different types of music,"
Gutierrez explained.
Moist said that it was to bene
fit the station in the studio as
well. “At the time we didn’t have
a CD changer so it was to make a
compilation CD that was 20
songs long. We could pop a CD
in and go to class and it would
still be playing when we got
back.”
Although some of the equip
ment is old, the staff is happy
with what they have. “We pretty
much have everything we want
right now,” offered Moist.
That may be true as far as
equipment, but not true where
staffing is concerned. For now,
it’s just Moist, Gutierrez and
Grissinger in the studio.
Although they would like to
have more staff, they also want
people who are willing to work
hard.
Gutierrez hasn’t seen that type
of dedication from too many stu
dents here. He said, “As soon as
someone sees they have to do
work, they don't want to do it.
They just want to come in the
door, turn on the microphone and
play all the CD’s they have in
their car. That’s all they want to
do.”
Gutierrez summed up the
staff’s frustration with other stu
dents. “It’s disappointing when
I’m eating lunch downstairs [in
the Lion’s Den] and I hear some
body say ‘Does this campus have
a radio station?’ and their friends
laugh ‘Yeah, it’s a joke.’ Well
come up and do it.”
Students have the chance to
do just that. WPSH is looking for
any student who is willing to
commit to working in the station.
Opportunities are available for
those who want to read the news,
sports, or any other on-air job. In
addition, the staff needs people
to do many behind-the-scenes
tasks such as answering the tele
phone.
Interested students can call
WPSH at 948-6396 or stop by
the station at W 343 Olmsted.