February 13, 2013 Vol. 93, No. 7
90 Years and Going Strong The past, present and future of student media at Messiah College By Nicholas Tay FEATURES EDITOR
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his issue of the Swinging Bridge commemorates the 90th anniversary of the student-run paper. While we celebrate the longevity of the newspaper and the importance of student media’s innumerable opportunities for all students, we should also take some time to explore the origins of student media at Messiah. What was WVMM like in the 1980s? Why is the student paper called the Swinging Bridge? In 1983, a campus-wide event was held to rename the school paper. The Ivy Rustles, as it was known back then, was experiencing some difficulties and the administration decided to restructure the newspaper. The overhaul of the newspaper called for a fresh start, and students were invited to submit their ideas. Dave Olsen, a senior biolog y major, submitted the name the Swinging Bridge, and the rest is history. But the decision behind the name was not as straightforward as one might imagine. Olsen remembers his reasons for giving the school newspaper its current name. “A couple of friends and I decided to join the newspaper-naming contest. The alumni magazine was called the Bridge and they had just completed the swinging bridge across the Yellow Breeches. So I thought it was appropriate to name the paper the Swinging Bridge as a complement to the alumni magazine.” But Olsen does not believe his name for the paper should have won. “If I were the person judging the submitted names, I actually would not have chosen the Swinging Bridge. My friend submitted the title Messiah’s Handle. I thought that name was pretty clever as it was a play on the famous Handel score.” As a reward for winning the naming contest, Olsen received $15, which he claimed would “buy him 60 Ms. Pac Man games.” Olsen admits he forgot about his statement but gave reasons for the quip. “The snack shop in the campus center just got a Ms. Pac-Man machine earlier that year and several of us were quite addicted to the game. We essentially had all the screens memorized and that of course took a lot of practice and quarters. We could pretty much play forever on one quarter, let alone $15.”
During his time at Messiah, Olsen was also involved in student media. He was the photography editor for the Clarion and the Swinging Bridge during his junior and senior years. “I got the yearbook position my junior year when the previous photography editor unexpectedly quit. Coincidently, the school newspaper was also looking for photog raphy editor for the newspaper when it was undergoing its struggles during the Ivy Rustles era.” Olsen is now a researcher with the pharmaceutical corporation Merck, where he has spent the past 22 years working on drug discovery for HIV and hepatitis C. While he currently works with health professionals and scientists on discovering drugs for neglected and tropical diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, chagas and leishmania, he values the time he spent in student media. “Those were important and rewarding jobs and I learned so much.” While we have gained insight into the history of the newspaper, we still need to examine an important piece of student media – the radio. During the 1970s, the radio station was broadcast from an attic in the library and was limited to dorms through carrier current – form of AM radio transmission. The radio switched to the FM transmission in the late 1980s, with student life maintaining a consistent broadcast. Over the years, the radio has moved multiple times. It was once located at the bottom of the Engle Center, then moved into a house where the current Larsen Student Union stands, then spent a two-and-a-half year spell in the basement of Miller before finally settling down in the Union upon its completion in 2004. While geographical change has influenced the radio’s broadcasting methods, its biggest change was brought about by WVMM’s desire to remain relevant to the Messiah student body. According to Dr. Ed Arke, the faculty advisor for the Pulse, WVMM diverged from a Christian-only station to an entertainment medium which included secular voices. “When I first came here in 1997, WVMM only played Christian music while SAB brought in only Christian performers and held only Christian concerts. When SAB changed their policies in
The front page of the Swinging Bridge from March 1983 featured this article announcing the renaming of the newspaper. the early 2000s, WVMM trailed a little, but quickly followed that trend by reflecting the students’ desires.”
lieves the future looks bright for student media. “What’s nice about the Swinging Bridge being under the
With the integration of Messiah’s student media outlet into a conglomerated organization, Arke be-
// see 90 YEARS on page 3