This is WSHU

Is it that classical music station that does the news, or that NPR station that plays classical music? The truth is, it's a bit of both—and so much more.

From the Fall 2021 issue of Sacred Heart University Magazine

By Elizabeth Koscinski

In 1980, when George Lombardi first walked through the front door of WSHU, it was just a small space in Sacred Heart’s main academic building. Whether or not he knew it at the time, Lombardi—student and part-time engineer—had found home.

Over the next 40 years, Lombardi and WSHU grew together. As Lombardi rose through the station’s ranks, ultimately assuming the role of general manager, WSHU blossomed from a small university station with 700 listeners into a fully-fledged NPR member station with 13 frequencies, over 175,000 radio and 46,500 digital listeners and 17,000 active supporters. The station moved, too, from that cramped space in the main building: first, to an inconspicuous little house tucked away on the western edge of campus—the sort of place that, if you didn’t know what it was, you wouldn’t know what it was—and then, in 2018, to a three-story, state-of-the-art building featuring two full studios and four editing suites, plus offices and the George J. Lombardi Lobby.

“It’s the station that George built,” says A. Rima Dael, who came to WSHU as a station manager in 2019 and succeeded Lombardi as general manager of the station upon Lombardi’s retirement in December of last year.

 It was a turbulent time. “COVID-19 challenged every business to pivot, be nimble and think differently,” says Dael. “We had reporters recording stories under blankets and in closets as their makeshift studios,” she remembers.

A veteran of nonprofit organizations with experience in the public media, arts and education sectors, Dael reached out to her contemporaries to see how they survived 2008 and the Great Recession as a way to frame what could happen, she explains. What she learned was that, for WSHU to survive, time and action were of the essence. “Those who acted proactively and quickly to pivot, make cuts and manage expenses, plus those who continued to fundraise and write grants, fared better in recovering from the recession.”

But a rapidly shifting business model was only part of the storm the station needed to navigate. “There was also a lot going on regarding the mental health impact of the pandemic and the national racial reckoning,” says Dael, herself an Asian American.

Her priorities were clear. WSHU was essential to the community, whose members relied on it as much for its even-handed, fact-based reporting as for the cultural balm of its music programming. And to protect the health of the station, the health of the entire staff would be of greatest importance. “This staff is our greatest asset; preserving their employment was a key priority,” says Dael.

Dael spent time checking in one-on-one with managers, “specifically with our staff of color and working parents, to make sure folks were hanging in there.” The station held mental health workshops for managers and staff. “Mental health was a real issue to manage personally and on behalf of the team,” she says. “The nonstop news cycle, the kind of news we were covering, the pace of work and having to work from home did take a toll. It was hard.”

The challenges didn’t end there. “There were the real issues of security for news organizations during this time too,” Dael says. She credits Gary MacNamara, Sacred Heart’s executive director of public safety, his staff and the University for ensuring the safety of the WSHU team.

Our goal is to deliver content that educates across the spectrum of news, culture and classical music,” says Dael. “As a Sacred Heart University licensee, that goal is essential to everything we create.”

Indeed, serving that mission with integrity requires quite the balancing act. “We’re often asked if we’re a classical music station that delivers the news or a news station that plays classical music,” says Janice Portentoso, communications director for WSHU. “The truth is we’re both—and then some.”

Solutions-based journalism stories, such as diving deep into affordable housing in New Haven or education and transportation issues for Fairfield County, are evidence of the newsroom’s community ties. Likewise, the station is working to strengthen relationships with African American, Asian American, Latinx, Native American and immigrant communities from around the region. “Our reporters aren’t just parachuting into a community for a story,” says Dael. “They work to partner with and become part of a community to tell the stories of all the people who live in our region.”

Of course, it’s not only local stories WSHU brings to its audience. As an NPR affiliate, the station delivers news from around the nation and around the world. And sometimes the nation and the world turn to WSHU.

On December 14, 2012, when a shooter walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and fatally shot 20 students and six adults, Ebong Udoma, senior political reporter at WSHU, was sent to the hospital to cover incoming patients. Only two arrived from the scene. He then went to the school.

“You’re not aware of what you are dealing with at the time,” says Udoma. “You aren’t thinking about having a national story. You are only concerned about reporting the most accurate information possible.”

But it was more than a national story. Udoma found himself fielding calls not only from Reuters and other NPR affiliate stations, but the BBC and outlets as far away as South Africa and Australia.

It was also the most devastating story of his career.

And yet there were lessons learned that helped the station grow and prepare to deal with challenges it had not yet considered. “There were legacies that we learned from a station perspective on how we covered Newtown. We were then and are still a small station. Being thrust into a situation larger than one would think we have the capacity to manage set us up to be able to cover the pandemic well,” says Dael. “We have always risen to the occasion, and it is embedded into our mission of ‘Serving as companion and touchstone every day, and a source of support during extraordinary events.’”

When it comes to the station’s music programming, it would be easy to stick to the narrow palette of traditional composers. But that mission to provide the fullest, most dynamic and diverse programming extends to every corner of the station—including the music. In other words, as Dael says, “It’s not just dead white guys.”

Kate Remington, WSHU’s music director, elaborates. For most, the idea of classical music equates to Mozart and Beethoven and Bach. “But the deeper you dig, the more diverse community of composers and performers you find,” she says. And record labels have finally become much more aware about releasing music by underrepresented composers and performers, she adds. As a result, “There is such a treasure trove of fabulous music by composers whose music has been overlooked, in some cases for hundreds of years,” she says.

What’s more, that diversity in programming extends beyond racial and cultural definitions, as evidenced by Remington’s Music Respawn podcast, available on the WSHU website. In it, Remington dives into the creation of the background music in popular video games.

The idea for the show came to her after her son moved away to go to college and the two stayed connected by meeting online to play the game Destiny—a tradition they continue to this day. Loving the music playing while they were running around with their characters, Remington reached out to one of the composers and asked if he would be willing to talk about his game music for a series. So spawned Music Respawn.

“I had no idea about the care composers have to take with the music, making it work with the game and the sound design while ensuring it interesting and creating a story arc,” says Remington.

Upon the release of the Music Respawn podcast in 2015, Remington noticed she was attracting a younger demographic of Twitter followers. “I’ll tweet when I am going to include game music during my program, so they’ll tune in to listen,” she says. WSHU and Music Respawn have even presented concerts by the Videri String Quartet, who, in addition to their traditional repertoire, play their own arrangements of music from games. “It was such a great experience to see younger kids not only appreciating music from Zelda, Halo and Final Fantasy VII, but Shostakovich and Debussy as well,” said Remington. “Plus, their parents had a chance to hear how sophisticated music in games can be.”

Finally, WSHU is as dedicated to growing from within as it is to serving the educational and cultural needs of its community. Dael was elected to NPR’s board of directors and begins her three-year term in November, an opportunity not only to serve NPR and raise WSHU’s stature within the NPR family, but also to bring the best practices of the public radio system and access to NPR training back to WSHU.

“I think of us as the radio equivalent to a teaching hospital where you have students doing the actual work,” Dael says. “Here, our interns and fellows are on the air, in the production booth and out in our communities. They are integral to who we are as a station.”

In turn, the station seems integral to who those students become as journalists. NPR reporter Will Stone interned at WSHU. One of the station’s first fellows, Jessica Opatich, received a Fulbright Scholarship and went to Africa to focus on women’s use of community radio. Another former intern, Rebecca Liebson, was published in the New York Times shortly after graduation. And former intern Maria del Mar Piedrabuena, who lives on Long Island, started her own Spanish language news publication.

Dael beams. “I’m proud of our legacy,” she says. “Of what we’ve done and how we continue to foster excellence in our future journalists.”

Pictured from left: WSHU's General Manager, A. Rima Dael, begins a three-year tenure on NPR's board of directors this month. George Lombardi, credited with WSHU's growth from its humble beginnings to the preeminent station it is today. Host Kate Remington delivers classical music as well as the podcast Music Respawn exploring the classical music soundtracks to video games.

Elizabeth Koscinski is the communications specialist at Sacred Heart University and an avid NPR fan.