Discussions are underway between National Public Radio-member station WUSF-FM and USF St. Petersburg about the possibility of the station setting up a studio on campus.
Aiming to expand publishing and broadcasting opportunities for students with an on-site recording booth, the Department of Journalism and Media Studies’ proposal to partner with WUSF has been provisional but ongoing.
Scott Finn, who left his position as WUSF news director in January to direct public broadcasting in West Virginia, originally approached the journalism department with the idea to set up a news bureau at USFSP. Discussion lulled in January with his departure.
“It’s still on the burner,” said assistant reporter Steve Newborn, who is currently filling in as the station’s news director. He said the current negotiations are tentative.
Newborn said WUSF would simply be using office space at USFSP to expand coverage in St. Petersburg while providing a small recording booth for their reporters who live on the Pinellas side of the bay.
The department’s Digital Journalism and Design program took part in a multimedia collaboration with the Tampa Bay Times and WUSF-FM last summer, producing audio stories, photo essays, video and text about the Hillsborough River.
Digital Journalism and Design Program Director Mark Walters, who is actively involved with the proposal, explained that creating a studio out of an office space would not be complicated. Soundproofing a room comes on a modest budget he said, and it would be a fairly simple job.
There’s been talk from WUSF and the department about housing the recording booth in the Peter Rudy Wallace building so it would be in the same building as the Journalism and Media Studies Department. Currently, PRW 103 is in the running, which was formerly occupied by Assistant Director of Leadership Charlie Justice.
