WYBC: Andy Schnier

I wish my recollection of this were sharper, but as they say, “it is what it is” – and you can be darned sure it’s not getting any better.  Anyway, I was trying to remember how I came to “heel”  WYBC, and as best as I can remember, this is how it happened, mundane as it is.

Like most of us of that time I think, commercial radio (rock and roll) was an important part of my life.  I came from NYC (albeit its weird outlying borough, Staten Island) where we had WABC and WMCA and some other big-time AM “top 40″ radio stations to listen to.  Transistor radios were ubiquitous.  My mother had taught me to love classical music. Folk music was the tune my generation was marching to, and rock and roll was what made the blood pulse in your veins.

I don’t think I had any clearly fixed idea of what kind(s) of extra-curricular activities I might pursue when I got to Yale.  I was an editor of my high school newspaper (weren’t we all), but I didn’t love journalism.  I loved to play basketball and tried out for the JV team but I didn’t expect to make it (my expectations were prescient).  I couldn’t sing a note, and although I played a few musical instruments, I didn’t play any of them particularly well.

Anyway, as best as I can recall, I saw a flyer for WYBC somewhere on the Old Campus and I thought, wow, being part of a radio station seems like it would be fun, and boy oh boy, if I could get to actually broadcast, wouldn’t that help to satisfy my ego.  Anyway, I went to an organizational meeting, and I was smitten with the idea of WYBC from the very first.

I was impressed with the fact that this was a very professional looking station with a lot of sophisticated equipment.  I liked the fact that if I heeled, I was going to learn all facets of operating a radio station (something I knew absolutely nothing about), tech and production as well as broadcasting, and that I would have an opportunity to participate in as many of those aspects of the station as I chose.

I also liked the people that I met, both the Members and the other heelers.  The Members seemed so knowledgeable and happy to be part of the Station, and both the Members and the other Freshman who came out to have a look seemed so down-to-earth.  I guess you could say it was “love at first sight” – and it only kept on getting better!

The Station became my home away from home.  It could take as much or as little of my time as I wanted it to.  It was the only extra-curricular activity that I needed.  Even if I had no Station  “business” reason to go, I could go just to relax and be among a bunch of really laid back guys who all shared this common interest.  And of course, there was always that great music coming from the studio speakers.  When doing a show I could play the heck out of the music that I liked in the hopes that it resonated with my listeners, and whether it did or not, I could enjoy the heck out of it myself.

My radio voice was far from ideal and my patter (radio small talk between records) wasn’t particularly sharp or scintillating, but I could do some shows, play “my music,” read some news, learn how to splice tape to produce promos, intros and take-outs, understand some rudiments about how our technical apparatus operated, and ultimately do what I probably do best, which was to teach and provide administrative support.  I became a Day Supervisor, meaning I spent pretty much all of one day a week supervising all aspects of Station operations, including the instruction of new heelers  And for a part of my Senior year I was Program Director.  But most of all, it was just plain fun and a great way to escape from academic pressures.

WYBC anecdotes? Well for some reason, what comes to mind has to do with women.  Of course, that’s not surprising given our all-male Yale environment.  Anyway, in the very beginning of my Junior year (early September)  I was doing an AM show on the weekend, and it was hot as heck in the studio (there was no air-conditioning); so, I took off my shirt and stripped down to my tighty-whities.  After all, it was just us guys, right?   Well, I was more than a little startled when I was standing at the back of the studio selecting some more 45’s for the next portion of my show when a couple of Vassar girls came into my studio to “look around.”  I apologized, they said  “no problem” and stayed for a while, and I wound up dating one of them a few times.  She drank me under the table to my great chagrin.

Finally, I had to leave Yale early my Senior year (mid-April)  because I had signed up for the National Guard and when a slot opened I was told I had to report for Basic Training some date around April 15 or lose my slot.  I made arrangements to complete early term papers or take early tests or otherwise satisfy my professors that I should pass their courses even though I wasn’t going to be around for a month or so of classes, and I left for Fort Dix.

But before I did, I did a “Stardust” (late night AM show) remote broadcast from Helen Hadley Hall (the graduate women’s dormitory).  I have since heard a tape of that broadcast.  The beer was flowing freely, my mouth was flowing much too freely, and in the end my good friend Tom Guterbock took over, probably saving me from serious embarrassment or worse.

I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the Station.  I have visited it each time I’ve returned for reunions. I have broadcast live shows with my good friend Ken Devoe from the New Haven Green on some of those visits to drum up interest in the Station among the returning alumni, and I sat on the Station’s Board of Governors and was its Chairman for a number of years.  I could not be more proud or pleased to have been a member of a secret society (which I was not) than I am to have been a member of WYBC!