‘Pirate Radio’ screening benefits WIDR-FM

By Katie White
Western Herald

The Kalamazoo Film Society will host “Pirate Radio” at the Little Theatre next weekend, with proceeds of the screening benefiting WIDR.

“We always try to do a fundraiser for the station during WIDR Week for the past seven years where the station gets all the profits,” Kalamazoo Film Society President Mike Marchak said. “Some years were successful and some weren’t. I know it is the weekend at the end of spring break, but I urge students to come back a day earlier, have some fun and help WIDR at the same time.”

WIDR-FM is WMU’s student-run radio station, with most of the staff working for no pay. The station, now 89.1 FM, started as a small radio station only people on campus could listen to in the early 1950s. It broadcast only to WMU dorms and buildings. The station gained popularity, and by 1975, was an FM station broadcasting to all of Kalamazoo.

The station makes its money through generous donations made to it during WIDR Week and the number of events it throws, including concerts, live broadcasts, and film screenings.

“It seemed like the perfect film for the WIDR fundraiser,” Marchak said. “The film uses an excerpt from a real life event, when in the mid ‘60s in England, the government outlawed the broadcast of rock and roll through the BBC. A bunch of rogue DJs took to the high seas in a freighter with transmitters and kept the airwaves rocking. The English title for the film is “The Boat That Rocked”. WIDR, with their colorful DJs, is the station that rocks, keeping the spirit alive.”

The film, which stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman and British heavy-hitters such as Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Emma Thompson, depicts the real-life Boat That Rocked.

Hoffman, at the helm as The Count, takes his music-loving rebels and drives the BBC into a censorship breakdown. The rebels believe in the power of the artists, the words, free speech and do it all in the name of rock n’ roll.

“The movie depicts a time when the spirit of rock and roll surpassed all else in order to survive and be played at a later time,” Marchak said. “WIDR possesses that spirit and tries to keep it alive here on campus.”

“Pirate Radio” will be screened at the Little Theatre on Friday, March 5 at 7 and 9:30 p.m., Saturday, March 6 at 4:30, 7, and 9:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 7 at 2:30, 5, and 7:30 p.m.

Tickets will be available for $5 and all of the proceeds will go to WIDR- 89.1 FM.
The WIDR offices and studio are located in the basement of the Faunce Student Services building.

Students interesting in volunteering may call the program director at (269) 387-6305.

“WIDR has operating expenses and maybe we can make a little bit of money to help them out,” Marchak said. “Come on out to the Little Theatre, give them a hand, and have some laughs in the process.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Feb 25 2010. Filed under A & E, Weekend Scene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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