By Emily Bowers
An early-morning drinking session in the basement studios of CKLN that left the station cluttered with broken beer bottles may result in the immediate firing of several staff.
Station manager Conrad Collaco and program director Tim May were flooded with complaints after one of their on-air personalities arrived at work to find the studio a complete mess.
“There were some people who didn’t show respect,” said Mike Hansen, host of the jazz program Why Not?, which usually airs on Wednesday morning from 7 to 11 a.m.
Collaco said the station was off the air for about three hours after random buttons were pushed on the control board, which cut the broadcasting feed from the studio to the transmitter at First Canadian Place.
He was not certain whether the technical problem was related to the partying.
The problems were eventually cleared up when May reconnected the feed, but the delay forced Hansen’s show to miss its time slot.
Hansen wasn’t sympathetic to the mess of beer bottles and trash either.
“It wasn’t cool,” he said.
Collaco said the mess was made sometime during the overnight show, Circle Research and Tecktonics, which airs from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m.
“We had a crew that abused the station,” he said. “It’s a very serious breach.”
Collaco said he wasn’t sure exactly how many people were in the studio, but he said there are about five on-air hosts along with several staff putting the show together.
As well as the drinking and the mess, Collaco said they may have been smoking in the studio which violates CKLN policy and the university’s rules.
Hansen blamed the technical problems on the stations poorly trained volunteers. With 250 volunteers, who work anywhere from five days a week to just once a month, Collaco said lack of technical know-how is sometimes a problem.
“These kinds of technical problems can occur,” he said, though he’s mostly concerned with the in-station drinking.
Collaco will be conducting an internal review to try and determine what kind of action should be taken. Circle Research and Tecktonics is expected to be pulled from the air this week and staff may find their show permanently cut.
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