NSU Horizons Spring/Summer 2008

T o Chad Robinson, radio is not just something to listen to while driving around town. It is a passion. When Robinson came to Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center as a student in 2005, he wanted to combine his love for radio with his legal studies. The result is WLAW radio, the first and only student-run radio station at an American Bar Association-accredited law school in the country. Robinson, together with Sara Graditor, also a third-year law student at NSU, founded WLAW, an Internet radio station hosted on the Law Center’s Web site. With the tagline “The First Voice in Law School Radio,” WLAW is now in its second year as the Law Center’s radio station, providing a forum for the discussion of legal issues and fostering interaction among students, professors, and the professional community. “I just love the mic,” Robinson said. “It’s as simple as that. I love radio.” Robinson, who earned a broadcast journalism degree at the University of Florida, where he did sports broadcasting for the university’s radio station, started experimenting with the idea of law-based radio in early 2006. He began broadcast- ing on Live365, an Internet radio network, as a way to relieve the stress of his first year of law school. He produced just one show a week, recorded from his bedroom, but saw the potential for some- thing larger when he did a review session and nearly his entire class tuned in. That’s when Robinson sought help from Graditor. “We got together and started thinking ‘How can we expand this idea? How can we take it from this little idea to something bigger?’,” Robinson said. With a background in business and market- ing from her undergraduate studies at the University of Central Florida, Graditor began researching and putting together a business plan for the radio station. “I thought this had so much potential,” she said. “I put together a market analysis to determine what the success rate would be, how we should position it, and how we should set it up. We had several meetings with faculty members and then presented it to the dean.” Joe Harbaugh, Law Center dean, approved the plan and gave Robinson and Graditor a budget for the station. They were told to run the station like a business, with the students involved paid as employees. A room in the Law Center was con- verted into a radio studio, and Robinson and Graditor recruited their friends and classmates to become the on-air talent. In February 2007, the radio station launched on the Law Center’s Web site. But some growing pains were unavoidable, as Robinson and Graditor, serving as executives, had to learn on the job how to run a radio station, and the unproven staff had to adapt to being on air. “I’m the only one that came in with any type of [radio] experience,” Robinson said. “But none of us is shy because we are all going to be lawyers. You put a microphone in front of most of us and we’ll steal it right from you.” The station was reorganized over the summer, and the fall semester brought new promise. David Young, judge, of the Judge David Young television show appeared as a guest, as did Matt McCall, director of basketball operations at the University of Florida. “It was really the turning point of the radio station,” said Robinson. “We could see that it could be run smoothly, despite our busy law school schedules.” Currently, WLAW Radio features four regularly scheduled, student-hosted shows. On Sidebar , hosts Nick Seidule and Crystal Hall discuss legal issues and interview guests. NSU Law Today features conversation on politics and controversial topics in the news, with hosts Gina Jacobs and Joseph Pustizzi. On Out of Bounds , hosts David Eddy and Marvis Jenkins discuss the latest legal issues in the sports arena. Rebuttal , created and hosted by Seidule, plays music and takes calls. Shows are aired live two or three times a week and replayed during the week, giving WLAW 24-hour-a-day programming. “The station brings a forum for conversation and, thereby, expands the communication process within the Law Center community,” Harbaugh said. “It’s an opportunity for students to sound off, for faculty members to be interviewed or quizzed, for administrators to be questioned, and to get outside guests like judges and lawyers to add to what we are discussing within the law school. Externally, it’s also a perfect way for applicants to the Law Center to get a sense of what our com- munity is all about.” “The station allows students to have a voice, to have their thoughts heard, and to mature those thoughts,” Graditor added. All members of the current staff, including Robinson and Graditor, are completing their final year of law school. But, thanks largely to Radio Idol, a contest Graditor ran to find fresh talent, a new staff of law students is ready in the fall to take over behind the microphones at WLAW. “We’ve found a good group of people that want to take this to the next level,” Robinson said. “We’re very confident about leaving it in their hands.” ■ By alan hancock 33 horizons ALAN HANCOCK IS NSU’S ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. WLAW co-founders Sara Graditor (bottom center) and Chad Robinson (bottom right) have counted on classmates like Crystal Hall (top right), Nick Seidule (top left), and Hollie Kirsner (bottom left) to serve as on-air talent.