  This story originally appeard on the other blog. This is a reprint of the first draft of Chapter 1 Part One. Look for the rest of the story and revisions to this Chapter in the coming weeks. So I began working at the college radio station at VCU in the Fall of 1997.
It had a pretty kick ass location, and okay studio, and a window that looked out onto the common area in front of the building. By the end of that year, all of that would be gone, and the rebuilding would begin. University red tape, mismanagement, controversy, and lawsuits laid the groundwork for the demise of a once popular institution. The station would find itself mired in obscurity, that still haunts it to this day. The Fall Semester 1997, started off the same as any normal year would at WVCW.
There was a new General Manager, a new Program Director, and a bunch of eager young air personalities just waiting to have their voices heard. One such personality was a young man we will just call Matt. Now Matt thought that he was hot sh*t. Matt had been a caller on Howard Stern's radio show several times. He thought that gave him experience, and a buddy in Stern. He was wrong. Now you see ol' Matt got himself a little radio show with a couple of his buddies. Matt decided that he could very well be the next Howard Stern, so he needed to model his show off of the one of his idol. He did some stupid gimmicks and took some calls, but on one October day he went too far. Matt, decided it would be fun to do a sketch mocking a guy who lived on his dorm room floor. The guy who shall remain nameless, was a dance major at VCU, and was working hard at school and making friends. Unfortunately he was targeted by Matt and his Posse as a homosexual. Whether he was or not, we may not know, but that didn't matter to Matt and the boys. The boys portrayed him as a flaming dancer, all the while giving out the guy's dorm room number, and his phone number.
What Matt didn't count on was his victim had a friend with a tape recorder, who rolled tape of the show and gave it to the victim. (I realize this would be easier with names, but legally I can't give out names without permission. ) So, the victim called the Police, the Dance Department Chair, the Student Media Commission at VCU, and of course his lawyer. The radio station management immediately fired Matt and company and was forced to air recorded apologies every hour.
Matt really didn't seem to care about the damage he had done. Sure he was expelled from school, barred from every working in student media if he were ever reinstated, and faced the possibility of monetary loss, the only blow that came as a disappointment to our boy Matt came from his hero. He phoned Stern to let him know the situation, expecting Stern to fight for him. Stern just commented on what an idiot that Matt was for pulling that stunt, and how Stern can get away with more because he had lawyers.
He called the kid a moron and basically crushed his hopes that he could be Howard's heir apparent. The law suit results are still unclear, but it did lead to the radio station banning all talk shows, except one (We'll get into that later.). This incident was a blemish on the radio station that caused a public humiliation to VCU. A humiliation WVCW would pay for the following May. Stay tuned for the rest of the story coming in the next several days. Chapter Two will talk about the one remaining talk show, and how that laid the groundwork for the rise that the station would receive years later. 
