An invisible trophy sits on an invisible shelf in the WFAL studio. The trophy is collecting dust and the words, ‘top three in the nation’ are beginning to disappear.

In the spring of 1970, the older campus radio station WBGU-FM was unable to offer a sufficient number of jobs for students interested in broadcasting and other electronic media. The campus needed another radio station and WFAL was born.

Since its first broadcast on Sept. 23, 1970, WFAL has been a long-time companion of campus life and is now one of the oldest entirely student-staffed organizations. The founders started with the intention of providing a practical experience for students: Serving the campus population with a professional sound.

In the mid-1990s, WFAL was known as one of the top three student-run campus radio stations in the nation. The National Association of College Broadcasters gave them this title two times in three years.

During this time, they sponsored promotional events such as bobbing for gummi worms and giving away concert tickets.

Other events like bobbing for waffles or themed parties were popular until 2002. During this time, it was not uncommon for men and women to run around campus in nothing but WFAL-sponsored jock straps.

But current station executive board members say lack of funding, enthusiasm and advertising caused WFAL to fall behind large professional radio stations out of Toledo, and the University’s own WBGU-FM.

Now, with a much bigger and more experienced student staff, WFAL staffers have the intention of finally taking back the University.

Making this kind of comeback is no small task, but the current WFAL staff is hoping to form partnerships with area businesses and sponsor more of the events students enjoyed in the past, Program Director Matt Melvin said.

For example, the station has started to host theme parties such as a costume party in Olscamp on Halloween. Less than 10 people attended that event.

Area venues such as Howard’s Club H and Headliners in Toledo are helping to promote WFAL by sponsoring concert ticket giveaways which will start as early as next semester, said WFAL Webmaster Terry Streetman.

These partnerships, no matter how large or small the business is, will help the station no matter what, Melvin said.

WFAL is also hoping to form bonds with campus dining centers.

‘All these places on campus listen to mainstream radio,’ Operations Manager Matt Gortner said. ‘There are two radio stations on campus and playing these big mainstream stations does nothing for us but show lack of school spirit.’

Both Melvin and Gortner believe the listenership should increase on campus, either through the Time Warner channel or the Web-feed, because their station won’t play the same songs every hour or play music no one’s heard before.

‘We play whatever the listeners want to hear,’ Gortner said. ‘We will play mainstream and local music and since we’re not a Top 40 station, we will play a variety and the listener won’t hear the same songs over and over again.’

The number of listeners wasn’t always a problem for WFAL. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the station had more than 2,000 listeners on and off campus. Off campus, most of the listeners came from Wood County jail, where they had only the cable channel streaming music for entertainment.

‘The prisoners would call in to the station and make requests,’ Melvin said. ‘Any listener is a good listener and you gotta love public access.’

Now more listeners are in the United Kingdom, New Zealand or Australia than in Bowling Green, Gortner said.

To help bring in listeners, streaming in dining centers and residence halls would be a big help, Gortner said. Contacting the area businesses and selling commercial time as well as posting flyers in stores will help the community of Bowling Green listen more as well.

Besides the downfall in student listeners, both WFAL and WBGU on campus have taken significant funding cuts in the past few years, Gortner.

‘Last year was the worst cut we took,’ he said. ‘We needed to go from an analog to a digital board, because all stations have to go digital by 2009, and we only got one-third of what they said we would get.’

Some of the money for the radio stations comes from the Student Budget Committee, but most of the funds are generated from WFAL through donations, advertising and commercial drives. At one point in time, WFAL had enough money to host movie premieres.

Making a comeback would require time and energy, but most importantly a staff in the future who will be willing to continue doing what the current staff is doing, Melvin said.

‘We need to make sure we have people come in here who will carry on the legacy,’ he said. ‘We need these ideas carried on to a big success and not go down the tubes like they have in previous years.’

The glory days for WFAL are not just a thing of the past, Streetman said.

‘I really want people to give our station a chance because we’re capable of a lot of good things and we are so open to listener suggestions, we’d be a great resource for listeners on campus,’ he said.

Listeners can tune in to the sounds of WFAL on the radio on 1610 AM, on Time Warner Cable channel 21 or online at wfalradio.com. They are also on MySpace at myspace.com/wfal.