Change has been the theme of the past year, and it’s no different for WFAL Falcon Radio. The campus station cut ties with its AM broadcasting at the beginning of the school year and became a Web primary station, or one that broadcasts primarily on the Internet. Falcon Radio launched a brand new Web site, Falconradio.org, on April 13 to help them become one of the fastest growing college radio stations in Ohio. The Web site received around 13,000 hits from Sept. 8, 2008, until today, whereas with the old format the site received only around 2,000 hits. ‘It was absolutely essential to enhance the services provided by the Web site,’ WFAL Falcon Radio President Rich Ehrbar said. Ehrbar said the format changed because the AM frequency the station used was so low-powered that it could not even be heard on campus. To help facilitate this change WFAL received approximately $16,000 in extra funds with the help of Edward Whipple, vice president of student affairs. The station got upgraded from analog to digital, got a new masterboard, new cabinets, carpeting and new microphones. Ehrbar sees the whole year as a success. Not only was the station able to successfully transfer from an AM station to a Web primary station, but it was also successful in gaining more exposure. The station was able to be promoted through a couple of different ways. One of those ways was by providing the majority of the entertainment for CampusFest during the fall semester. Another promotion that the station ran was Hip-Hop and Hennessy Thursdays at Nate and Wally’s Fishbowl downtown. Both events were played by DJ Limelightz, one of WFAL’s premiere DJs according to Kemon ‘Chi-Town’s Finest’ James, the station’s hip-hop director. It has also hosted events like Traffic Jam, which is where people showed up in green, yellow or red clothing to indicate their relationship statuses, which not only helped with promotions but raised money. WFAL has came a long way according to James. ‘I came in when it was little to nothing. In 2006, there was no hip-hop,’ James said. Hip-hop now consists of approximately 50 percent of the station’s programming and fills the primetime slot from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Monday through Friday. The new president-elect for the 2009-2010 school year, junior Joshua ‘Smilez’ Wilborn, is hopeful for the future. ‘I want to do more collaborations with other organizations on campus,’ Wilborn said. ‘And make sure we leave a mark on campus by doing bigger and better events.’